Welcome back to Coast Live about 3 million Americans live with the autoimmune disease known as celiac disease and millions have difficulty tolerating gluten. That means for them breads and other foods with certain proteins are off the table. I know all about that. Here with us today to talk about gluten-free diets is Dr. Erica Steele from Holistic Family practice. Hey, Dr. Steele, good to see you.
Good to see you as well. Good morning to you.
Host: Good morning. So national celiac awareness day was yesterday, explain what Celiac disease is to people.
Dr. Steele: So celiac is an intolerance or an allergy to wheat, wheat gluten. So wheat gluten is found in a lot of normal products such as bread, pasta, sometimes have it as well. And a lot of packaged foods has it as well, crackers and things like that.
Host: So why can a gluten free diet be so important? And so life changing?
Dr. Steele: A gluten free diet really helps to lower inflammation in the body helps to lower histamine responses, which are all contributing factors to any kind of autoimmune condition.
Host: Gotcha. So I know when I started to realize I had issues with gluten, my main issues were all in my gut. So what are some symptoms of gluten reactions and I know for celiac, it’s a lot worse.
Dr. Steele: Of course, and celiac is an allergy, there’s sensitivities, there’s intolerances. So some things to look for. I see with little kids, they’ll have like rashes on arms, like almost like a chicken arm look to it. You can have redness, itchy as well gassing bloating, you can have kind of a gluten baby after you eat. That’s a classic one.
Host: Oh, I call that the food baby. Yep, I you know, I’ve gotten that for such a long time people go oh, are you expecting? No, it’s just my food, baby. So I know all about that. And so you don’t have to be celiac to be gluten sensitive, right?
Dr. Steele: No, actually, I’ve seen a lot of people that if they can’t process B complex as well, and folic acid, they have that MTHFR genetic variant. Those oftentimes are gluten sensitive and gluten reactive.
Host: So it’s so interesting when you talk about all this stuff, because how do you go about diagnosing it because I know this can be a complicated thing.
Dr. Steele: It can be Well, I definitely you know, you can do a salivary MTHFR DNA panel to kind of assess that. You can also look at your secretary IGA that’s going to be in like a organic acids, which is a urine profile. There’s also many IgG tests that you can take to there’s like blood tests. But a lot of times I find that just eating it and feeling how your body responds is really, you know, very helpful. You can take your pulse before you put it in your mouth, you can also put it in your mouth and then take your pulse again, if your pulse goes up more than six that lets you know that your body’s having some reaction to whatever it is you’re eating.
Host: Oh, I never knew that about the pulse thing and eating gluten free. I know some people think it’s so daunting, but over the years, it’s gotten a lot easier.
Dr. Steele: Oh my gosh, it’s so easy. There’s so many like bonds, chickpea pastas, and things like that. And then you know, even with the breads, the breads have come a long way and making your own there’s like some cashew bread recipes that Dr. Perlmutter puts out. With, he wrote a book called The Grain Brain, which is all about gluten sensitivities and the reaction to the brain. And so there’s a lot of really good resources out there. And now more than ever, it’s really gotten a lot easier.
Host: So if you tax gluten For more information, what are you going to learn? And how else can people learn more? And how else can you help them?
Dr. Steele: Yes, so we have an app that we use for education within our practice. Our practice is built off of education, accountability and coaching. And so our app has education on it. So if you’re interested in going gluten free, please text our office and we’ll send you the link.
Host: All right. Dr. Steele, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Always good to see you.
Dr. Steele: Awesome. Have an amazing day. You as well and all the information is there on the screen does visit holisticfamilypracticeVA to contact Dr. Steele or call the number right there. Thanks so much again.
