Shocking: gluten can damage your brain
Fanatical fit girls avoid gluten like the plague, and perhaps they are right. There is a condition called gluten ataxia, in which your brain is damaged by eating gluten.
Gluten ataxia is a condition similar to coeliac disease. With ataxia, certain parts of the brain function less effectively, or even stop functioning altogether, because of gluten. Problems walking, difficulty speaking and problems with eye movements are symptoms of issues in the brain that may be caused by gluten ataxia.
Walking with crutches
A patient had been experiencing problems for years, and her doctor initially thought it was menopause or a stroke. It was only when she saw a specialist, who advised her to cut all gluten from her diet, that she recovered. ‘I was walking with crutches, but I soon no longer needed them.’ The doctor specialising in gluten ataxia treated around six hundred patients over the past twenty years. ‘People have no idea what is wrong with them,’ says Professor Hadjivassiliou of the hospital in Sheffield. ‘When they stop eating gluten, they visibly improve. The only problem is that they are sometimes referred to me too late. If they have already suffered irreversible damage to the cerebellum, a gluten-free diet can do little to change that.’
Baguette in the recycling bin
Before you start throwing all your baguettes, pasta and other gluten-rich products into the green bin: gluten ataxia is a rare condition, so you do not need to worry about every bite of bread. Bread and pasta can also be good for you, according to a study published last summer. That research showed that people who ate a lot of bread and pasta and consumed meat and animal products in moderation had, on average, a higher life expectancy.
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- Trump’s doctor: ‘I mashed the cauliflower into his potatoes
Source: Lad Bible
