Book review of Wheat Belly 

by William Davis, MD

Sue Westwind 

 "It's a sobering thought that wheat has the capacity to reach into the human brain and cause changes in thought, behavior, and structure, even to the point of provoking seizures."  (Davis, 174)

  The biggest surprise about this book is how entertaining it is. Also of note, it's written by a cardiologist, not a nutritionist or naturopath. Instead of promoting the usual overall healthy diet for a healthy heart, Dr. Davis attacks a common food allergen that can wreck the body and mind in so many ways. That one food is wheat, our modern triticum aestivum--plus other grains that contain gluten. The author has a dry sense of humor that never lets up, rather biting toward the food industry that bases itself on wheat, and the role that the grain plays in our epidemic of broken brains and big bellies.

  Dr. Davis is very clear: it's not your fault you crave bread, pasta, doughnuts and cereal. Nowhere do we see this point illustrated more starkly than when it comes to wheat gluten's sabotage of our moods. We should rejoice at the bestseller status of his work because the research on wheat gluten and mental disorders stretches back decades, largely ignored.

 Wheat Belly brings the best of this out of obscurity, with the work of F. Curtis Dohan. Dohan noticed that during World War II, in several countries ranging from Finland to the U.S., there were fewer hospitalizations for schizophrenia during bread shortages. Just so: an increase in schizophrenia when wheat was back after the war. He conducted an experiment with schizophrenics (mind you, this was before our concept of informed patient consent), putting them on, then off, a gluten-free diet, noting the marked decrease of symptoms when patients were gluten-free.  Dohan's work was confirmed by universities in Philadelphia and England. Nowadays the gluten-free, dairy-free diet is often recommended for autism and ADHD.

Dohan traveled widely to study the effects of wheat on the schizophrenic brain. He studied a Stone Age, hunter-gatherer culture in New Guinea, where schizophrenia was virtually unknown; after adopting a Western diet, schizophrenia jumped with a 65-fold increase. The late Carl Pfeiffer, a hallowed name in natural mental health research and treatment, also noted increased multiple food and chemical sensitivities in 48% of the 20,000 schizophrenics he studied.

  But Wheat Belly insists that mental disorders from wheat/gluten are not just about schizophrenia. Wheat brain can manifest in many ways.

  Gluten is the storage protein in wheat, rye, barley, spelt, triticale, and kamut (oats are tricky due to cross-contamination with wheat during harvest). The author takes us on a serious tour of the changes that hybridization (not GMOs, another matter) have wreaked on common bread wheat in the last 50 years. It's not a pretty picture.

  Breeding for greater yield, plus disease-and-drought resistance have led to a far cry from the grains of ancient times, let alone the Pillsbury Flour of my grandmother's days. Two slices of whole wheat bread raise blood sugar more than two tablespoons of pure white sugar.

  So what is the like to be exposed about "healthy whole grains?" Wheat is a super-carbohydrate, making us fat, diabetic, brain-fogged and depressed. Wheat is singular among foods for its opiate-like effect on the brain. Remember, it's not your fault. Davis says wheat "gains hold of your psyche and emotions, not unlike the hold heroin has over the desperate addict." He shivered with unease when a soccer mom told him, "bread is my crack!" Yet Davis reports how consistently his patients say that eating wheat-free gives them better moods, less mood swings, better concentration and sleep "within just days to weeks of their last bite of bagel or baked lasagna."

  What makes us so addicted to this grain? National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers wanted to find out. They discovered that polypeptides from gluten cross the blood-brain barrier and bind the brain's morphine receptor, just like opiate drugs do. NIH dubbed them "exorphins" (exogenous morphine-like compounds) or gluteomorphins. Interestingly, the same drug-naloxone-that immediately reverses the effects of heroin, morphine, or oxycodone, also blocks wheat-derived exorphins' travel to the brain!

  When it comes to certain brain disorders, sometimes the effects of wheat gluten are permanent. Cerebellar ataxia, peripheral neuropathy, "gluten encephalopathy" and even seizures can be the work of gluten. There is a sobering section on cancer and mortality caused by wheat; the connection between mental health and cancer has a history of research. "For wheat," says Davis, "nothing is sacred."

   Besides the mental-wellness, weight-loss and anti-cancer effects, Wheat Belly attests that going against the grain can bring clearer skin, stronger bones, fight aging and cataracts, obtain an overall ph balance, and help you ditch your cholesterol-lowering medications.

  The only complaint I have is that Davis seems unaware or avoids the issue of dairy foods' similar opiate effects. The recipes in the back of his text are full of cheese. There is no mention of casomorphins, from casein (dairy protein), so similar to the opiate-effect of gluten. In the manufacturing and fermentation of dairy products the peptides become concentrated and the longer proteins are broken down into casomorphins. Cheese delivers the biggest payload. Maybe Davis himself is a cheese addict, or he thought this information would be too much for readers to absorb (final pun, I promise).

  A whopping 97% of persons who react to gluten are undiagnosed. Dr. William Davis urges you to schedule your "radical wheat-ectomy" today. 

WOMAN ON A MISSION

Sue Westwind Interviews Gracelyn Guyol 

Gracelyn Guyol is the author of Healing Depression and Bipolar Disorder Without Drugs and Who's Crazy Here? The former owner of a public relations agency in the northern California wine country, her dedication to holistic health-especially mental health-grew from experience with natural medicine in the cure of her own bipolar disorder. An environmental activist, she is also the producer of the DVD series, "Restoring Health Holistically," and "Restoring Kids' Health Holistically." See her informative website at  www.crazyrecovery.com.

You've written so much to steer people in the direction of solid, detailed natural ways to address mental health. Your books seem to leave no stone unturned. But why do you think we're in this mess anyway? Why this epidemic of emotional havoc? Why now?

For one thing, Western medicine doesn't address causes. I'm talking about genetic causes like pyroluria [a deficiency of vitamin B6 and the mineral zinc that can have serious mental-health effects]. Too often the mentality of the scientist is to not go beyond their training. Even holistic ones can be this way; I know of a naturopath who doesn't believe pyroluria exists. Holistic or not, they all need to know there's more than one road to New York. Patients need options; we're dealing with individuals here.  Secondly, it's the increase in environmental toxins. So we see this spike in autism, ADHD, bipolar and more. The Environmental Working Group identified 287 chemicals in the umbilical cords of newborns today. That is just incredible! Add 46 vaccines before the age of six, with live bacteria and toxins too...no wonder.

But you weren't primed for your life to take a turn looking at all this stuff, right? When you moved from California you just expected to kick back, garden, play tennis and sail. Then the breast cancer scare. Why did you turn to alternative medicine? Did-as you call it, "bipolar mania" --erupt after that?

My husband and I have struggled due to my bipolar disorder-and he has his own issues! (laughs) A marriage counselor picked up on the cyclical nature of our problem. I was put on Wellbutrin, a new drug at the time. Pretty soon my gynecologist started to find a bunch of benign breast tumors. I asked what could be done and he said, "We really don't swing into action until they're malignant." I'd heard of a ND [naturopathic doctor] and together it took us 18 months to figure out Wellbutrin was the trigger. During that time I went for it: detox, changed my diet to anti-inflammatory, gave up diet sodas and crap like that...and removed all the toxins from my house. I went off Wellbutrin, used St. John's Wort, and the tumors disappeared. Studies are out there, linking a higher risk of cancer with the use of SSRIs. In my first book I talk about that and Paxil. Well, I realized if I could figure out how to arrest the march toward cancer, I could probably figure out how to stop bipolar mood swings.

How long did it take?

Two years. I swear, and I mean this, I read 300 books in two years. Finally I went to the Pfeiffer Treatment Center. They were way ahead of their time. I also became an anti-arthritis activist: on the Pfeiffer protocol mine ended in six weeks. My mania ended in 4 months.

Explain methylation in a quick and easy way, if it can be done!

 I haven't found a way to do that. I do go into this in my book, Who's Crazy Here, about undermethylation and overmethylation. Basically it's a process happening a billion times per second in your body that affects EVERYTHING-not just states of mind, but cardiovascular conditions, arthritis, cancer, and other degenerative illnesses. Genetic variations can make it happen too fast or too slow and that's when we're in trouble. And these genetic quirks are extremely common.

So you had all this going on, and CUSH too. How clear for you was the connection between the environment and mental health?

After I got my own household "green" clean, I put together a 62-page booklet for my garden club titled Earth Friendly Alternatives to herbicides, pesticides, and household chemicals. Pretty soon I'm taking this environmental message to Garden Club of America groups all over Connecticut and Rhode Island.  I was very aware how environmental toxins contribute to serious health and mental disorders. After fish oils lifted my depression, I vaguely wanted to do something for fish. Experts tell us there will be few ocean fish in 20 years due to overfishing and environmental toxins. A garden club member told me the owner of a 50-foot yacht was emptying its toilet into our harbor despite the fact that people were swimming 100 feet away. That's not only disgusting, it's illegal. My friend called the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, the Coast Guard, and the local police. She couldn't get anyone to do something about it.

I organized Clean Up Stonington Harbors (CUSH) to educate people about what they could do, and also to get one ongoing scientific testing of local water quality going.  We also have a hotline for reporting pollution and we work to solve it. CUSH grew beyond my wildest dreams and was my full-time unpaid job for 6 years. In 2010 it was now a really expanded group geographically, and we changed the acronym to Clean Up Sound and Harbors. With the Board and leadership all beefed up and in place, I left in 2012 to focus on promoting holistic mental health for the rest of my life.

Speaking of close to home for you--Connecticut. After the Newtown shootings you sprang into action. Do you think people listened to your message of "look to the psychiatric drugs, not the guns?"

At first media coverage of the Newtown school shootings were focused almost entirely on gun legislation. Knowing how reporters want new story angles and that they were all missing the real issue, I wrote and emailed a press release to 900 journalists titled "Newtown Shooting Questions Not Asked." They didn't call to interview me-I knew they wouldn't since I'm not a national expert-but within a week of my release Newtown news coverage shifted to the need for better treatment of mental health issues, as expected.

How far from Newtown do you live?

A two-hour drive.

Obviously the media has moved on to other tragedies. But what's it like now in Connecticut in the aftermath of that sad day?

It's still very much on everyone's mind. Connecticut intends to make itself a model because on the federal level nothing is happening. That's where the state's new Committee for Children comes in. I sent that article about the shootings to our governor Malloy, offering my holistic mental health expertise, with copies to my two elected State representatives. Malloy never responded but my Representative, who knows me from book lectures and CUSH activities, invited me to serve on this new permanent Committee which she will Chair this fall. My role is to educate legislators about holistic mental health treatments and their potential cost savings compared to drugs.

This is a very enlightened view for Congress at any level!

It goes back to my Representative, Diane Urban. Her son was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and she was told to put him in an institution. Now he is a pre-med student in college. Diane wants more education out there about non-drug ways. This is in large part why I started my second DVD series, "Restoring Kids' Health Holistically," to gather the experts.

Let's talk about the DVD series. I love how things seem to fall in your lap!

Me too! After some interviews about my books on Community Access cable TV, the Comcast manager asked many questions about holistic healing. So I offered to create 2-3 shoes on holistic health for him to air. He said, "Why don't you create 13 shows-that's a series." Inside I gulped, but quickly said, "I'd love to." I phoned practitioners whose work I admired and the shows aired once a week. The station ran the shows five times. As producer I own the shows, so the DVDs are now sold off my website. Practitioners love the publicity and get a free videotape to use on their website or You Tube. I enjoyed combining PR skills from my career with my decade of research into holistic solutions for every problem that arose. We've covered such things as halting cysts and tumors, severe arthritis, multiple food allergies, digestive ailments, bipolar symptoms, and maintaining a healthy weight despite aging. Twelve of the 26 shows cover holistic treatment for mental diagnoses.

What are the key components of your own natural mental health regimen? What keeps you sane?

I take a high-powered multivitamin from Pure Encapsulations called Nutrient 950, plus 100 mgs. of zinc and 500 mgs of B6 per day. Selenium for exposure to viruses, if I'm on a plane or feel like I'm getting sick. Plus a range of antioxidants, including Vitamin C of course. I exercise 5 times per week, 30 minutes to an hour: aerobics, walking, yoga, tennis in the summer. I weigh what I did in high school: what I've done to heal my brain has really brought my body into a healthy balance.

What's next, Gracelyn?

My recovery from bipolar happened when I was 55, too late to become a practitioner. So the question I keep asking myself: what can I do to let consumers know about effective, inexpensive options to psychiatric drugs? My 7-person California PR agency built national awareness of ultra-premium wine brands...I used those same skills to launch CUSH. Given mental patients' general dislike of psych drugs, I think it's possible to build national awareness of holistic mental health by highlighting the work of experienced practitioners.

I'm skeptical of the media though. They haven't shown much interest on a national scale. I recall Bill Moyers series on PBS about alternative medicine, "Healing and the Mind," oh so many years ago. There's been nothing like it since, really.

Mainstream media still avoids covering holistic mental health for two reasons. They get billions of advertising dollars from Big Pharma so hesitate to rock that boat. Also, reporters and editors are not mental health experts and seldom hear from holistic practitioners who are. So...mainstream doctors and researchers are the only ones that get interviewed. This could be fixed by issuing regular press releases to lists of local, regional, and national media about practitioners' successes using holistic mental health solutions. If one were to send this info quarterly to promote individual businesses-which most practitioners don't have time to do-this will raise media and consumer awareness. Over time this helps establish contacts between mainstream media and expert holistic practitioners. Then whenever a Newtown shooting or other national mental health news topic arises, journalists will have a local holistic expert to call that they know and trust.

Sounds like a plan.

People with so-called mental disorders confess they have difficulty reading lengthy or complicated books. Plus I receive emails asking for advice from bipolar people in Turkey, Singapore, Kenya, India, the Philippines, and several southern US states where holistic practitioners are scarce. This summer I'm researching the best way to stream the TV series we've done online. My long-term goal is to provide information to millions of consumers around the world via the Internet. Perfect for watching on smart phones and tablets. Making TV shows is way more fun than writing another book!