Have You Heard of Gluten Ataxia?

Gluten Ataxia is a rare immune mediated disease in which the body’s immune system attacks the nervous system as a reaction to ingesting gluten.

Ataxia is known to cause clumsiness or loss of balance that is not due to muscle weakness.

How rare is it really?

In a literature review of the most common side effects associated with ingesting gluten, Ataxia & neuropathy were the most commonly reported, up to 40% from a review of 13 studies.

Ataxia Symptoms

🔸Trouble using fingers, hands, arms &/or legs
🔸Trouble speaking
🔸Trouble moving eyes
🔸Poor coordination &/or balance
🔸Tingling in extremities
🔸Gait problems
🔸Damage to the cerebellum (the part of the brain that controls coordination)

Why does this make sense?

When thinking about how we get leaky gut, those tight junctions become permeable & leaky, especially when we ingest gluten because it triggers the release of zonulin.

What is Zonulin?

Zonulin is a protein that modulates the permeability of tight junctions between cells of the wall of the digestive tract.

Now we know when we have leaky gut, we also have leaky brain because we have the same epithelial lining surrounding our brain that is just as vulnerable.

Gluten has been shown to contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases because it
🔸Causes inflammation
🔸Causes leaky gut
🔸Triggers molecular mimicry

What is molecular mimicry?

When a foreign particles gets into your bloodstream (often because of your leaky gut!) the body creates antibodies to that particle. It tells the immune system to “destroy” or get rid it. The problem occurs when your own body tissue resembles the same molecular structure as that foreign particle.

Studies have found that antibodies to gliadin (a protein in gluten) react with several different body tissues. This is also known as “food autoimmune reactivity” & has been seen when antibodies to gluten react with tissues of the thyroid, brain, nervous system & joints.

This is why I strongly recommend a gluten-free diet because in studies even those who don't have celiac disease can develop these side effects over time, with enough other environmental toxins to tip the scale.

It is much easier to prevent autoimmune & neurological disease, than it is to reverse the symptoms -but that is possible as well, despite what you have been made to believe.