Even the experts were surprised
In March, a DXA scan showed that my hip had reached the osteoporosis range—that is, my bones were porous and more likely to break.
"Helps digest gluten and carbs," reads the label of me+my Gluten Assist. Really?
Breaking down gluten
“Gluten is a really tough plant protein,” notes Daniel Leffler, director of clinical research at the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “A variety of enzymes in the stomach are responsible for chopping up proteins, but they don’t work on gluten.”
That allows long fragments of undigested gluten to leave the stomach and enter the small intestine. Most people can tolerate those fragments. But not those with celiac disease.
“Their immune system mistakes gluten for a dangerous foreign protein, and attacks it the way it would attack bacteria or a virus,” explains Leffler. “That damages the intestine, and causes abdominal pain and diarrhea and so on.”
Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. Nestle spoke with Nutrition Action Healthletter‘s Bonnie Liebman about how and why the food industry is involved in nutrition science.
“Without bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms, there wouldn’t be life on earth, and we wouldn’t be here,” says Lita Proctor. “Every kind of living thing is dependent on communities of microbes we call microbiomes, and that includes humans.”
Proctor is director of the Human Microbiome Project, an eight-year research mission of the National Institutes of Health to explore the role of the microbiome in human health and disease. Here’s some of what we know so far...and what we still need to find out.
Age takes a toll on your ears. A quarter of people in their 60s, and two-thirds of those aged 70 and up, have trouble hearing. That works out to 30 million of us...and counting.
But hearing loss isn’t inevitable. Here’s what may protect your hearing ...and what new devices can help when it’s hard to hear.
Lead-poisoned drinking water in Flint, Michigan shocked the nation, is likely to lower the IQs of thousands of the city’s children, and will cost taxpayers nationwide hundreds of millions of dollars. But our problems with drinking water aren’t limited to lead or to Flint. What should you be paying attention to in the water where you live?
One out of ten adults have chronic kidney disease. Most don’t know it because early on, kidney disease has no symptoms. And because the risk rises as you age, roughly one out of two people aged 30 to 64 are likely to get the disease during their lives. Here’s how to find out if your kidneys are healthy...and how to keep them that way.
What’s the most common reason why people buy gluten-free foods?“No reason at all,” says one survey.
The respondents’ other reasons: they see gluten-free foods as a “healthier option,” good for “digestive health” or “weight loss,” or they “enjoy the taste.” Those reasons were all more common than “gluten sensitivity,” which was cited by only 8 percent.
But in a recent study, even GI symptoms like diarrhea or bloating weren’t a reliable sign of celiac disease, the autoimmune disorder that makes people unable to tolerate gluten, the protein in wheat, barley, rye, and some other grains.
“Our study asked about abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, weight loss, irritable bowel syndrome, dyspepsia, GERD, difficulty swallowing, bloating, and distention,” says Joseph Murray, a gastroenterologist and celiac expert at the Mayo Clinic.“None were significantly associated with having celiac disease.”
