LISTEN: Dr. Tom O’Bryan & Why We Need to Rethink Our Relationship with Gluten

Dr. Tom O’Bryan is renowned for his work on autoimmune disorders, particularly around celiac disease. He joins Donna in this episode of the Body Ecology Living podcast to talk about his work, the common misconceptions around gluten, and the role of inflammatory diseases in our health.

<<<Listen to the Episode Now>>>

Key Takeaways

• So many people are now gluten-free but many of them don’t understand why. Being gluten-free has a bit of a fad reputation but there are legitimate reasons humans should be avoiding gluten.
• If you are struggling with a health condition, you should try going gluten-free to see if your immune system is fighting wheat.
• You can’t change your genetics, that’s what you are given but it isn’t always predetermined that you will get a disease, it means you might need to alter your lifestyle to help yourself avoid particular diseases.
• Environmental triggers for diseases come in two types, those from outside the body and those that come from inside the body; you have to deal with both.
• The gut is just one-cell deep. It’s extremely susceptible to damage and inflammation which is why it can cause us so many health problems.
• Our bodies are the same as our ancestors and this includes our digestive system, we even have the same protection our ancestors had against harmful bacteria. However, the protein structures of gluten are misrepresented as harmful by these protective systems in our gut.
• Most people learned the dangers behind wheat through Celiac disease, but unfortunately, means that many doctors wrongly believe that the absence of the disease means you can tolerate wheat.
• Wheat is the most common food that people eat, and that is part of the problem.
• When people go on a gluten-free diet they can create a whole host of new problems unless they are educated to do it right. You can’t just transition from wheat-based products to just ‘gluten-free’ based products.
• Just because you feel well, that doesn’t mean you don’t have an issue with gluten. In Dr. O’Bryan’s words, you have to ‘test not guess.’

<<<Listen to the Episode Now>>>

Best Moments

“I’ve been against gluten for probably 25 years”

“I never say everyone should give it (gluten) up but everyone should be checked accurately”

“Whether a gene gets turned up or down are (due to) environmental triggers”

“60-70% people have an immune system fighting wheat”

“The problem is people are using how they feel to determine whether it’s a problem or not”

Dr. O’Bryan is considered a ‘Sherlock Holmes’ for chronic disease and teaches that recognizing and addressing the underlying mechanisms that activate an immune response is the map to the highway toward better health. He holds teaching Faculty positions with the Institute for Functional Medicine and the National University of Health Sciences. He has trained and certified tens of thousands of practitioners around the world with advanced understanding of the impact of wheat sensitivity and the development of individual autoimmune diseases.

Dr. O’Bryan’s most recent book, You Can Fix Your Brain: Just 1 Hour a Week to the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You’ve Ever Had, was published through Rodale Books in September 2018, with global accolades. This best-seller offers a step-by-step approach to better cognitive function, from nutrition to environment to toxicity, ultimately creating better long-term memory and a sharper mind.

In November 2016, Dr. O’Bryan released Betrayal: The Autoimmune Disease Solution They’re Not Telling You, an investigation into why our immune system, designed to protect us, begins attacking our tissue (autoimmunity). Currently, over 500,000 people worldwide have watched the Docuseries.

His 2016 ground-breaking book, winner of the National Book Award and ranked #1 in several categories on Amazon.com, The Autoimmune Fix outlines the step-by-step development of degenerative diseases and gives the tools to identify our disease process years before the symptoms are obvious and how to turn your health around, one step at a time.

He is the founder of www.theDr.com and the visionary behind ‘The Gluten Summit -A Grain of Truth,’ bringing together 29 of the world’s experts on the gluten connection to diseases, disorders, and a wide- range of symptoms and ages.