Wheat: Is It Evil Or Just in the Context of Vitamin D and EPA+DHA Deficiency?

I love Gladiator (yes, it's one of my all time f-a-v-e movies, next to When Harry Met Sally)... the first scene is mesmerizing... he's watching the flax and wheat fields glowing with gold, fearless in the face of death. In the dawn of time, ancient wheat probably did not cause as many autoimmune and silent/non-silent celiac diseases (or ?autism or ?coronary artery disease) as the present day. Why? In the Gladiator days, for one, sunscreen did not exist! Secondly, most people worked and warrior-ed outdoors. Toiling in the sun, hand laundering clothes, baking bread on outdoor hearths, practicing swordplay, gathering berries, fishing, preparing crops, hunting gamey-flesh (which BTW gamey-meat and grass-fed beef are enriched in EPA+DHA, much like fatty deep sea fish/fish oil), and other noble chores in the bright sunshine (because candles were scarce). All day long 24/7...

Does having enough sunlight and vitamin D give us more power to tolerate gluten and not develop damaging self-destructive auto-antibodies? It's unlikely we'll know in any good RCT (randomized controlled trials). No drug company will put up lettuce $$ to determine that good ol' cheap FREE UVB unblocked-sunshine is going to trump their $2-3/day drug (or super-sized vitamin D analogue) in a head-to-head trial. That's just absurd. And they're not stupid... because they pay staticians a lot of lettuce to figure that out for them.

Psoriasis is another celiac condition (incl autoimmune). What are the pharmacological treatments? UVB lightbox 5-10min weekly as needed and topical vitamin D derivatives in creams/ointments (and a couple of toxic Immunosuppressive injections like Enbrel for instance which has a side effect of c-a-n-c-e-r). New diagnostic techniques for celiac disease (widely used in Europe) are being employed now (check this out here). Years ago Dr. Davis figured out the value and power of oral administration of natural Vitamin D3. The recently published study impressively validates his work.

Effective tratment: Vitamin D3 (+ gluten-free lifestyle/diet plan)

Am J Med. 1978 Dec;65(6):1015-20.
Osteomalacia and celiac disease: response to 25-hydroxyvitamin D3. Hepner GW, Jowsey J, Arnaud C, Gordon S, Black J, Roginsky M, Moo HF, Young JF.
In this 54 year old woman with celiac disease, osteomalacia developed while she was on a gluten-free diet which had caused regression of her steatorrhea. She was not responsive to large doses of parenterally administered dihydrotachysterol (fake foreign synthetic vitamin D version) and calcium, but she was responsive to the oral administration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25-OHD3 = natural).

The data suggest that 25-OHD3 is the treatment of choice for patients with vitamin D deficiency due to intestinal malabsorption. PMID: 742623


Effective treatment: Fish oil!

Fish oil has been shown to be hugely beneficial due to its impressive autoimmune immunemodulating and skin-stabilizing benefits. Anything anti-inflammatory helps (like antioxidants with high ORAC scores). Fasting creates lower systemic bodily inflammation -- yes the MONKS know what they are doing. In TYP, the practice of intermittent fasting is a fast way to success.

Br J Dermatol. 2005 Oct;153(4):706-14.
Diet and psoriasis: experimental data and clinical evidence. Wolters M.

Psoriasis is considered as a T-cell-mediated inflammatory skin disease which is characterized by hyperproliferation and poor differentiation of epidermal keratinocytes. While susceptibility to psoriasis is inherited, the disease is influenced by environmental factors such as infections and stress. Diet has been suggested to play a role in the aetiology and pathogenesis of psoriasis. Fasting periods, low-energy diets and vegetarian diets improved psoriasis symptoms in some studies, and diets rich in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids from fish oil also showed beneficial effects. All these diets modify the polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism and influence the eicosanoid profile, so that inflammatory processes are suppressed. Some patients with psoriasis show an elevated sensitivity to gluten. In patients with IgA and/or IgG antigliadin antibodies the symptoms have been shown to improve on a gluten-free diet. The active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3), exhibits antiproliferative and immunoregulatory effects via the vitamin D receptor (HOW ABOUT TAKING VITAMIN D3 ORALLY DAILY??), and thus is successfully used in the topical treatment of psoriasis. In this review, dietary factors which play a role in psoriasis are assessed and their potential benefit is evaluated. Furthermore, the risk of drug-nutrient interactions in psoriasis therapy is discussed (WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF...SOMEDAY THEY SAY...WHEAT-CESSATION IS KEY TO PREVENTING PROGRESSION AND TO REVERSING PSORIASIS ?!?). PMID: 16181450

(These are many of the same strategies in TYP of course)


Are all autoimmune conditions (including Grave's and the frequently diagnosed Hashimoto's thyroiditis) just silent or non-silent celiac disease?

Why are wheat/gluten antibodies implicated so often?

Why is Vitamin D deficiency and a lack of dietary EPA+DHA commonly associated with celiac conditions (and autism and coronary artery disease)? And improve these conditions? Which came first? The chicken or the egg?? Does maternal health and in utero environments affect not only the fetus, but even the following generation as they do in rat experiments?

At least TrackYourPlaque provides answers.... Including the below...
--Optimize your vitamin D3 level (25)OHD = 60 ng/ml
--Optimize your fish oil EPA + DHA 3000 mg daily (supplements + dietary fish, shellfish, pasture-fed protein -- see last study) (or more if you have elevated Lp(a) > 30 mg/dl)
--Wheat-cessation program (yes.. that's all pasta, noodles, mac-n-cheese, bread, cereal, croissants (omg very hard), crackers, cookies, even soy sauce, etc)
--Optimize optimism (vitamin 'O')


Clin Rheumatol. 2006 Mar;25(2):240-5.
Association of systemic and thyroid autoimmune diseases.Biró E, Szekanecz Z, Czirják L, Dankó K, Kiss E, Szabó NA, Szucs G, Zeher M, Bodolay E, Szegedi G, Bakó G.

OBJECTIVE: There are few large cohort studies available on the association of systemic and thyroid autoimmune diseases. In this study, we wished to determine the association of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD) with systemic autoimmune diseases.
METHODS: One thousand five hundred and seventeen patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic sclerosis (SSc), mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD), Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) were included in the study. The HT and GD were diagnosed based on thorough clinical evaluation, imaging and fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). The frequency of HT and GD in these diseases was assessed. In addition, 426 patients with HT or GD were assessed and the incidence of SLE, RA, SSc, MCTD, SS and PM/DM among these patients was determined. Prevalence ratios indicating the prevalences of GD or HT among our autoimmune patients in comparison to prevalences of GD or HT in the general population were calculated.
RESULTS: Altogether 8.2% of systemic autoimmune patients had either HT or GD. MCTD and SS most frequently overlapped with autoimmune thyroid diseases (24 and 10%, respectively). HT was more common among MCTD, SS and RA patients (21, 7 and 6%, respectively) than GD (2.5, 3 and 1.6%, respectively). The prevalences of HT in SLE, RA, SSc, MCTD, SS and PM/DM were 90-, 160-, 220-, 556-, 176- and 69-fold higher than in the general population, respectively. The prevalences of GD in the same systemic diseases were 68-, 50-, 102-, 76-, 74- and 37-fold higher than in the general population, respectively. Among all thyroid patients, 30% had associated systemic disease. In particular, 51% of HT and only 16% of GD subjects had any of the systemic disorders. MCTD, SS, SLE, RA, SSc and PM/DM were all more common among HT patients (20, 17, 7, 4, 2 and 2%, respectively) than in GD individuals (2, 5, 5, 1, 2 and 1%, respectively).
CONCLUSION: Systemic and thyroid autoimmune diseases often overlap with each other. HT and GD may be most common among MCTD, SSc and SS patients. On the other hand, these systemic diseases are often present in HT subjects. Therefore it is clinically important to screen patients with systemic autoimmune diseases for the co-existence of thyroid disorders. PMID: 16247581


Biomed Pharmacother. 2007 Feb-Apr;61(2-3):105-12.
Dietary omega-3 fatty acids for women. Bourre JM.

This review details the specific needs of women for omega-3 fatty acids, including alpha linoleic acid (ALA) and the very long chain fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

Omega-3 fatty acid (dietary or in capsules) ensures that a woman's adipose tissue contains a reserve of these fatty acids for the developing fetus and the breast-fed newborn infant. This ensures the optimal cerebral and cognitive development of the infant. The presence of large quantities of EPA and DHA in the diet slightly lengthens pregnancy, and improves its quality. Human milk contains both ALA and DHA, unlike that of other mammals.
Conditions such as diabetes can alter the fatty acid profile of mother's milk, while certain diets, like those of vegetarians, vegans, or even macrobiotic diets, can have the same effect, if they do not include seafood.

ALA, DHA and EPA, are important for preventing ischemic cardiovascular disease in women of all ages.

Omega-3 fatty acids can help to prevent the development of certain cancers, particularly those of the breast and colon, and possibly of the uterus and the skin, and are likely to reduce the risk of postpartum depression, manic-depressive psychosis, dementias (Alzheimer's disease and others), hypertension, toxemia, diabetes and, to a certain extend, age-related macular degeneration.
Omega-3 fatty acids could play a positive role in the prevention of menstrual syndrome and postmenopausal hot flushes. The normal western diet contains little ALA (less than 50% of the RDA). The only adequate sources are rapeseed oil (canola; CAVEAT THIS ALSO CONTAINS OMEGA6'S WHICH IS PRO-INFLAMMATORY WHEN EXCESSIVE), walnuts and so-called "omega-3" eggs (similar to wild-type or Cretan eggs). The amounts of EPA and DHA in the diet vary greatly from person to person. The only good sources are fish and seafood, together with "omega-3" eggs. PMID: 17254747


Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2003.12 Suppl:S38
Feeding regimes affect fatty acid composition in Australian beef cattle. Mann NJ, Ponnampalam EN, Yep Y, Sinclair AJ.

Background - There is growing evidence that red meat contributes significantly to the intake of omega 3 long chain PUFA in western diets. The type of feeding regime used in animal production, can influence the lipids in red meat due to the fatty acid composition of the feed. Pasture feed being relatively rich in a-linolenic acid (18:3 n-3), while grain is relatively rich in linoleic acid (18:2n-6).
Objective - To determine the effect on beef fatty acid profile of varying length of grain feeding compared with grass feeding.
Design - Samples of rump, strip loin and blade cuts were obtained from eighteen cattle from each of three feeding regimes (pasture fed, short term grain feeding STGF, and long term grain feeding LTGF). All samples were analysed in triplicate as lean tissue only, using a standard chloroform - methanol extraction and capillary column gas-chromatograph fatty acid quantification.
Outcomes - Total fat, saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids were all significantly higher in the LTGF animals. The grass fed animals had higher levels of omega 3 PUFA in all three cuts, with combined EPA + DHA reaching levels in blade and strip loin that would meet Australian Food Standards classification as a ' source' of omega-3, with the rump cut reaching this level in the STGF group also. Rump from the grass fed animals was a relatively rich source of EPA + DHA and would qualify as a 'good source' of omega 3.
Conclusions - This study was able to show that pasture feeding of Australian cattle maximises omega-3 PUFA content and minimizes trans 18:1 fatty acid levels relative to grain feeding. Furthermore, LTGF results in elevated total fat and saturated fat content relative to STGF or grass feeding in lean cuts of Australian beef. PMID: 15023647

-G