This can potentially cause problems with your gait and gross motor skills.
People with this condition may have loss of coordination, which in some cases may become significant.
This article looks at gluten ataxia, its causes, symptoms, and diagnosis.
Whisson-Jordan / Getty Images
It also discusses what you could do to manage the condition.
What Is Gluten Ataxia?
Ataxia is a degenerative condition involving the nervous system.
This is what causes the ataxia.
How Rare Is Gluten Ataxia?
Because gluten ataxia is such a newly-defined condition, not all healthcare providers accept it yet.
This makes it hard to know how many people might have the condition.
Other estimates have placed those figures lowersomewhere in the range of 11.5% to 36%.
Gluten Ataxia Symptoms
Gluten ataxia symptomsare indistinguishable from symptoms ofother forms of ataxia.
If you have gluten ataxia, your symptoms may start out as mild balance problems.
For example, you might be unsteady on your feet or have trouble moving your legs.
As symptoms progress, some people say they walk or even talk as if they’re drunk.
Complications
The resulting problems in balance and motor control eventually are irreversible due to brain damage.
For this reason, there hasn’t been a universally accepted way to test for or diagnose it.
But that may be changing.
Gluten ataxia only affects people who have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.
Unfortunately, these tests aren’t sensitive enough to definitively confirm or rule out gluten ataxia.
A 2017 study concluded that a gluten-free diet helped increase brain function in people with gluten ataxia.
This might include:
Physical and occupational therapy can help you cope with symptoms.
You may benefit from using an adaptive gear such as a cane or walker.
People with this condition have balance and coordination problems.
There is some evidence that adopting a strict gluten-free diet may reverse gluten ataxia.
In the meantime, other treatments like physical therapy may be helpful.
However, some people with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity also have otherneurological symptoms, includinggluten-related peripheral neuropathyandmigraine.
You may require testing to determine if you have another condition that can cause similar symptoms.
You may feel uneasy when you walk or even like you’re drunk.
If treated, damage can be reversed.
If left untreated, damage can be permanent.
If left untreated, gluten ataxia can continue to progress and worsen.
When treated, recovery can take up to two years.
2015;9(11):OD07-8.
2020;20:1-2. doi:10.1186/s12876-020-01390-0
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Ataxia.
2015;9(11):OD07-OD8.
doi:10.7860/JCDR/2015/13299.6743
Freeman HJ.Neurological disorders in adult celiac disease.Can J Gastroenterol.
2008;22(11):909911. doi:10.1155/2008/824631
