Should seniors choose a gluten-free diet? How does gluten impact brain health? It seems to be a very popular trend. Many health-conscious seniors avoid bread and pasta unless it’s gluten-free, especially those who have food allergies, gastrointestinal problems, and people who want to lose weight. Now it appears that seniors who want to preserve brain health benefit from going gluten-free.
The truth is most doctors don’t recommend going gluten-free unless you’re one of the rare people who have Celiac Disease (only 1% of the population). On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands who experience discomfort from wheat and other food with gluten. These people are considered “non-celiac gluten sensitive” (NCGS).
The food industry now offers a wide variety of gluten-free food. The question for seniors is should they choose a gluten-free diet for brain health? Will it soothe their aging guts and help with bloating, gas, indigestion, and acid reflux? Will such a diet help protect aging brains?
Why Go Gluten-Free?
Gluten is found naturally in wheat and grains and is what gives dough its elasticity. Gluten is a mixture of two proteins, glutenin, and gliadin. It’s what gives bread its elasticity, helping it rise and keep its shape and often leaving the final product with a chewy texture.
However, this sticky attribute interferes with the breakdown and absorption of nutrients, which leads to poorly digested food that can sound the alarm in the immune system.
Eventually, this results in an assault on the lining of the small intestine. Once the alarm has sounded, the immune system sends out inflammatory chemicals in a bid to get things under control. This process can damage tissues, leaving the walls of the intestine compromised in what is called a “leaky gut.”
Gluten and Leaky Gut
According to Harvard’s Dr. Alessio Fasano, exposure to the gliadin protein, in particular, increases gut permeability in everyone. All humans have some degree of gluten sensitivity. Once you have a leaky gut, you are highly susceptible to other food sensitivities in the future.
The hallmark of gluten sensitivity is elevated levels of antibodies against the gliadin component of gluten, which turn on specific genes in certain immune cells and trigger the release of brain-assaulting inflammatory cytokine chemicals. Anti-gliadin antibodies appear to cross-react with certain brain proteins, which may explain why gliadin contributes to neurologic complications such as neuropathy, ataxia, seizures, and neurobehavioral changes.
As if that doesn’t sound scary enough, this is the same mechanism by which gluten increases inflammation and gut permeability and which leads to a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier itself, paving the way for yet more brain-crushing inflammatory chemicals.
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is described as a condition of multiple symptoms that improves when switching to a gluten-free diet after celiac disease and wheat allergy are excluded. People with NCGS may develop gastrointestinal symptoms, which resemble those of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms, fatigue, memory problems, and headaches.
Gluten Sensitivity and Seniors
If you’ve noticed that you react badly to gluten — with symptoms like diarrhea, stomach upset, abdominal pain, and bloating — see a doctor to get tested for celiac disease.
Fortunately, only about 1% of the population has celiac disease. However, there are a lot of people who have reactions to gluten and manifest symptoms. Besides gastrointestinal symptoms, gluten-sensitive people often have fatigue, brain fog, and headaches.
Any senior who has spent a lifetime eating three meals a day (conservatively estimated!) is bound to have gastrointestinal difficulties from time to time. For some, it can be a major concern. Scientists are only now discovering the link to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease with intestinal health.
Gluten and Brain Health
Problems in the digestive system aren’t the only consequences of a high-gluten diet. Gluten sensitivities impact brain health. Gluten has been implicated in some neuropsychiatric disorders such as mood disorders, depression, eating disorders, anxiety, ADHA, schizophrenia, and autism.
We know, for example, that most of the brain’s neurotransmitters are manufactured in the gut by our microbiome. Anything that interferes with the gut-brain connection risks upsetting the balance with serotonin, dopamine, and other important chemical signaling substances in the brain.
The gliadin protein in gluten can inflame the gut and make it permeable, allowing toxins, food fragments, and fragments of bacteria and other microbes into the bloodstream. This may affect the blood-brain barrier which in turn becomes permeable.
For those affected by symptoms of NCGS, the foods to avoid include rice, corn, oats, millet, amaranth, bulgar, buckwheat, quinoa, and dairy.
What Should Seniors Eat for Brain Health?
Unfortunately, the “gluten-free” processed foods are not a good idea, either. They are full of chemicals and often hardly any better than the foods they are meant to replace. Instead of gluten-free processed food, experiment with grain-free versions of your favorite foods.
Eliminating grains may be a stumbling block for many people, but just like eating a diet free from sugar, grain-free diets enable healthier insulin sensitivity. Anyone who wants to understand the gut-brain connection and how wheat and gluten impacts metabolism can find answers in the book, Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain for Life, by Dr. David Pulmutter.
Grain-Free and Mediterranean
Alzheimer’s expert Dr. Dale Bredesen explains his recommendations for anyone wishing to preserve brain-health, including eliminating grains and gluten, in his new book, The End of Alzheimer’s Program: The First Protocol to Enhance Cognition and Reverse Decline at Any Age.
Whether it’s diet, fasting, exercise, sleep or stress management, there are lifestyle upgrades that have been proven to preserve, or in some cases, reverse cognitive decline. I suggest that as seniors, we don’t have to wait until a diagnosis of decline. We can take preventative steps now. The right diet is a good start.
A Mediterranean diet has never been studied with a grain-free version of itself, but it is worth a try. Grain-free and Mediterranean is the way I eat now. That is plenty of vegetables, very few carbohydrates, moderate protein (especially fish and seafood), plenty of salads with nuts and seeds, and only healthy oils such as extra-virgin olive oil. I no longer eat “low-fat” and I refuse to eat processed vegetable oils. Including healthy fats in the diet makes everything so much more satiating.
You have to decide for yourself about your diet. But if you want to protect your brain from decay as you age, you might want to go gluten-free (and wheat-free) and see if you have improved digestion. What do you think, have you tried it?
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