I used to be extremely sensitive to gluten. A cracker the size of my fingernail was enough to give me a headache for hours.
I did a ton of research on why this might happen. I found a lot of hopeless people, but no real answers. It seemed there was no cure for gluten sensitivity. The gluten-free industry in the US is a billion dollar business. I clearly wasn’t the only one with an issue.
If you google on gluten sensitivity, you’ll find a lot of info on “leaky gut”. Your gut leaks, bad stuff gets into your blood that shouldn’t, next thing you know, it’s causing problems all over your body. Your liver gets overworked, you feel tired, all your energy is drained, your immune system reacts. Or overreacts. It’s not really clear to me exactly what it does, but inflammation happens. For me, it was happening in my brain. I’d eat something with gluten, and boom, instant brain fog. 15-20 minutes later I was useless on the couch.
Food was a minefield: gluten is everywhere. It’s many places where it shouldn’t be. French fries, milk shakes, those delicious Blue Diamond Cashews. Of course, in many cases, gluten isn’t intentionally inserted into foods. Even foods that are “gluten free” generally have trace amounts, sometimes enough to trigger a reaction. I used to think the “gluten free” thing was another useless fad. Most healthy people might not notice an immediate reaction to gluten. However, it still appears gluten is bad for you.
Anyway, I started by targeting the “leaky gut” issue. I found posts like this one useful. Another high hit on google seemed to make me think this was the root of my problem. It was. It probably still is. I did all those things, but it didn’t help.
I plan on writing more about this, but I want to get the info “out there”. Long story short, I went to this semi-rundown chiropractor place on the north side of Atlanta (I flew back “home” from Kyiv in hopes of fixing my health issues), this guy shined a laser on me at various points on my skin, and the next day I was no longer gluten sensitive. The following day I ate an entire Chick-fil-a Chicken Sandwich. I hadn’t had one in longer than a year (and they’re my favorite). I ate it, then sat and waiting for the headache to show up. No headache. Wow.
It’s called “low level laser therapy”, or “cold laser treatment”. The idea is that you have a low wattage laser, with a wavelength at a certain size in nanometers, that turns on and of really fast. And it “reprograms” your immune system. lol. You’ve got to be kidding me. Before trying it, I googled. Quackwatch. Looks like this is a scam. Of course it’s a scam. How can that be? I’ve never heard about this. This is too good to be true. Like all things that are too good to be true, it’s probably not true. Google some more, some comments say it worked. Weird. More googling. Total scam.
I researched this for hours. Normally on the internet, I can google something like “last element in list python”, happily click on the first StackOverflow link and get the definitive, correct, 100% certainly true answer. For most things, it’s easy to get a good answer. But this was different. I didn’t feel like I could find “the truth”. I got to a point where it didn’t matter how reputable an author was, or how many credentials they had, something just wasn’t right. The only way to know the truth for myself, was to try it myself. I’m laying on the coach with a headache and brain fog, unable to code or do any meaningful work. But I can mindlessly google and sort-of retain what I read. What I’m reading has suddenly become quite befuddling.
Some lady recommended this to my mom, that’s how I found out about it. The “practitioner” was a chiropractor. Hm, chiropractors are normally involved with fishy alternative medicine. Red flags went up. However, a chiropractor certainly fixed some of my back problems I had when I was a kid, so one of them must at least know something. I call him up. He’s on a trip to China, won’t be back for a few weeks. Leave a message. I read about his “low level laser” machine on his site. I find the company that makes it, Biolight Technologies. “Bax Aura PTL II”. This is getting more amusing by the minute.
They have a find a practitioner page. I type in my zip code, no results. Increase the search radius. “Scott Ackerman“. Ok, let’s check him out. I give him a call. He answers the phone. Wait a minute, how often do you call a medical place and the guy who will treat you answers the phone? I tell him I have gluten sensitivity, fatigue, pollution gives me headaches. Tired all the time. Can’t get any work done. Do you have that laser machine? Yeah? It works? Really? More than once in that conversation I almost started laughing. You can fix my gluten sensitivity, which apparently tons and tons of people have, for $75? This is legitimately entertaining. I’ll be there tomorrow.
Atlanta traffic. We show up a bit late. No worries. There’s hardly anyone else there. We fill out some paper work, this time I’m realizing I’m checking almost all the boxes for all problems. I mean, ALL the things. We talk, this guy is still serious about the probability of this fixing me. We go into another room. This thing looks like a TV remote control from the 90s. There’s a book full of “protocols” it comes with. He says it can do everything from helping you quit smoking, to relieving pain. Whatever, bro. Laser me up scotty. (this guy’s name actually is Scott).
He takes me to some other room. Take off your watch, he says. And take your iPhone out of your pocket. Here, put it right outside the room. Probably not necessary he says, but no need to have the radiation. Right. Good thing I have “Find my iPhone” turned on, because that’s about to get stolen.
He flips through some pages in a book to the sensitivity page. Presses some buttons on the laser. It’s really looks just like a laser pointer. It’s red. He lets the laser light dot shine on me for several seconds in various places, “acupuncture points”, he says. He shines it on several points in formations multiple times. “You might have some sniffling tonight, like you’re about to get a cold”. I feel the same. You can’t feel the laser light on you, it’s like a 5 watt laser anyway. I’m unsure what to think.
Later that night I felt the sniffling. Weird. Next day I feel much better. Way better. (The feeling better lasted about two weeks, more on that later. This didn’t cure all of my problems by a longshot). I eat a small part of a homemade muffin. Haven’t had a muffin or any “real bread” in more than a year. It’s delicious. No reaction. Next day, chick-fil-a, no reaction. Wow. To this day, I can still hardly believe it.
Whatever low level laser therapy is, it seems like it needs to be researched more. It’s serious stuff. I’d love to see competing companies, more serious studies, and more public knowledge. There are certainly many huge companies who’s success depends on this knowledge not getting out. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it’s something to just be aware of.
If you have gluten sensitivity and want to cure it, low level laser therapy worked for me. This was the company that created the device I used. It seems there might be alternatives out there. It’s insanely cheap and fast. This didn’t cure my numerous other issues, but I’m still no longer gluten sensitive. I also used to have “multiple chemical sensitivity”, or MCS, the laser cured that too. I’d like to add more to this post in time, but for now, if gluten is killing you, try this.