What health effects does extra gluten in our body cause?

The South Beach Diet author Arthur Agatston, M.D., discusses the "gluten trifecta" of local inflammation of the intestines, poor absorption of nutrients and autoimmune problems and how this can lead to arthritis, diabetes, reflux, osteoporosis and numbness.

[Transcript]

[What health effects does extra gluten in our bodies cause?]

[Doctor speaks on extra gluten intake]

[Speaker 1]
When gluten is incompletely digested, first of all, it causes a local inflammatory process in our intestines and that causes diarrhea, bloating, abdominal cramps, reflux, heartburn symptoms. And when there's damage to parts or inflammation in parts of the intestine, it also blocks absorption of nutrients. So if calcium isn't getting absorbed, you end up with early osteoporosis. If iron isn't, it's iron deficiency anemia. If it's B vitamins, you get numbness. And then some of the partially digested gluten can get into our system and it mimics some of our organs, like our thyroid. So our immune system will attack our own organs. So you can get a thyroiditis. If it's the pancreas, you can get type one diabetes. It's very common to attack joints to different degrees. So all types of problems from morning stiffness to frank arthritis. So it's what we call the gluten trifecta, it's the local inflammation, the poor absorption of nutrients, and then mimicking our own tissues and causing us to attack our own tissues. So it really can present in so many different ways.

[Baptist Health South Florida]

[End Transcript]