Is Gs Really In Our Heads?

[ChefV]

I'm not sure if he wrote this article for the fun of it or what? what are you thoughts about it? is it really all in our head?

 

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[kareng]

Alan Levinovitz is an assistant professor of Chinese philosophy and religion at James Madison University.

 

 

Don't think that makes him an expert on Celiac Disease or NCGI.  I usually don't seek my medical advice from Assistant professors of philosophy.  Would guess he was just hoping to get some attention.  Looks like it worked.

[notme]

my damaged intestines are not in my head........  dude needs an anatomy lesson lolz

[kareng]

my damaged intestines are not in my head........  dude needs an anatomy lesson lolz

 

 

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[nvsmom]

LOL at Arlene!

I suppose that could be true for a few people but it took me 38 years to figure it out and I barely believed it at first. It is mostly bunk IMO.

[ravenwoodglass]

Well for me it was at least partially in my head.....I have the MRI scans showing brain lesions to prove it.

[IrishHeart]

"At this point, scientists simply don’t have a good explanation for the mechanism and prevalence of gluten intolerance............ Maybe people have always been gluten intolerant and were going undiagnosed—as is true with celiac disease." 

 

well, at least those two sentences have some thought behind them.

 

The rest? meh. Another person with an opinion. 

 

(and here is what I have learned...everyone has an opinion. Does not make it solid gold truth.)

[notme]

Well for me it was at least partially in my head.....I have the MRI scans showing brain lesions to prove it.

 

right - like you're conjuring up brain lesions in your imagination....  (..nation....nation....nation...........)

 

i know everybody's got an opinion, but, damb:  didn't alot of us have to combat that 'you just feel bad because you want to' syndrome??  and here it is again, from some other (REALLY??   Alan Levinovitz is an assistant professor of Chinese philosophy and religion at James Madison University. that's his creds??)  idiot.  yayyy  

[Monklady123]

I'll be sure to ask my GI doc to teach me some Chinese philosophy next time I'm there. I'm sure he can do as good a job as this JMU professor.

[Adalaide]

Well you know what they say about opinions right? Not something I think I can (or maybe more accurately should) repeat here. 

[notme]

I'll be sure to ask my GI doc to teach me some Chinese philosophy next time I'm there. I'm sure he can do as good a job as this JMU professor.

lolz!     

[surviormom]

No the proof is in my gut.  Its too messed up for this to all be in my head, and what about the polka dots???  Anyone that has ever had the rash, that is not in your head.

[1desperateladysaved]

No.

[dilettantesteph]

We have enough problems being taken seriously without uneducated people thinking that they know more about our medical condition than our doctors and writing about it.  Why did Slate give this guy a platform?

[alesusy]

I don't know why they gave him a platform. The article seems to me both biased and ignorant, philosophically not medically speaking. I personally believe that mind and body are not separate entities: our mind IS in our bodies, made of nerves and neuroconnections. So of course what we think influences our sicknesses, and the reverse is true as well. Bu destroyed villis are destroyed villis, and what matters is that if I stop eating gluten, they grow back.

 

I think however that he has a point when he says nobody knows how gluten intolerance works. Or for that matter, let's say that we have only theories and a not very long clinical experience on the border between gluten intolerance and gluten sensitivity. The first is supposed to be an auto immune illness but is it possible that sensitivity is just a stage towards intolerance? and if so, might it get reversed? and can gluten intolerance get reversed or at least someone who has become healthy again can have some gluten from time to time with no adverse effects? I know, I know, it's a very dangerous thought and most of us have no intention of trying. But becoming a celiac at 47 after a life of eating gluten with no adverse effects, I wonder (symptoms appeared maybe 4/5 years before DX). A French baker working with "ancient grains" I met told me the problem lies in the modern wheat, selected for industrial use with giant gluten molecules, "like having a huge piece of rubber instead of many small ones", and thus less digestible. Sounds sensible even if I did not watch wheat molecules under a microscope.

 

One things is certain though: America being in the throes of gluten scare because Americans like to diet, that's idiotic. I'm Italian and in Italy we eat pasta and bread and pizza ALL the time and we've been brainwashed on how the Mediterranean dier is good for you - but we still have the highest percentage of celiac people in the world I believe, about 1 in 80 people. Go tell the guy.

[BZBee]

I'll send in my biopsy reports and vitamin deficiency panel for concrete evidence. He can put that in his head.

[w8in4dave]

Can someone tell my Colon it is all in my head? I had symptoms and searched and searched!! It was my daughter that told me to look up Celiac, (I didn't see it and have the symptoms) then I had the blood work done and low and behold!! Lol it isn't in my head, I am not going crazy!! I say let him have the symptoms and then see what he thinks!!

[Pegleg84]

Short answer: NO!!

 

slightly more complicated answer: sometimes symptoms will seem worse if I worry about them (usually neuro stuff, not gastro stuff), but the actual cause of them is legit.

 

Yes, there are hypochondriacs out there who will have "symptoms" of conditions they don't actually have, but doing it "just to fit in?"... oy! I am amused that he likened the discipline of the gluten-free diet to some sort of religion. That's all very interesting from a sociological point of view, but when you're living it, it's just what you have to do.

 

Conclusion: NO.