OT: To scoff or not to scoff

G'day G'day Folks,

Have you noticed how some people scoff more than others. It is
almost as if scoffing is their default response to any suggestion.
These people would make foundation members of the skeptics society.

Then at the other extreme there are people who believe what is
presented to them especially if it is in a sensational form.

Most people naturally fall somewhere between the extremes.

How do you feel about acupuncture?

Are you are a scoffer?
Perhaps you will go so far as to say it works by suggestion.

Are you a firm believer?

Perhaps you are like me and recognise it can relieve pain better as it
happens with people who have the lowest scores for suggestibility and
also with cattle who aren't renowned for responding to hypnosis
On the other hand I don't subscribe to the elaborate details such as
acupuncture points. Acupuncture appears to work as well for pain
relief when the points aren't used. Whatever.

While shopping in an organic supermarket I came across a book entitled
"Full of it" and subtitled "the shocking truth of about gluten".

"shocking" triggered my scoff reflex. So did "truth"
People who market the "truth" have a habit of leaving out some of it
as they push a particular biased view of reality.

Never the less I decided to buy it. I realised I scoffed more than I
should about people who claimed gluten intolerance and lactose
intolerance.

When people are ill their intestinal mucosa becomes inflamed and for a
while they become lactose intolerant. Of course on a world wide basis
most people are lactose intolerant. What gets me scoffing more than
perhaps I should is the people who read a book and become lactose
intolerant or have a friend who is lactose intolerant and they acquire
the same malfunction. Some things are fashionable. Well I felt I
owed it to read the evidence for widespread gluten sensitivity in the
general population and not to close my mind with a reflexive scoff.

The book is written by Dr Rodney Ford a pediatric gastroenterologist.
Is it relevant to diabetics? Well it might be. In one chapter on
zonulin, the hormone that controls the seams between cells in the gut
he mentions that it is common for diabetics to have increased levels
of zonulin which makes the gut more leaky. This means that when some
protein such as gliadin, a form of gluten, are only partly digested
they can pass through the gut wall into the blood stream. In
particular some polypeptides (short chains of amino acids of 4 to 8
amino acids long) can pass through. Some of these polypeptides are
gluteomorphines ie they have opiate like action. One can become
addicted to bread, thanks to the gluten. This doesn't happen to most
people. About ninety percent of people fully digest gluten so that
only harmless amino acids a present. Their gut walls are intact and
their response to bread is non-addictive. How addictive is bread?
Well that is something Dr Ford omits to mention.
Perhaps it would spoil his story.

Never the less it could be relevant to some T2 diabetics.
It could also explain why some T2 diabetics who make a dramatic shift
into leaving out bread, pasta and potatoes when first diagnosed
experience a dramatic improvements in feeling better. I'd assumed it
was from better blood glucose control. Now I'm open to the idea that
there might be a second reason supporting the first.

When they are able to perform regular blood tests and work out
personal answers to the big questions like "How much grain is OK for
me?" "How much potato is OK for me?" they are likely to experience
what we often call, YMMV, Your mileage may vary.
Here is another reason why YMMV.

There a lots of details in the book, much of it from recent research
ie post 2000 that is worthy of discussion and subjecting to LEAR or
some other critical thinking tool. However, my son would like to
spend some time with me and I'd like to spend time with him, so it
must wait.

Best wishes,


--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin
.

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