From the Desk of Dr. Karl R.O.S. Johnson, DC.....

We all have that one chore or project in our house we never seem to get around to. Maybe it's cleaning the garage, finally getting the family picture framed, or reorganizing your kitchen. You know it would not take much time to accomplish the task and you will feel better when you are finished, but you just never quite seem to make the time.

Living with an autoimmune illness and chronic pain is similar. You know there probably is a better way to treat your ailments than the constant drugs, appointments and new treatments. Yet, you continue to go about your medical routine, succumbing to what feels like the inevitability of living with chronic pain and autoimmune illnesses and the host of drugs and doctors that go along with it.

However, just as you will feel better when you finally tackle that nagging chore, you can find relief from your autoimmune illness and chronic pain by stepping outside the traditional approaches to these ailments.

Gluten sensitivity is an under diagnosed common trigger of many autoimmune illnesses and chronic pain. Once patients discover they have a gluten sensitivity and commence a gluten free diet, their illness and pain often disappears. It's an amazing yet incredibly simple diagnosis that brings relief to many people suffering needlessly each year. Let's take a closer look at how this simple diagnosis can bring the much sought after cure you have been longing for.

Gluten Sensitivity: The Basics
Gluten is a protein found in common grains, specifically wheat, rye, barley. New studies show gluten is contained in all grains. Gluten is what gives dough its elasticity and helps it to rise. It is the composite of two proteins, gliadin and glutenin. Most people can eat and digest this protein without any problems.

However, many people suffer from gluten sensitivity or essentially an allergy to gluten. Unlike other allergies, say to peanuts for example, gluten does not typically cause anaphylaxis. It does, however, trigger the basic allergic response. When you consume gluten, your immune system produces antibodies to fight off what it perceives as harmful to your health. This immune response causes inflammation in your body leading to a host of autoimmune illnesses.

Chronic pain reaches into every aspect of your life. It affects how and even if you can work. It affects your relationships with family and friends. It affects your mood and your outlook on life. Chronic pain becomes an ever present companion, accompanying you wherever you go no matter what you do.

Many who live in chronic pain spend a lifetime trying to find the cause of their pain. Traditional medicine often treats the symptoms, addressing each ache and pain as it's own illness. Take this drug for this pain. Take another drug for another ache. You may often get conflicting advice as well. Try increasing your activity. No, you need to rest. Try ice. No, try heat. Well-meaning friends and family offer all kinds of advice and old wives' tales and maybe even accuse you of making it all up.

At what point do you give up on all the misguided medical advice and give in to a life of chronic pain?

Before you give up and give in, you need to know about a common cause for chronic pain and a problem that can be solved relatively simply. A sneaky culprit may have quietly been wreaking havoc on your body for years. Gluten.

What is Gluten?
Simply put, gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, malt, rye and some oats. People with a gluten sensitivity often have no idea the kind of destruction this protein is wreaking on their bodies. The traditional medical community has only recently started to acknowledge how gluten can cause damage.

People with a gluten sensitivity cannot digest this protein. As the protein travels through their digestive systems, it damages the villi in their intestines, the part of your intestines that gather nutrients from your food. Over time, you lose the ability to absorb nutrients into your body leading to a host of health problems including:

Treating only the symptoms allows the condition to worsen

The main problem with the treatments some doctors prescribe for peripheral neuropathy is that they never go after the root of the problem, but focus on the symptoms  –  in your case; numbness, tingling, burning and/or a feeling of weakness.  And when these treatments wear off (which they do), you'll often find they only cover up your problem for a short time and do nothing to fix what's causing your neuropathy in the first place.

Treating only the symptoms of neuropathy for an extended periond of time,  can result in a condition that has progressed too far, to the point other root cause treatments can no longer be of help.

Off-Label Drug Use

Some doctors give their patients anti-seizure meds like Neurontin for their neuropathy.  Anti-seizure meds like Neurontin, Klonopin, and Topamax were not meant to cure neuropathy!  (I guess it doesn’t matter that Pfizer, the maker of Neurontin, was fined $430 million dollars in 2004 for recommending that Neurontin be used “off label,” or for purposes other than its intended use).