Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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So, I was 100% convinced that I was gluten intolerant. 100%. But, I just got a lab report that says I am exhibiting an immune response to Casein (alpha & beta), casomorphin, teff (!), and possibly (although less clearly) also to whey protein and yeast. However, I am in NORMAL RANGE for Polish wheat, barley, spelt, and rye!

I'm stunned. However, since I started Paleo about 5 months ago, I have not had even one crumb of gluten stuff (I've been so scared of it), but the couple of times I've had dairy ended up badly (achy joints, sadness, tiredness). So, I guess I need to do a gluten challenge to see what's up.

Are any of you intolerant to casein but not gluten?

I guess I've been operating under the impression that dairy intolerance is usually piggybacked onto gluten intolerance. IOW, that the damage from gluten has allowed the dairy to cause a problem. In fact, I've seen many posts here where people describe how they were able to tolerate dairy after they healed their gut from gluten damage. What the hell?! Why am I intolerant to casein? AAAAGHGHGH! I love dairy, and I was really hoping someday to reintroduce it, at least somewhat.

flag	asked Apr 12 2012 at 21:42 Soporificat 1,290●1●8

keep in mind that to have really accurate allergy testing you should be consuming those items you suspect you can't tolerate (gluten) in order to have a more accurate result. I tested intolerate to casein but not gluten and I thought the same, it might just be something else causing the issues you associate with gluten. Best to consider an elimination diet and reintroduce one thing at a time, watching for signs...There are great dairy substitutes, coconut yogurt, coconut cream, cashew 'cheese'.....hang in there! – Kelly Apr 13 2012 at 11:08

miked · Answer 1 · 2012-04-12 21:58:58Z UTC

There are two parts to gluten being a problem, 1) it can cause a leaky gut, and 2) the protein itself can stimulate an autoimmune problem if it gets through the gut/blood lining

On one side let's imagine you had a magic gut that didn't react with gluten. That means even if you were super sensitive to gluten and it killed you when you got it in your blood stream, you'd still be fine because your gut it keeping it out.

Conversely, we could imagine that gluten makes your gut look like swiss cheese, however your body just doesn't react to it.

Now the reality is probably somewhere in between, and for different people it's going to be different.

Now it's totally possible that gluten opens up your gut and you don't react to it. But you still have an open gut and other things can get in, like casein. Or it could be the other way around where the casein is opening up the gut and the gluten is causing the issues.

The reason that gluten (or casein, or any protein) stimulates an autoimmune response is because when it gets into your blood, your body notices that it's a foreign substance and it creates antibodies to fight it. When they're done fighting they're still hanging around looking for similar objects. For some people those similar objects happen to be their own body (mylen sheath on nerves for MS, beta cells for T1 diabetes, thyroid, joins for arthritis).

I guess if you absolutely cannot live without bread, go get the extra tests. But I'd just advise to stay away from gluten, because even if you're not mounting a response to it, it can still be opening up your gut and allowing in other proteins that you might mount a response to. And you really don't want to have to do an intestinal biopsy to see how your gut itself reacts to different proteins.

Possible to have immune response to casein but NOT to gluten?

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