This is the core TGF (grain and dairy free) protocol to get you started with healing a gluten related disorder.
Core TGF Gluten Protocol:
These are the top three core products I recommend. The rest of the protocol is a kind of ‘pick & mix’ where you choose what products you need as add-ons, depending on what’s going on in your particular case. Please make sure you read the whole Step 3 section in the Gluten Plan for much more about these products, dosages etc and others that you could substitute, plus products for specific issues as below. And always work with your health practitioner!
See Trusted Suppliers for where to get these.
What Else Might You Need To Address?
Barrier Hyper-Permeability
Check your hyper-permeability levels: if you are too leaky, you will allow food sensitivities, inflammation and autoimmunity to run riot in the future, despite your diet. Do Array 2 (gut) and/or Array 20 (blood-brain barrier), the latter especially if your symptoms are neurological eg. migraine, mood, MS etc. The Arrays 2/20 will act as a starting point and progress marker later for your diet to expand. If anything is positive, treat for barrier healing using the advice in the Gluten Plan. This is not as simple as just taking glutamine, we have found, not least because glutamine feeds candida; good lesson that one! See the Gluten Tests here.
Malabsorption
Most gluten sensitives are malabsorbing in some way whether because of villi flattening (coeliac disease), inflammation (NCGS’s) or autommmune processes (eg parietal cells in the stomach) so you need to address your nutrient needs and boost them. Take a good gluten free multivitamin/mineral and some fatty acids as a base (as above). Do any nutrient checks needed, especially red blood cell minerals, Vitamin D, anaemia and osteoporosis bone markers and add anything required using the TGF safe supplements given in the Gluten Plan. Vitamin D and red blood cell magnesium have been especially important for healing we have found clinically so far. Don’t underestimate them. And don’t believe a Vitamin D test result of less than 100nmol/L or 40ug/L is OK for you, it isn’t. I aim for at least 150nmol or 65ug. See Nutrient Tests here. And the bone resorption test here.
Gut Status and Inflammation
Next, check the state of your gut environment (eg bacteria, candida, parasites etc) to make sure you are not harbouring chronic infections that would scupper healing. This is the single biggest area we have found over the last few years that can hinder the healing process. Do the Doctor’s Data Stool Test, which will also give an indication of digestive ability and gut inflammation. It is also a good idea to check whole body levels of inflammation, so ask your doctor to test your ESR and CRP levels or ask me to do it. If anything is positive do an appropriate gut detox or the TGF Candida Plan with or without the diet, depending on whether yeast shows up or not, and use a natural anti-inflammatory using the choices given in the Gluten Plan. Viruses can also be a trigger and need addressing, so don’t forget those either. So-called benign ones rarely actually are. Read more in the Gluten Plan about which viruses to check, how and which infectious nasties we already know can cross-react with gluten, for example.Virus tests are here.
Autoimmunity
Finally, but possibly most importantly for your future health, you need to look for any autoimmunity processes going on: do Array 5 or the MR1 to look for predictive antibodies to several organs and glands including thyroid, adrenals, intrinsic factor, parietal cells etc. If anything positive is found, treat for auto-immunity using the extended section on this in the Gluten Plan.
There are tons of other issues we could go through, including methylation difficulties, poor liver detox, adrenal and thyroid status etc, but these are some really key ones. There is much more on these and other specific issues in the Gluten Plan.