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  4. Patient has HLA-DQ8 heterozygous. It isn’t showing any symptoms on eating gluten or cross reactive foods. Ran Cyrex Array 3 and came back clean as a whistle. Sharing with him that gluten takes longer to digest and can lead to inflammation. Thoughts on how to convince this TBI patient to switch over when labs aren’t showing issues.

Patient has HLA-DQ8 heterozygous. It isn’t showing any symptoms on eating gluten or cross reactive foods. Ran Cyrex Array 3 and came back clean as a whistle. Sharing with him that gluten takes longer to digest and can lead to inflammation. Thoughts on how to convince this TBI patient to switch over when labs aren’t showing issues.

Chris Kresser: I think your case isn’t as strong, to be honest. I don’t think gluten is an issue for everybody. I think maybe some of the claims that are been made out there that that gluten is just a universal poison are taking a little bit too far. The most aggressive data we have suggests that maybe one in 10 people are gluten intolerant, so that means that 9 and 10 are not. The biggest problem I see with gluten is that most foods which contain gluten, even if you’re not gluten intolerant, are pretty low in terms of nutrient density. If we’re talking about bread, muffins, crackers, and a lot of processed and refined foods that aren’t great for us no matter what regardless of whether gluten intolerant or not. But having someone be very strict strictly gluten-free when there is no antibody production and no symptoms when they eat gluten is a little bit tougher of a cell, and I’m not even 100 percent sure it’s necessary. On the other hand, the effects of gluten intolerance can be silent. It can lead to antibody production that we can’t necessarily feel or that doesn’t manifest immediately in any obvious way, so unless the person is getting testing regularly, you don’t know for sure. If they have conditions that are associated with gluten intolerance or can be exacerbated by it like TBI, then the stakes are higher I think overall to make sure that they’re not doing anything that could trigger or exacerbate their condition. From that perspective, you could certainly make an argument, but you’re just not on completely solid ground from an evidence-based perspective in them going 100 percent gluten-free and being totally strict about it.

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