William Davis, MD, is a preventive cardiologist whose unique approach to diet allows him to advocate reversal, not just prevention, of heart disease.
He is the founder of the 
Mia posted this story describing her experience with the uncommon Wheat-Dependent Exercise-Induced Anaphylaxis, or WDEIA:
Over the past several years, I have struggled with an occasional bout of asthma, while never really understanding what was triggering it or how to prevent it from happening. I had an inhaler for occasional use, which is odd, because I did not struggle with asthma while growing up and found it strange that I should need one in my mid-twenties. This past summer I took to jogging and power walking and, in spite of my efforts to eat lots of “healthy whole grains,” I just kept gaining weight. Jogging was extremely difficult, as I always struggled to breathe and could barely keep up a shuffle. “Why?” I wondered to myself, as I was only about 10 pounds overweight and relatively young! I was careful about what I ate, so why was exercising and losing weight so difficult?
Late in June, I came back from a typical jog and collapsed onto the floor. I had the worst asthma attack resulting in the onslaught of asphyxia I have ever had in my life and was sent to the ER in an ambulance. It took hours to get my breathing stabilized. I was prescribed a new inhaler, since my old one had expired (hence being unable to stop the asthma attack). I returned home many hours later, weak, shaky, and terrified.
I quit jogging and all forms of exercise. Ever since the “attack,” even bustling around the house doing laundry triggered an asthma attack. I was devastated, as I continued to gain weight while not being able to exercise, and felt depressed and discouraged. How was I going to get my life under control?
By a series of events that I attribute to God’s grace, I discovered your book. After a 5-month journey that began by going “gluten-free” to eventually wheat and grain-free, I have since eliminated the “random” asthma attacks. I haven’t used my inhaler in many months now, and I have resumed my walks in the neighborhood. Oddly enough, during my wheat-free journey, I deliberately consumed wheat twice as an experiment, like most people seem to do, to see what would happen. Guess what: asthma!! Bad enough to need that inhaler again. I was baffled each time. I also consumed gluten accidentally after eating a tablespoon of ranch dressing (modified food starch) and had another bout of asthma. After all of this, I was convinced that wheat was the root of all of my asthma woes.
Oh yeah, and I have lost 8 of those stubborn 10 pounds that I had struggled to get rid of for years! I’m amazed. Also, my acne has cleared up! I am telling everyone I know about Wheat Belly, even though they think I’m crazy and are sick of hearing me talk about it, haha. Thank you, Dr. Davis!
Mia’s experience is among the more uncommon–though more acutely dramatic and potentially life-threatening–responses to wheat. It is another example of the peculiar ways that us humans respond to this unnatural component of diet. WDEIA is usually attributable to the omega-gliadin fraction of the gliadin protein, the protein with protean effects on us humans, including mind effects like appetite stimulation, anger, anxiety, paranoia, and addiction; increased small bowel permeability, likely one important mechanism underlying autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis; as well as allergic and anaphylactic phenomena such as asthma and Mia’s WDEIA.
Can any other “food” generate the array of responses that wheat creates? Can any other food trigger asthma, anaphylaxis, appetite stimulation, mind “fog,” paranoia, anxiety, food obsessions, joint pain, acid reflux, bowel urgency, diarrhea, bowel hemorrhage, autoimmune disease, diabetes, small LDL particles and hight triglycerides, and an extensive array of skin rashes? None I know of. This is because wheat is not meant to be food, not meant to be consumed by humans, never meant to be harvested or cultivated. It’s not wheat’s fault; it is the fault of ignorant humans enticed by the taste, smell, texture, addictive potential, availability, or ease of procurement. Of course, the whole mess has been made much worse by the genetics shenanigans introduced by geneticists and agribusiness who change our foods, including grains, not for enhanced health but to satisfy some agricultural goal, such as increased yield-per-acre, increased predictability of yield, resistance to an herbicide, etc.
Consumption of modern wheat is for the ignorant, uninformed, or desperate.
I have Bette Midler’s tweet to thank for me crossing paths with Wheat Belly. This is new to me – but am intrigued because like Mia – I have WDEIA, and have never met another soul who does. I had asthma as a child – but no episodes as an adult Then I started having hives after soccer games which I chalked up to heat. Then I started having hives after walking – which I chalked up to heat and springtime allergies. THEN I had the anaphylactic episode after a walk that nearly killed me. Thankfully I was at my parents house and had the ability to tell them to call 911 before it was too late. It took 2 doctors a year to finally figure out it was wheat/exercise induced. This was 10 years ago – and while I try to limit my wheat intake – what I’ve really been avoiding is exercise, as I am not diligent about avoiding wheat. I am terrified of walking, running, mowing, dusting, vaccuuming, etc if I’ve consumed wheat. I’ve been to the hospital a few times since the anaphylactic episode. I am going to order this book in hopes it will give me better insight. All I know to do at this point is buy things labeled “gluten free” but I see there is more to it than that. Thank you Mia for sharing your story.
I’m impressed that someone figured your story out, Teresa.
WDEIA is a vivid illustration of just how inappropriate wheat consumption is for humans.
Yes – my allergist kept treating me with meds for seasonal allergies while I was continuing to have the unexplained hive episodes, living in fear that it would result in another anaphylactic episode. She didn’t do testing because I had been tested as a child several times and we felt like we had a good grasp of what I was allergic to. (plants and grasses) During my annual physical at my G.P.’s I mentioned the issues to him and he suggested food allergy testing. Wheat was off the chart, followed by corn. When I relayed the results to my allergist – she put it together and said there was this uncommon condition of food allergy combined with exercise. With this knowledge I am at least able to avoid the situations – but avoiding exercise is not really a solution! I ordered the book and am eagerly awaiting reading it!