We have to move beyond gluten intolerance in discussion of optimal diet. Radiation-mutated wheat contains many other altered non-gliadin components. That can lead to damage of intestinal wall. Leading expert in gastroenterology and liver disease discusses how radiation and chemicals changed grains. Random mutagenesis of wheat possibly increased risk of autoimmune diseases. Beyond Gluten Intolerance. Radiation mutated wheat. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Gluten-Free diets are popular for patients who consider themselves "gluten sensitive". Dr. Simon Robson, MD. It is not only about gluten content of wheat and other grains. Non-gliadin proteins are also mutated by radiation and selection. Non-gliadin components of wheat can create gut sensitivity. We have to look beyond gluten intolerance to understand food sensitivity today. Radiation mutated wheat has changed our food supply. Video interview with leading expert in gastroenterology Harvard Medical School. Ionizing radiation bombards wheat on a random basis and can lead to modification of many grain proteins. Trypsin inhibitors are present in wheat in high amount. Trypsin inhibitors can damage intestinal wall. In cases of gluten intolerance and celiac disease medical second opinion helps to make sure celiac disease diagnosis is correct and complete. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Medical second opinion also helps to choose the best treatment for celiac disease or Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Selection and chemical modification creates useful mutants, but mutant wheat is bred with radiation. we do not know this components of wheat are mutated and how. Random irradiation and chemical mutagenesis of wheat is worse than genetic modification. Indiscriminate mutagenesis is what's wrong with modern wheat. Patients might be allergic to other grain components. It is going beyond gluten intolerance. We have to consider separation of radiation mutated wheat from more natural grain sources. there could be a difference between wheat sensitivity and gluten sensitivity. Other components of the wheat this can cause injury to intestines and liver. Beyond genetically modified foods and gluten sensitivity. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Harvard Medical School. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Has gluten changed? Has wheat changed? During the Green Revolution interesting fact happened. One of the main changes with wheat was to mutate it. It was not a genetic modification per se. It was not induced in the laboratory. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. It was much more sporadic, using x-ray radiation. X-rays and other ionizing radiation was used to mutate the genome of wheat. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. The wheat was subjected to ionizing radiation on a random basis? Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Wheat was mutated on a random basis. Chemical mutations were introduced into wheat genome. Then plant selection was done. They were able to get really big ears of wheat, right? The problem was this. Wheat ears were so big that everything would fall over. Wheat crop was spoiled. The next step was to create dwarf type wheat. It is much shorter. Some more mutations were induced to create dwarf wheat. You do random mutations by X-rays and chemical mutagenesis. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Then you may be inducing some other changes in the wheat. Again, you have got a monoculture, so maybe the gliadin is at higher concentration, maybe not. We have other physicians who work in the field in my division. They have actually worked also elsewhere. Professor Detlef Schuppan is a leader in this area. He is a hepatologist. He is also involved in celiac disease research. He has proposed that it is not only the gluten and the gliadin. There are other molecules that could be causing problems by binding to HLA type molecules and provoking disease. Also there are non-gliadin components of the wheat. For example, there are amylase trypsin inhibitors. They are present now in wheat in high concentrations. You are removing gluten from the diet. But there maybe other constituents of the wheat. They can provoke injury by innate immune mechanisms. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Other molecules in wheat may bind to Toll receptors and others receptors. One end of the disease spectrum would be gluten sensitivity, celiac disease. Then patients have these other sub-clinical problems. They have fatigue, neurological disorders, stress and so forth. There has been this move to take gluten out of the diet. The goal is "to enhance patients's health". But many of these ideas seem to be food faddism. There is not a lot of science to back that up. This is unlike celiac disease, where you can make a definitive diagnosis on clinical grounds. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. You can use blood testing. Then biopsy of the intestine to show damage done directly from the wheat. A lot of these other forms of gluten sensitivity may well be real. But we still lack some the scientific proof to show the veracity of treatment by gluten withdrawal. As I pointed out this above. There may be other components of the wheat that can cause injury. It is a very interesting area of research. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. it is interesting to learn that even though wheat is not genetically modified in a direct sense. Classical genetic modification involves insertions of certain genes. It is based on the molecular biology knowledge and technology. But wheat is modified, mutated, by random X-ray bombardment. That leads to changes that we might not know about. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Gluten could be just one genetic change. But there could be some other associated molecules that we don't know about. They can cause clinical or subclinical body injury that looks similar to gluten intolerance. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. But again, it is almost magical, right? The amount of wheat yields is huge. It has increased dramatically. It is not just from the genetic modification. Because we have been genetically modifying things by selective breeding for many many years. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. The livestock and all the vegetables are non-toxic and very palatable to us. They are not causing any problems. This has been happening over the last 10,000 or 15,000 years with agriculture. But right now we can do genetic modifications in a much more targeted manner. Beyond Gluten Intolerance. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Radiation mutated wheat. Video interview with leading gastroenterology and liver specialist. Radiation mutates non-gliadin proteins.