Hi All,
This is a bit of trivia, that you may or may not find interesting. Most of us believe that we have corrupt immune systems, because we're gluten-intolerant, but that may not actually be the case. The fact of the matter is that there are a couple of gliadins in gluten, that are toxic, and those of us who are gluten sensitive, have immune systems that correctly identify those toxins, and try to destroy them. Unfortunately, our own intestinal tissue receives collateral damage, as our immune system tries to destroy the gliadins, and this is a source of inflammation that can cause MC.
People who have so-called "normal" digestive/immune systems, do not react to those gliadins, because their immune systems do not identify the gliadins as toxic, (in fact, they just ignore them, and the gliadins pass harmlessly through the body). What this means, is that we, (those who are gluten sensitive), have a more highly-evolved immune system, than those who do not react to gluten. The big question is, of course, did those who are not gluten-sensitive devolve from a prior state where their immune system was similar to ours, or did they simply never evolve to our level in the first place, so that their immune systems have never recognized those gliadins as toxic. I'm guessing that the latter is the most likely scenario. If so, then why did we develop the ability to detect those gliadins, in the first place. There had to be a reason, but it is obviously lost in history.
Some people claim that we are gluten intolerant because there have not been enough generations since wheat was introduced into our diets, (about 20,000 years ago), to allow our immune systems and digestive systems to evolve to the point where they can handle gluten. That seems contradictory to the facts, though. Apparently, our immune systems have evolved too far for our own good, and this probably happened long before the neolithic age, many thousands of years before wheat was ever cultivated as a food crop. To resolve the problem, what needs to be done is for our immune systems to devolve back to the point where they do not recognize those gliadins as a toxic substance. Easier said than done, of course, so I doubt that it will ever happen. At least that's the way I see it.
Tex
Gluten, And Why Some Of Us Are Intolerant Of It
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Gluten, And Why Some Of Us Are Intolerant Of It
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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RUBYREDDOG
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Tex, I agree with your line of logic. The other issue here is the question of why most of us develop symptoms so late in life? I'm 63, and until about a year ago, I ate tons of gluten, veggies, casein, raw fruit, soy and an egg every day. All trigger foods to me now.
There has to be another factor involved which controls the timing of our autoammunine reactions. And, which allows many other people, who probably have our same genes, to go symptom free. Perhaps its a hormonal issue. Time has a way of degrading all of our hormones. Just thinking outloud here.
Hotrod
There has to be another factor involved which controls the timing of our autoammunine reactions. And, which allows many other people, who probably have our same genes, to go symptom free. Perhaps its a hormonal issue. Time has a way of degrading all of our hormones. Just thinking outloud here.
Hotrod
Ha, I always knew I was more highly evolved than the people around me. 
I have heard variations on those ideas, Tex, and I see your reasoning. I'm also curious about why MC and other autoimmune illnesses hit certain people at certain times. My autoimmune issues became obvious when I was only 18, (I'm 26 now), and my GI said, and most of the online information I found (before this forum
) agreed, that MC was primarily an illness of middle-aged to elderly women. I have to say, though, that I wonder how many 26-year-old women they do colonoscopies and biopsies on. I had to go to several doctors until I found one who was even willing to do that; the rest just wanted to send me home with IBS, which I suspect is what happens to many people with symptoms like mine.
Courtney
I have heard variations on those ideas, Tex, and I see your reasoning. I'm also curious about why MC and other autoimmune illnesses hit certain people at certain times. My autoimmune issues became obvious when I was only 18, (I'm 26 now), and my GI said, and most of the online information I found (before this forum
) agreed, that MC was primarily an illness of middle-aged to elderly women. I have to say, though, that I wonder how many 26-year-old women they do colonoscopies and biopsies on. I had to go to several doctors until I found one who was even willing to do that; the rest just wanted to send me home with IBS, which I suspect is what happens to many people with symptoms like mine.Courtney
I was 38 and had a hard time getting some answers. My PCP said it was IBS, sent me on my way with meds. You know you're own body and I knew something else was going on. I referred myself to a GI and finally got scheduled for a colonoscopy. I often wonder, why all of a sudden I had this start just one day out of the blue.
Sorry, this is like my 5th post today. Can you tell I don't feel like working on this Friday afternoon? I just want the weekend to start!
Sorry, this is like my 5th post today. Can you tell I don't feel like working on this Friday afternoon? I just want the weekend to start!
Hotrod,
The first symptoms hit me when I was in my mid-fifties, but it was slow to get going. I would think that I had the flu, or salmonella, for a week or two, and then I would be ok for a month, only to have it strike again. As the episodes began to get closer and closer together, it dawned on me that something else must be going on. Then one day the D started, and wouldn't stop. After trying the usually remedies, with absolutely no success, (Pepto-Bismol, for example, just turned the water black. LOL), after a couple of weeks, I caved in and went to see a doctor, who immediately diagnosed me with colon cancer. <sigh> (He was wrong, of course, but the GI doc he sent me to, agreed with his diagnosis). <sigh> Anyway, that's how mine started.
Many people here know exactly what triggered their MC, (NSAIDs, antibiotics, stopping smoking, etc.,), but I don't have the foggiest idea what caused mine, since it began so slowly. If I had to make a guess, it would probably be that it may have been due to the leaky gut syndrome, since prior to that, (for my entire life, up to that point), I was one of the people who kept the Imperial Pure Cane Sugar Co, Coca-cola, Hershey, Mars Candy Co, etc., running their production lines at full capacity. Excess sugar consumption is one of the things that can cause the leaky gut syndrome, and it does so by triggering increasingly more severe LGS episodes, which sort of matched my initial pattern of reactions, (over a period of a year or so). If that theory is correct, then it probably happened at that particular point in my life, because not only was my body probably becoming stressed out from being abused for so many years with such a poor diet, but business demands, (and the accompanying stress, and working long hours, seven days a week), were really escalating during that period.
We have to have the right genes, of course, to be susceptible, but it takes some traumatic event, to actually trigger it. I have read that even a bad case of the flu, or a parasite infection, has been known to trigger MC.
Tex
The first symptoms hit me when I was in my mid-fifties, but it was slow to get going. I would think that I had the flu, or salmonella, for a week or two, and then I would be ok for a month, only to have it strike again. As the episodes began to get closer and closer together, it dawned on me that something else must be going on. Then one day the D started, and wouldn't stop. After trying the usually remedies, with absolutely no success, (Pepto-Bismol, for example, just turned the water black. LOL), after a couple of weeks, I caved in and went to see a doctor, who immediately diagnosed me with colon cancer. <sigh> (He was wrong, of course, but the GI doc he sent me to, agreed with his diagnosis). <sigh> Anyway, that's how mine started.
Many people here know exactly what triggered their MC, (NSAIDs, antibiotics, stopping smoking, etc.,), but I don't have the foggiest idea what caused mine, since it began so slowly. If I had to make a guess, it would probably be that it may have been due to the leaky gut syndrome, since prior to that, (for my entire life, up to that point), I was one of the people who kept the Imperial Pure Cane Sugar Co, Coca-cola, Hershey, Mars Candy Co, etc., running their production lines at full capacity. Excess sugar consumption is one of the things that can cause the leaky gut syndrome, and it does so by triggering increasingly more severe LGS episodes, which sort of matched my initial pattern of reactions, (over a period of a year or so). If that theory is correct, then it probably happened at that particular point in my life, because not only was my body probably becoming stressed out from being abused for so many years with such a poor diet, but business demands, (and the accompanying stress, and working long hours, seven days a week), were really escalating during that period.
We have to have the right genes, of course, to be susceptible, but it takes some traumatic event, to actually trigger it. I have read that even a bad case of the flu, or a parasite infection, has been known to trigger MC.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Courtney,
I think you have hit the nail right square on the head. You can't find MC unless you look for it, and you have to look for it in a particular way. Since most GI docs still consider MC to be a rare disease, younger women will continue to be diagnosed with IBS, and older women, (who are more likely to have a colonoscopy exam), will have a much better chance of being diagnosed with MC, (rather than IBS). Obviously, that applies to men, also, though they seem to have fewer IBS diagnoses, (probably, because many of them are too stubborn to go to a doctor complaining of diarrhea). I never would have gone myself, if the D hadn't been so persistent that I realized that I might possibly have cancer, so I resigned myself to have it checked out. When the doctor finished his exam, and told me that he thought I had colon cancer, I can clearly recall feeling relieved, rather than shocked, since it confirmed my suspicions. (It's amazing how the mind works, sometimes).
Anyway, as you have pointed out, the difference between a diagnosis of IBS and MC, is usually a set of biopsy samples.
Tex
I think you have hit the nail right square on the head. You can't find MC unless you look for it, and you have to look for it in a particular way. Since most GI docs still consider MC to be a rare disease, younger women will continue to be diagnosed with IBS, and older women, (who are more likely to have a colonoscopy exam), will have a much better chance of being diagnosed with MC, (rather than IBS). Obviously, that applies to men, also, though they seem to have fewer IBS diagnoses, (probably, because many of them are too stubborn to go to a doctor complaining of diarrhea). I never would have gone myself, if the D hadn't been so persistent that I realized that I might possibly have cancer, so I resigned myself to have it checked out. When the doctor finished his exam, and told me that he thought I had colon cancer, I can clearly recall feeling relieved, rather than shocked, since it confirmed my suspicions. (It's amazing how the mind works, sometimes).
Anyway, as you have pointed out, the difference between a diagnosis of IBS and MC, is usually a set of biopsy samples.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Babsey,
Good for you. With MC, you have to take control of your own destiny, when it comes to dealing with the medical establishment, (which, of course, is exactly what Courtney did, also). You might be able to pinpoint exactly what triggered yours, since apparently your symptoms had a sudden onset. Were you taking any particular meds at that point, (especially NSAIDs), did you happen to stop smoking, did you have any infections such as C. diff, E. coli, H. pylori, etc. There are many possible causes, and there are quite a few meds that have been documented to trigger MC.
I hear you on the Friday Afternoon Syndrome. By early afternoon, most people are watching the clock so intently that it's hard to concentrate on getting any work done, anyway. The work week should end on Friday noon, or better yet, the end of the workday on Thursday. (I guess I should add that to my campaign platform).
Tex
Good for you. With MC, you have to take control of your own destiny, when it comes to dealing with the medical establishment, (which, of course, is exactly what Courtney did, also). You might be able to pinpoint exactly what triggered yours, since apparently your symptoms had a sudden onset. Were you taking any particular meds at that point, (especially NSAIDs), did you happen to stop smoking, did you have any infections such as C. diff, E. coli, H. pylori, etc. There are many possible causes, and there are quite a few meds that have been documented to trigger MC.
I hear you on the Friday Afternoon Syndrome. By early afternoon, most people are watching the clock so intently that it's hard to concentrate on getting any work done, anyway. The work week should end on Friday noon, or better yet, the end of the workday on Thursday. (I guess I should add that to my campaign platform).
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.