Hype about Gluten-Free Diets

Other wheat components are more likely to trigger health problems

- LYDIA DENWORTH

RECENTLY A FRIEND I'll call Anne told me she had cut gluten out of her diet to try to reduce joint pain in her hands. “I feel so much better,” she said. Anne is just one of many people who have self-prescribed such a diet, avoiding wheat because gluten is the primary nourishment protein in the developing plant. Usually people do this after hearing—anecdotally or from social media—that gluten is inflammatory and at the root of a range of physical and mental problems.

Anne’s story gave me pause. I have been known to joke that I am on an all-gluten diet because I enjoy bread and baked goods so much. But she and I are the same age, and I, too, have joint pain in my hands. Might that improve if I gave up gluten?

This is a question of considerable medical importance. For the roughly 1 percent of the population with celiac disease, gluten is clearly the problem. In celiac disease, white blood cells in the immune system regard gluten as a foreign invader, like a bacterium, and start attacking. The pain can be intense.

Celiac, which is linked to immune system genes called HLAs, causes a range of gut-related symptoms, including stomach pain, diarrhea and constipation. The ability to absorb nutrients goes down, leading to weight loss. There can also be damage beyond the gut such as brain fog, joint pain and infertility. No wonder people struggling with the disease have become so worried about gluten.