Can bread be in your sandwich, or pasta in your authority, or wheat in your breakfast … a reason for depression?
Researchers work to verify this theory through studies that show a link between gluten and a group of mental health conditions such as hyperactivity disorder and lack of attention to schizophrenia.
“I would have suspected you if I was told that I would study this relationship, my thinking was focused on treatment and medications, I did not know that food and diet could be a very good drug,” says a professor of psychiatry for mental illness at the University of Maryland University in the United States.
Dr. Diana has spent the past seven years leading clinical trials on schizophrenia and severe mental illnesses, in addition to her activity in psychology research, and Diana began her scientific journey by analyzing data from soldiers during World War II, and the study showed that hospital entry cases decreased during the period of wheat deficiency.
Then Dr. Diana and her colleagues looked at the work of the psychiatrist Curtis Duhan in the 1970s, who was publishing the cases of people with schizophrenia recovering from a wheat -free diet.
Duhan also visited a remote island in Papua New Guinea, where wheat was not part of the diet, and it was found that schizophrenia was almost absent, compared to its occurrence among other residents of wheat.
Then Dr. Diana had the opportunity to perform a wide clinical trial to study the antibodies produced by the body as a reaction to gluten, and what I found is very high rates of antibodies to gluten in the bodies of people with schizophrenia.
Its results have now led her to believe that there is a strong link between brain functions and people with gluten allergy, and she is not the only one.
Evidence indicates that eating gluten -containing foods may be associated with a set of psychological symptoms, through the immune response of up to one in every 17 people.
What is gluten allergy?
Gluten is a group of proteins found in wheat and barley, which are essential pills found in bread, pasta, pastries and many foods, and some people suffer from allergies to gluten, and this means that their immune system fights gluten as a strange body in the body.
The ventricular disease (celiac) is the most famous types of autoimmune diseases associated with gluten, and this disease causes damage to the digestive system, which leads to a group of symptoms of the digestive system such as diarrhea, bloating and stomach pain, in addition to fatigue, weight loss and rash.
The ventricular disease is transmitted genetically, and is diagnosed by a blood test or bowel biopsy, and this is associated with another type of gluten allergy, often called the allergy of non -celiacinogenic gluten, which is ten times more common than abdominal disease. The results of the ventral disease tests are often negative for people with allergy to gluten, non -celia. Diana explains that “it is difficult to diagnose someone with the allergies of non -celiacinogenic gluten,” Diana explains.
Gluten and inflammation
Gluten did not enter our nutritional systems until about 6000 years ago, and Diana believes that “the idea of digesting it represents a great challenge to our bodies, and it is not completely degraded. When a person with gluten allergies takes something that contains gluten – even if it is pasta or a healthy brown bake – whose body produces anti -fighting bodies.”
Two types of protein are united to form gluten, which are glyadine and glutenine, and the first type is the one that stimulates the immune response, and this can cause inflammation and contribute to bowel damage.
The weakness of the intestinal wall allows the leakage of glyadine antibodies from the intestine to the bloodstream. “When the stomach mucosa crosses, the body sees it as a strange substance in some people,” says Diana.
Inflammation and brain
As a result of the leakage of glyadine antibodies, inflammation may occur in other parts of the body, including the brain. And when antibodies reach the brain, symptoms that appear not only to confuse thinking and lack of energy, but also poor control of feelings, anxiety, mood swings, hallucinations and/or seizures, which are often resistant to drug therapy.
“There is a short series of amino acids found in wheat that is closely related to the immune response. If you look at its composition, you will find that it is very similar to one of the receptors in the brain, so our bodies may not be able to distinguish between them,” says Diana.
One of the theories of Diana is that some people may attack some brain tissue because it resembles gluten.
“We have a research that shows that these antibodies to brain receptors are higher in people with glydine antibodies,” Diana notes.
What causes depression and anxiety?
The brain area called brain almonds calms fear and anxiety. It turns out that people with anxiety disorders have an exaggerated response to the brain when they are exposed to anxiety events.
Serotonin – a chemical transmission in the nervous system and part of the brain’s communication system – is believed to have an anxiety disorders. It is interesting that the intestine provides about 95% of the total serotonin in the body, and its production is affected by the balance of intestinal microbes in each individual.
The most common symptoms that Diana notes in her psychological patients are the blurring of the brain, anxiety or symptoms of depression, and explains that they “sometimes suffer from headache and migraines. Joint pain is also common.”
“The interesting thing is that all of these disorders that we write about, studies now tend to be that inflammation is all of them,” says Diana.
It is likely that the immune system does not work properly in some people, which leads to the appearance of inflammatory signs and infections, and Diana suggests that gluten, in some people, is one of the reasons behind this inflammatory immunotherapy.
Diagnostics of abdominal disease and non -glutiny irritable bowel syndrome are more common in individuals with symptoms of hyperactivity disorder and attention lack compared to the general population.
Experts believe that the relationship between abdominal disease and depression is firm, and a wide -ranging study conducted on more than 2000 people with abdominal disease showed a spread of depression symptoms by 39% throughout their lives.
Diana considers that “one of the theories is that depression stems from the difficulty of living with a chronic disease, but there are studies that show a direct physiological link between abdominal disease and depression.”
There is a clearer clinical data indicating the possibility of helping people with schizophrenia with a gluten -free diet, and one of the patients of Diana, who suffers from schizophrenia, was suffering from exacerbating her disease after eating gluten. She says Diana about her that “her health condition was good, but when she was taking gluten was entering the hospital, and there they were giving her the gluten because they did not believe the importance of that, and every time the family had to fight about it in every hospital.”
The role of ultra -treated foods
Outside gluten, there is a trend towards understanding the effect of highly treated foods on our health.
Diana believes that “there is evidence indicating that depression and anxiety and most cases of mental health are higher in people who eat high levels of highly processed foods, especially those of Western diet.” Wheat is part of that.
Wheat is now the most cultivated crop in the world, and provides 20% of the total calories and food proteins consumed by the world’s population.
According to Diana, “data shows that the number of people with gluten allergy is greater than before, and we believe that this is due to the high gluten content in low -fat dairy products.”
One of the reasons for the possibility of gluten is now a more severe immune response is to increase the content of glyadine in wheat six times over time, and this may be attributed to the use of high nitrogen fertilizers and how to treat wheat.
Antibodies refer to the road
One of the young women who came to Diana suffers from anxiety and blurring of the brain, and previously underwent a gluten allergy test by the gastroenterologist.
“She was told that she did not suffer from digestive disorders or gluten allergy, so I brought her to participate in my studies, and indeed the response of her antibodies was the largest that I saw in my life,” said Diana.
She added, “Antibodies were found indicating the injury of the abdominal disease. I gave her the leaves and said to her: Please see your doctor, and when she returned, they made a biopsy and found that she had abdominal disease, the result was missed.”
It is one of about a thousand people from the general population that Kelly conducted an antibody examination of them.
“When these antibodies appear in people, and as soon as I say you have this and it may be useful to try a gluten -free diet, most of them are reported from the disappearance of their joint pain, or their brain fog has improved, or their anxiety and depression improve.”
24 studies were published on these antibodies and the relationship of gluten to nervous and psychological diseases.
Diana says: “30% of schizophrenic patients have antibodies for glyadine. This means that their bodies show an immune response to wheat,” says Diana.
Should you change your diet?
Through animal studies, the data indicates that gluten may be harmful to everyone, but not everyone should follow a gluten -free diet, and Diana sees many people who do not have any immune response at all and say about it: “Their bodies bear it well, but there are many people who have antibodies and celiac disease in their families, and here the removal of gluten can help people really.”
Diana believes that this will not be a comprehensive treatment for everyone, but she usually notes changes in her patients in just three weeks, and brain imaging data showed how blood flow in their brains improve by following a gluten -free diet.
She recommended speaking to a nutritionist or doctor in advance, because many foods that contain gluten are supported by minerals and vitamins that the body needs (things such as folic acid that the body needs), but it is difficult to obtain from our diet.
She pointed out that a gluten -free diet may be a challenge for those who suffer from psychological disorder, such as depression or schizophrenia.
“Once you get sick, it becomes easier to continue to eat gluten because it is cheap and does not require you to spend time in cooking. And when you don’t feel good, you don’t want to spend time cooking fresh vegetables. It is a frequent cycle,” Diana explains.