Grains and “leaky brain”

By Katherine Shagoury

Grain consumption poses a threat to the brain and nervous system, said Peter Osborne, DC, DACBN, PSCD, at the 2019 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

“We’ve all grown up in a society where grains have been kind of forced down our throats,” said Osborne. “But though we all grew up thinking this is normal, when you really dive in to it you realize it’s not normal and can actually be quite damaging.”

While often thought to be healthy, grain seeds are sprayed with fungicides and insecticides, Osborne says, along with xenoestrogens, which affect hormone balance and may contribute to many diseases like breast cancer and endometriosis. In addition, processing grains adds dough conditioners, preservatives, soy flour, synthetic vitamins, and hydrogenated oils.

Historically, grains have been popular since at least 1850 when processed flour became widely available. Five years later, however, Guy Dull, MD, established the first description of symptoms of gluten intolerance. As grain popularity continued to rise due to affordability and variability, in 1922 Robert McCarrison, MD, warned the medical community about the increase in intestinal disorders, followed by the development of what-free diets for children with Celiac disease in 1931 and identifying a new intestinal disorder linked to grain consumption, Crohn’s disease, in 1932. In 1943, the U.S. government banned the sale of processed grains unless they are fortified with select B vitamins and minerals.

In 1953, researchers published an article linking wheat proteins to damage in the mucosal lining of the intestine. Since then, the definition of autoimmune disease has expanded to include neurological autoimmune disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, bipolar, depression schizophrenia, and autism.

Osborne posits, is autoimmunity the mother of chronic disease? He uses the term “brainflammation,” which he says stems from environmental triggers that lead to an overburdened immune system, autoimmunity, chronic inflammation, neurological damage, and disease manifestation. Regarding grain consumption, he uses the term “grainflammation.”

The cycle impacts the brain and nervous system, Osborne said. Consuming grains leads to increased cortisol and elevated blood sugar. Excess cortisol leads to an interference with vitamin D, calcium, and magnesium. In addition, lack of movement reduces flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and hinders lymphatic flow. Essentially, inflammation leads to cortisol, muscle loss, weight gain, then joint compression and pain, which starts the cycle over again.

Gluten was the first medically proven cause of autoimmunity. All forms of grains contain some form of gluten, Osborne said, but testing antibodies of gluten can be misleading. Gluten sensitivity is not a disease, but a genetic predisposition that can lead to disease, Osborne said.

But it’s not just wheat gluten that leads to gut damage and inflammation—Osborne says rice, corn, millet, buckwheat, barley, and oats may also pose a threat, and should be studied before recommended as alternatives.  

Consuming grains leads to a leaky gut and pre-autoimmunity, Osborne said. Gut damage overstimulates the immune system, allows bacterial and viral toxins access to the central circulation, causes allergic hypersensitivity to foods, sets the stage for “molecular mimicry,” is linked to an abnormal microbiome, results in inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, and leads to malabsorption of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. In addition, it triggers what Osborne calls a “leaky brain.”

The gut-brain axis is not a new concept in integrative medicine, though “leaky brain” offers a new perspective to the more well-known concept of a “leaky gut.” We know gluten, potatoes, genetically-modified organisms (GMO) foods, plastics, pesticides, aggressive exercise, medications, infections, and food allergies cause a leaky gut, Osborne says. Still, the medical community all too often neglects biochemistry when considering autoimmunity. All known factors involving autoimmune disease are affected by nutrition, he said.

When it comes to a solution for patients with a leaky brain, Osborne says it goes back to grains.

“I don’t want you to think gluten-free,” said Osborne. “I want you think grain-free. There is no such thing as a gluten-free grain.”