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Where does gluten do its gut damage? |
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Gluten can play havoc everywhere in your gut. If you are sensitive to gluten then this elegant gut mechanism can be disrupted in many places. This is the basis of the large number of possible symptoms. Every part of your gastrointestinal tract (your gut) can be affected – not only the small bowel. The damage is two-fold. - Gluten interferes with the way the nerves in the gut work. Gluten can disrupt the Autonomic Nervous System (the automatic nervous control of the gut muscles and glands).
- In Celiac Disease, the gluten is toxic to the gut. This causes the classic damage called “villus atrophy”.
But in addition, many other parts of your body, outside of your gut, can be involved. This is again from the neurological damage throughout your body. Also, with poor assimilation of foods and minerals, all of the symptoms of nutritional deficiency (from malabsorption) and immune deficiency can appear. Gluten can cause wide-ranging damage.
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