The results of a new study by scientists from the University of Sheffield show that a gluten-free diet can serve as a prevention of pain that occurs due to peripheral neuropathy, the cause of which is sensitivity to gluten.
Scientists have found that a gluten-free diet can ease symptoms associated with gluten neuropathy, nerve damage that causes weakness, numbness and pain, usually in the hands and feet, but can also appear in other parts of the body.
Gluten sensitivity causes abdominal pain, bloating and gas, but in some people the intolerance can also result in painful nerve conditions.
"This study is promising because it shows that a gluten-free diet can eliminate pain caused by gluten neuropathy," says study author Dr. Panagiotis Zis.
Scientists claim that gluten sensitivity may be linked to peripheral neuropathy, a condition of nerve damage outside the brain and spinal cord.
A 2015 study found that 32 percent of people with peripheral neuropathy are sensitive to gluten.
The condition of peripheral neuropathy is usually associated with diabetes. Scientists say that when a person feels such pain, and this condition cannot be explained, and has gluten intolerance, the diagnosis can be gluten neuropathy.
In the group of respondents, after following a strict gluten-free diet, 89 percent of students no longer felt the pain caused by neuropathy.
It is not the first study on the effect of a gluten-free diet on pain. In a 2010 study, of 15 patients with neuropathy who ate a gluten-free diet, 11 of them stabilized their condition.
Although research shows a link between a gluten-free diet and reduced pain, it does not show that one causes the other, the scientists note.
"In order for these results to be confirmed, it is necessary to conduct more research," concludes Dr. Zis, reports B92.
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