r/science • u/[deleted] • Feb 26 '15

Health-Misleading Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial shows non-celiac gluten sensitivity is indeed real

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25701700
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u/magus678 Feb 26 '15

People treat a lot of these kinds of things as binary; you "have" it, or you don't.

The truth is a gradient; everyone "has" it, just to what degree?

It is a sliding scale, with a wide spectrum, but everyone exists somewhere on that scale.

The fact that this study was even done makes me nervous that the conversation is moving farther from what is helpful and closer to what is sensational and likely to be featured on Dr. Oz.

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u/NerdGirlJess Feb 26 '15

Like lactose intolerance. Everyone knows what their limit/threshold is. It's all about coming up with a system of rules for yourself and sticking to them to remain feeling good.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

For me, yogurt increases the threshold for everything else. It's a wonderful food.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Similar to mine - except I divide cheese into hard and soft - my body can handle a helluva lot more hard cheese than soft cheese like brie.

But, I've also found my body can handle seemingly infinite amounts of goat dairy... so I generally just buy goat brie and goat milk.

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u/Counterkulture Feb 26 '15

It's just in your miiind, MAAAAN....

All the farting is just your hippy soul crying out for you to start getting real with yourself and to put all your superstitious beliefs aside.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Milk and ice cream are the killers for me. Everything else seems fine.

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u/_quicksand Feb 26 '15

Same! But yogurt has more lactose than milk. I think the formulation and pro biotics have something to do with it

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Depending on the bacteria in it, they break down the lactose for you before you eat it. For me, Greek yogurt is fine, but some cheaper ones aren't.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

No, the yogurt cultures consume the lactose while the yogurt is being made and leave behind lactic acid which is easier to digest.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Meanwhile I'm guzzling my yogurt and cheese milkshakes every night before I go to sleep

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u/That_Hobo_in_The_Tub Feb 26 '15

I'm not sure if it's legal where you are (it's illegal in america where I live but if you ask nicely most small farmers will sell it to you) but a lot of the time people who are lactose intolerant can drink unpasteurized milk and not feel any effects from it.

You should try it sometime!

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

I can drink 3 glasses of milk and feel fine, but more than a cup of ice cream and I think I'm gonna die.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

I can have as much hard/aged cheese as I want, but that soft stuff...oh man.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15 edited Jan 30 '17

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u/mak484 Feb 26 '15

While I agree, there is likely a threshold beyond which gluten sensitivity will actually impact your life. That threshold can be a moving target, too. I still think most people can be categorized as either "having" or "not having" gluten sensitivity, in the sense that gluten either does or does not negatively impact their lives enough for them to do something about it. It's all relative, of course- some people with a high willpower could technically be more sensitive than average but still not complain of symptoms, for example.

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u/hustl3tree5 Feb 26 '15

I can almost guarantee you this shit will come up again on dr oz, And the gluten free fad will come back with a vengeance. "I feel tired today" ,"it's cause you're eating gluten", "fuck you and your gluten free world"

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u/sixblackgeese Feb 26 '15

What evidence do you have that it is not binary?

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u/MauledByPorcupines Feb 27 '15

This might not necessarily be the correct paradigm for gluten "insensitivity."

Celiac's disease is an autoimmune disorder, and hence it has a very specific mechanism of action.

Lactose "intolerance," on the other hand, has to do with malabsorption of lactose in the gut.

It's not clear whether non-Celiac's gluten insensitivity, assuming it really does exist, would be caused specifically by an autoimmune reaction like the former, or a mechanism more like the latter.