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Margaret asks "Why am I wobbly. Do I have Gluten ataxia? How can this be worked out?"
My Reply: Here is an excerpt from my book “Full Of It! The shocking truth about gluten.” to explain it Gluten can certainly cause ataxia. Ataxia is the word for when you feel wobbly or if you have an unsteady gait or walk. It is a loss of coordination. Ataxia can be due to damage of the cerebellum. The cerebellum looks like a wrinkled clenched fist of tissue at the back of your brain. Your cerebellum coordinates your body movements. Your cerebellum is also involved in the learning of repeated movements. For example, when you catch a ball, or balance on one leg, or use the computer keyboard – when you are carrying out these learned repetitive movements, then you are training your cerebellum. There is much evidence that gluten is the culprit in causing these symptoms in many people. Gluten can impair the function of the cerebellum. It was forty years ago that the first cases of ataxia that were linked to coeliac disease were reported (Cooke and Smith, 1966). They wrote about a group of 16 patients with coeliac disease who also had gait ataxia and peripheral neuropathy. They demonstrated that these patients had cerebellar dysfunction. Many others have subsequently shown that cerebellar ataxia, and indeed many other neurological syndromes, may be part of the presenting symptoms of coeliac disease. In one such study, a group of patients with cerebellar ataxia (of unknown cause) were investigated by small bowel biopsy: 16% (4 of 25) were found to have coeliac disease (Pellecchi, 1999). The next step in my reasoning is this: gluten may be the troublemaker in the brain without the need to be associated with coeliac disease. This is now called gluten-sensitivity. Hadjivassiliou (1999) has put it like this: “It remains controversial whether gluten-sensitivity (a state of heightened immunologic responsiveness to ingested gluten) without intestinal involvement should be considered the cause of cerebellar degeneration in ataxia of otherwise unknown cause.” Various studies have found that the prevalence of positive IgG-gliadin antibodies in ataxia (of unknown cause) has varied between 0–41%. However, raised IgG-gliadin antibodies are found more frequently in ataxia (30%) than in the general population (8–12%). This is excellent evidence for a causal association between cerebellar degeneration and gluten-sensitivity. Yes! Gluten can make you wobble, as well as cause you a lot of other neurological problems. Cheers, Dr Rodney Ford.
You can find more in-depth information in the book -
"Full Of It! The shocking truth about gluten” |
