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Genetics of Food Allergy and Food Sensitivity
2007-07-09 08:17:00
Can genetics explain if you are allergic to some pollens or foods? White blood cell patterns determined genetically and designated as HLA DQ and DR genes have been identified with an increased risk of pollen, dust, latex, and food allergies. The intriguing part of this story is that there is an advantage to knowing your HLA DR and DQ type when evaluating your risk for pollen allergies and their associated food allergies or cross reactions.We all have proteins on the surface of our cells that are genetically determined. These patterns are easily detectable by testing cells from blood or from the mouth. Specific patterns have been associated with increased risk for autoimmune conditions, gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. Now it appears certain DQ or DR patterns are associated with food and pollen allergies as well.Boehncke, et al. from the University of Frankfurt reported in 1998 that certain white blood cell types known HLA class II genotypes or HLA DQ and DR genetic patterns we...
More About: Food , Genetics

Gluten free salad dressing packets great for restaurants
2007-07-08 02:46:00
Trying to maintain a strict gluten-free diet can be frustrating. Hidden sources of gluten lurk everywhere. Salad dressings commonly contain wheat or gluten. It is nearly impossible to determine if restaurant salad dressing is safe. It is one of the many challenges of eating out for those of us on a gluten free diet. Gluten-free salad dressing packets however are an excellent option. Unfortunately many people on a gluten-free diet are unaware they are available. Skipping croutons that are put on most salads is just the first challenge. If your experience is like my patients and mine, it is common to have salads brought out with croutons despite specifically instructing the restaurant staff to leave them off. After pointing out the mistake some restaurant staff simply pick them off the salad before bringing it back to you. You then discover dreaded gluten breadcrumbs after you have eaten part of the salad realize you have been “glutened”. For many like my wife and several of my pa...
More About: Restaurants , Free , Great , Gluten Free

Why wheat gluten is not safe to eat
2007-07-02 06:21:00
Despite reassurances by the grain industry that the current high gluten wheat flour and grains making up much of our current diet are safe for those without celiac disease, it isn't true according to new research. Scientific evidence is accumulating explaining why many eating such a diet are ill and feel better on a gluten free diet even when they don’t have celiac disease. Are you one of them? Researchers from Spain describe an abnormal immune response to gluten in humans whether they have celiac disease or not.Gliadin, a protein produced from the digestion of gluten, increases intestinal permeability. This effect is noted in intestinal tissue regardless if someone has celiac disease. In those with celiac disease the gut injury from gluten is worse and produces a leaky gut that lasts longer than in those without celiac disease. The ability of gluten to damage the intestine more severely is clearly linked to certain white blood cell patterns that are inherited. The leaky gut pers...
More About: Wheat , Safe

Expert on Food Allergies, Intolerance, and Sensitivity Launches The Food Do
2007-07-02 02:55:00
The Food Doc website has launched! After months of waiting, people all over the world are visiting website created by Dr. Scot Lewey, a digestive specialist with personal experience and professional expertise with food allergies, food intolerance and food sensitivity. The website features Dr. Lewey's review and insights on the latest research and news. There is an e-store, downloadable printable materials and slides. Also available to subscribing members are unique applications such as an on-line symptom diet diary with symptom survey tracking ability, and an interactive symptom assessment tool. The site includes a virtual office for secure on-line consults with the Food Doc. Additional articles and features are already on the way. We encourage you to go to www.thefooddoc.com now and begin taking advantage of the on-line tools and doctor authored helpful information you can trust. Drop us a note after you do to let us know what you think. Send us your suggestions and e-mail the si...
More About: Allergies , Intolerance , Expert , Pert

Food Doc website has been nominated for the 2007 health care website of the
2007-06-10 07:33:00
The Food Doc website has been nominated for website of the year for 2007 in the health category. I am staying busy as a practicing gastroenterologist (I am on-call this weekend) while trying to finish all the content and interactive applications. We are very near the re-launch of www.thefooddoc.com. It will feature an interactive guide to help people, especially those with food allergies and intolerance, colitis, Crohn’s disease, reflux and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The work demands to complete the site while continuing to see patients in the office has prevented me from posting my regular stream of blogs. Below you can see a few screen shots that are a preview of the site that has been diverting my attention. Once we get the site launched, however, I will be continuing my blog on my new site.There will be in depth content on topics like IBS. The website has many incredible on-line tools including a symptom survey. Members can upload their medical history easily and keep a...
More About: Health , Website , Health Care , Care

Help for food allergies and food sensitivity: The Food Doc website update a
2007-05-27 18:57:00
For those of you suffering from various forms of food allergies, sensitivity, food intolerance, celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, IBS, colitis, Crohn's disease or other food related or digestive conditions, I want update you on what is going on with “the Food Doc”. I also want to explain why there have been fewer blog posts recently. Some of you reach this blog via my website www.thefooddoc.com. That is only a brief taste of what is to come on the food doc website. As I promised earlier I also want to comment briefly on a possible link of celiac disease and herniated discs.The target date the premier food doc website is mid-June. My medical assistant, Christine, and I have been working furiously to add content and work with the web development team to finish the interactive on-line applications we are featuring on the site. In the meantime, I continue to maintain an active GI practice that includes after hours and weekend hospital coverage. My wife is also now three weeks out...
More About: Website , Allergies , Update

Modern day Twinkie legend, wheat gluten, leaky gut and two food doctors' th
2007-05-15 00:30:00
Is the non-decaying Twinkie story an urban legend? Well, this Twinkie is officially two months old today. Apart from being very hard, it looks the same to me as it did when I removed it and it’s sibling from the package on March 14, 2007. The twin suffered a fatal drop from my six year-old son’s hands a couple of weeks ago. It was soggy from being placed in a zip lock bag and had been in the dark loset, only being brought out for photos. My son picked it up to look for mold (he found none) when the accident occurred. We continued with the surviving Twinkie dry and in the light. No mold or signs of decay on this Twinkie now at two months prompts me to ask if anyone really believes that a food that shows no sign of deterioration after this long is really safe to eat. The makers of Twinkies already concede they aren’t healthy but they taste good. One of my friends in medical residency, Dr. Bruce Caldwell, affectionately called fast food “garbage food”. He or someone else in m...
More About: Doctors , Food , Wheat , Modern , Legend

Food sensitivity and intolerance testing options include new mediator relea
2007-05-08 05:55:00
As a gastroenterologist, I diagnose and treat many people with food allergies and intolerance, colitis, Crohn’s disease, reflux and irritable bowel syndrome or IBS. As a food allergy and food intolerance specialist – the Food Doc, I find food allergies are relatively easy to diagnose, as is Celiac disease, the worst form of a spectrum of gluten sensitivity. Crohn’s and colitis are also usually easily diagnosed though this requires an endoscopic examination of the colon, colonoscopy, with biopsies of abnormal appearing intestinal lining. Sometimes specific blood tests for colitis and Crohn's disease may screen for or help confirm ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. More recently, biopsies of normal appearing intestine lining, has been found to reveal previously unsuspected microscopic forms of inflammation that may be due to food allergies or intolerance. These various forms of microscopic colitis, often misdiagnosed as IBS include lymphocytic, collagenous and mastocyti...
More About: Testing , Intolerance , Options , Opti

Celiac Disease Negative or Inconclusive But You Think You Have Food Sensiti
2007-05-08 01:38:00
Do you have symptoms or health issues that won’t go away and tests for food allergies and Celiac disease have been negative or inconclusive? Have you been told you have IBS, fibromyalgia, migraines, chronic fatigue or depression but feel that the medications and treatments recommended for you by doctors have not helped and you wonder if your symptoms might be related to your diet? Do you believe foods or chemicals in the foods you eat may be contributing to how poorly you feel and your unexplained symptoms yet doctors have told you that food allergy tests are negative or inconclusive? If you feel this way you are not alone. Now there may be help in a new form of food sensitivity testing to determine if your body is reacting negatively to the foods you are eating. The Food Doc is now partnering with Signet Diagnostic Corporation to bring this testing to patients on-line.If you are not sure you have symptoms from foods, take this food symptom survey on my secure website. High scores...
More About: Disease , Negative , Celiac Disease

Lymphocytes, eosinophils and mast cells: What your "normal" appearing gut l
2007-05-03 10:22:00
Thousands of people are undergoing endoscopic exams daily without having any biopsies performed though they have symptoms. Sadly, though their exams may visually appear normal, under the microscope may likely be microscopic findings that explain their symptoms. These findings also may direct a therapy that will relieve their symptoms. The gut is lined with larger cells that have in their tips a few immune cells. These immune cells, or lymphocytes, release chemical mediators that fight off infection and attract other cells to the area join the fight to protect the border of the gut from foreign invaders. Lymphocytes are the primary immune cells normally present in small numbers in the surface cells of the gastrointestinal tract but in certain conditions they may be joined by eosinophils and mast cells. A few lymphocytes are present in the tips of the surface cells that are a type of epithelial cell. These lymphocytes act as the body’s scouts. They survey the barrier of the gut to...
More About: Mast , Normal

Food, bacteria, yeast & the leaky gut meet probiotics & gluten free
2007-04-28 19:58:00
Food, bacteria and yeast in the gut are increasingly being acknowledged by doctors to have a role in the development of a variety of chronic diseases. For years alternative and complementary health practitioners have been advocating various elimination diets and supplements for treatment of a myriad of illnesses and symptoms. Recently more medical researchers are seriously looking into science of food and gut bacteria and yeast causing illness. This research is more common in Europe than in the West because in the U.S. most of the research funding is linked to drug development. Since dietary treatment is not a drug pharmaceutical companies are generally not interested. Their deep pockets are not available to the research scientists working on food related illness who depend on pharmaceutical company funds to survive in academic medicine. However, Celiac disease affects 1%, food allergies 8%, gluten sensitivity 10% and various food intolerance 30-60%, so what we eat is important. Our...
More About: Food , Bacteria , Free , Gluten Free , Meet

Blocking Wheat Gluten Toxicity With Digestive Enzyme Pill Might Have Preven
2007-04-10 07:31:00
Taking a pill to allow eating gluten is a very appealing idea to people suffering from Celiac disease. Trying to maintain a gluten free diet for life, especially while traveling or having an active social life is nearly impossible. However, for those with Celiac disease, gluten exposure can cause serious symptoms and increase the risk of numerous cancers, especially lymphoma. It is unlikely a pill will become available in the very near future that would allow an unrestricted diet. However, in the February 2007 issue of the journal Gut, Dr. Cerf-Bensussan et al. from France, review the latest research that has progressed to the early stages of developing a gluten digestive enzyme pill. Oral proteases, enzymes that break down proteins, are being developed that target the toxic wheat gluten protein product gliadin that causes Celiac disease. A pill combining two or more of these digestive enzymes may allow people with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity to eat gluten occasionally dur...
More About: Wheat , Lock , Toxic , Locking

Bad tasting gluten-free beer no longer a stumbling block for adopting a glu
2007-03-30 01:18:00
Inability to drink beer is one of the great stumbling blocks for many of my patients with Celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Giving up beer has prevented more than one of my relatives from embacing a gluten-free diet despite evidence they have gluten sensitivity. My physician wife with Celiac disease used to love the beer Fat Tire. After her diagnosis she once purchased a gluten-free beer from Europe called Bard. Though I thought it had a very cool logo we both agreed it tasted like !@#%. Now, we can enjoy a great tasting and gluten-free beer. Though I personally don't like beer that much, Anheuser-Busch's new gluten-free beer Red Bridge I actually like. See my blog www.The Gluten Free Food Report for more personal comments on this beer. Use of sorghum, a grass grain originating in Africa, for alcholic beverages dates back many centuries. However, beer brewed with sorghum usually contains barley malt and therefore is not safe for consumption by those with Celiac dis...
More About: Beer , Gluten Free , Block , Opti

Wheat and gluten as a cause of bloating death in cattle. Is there a paralle
2007-03-28 19:31:00
Wheat fed to cattle can kill them. Excess wheat or barley feed can result in a bloating disorder known as wheat pasture bloat, feedlot bloat, free-gas bloat or frothy bloat. Wheat and barley are fed to cattle because they are a cheap source of high protein grains that result in rapid weight gain for finishing cattle off for slaughter. However, if too much wheat or barley is fed to cattle, especially high gluten containing wheat, the cattle die. Their stomach, called the rumen, accumulates excessive gas putting pressure on the heart and lungs leading to death. My physician wife with celiac disease grew up in rural Missouri and their family had a few head of cattle. When I asked her if she had ever heard of pasture bloat she described how she once tried to help the local vet save one of their cows that developed pasture bloat. The vet punctured the cow's "stomach" to let gas escape but the cow still died. I have patients who tell me they feel like they are dying from abdominal pain...
More About: Wheat , Death

Wheat gluten found to be toxic to dogs and cattle proven almost a hundred y
2007-03-20 03:49:00
Wheat gluten has been suspected as a possible cause of the recent epidemic of kidney failure and death of dogs and cats from pet food. I will highlight just two of numerous publications dating to the early 1900’s published on wheat gluten toxicity in cattle and dogs. A 1948 American Journal of Physiology article documents experiments trying to prevent seizures in dogs fed wheat gluten. This research was prompted by a twenty-five year history of theories about the cause of a condition called “canine hysteria” or “running fits”. Death, blindness, seizures and ataxic neurological symptoms are described in dogs fed meal made with wheat gluten. The symptoms are eerily similar to what have been described recenlty in dogs and cats eating pet food containing wheat gluten. Many of the symptoms are also identical to those experienced by humans with untreated celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. Dating back to the early 1900’s adverse health were known to occur from the nutrition...
More About: Dogs , Wheat , Rove , Oven , Toxic

Is it Gluten That Prevents Bread Mold But Makes Us Ill? The Food Doc Twinki
2007-03-15 01:16:00
Recently, our daughter’s teacher told us the story of her son's initially failed science project. After a week of no mold on moist sandwich bread left out in a cool dark closet they had to use gluten-free bread to get the experiment to work. This came as no surprise to my wife and I since in our gluten-free household we routinely freeze any gluten-free baked goods that we don’t expect to eat within a couple of days to avoid wasting the food due to mold.My first opportunity to try my own experiment was a few weeks ago when I asked one our houseguests to leave a slice of the regular bread we had bought for them on a paper plate as an experiment. After about five days of only crumbling bread without mold was exposing our household to unwanted gluten, my wife, who has Celiac disease, threw it out. Remembering an urban legend about 30-year old Twinkies, I did some research. I found a quote from Dr. Steven Masley describing foods containing trans fats being like "embalming fluid" and...
More About: Food , Bread , Vent , Brea , Mold

Allergic or Eosinophilic Esophagitis and GERD differentiated by biopsies th
2007-03-08 05:48:00
GERD causes symptoms of heartburn and food sticking but so can an allergic condition of the esophagus known as eosinophilic esophagitis (EE). EE is characterized by the presence of an abnormal number of allergic type cells called eosinophils in the esophagus. In many patients and the number of eosinophils may not be high enough to separate EE from GERD, however a new study found another allergy cell, the mast cell, may help differentiate allergic esophagitis from acid reflux esophagitis. This study also provides further support that some people have both acid reflux and allergy. Eosinophils are not normally present in the esophagus but are seen in small numbers under the microscope in biopsies of esophagus due to acid reflux. A count of more than 15-20 eosinophils per high power field (HPF or 40x) is the usual range considered diagnostic of EE though some pathologists use 24 or more. In reflux, up to 7 eosinophils per HPF is considered typical. This study found significantly higher...
More About: Hili , Diff

Gluten-free pizza and beer
2007-03-01 03:28:00
As a doctor who treats many people with celiac disease and who is personally gluten sensitive, I am uniquely aware of the challenges of a gluten-free diet. I am also casein sensitive. So, pizza is something that has been missing from my diet for months. However, those of us on a gluten-free diet can enjoy Amy’s gluten free pizza. And if you are also avoiding casein, you can eat Amy’s gluten-free dairy-free Spinach Pizza . The pizza is made with a rice crust and soy-based mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. Therefore, if you are sensitive or allergic to soy you will want to avoid this pizza. Also, not all of Amy's products are gluten-free so you need to pay attention to the pizza boxes to confirm that they are gluten-free. The Spinach Pizza also contains tomatoes, potatoes, sunflower seeds and rice. Spinach and organic sun-ripened tomatoes are combined with several herbs for a very tasty, yet gluten-free dairy-free pizza. There are no trans fats, preservatives or MSG. However, more t...
More About: Beer , Free , Gluten Free

Irritable bowel syndrome linked to increased intestinal mast cells and intr
2007-02-26 03:23:00
Our digestive tract is the largest line of defense we have to maintain against outside attack. It is vulnerable to stress, foreign food proteins and bad bacteria. Irritable bowel syndrome is reported to be the most common gastrointestinal disorder. In this month’s issue of Gut, Guilarte et al. from Barcelona Spain report finding of mildly increased intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IELs) and marked increased mast cells patients with diarrhea predominant IBS who also had higher levels of psychological stress than normal volunteers.A stress-mast cell axis has been proposed for possible cause of IBS. Mast cells typically release chemicals in response to allergens and parasites but have also been linked to stress. Increased mast cells have been found in the large and small bowel of patients with IBS especially when a stain for tryptase, an enzyme specific for mast cells, is performed. Mast cells can increase intestinal permeability (cause leaky gut), increase visceral sensitivity (increas...
More About: Syndrome , Ease , Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Eat More Fish: Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Seafood and Fish Oil Capsules Prevent
2007-02-23 17:49:00
Eating fish may reduce colon cancer risk. A new study found that men not taking aspirin with high blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids had a 66% reduction of colorectal cancer compared with those with low levels. Omega -3 fatty acids aid brain function and protect against dementia and heart disease. Cold water fish or seafood are high in omega-3 fats. Fish oil capsules can be taken as a nutritional supplement. In addition to fish or seafood other sources of omega-3 fats are listed below.• Fish and seafood• Fish oil capsules• Flaxseed oil• Free-range chicken• Game meat• Leafy green vegetables• Liver• Nuts: Brazil, Cashews, Macadamia, Pistachios, walnuts• Omega-3 enriched chicken eggs• Pasture-fed beef or buffalo• WalnutsOmega-3 fatty acids may block the chemical pathway linked to cancer development and growth. Eating the equivalent of a U.S. standard sized meal of fish or seafood a twice week is linked to higher IQ babies. For those taking fish oil capsule, the ...
More About: Seafood , Acids , Fatty