Gluten … Food Of Obsessions?
Obsessions are a type of negative thinking, usually future oriented, recurring and signaling danger. All of us have experienced these types of cognitions at some point in life, but unlike people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), they have not conditioned our lives.
We let these thoughts wander through our minds without giving them greater importance. We know how to recognize that the brain has the function of emitting ideas, whether in the form of phrases, images, sensations … and there is no reason to give it greater importance.
They mistakenly believe that having them already implies that they are real, and if we stop coldly to think about it, the world in our head is one thing and the real world is quite another.
The classical hypothesis tells us that the origin of this disorder is the genetic and biological predisposition to suffer it as well as the personal history of the individual since childhood: education received, personality …
The disorder would be maintained thanks to compulsions, which are something other than acts that can be motor (eg washing hands twenty times a day) or cognitive (repeating the same idea mentally for six hours). The compulsions neutralize the obsessions and also the anxiety that they generate, with which the person relaxes momentarily. At the same time, this momentary relief will act as a negative reinforcement, increasing the chances that the compulsion will recur in the future or even become general.
Also the positive reinforcements that are received from the environment can cause the disorder to persist, so it is essential not to ignore them.
And what does gluten have to do with it?
What we just discussed in the introduction is what we more or less already know about the disorder. Recently, Dr. Luis Rodrigo Saez, emeritus professor at the University of Oviedo, has been specializing in the neurological manifestations of celiac disease. Remember that celiacs are those intolerant to gluten, a protein contained in wheat flour and some cereals.
This doctor has been able to verify and confirm how gluten alone is capable of inflaming and injuring some areas of our brain, leading to the appearance of various neurological diseases, ranging from ataxia, migraines, multiple sclerosis, polyneuritis and epilepsy, to Tourette syndrome and OCD.
Obviously, it is not a question of blaming gluten entirely, but it is being seen that it could be one of the causes of the origin and maintenance of obsessive compulsive disorder, as well as other psychiatric and neurological disorders.
These findings, which have been quite significant, open a new avenue of hope for patients. A new one to explore and that could initially be successfully completed without the need for patients to undergo drug treatment.
What does the treatment consist of?
Combining it with a good psychotherapy, something that I think is essential to learn to break dysfunctional habits and change thoughts, the treatment would be based on totally eliminating gluten from our diet.
The diet must be for life and must be done strictly; that is to say, it is not worth to stop consuming gluten all week and at the weekend gorging ourselves on cakes made of refined flour. Once we have decided to abandon gluten, it is essential to adhere to the treatment if we want to benefit from its effects.
It is a pride to be able to make known the empirical findings of other professionals so that, as I have commented previously, science advances. But above all, it is great news that patients can have more natural alternatives with fewer side effects.
Therefore, if you go through any of the disorders that have been mentioned here, I encourage you to follow the new findings that are given in this line. I personally encourage you to remove gluten from your diet and analyze the results within a year. I’m sure you will be surprised!
