Gluten-Free Diets

Foggy brain has many different causes including stress, sleep issues, hormone issues and diet including nutritional deficiency and even dehydration.

Often, our first step is to examine your food sensitivity issues (we have elimination diets and up-to-date blood tests to assist in figuring out which foods are contributing to your brain fog. When you eat a food that creates an inflammatory reaction, it clouds your thinking. Eliminating trigger foods from your diet may improve symptoms.

We’ll also check your nutritional status and explore your current diet. We are what we eat, but more importantly, we are what we absorb from what we eat. Poor nutrient absorption is a key reason you are having problems thinking.

Gluten-containing grains are the seeds of grasses and are pretty new to the modern diet. These grains were rarely consumed until about 500 generations ago, which isn’t very long, in evolutionary terms. Our genetic makeup hasn’t changed very much over the last 40,000 years. Gluten proteins do not respond well to our digestive enzymes and we are not able to completely break them down. When the body’s intestinal barriers are compromised, the large gluten proteins sometimes move past the naturally protective barrier in the digestive tract and into the bloodstream. This condition is known as leaky gut. The gluten itself can even cause or worsen intestinal permeability by compromising the work of zonulin, which is a chemical protein that modulates intestinal permeability. When gluten gets through the protective barrier, it meets the immune system and causes an immune response.

Gluten can cause all kinds of unpleasant symptoms for people. This comes in many different forms and impacts many different systems in the body including gastrointestinal issues (gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, cramping and vomiting). Rashes and canker sores are very common with children and adult acne can be caused by gluten.

Gluten impacts the nervous system. Common neurological manifestations of gluten sensitivity are a lack of coordination, tingling or loss of sensation in the hands or fingers and muscle weakness. Gluten sensitivity is also linked to ADHD and migraines.