Gluten Sensitivity and Tremor/Essential Tremor

yiannis1013
Jul 28, 2024
1 min read

Updated: Jul 30, 2024

Gluten Sensitivity and Tremor/Essential Tremor

There is evidence on the effect of gluten on neurological damage. Here is a brief exploration of the associations to cerebellar damage and tremor/Essential Tremor (ET).

Tremor and Neurology

Neuro imaging supports that ET is strongly associated with cerebellar degeneration, and altered cerebellar connectivity.

ET is also by far the most common form of cerebellar neurodegeneration.

Gluten and Immunology

Celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity are immunologically similar (both have TG6 Antibodies in common) – Interestingly alcohol related cerebellar damage may also be TG6 related.

Gluten Associated Neurodegeneration

Gluten associated neurological cerebellar degeneration has been shown in the context of Ataxia.

Gluten Related Tremor and Hereditability

In a study sample of 1512 subjects:

The tremor prevalence in CD patients was 28% vs 14% control – Family frequency of tremor in CD = 25% with and 20% without tremor. In controls, family history of tremor was 41.5% with vs 24.6% without tremor.

The data suggests that in CD, incidence of tremor is twice that of controls, and shows half the incidents of family history to that of controls.

This suggests that an independent driver of tremor may be present in CD populations compared to non CD populations.