The real cause of Celiac disease —
and how to cure it
Everything has a cause. Unfortunately, that cause often eludes even the best doctors. Such is the case with celiac disease.
Most people will tell you that this disease occurs when your immune system overreacts to the protein gluten. This overreaction can result in all kinds of bowel symptoms. These can include diarrhea, constipation, cramps, and indigestion. But it also can cause autoimmune thyroid disease, rashes, seizures, neuropathy, and depression.
Why does someone who has never before reacted to gluten suddenly start reacting? That's the real question. There has to be something that triggered it.For most people, the cure is simple. Just avoid wheat, barley, and rye, the most common sources of gluten. But that's not really a cure. So we need to keep asking the question "Why?".
In my practice, I've noticed six different causes of celiac disease (or any other disease for that matter). These include a poor diet, hormone imbalance, toxicity, infection, stress, and a lack of aerobic fitness. Sometimes all six are at work.
One of the most common causes I have found might surprise you. Most patients who developed celiac disease did so after repeated exposure to antibiotics. The antibiotics create an imbalance of intestinal bacteria. And this imbalance often leads to a chronic intestinal infection from a yeast organism called Candida albicans.
I have been able to really cure many patients of celiac disease simply by treating their intestinal candida infections. I didn't know about it until just last week, but what I've found now has some scientific backing. So it's almost official!
Back in 2003, researchers in the Netherlands published a paper with the provocative title, "Is Candida albicans a trigger in the onset of celiac disease?" The researchers believe that it is. They analyzed a particular protein that candida makes called C. albicans-hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1).
HWP1 is a protein that candida uses to help it adhere to the intestinal lining. Without HWP1, your body would sweep the poor little candida away in the bowel movement.
The researchers then discovered something very interesting. They noticed that HWP1 is virtually identical in its chemical makeup to the protein gliadin, which is in gluten. Here's why that's a problem.
When someone's intestinal lining becomes overgrown with candida, for example after a course of antibiotics, the immune system T-cells start attacking the candida. And, in this process, they also start attacking the protein HWP1. But since HWP1 is identical to gliadin, the same immune cells end up also attacking gliadin. This is what sets up the inflammatory reaction that happens every time that person eats something with gluten in it.
According to the researchers' findings, the origins of gluten sensitivity and hence celiac disease may very likely come from an initial infection with candida.
Whenever a patient sees me with any auto-immune disease, no matter what it is, I always immediately put them on a detoxification program. This program removes candida from their bodies and gluten from their diet. It's absolutely amazing how often a cure will result from just those two simple changes. And now we have a better idea why. You can read about this detoxification program on my website.
Finding your Real Cures,
Frank Shallenberger, MD
REF: Nieuwenhuizen WF, Pieters RH, Knippels LM, Jansen MC, Koppelman SJ. Is Candida albicans a trigger in the onset of coeliac disease? Lancet. 2003 Jun 21;361(9375):2152-4.