Leaky Gut: What is it and why does it matter?
Are you ready to take charge of your health? Schedule your free 20-minute discovery call with our New Patient Coordinator to see how you can become a patient at MaxWell Clinic and start your healing journey today.
You may have heard of leaky gut before, but what is it and why does it matter? It sounds scary, but the truth is that you probably already have a leaky gut. We all have some degree of leaky gut, as this barrier is not completely impenetrable (and isn’t supposed to be!). But research also indicates that a leaky gut may contribute to a range of health conditions.
Watch the video and learn how leaky gut can cause a wide range of health problems
It can cause inflammation in the body, symptoms related to food sensitivities or allergies, an imbalance in the microbiome, and chronic pain or fatigue. In addition, you’ll learn some common reasons for having a leaky gut and how certain dietary and lifestyle changes may help you improve your gut health. Remember, health begins in the gut!
Understanding Leaky Gut Syndrome and How to Support Gut Health
Leaky gut, also known as intestinal hyper-permeability or increased intestinal permeability, is a topic that has gained increasing attention in the world of functional medicine. But what exactly is leaky gut, and why does it matter? In this blog, we will delve into the intricacies of gut health, explore the causes of leaky gut, and discuss its potential impact on your overall well-being.
The Remarkable Gut
To appreciate the significance of leaky gut, let’s first marvel at the complexity and importance of our digestive system. Your gut, which includes the stomach, small intestine, and colon, is an incredible organ with multiple essential functions. It not only breaks down the foods you consume but also absorbs vital nutrients, eliminates waste, and plays a crucial role in your immune system.
Did you know that over 70 percent of your immune function resides in your gut? Yes, that’s right. Your gut is home to a staggering 100 trillion microorganisms, which outnumber your own cells. This microbial community plays a pivotal role in your health, from supporting digestion to influencing your immune system.
The Gut Barrier: A Thin Line Between Health and Trouble
The gut lining is where the magic happens. It’s just one cell thick, composed of enterocytes, intelligent and highly specific cells responsible for digestion, absorption, elimination, and defense. This thin layer acts as a barrier, separating your internal body from the external environment.
This barrier, called the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), is the immune system within your gut. It’s incredibly selective, allowing beneficial nutrients to pass through while keeping toxins, bacteria, and viruses at bay. Ideally, it functions so efficiently that you don’t even notice it’s at work.
Leaky Gut: When the Barrier Breaks
Leaky gut occurs when this finely tuned system starts to malfunction. Picture the gut barrier as a coffee filter. A healthy gut resembles a filter without holes, ensuring that only pure coffee passes through. But when the barrier weakens, it’s akin to a filter riddled with holes, allowing coffee grounds, or in this case, harmful antigens, to pass into your bloodstream.
This compromise in gut integrity can lead to chronic inflammation and various health issues. It’s important to note that leaky gut doesn’t mean your intestines are spewing bacteria into your bloodstream, causing a life-threatening infection like sepsis. Instead, it perpetuates illness and contributes to chronic health conditions.
Common Causes of Leaky Gut
Understanding what causes leaky gut is essential to address the issue effectively. Several factors can lead to increased intestinal permeability, including:
- Bacterial Overgrowth: Imbalances in gut bacteria, often triggered by antibiotic use, can lead to inflammation and compromise the gut barrier.
- Food Sensitivities: Constant immune reactions to specific foods can create chronic inflammation, damaging the gut lining.
- Food Additives: Certain additives, like carrageenan, can induce gut inflammation, exacerbating the problem.
- Gluten: Even in the absence of celiac disease, gluten consumption can contribute to leaky gut.
- Pesticides and Fungi: Exposure to pesticides and fungi can trigger immune responses that affect gut permeability.
- Antibiotics: Overuse or misuse of antibiotics can disrupt the balance of gut bacteria, potentially leading to yeast overgrowth.
- Stress: Chronic stress can affect gut health by diverting blood away from the digestive system, impairing digestion and nutrient absorption.
Why Does Leaky Gut Matter?
Leaky gut isn’t just about digestive discomfort. It’s linked to a wide range of health conditions, including autoimmune diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, allergies, mood disorders, chronic fatigue, obesity, brain fog, and more. The gut-brain connection is especially significant, as inflammation in the gut can affect mental health.
Supporting Gut Healing
Addressing leaky gut involves a tailored approach, considering individual factors and symptoms. The healing process can take time, often around a year or more, depending on the severity and underlying causes.
Treatment strategies may include dietary modifications, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and stress management techniques. Fasting, particularly intermittent fasting, can provide periods of gut rest, aiding the healing process.
It’s crucial to work closely with a healthcare professional to develop a personalized plan for healing leaky gut. Testing, such as stool analysis and intestinal barrier assessments, can help pinpoint specific issues and guide treatment.
In conclusion, understanding the importance of gut health and addressing issues like leaky gut is vital for overall well-being. A healthy gut contributes to better digestion, stronger immunity, and reduced inflammation. So, remember, when it comes to your health, it all begins in the gut.
If you have questions about leaky gut or want to explore strategies to support your gut health, don’t hesitate to consult with a qualified healthcare provider. Your gut health plays a central role in your overall health and deserves the attention it needs.
Are you ready to take charge of your health? Schedule your free 20-minute discovery call with our New Patient Coordinator to see how you can become a patient at MaxWell Clinic and start your healing journey today.
oh here we are
leaky gut what is it and why does it even so
a mary scalf i’m one of the physician assistants here at the maxwell clinic so
if you’re new to functional medicine or maybe you’ve been with us for a while you might be wondering why we care so
much about your nutrition why we ask so much about your poop your
stress level among other things it all is connected to gut health gut
function and what is kind of maybe causing gut leakiness
so if you have attended other group visits you’ll have learned maybe from dr farris
or our dietitian allison molinares about the gut microbiome the importance of probiotics this is
going to kind of build on some of that you may have heard it discussed that
our gut has over 70 percent of our immune function contained in it
that our gut also houses over 100 trillion micro microorganisms
so we are more microorganisms than we are our own cells
so when you have so much of your immune system and your intestines
this can work to create health and you can work to unravel health if it’s
not functioning well our
digestive tract is amazing if we were to lay it out flat
expand it its surface area would cover nearly two tennis courts
all of that contained in our in a short a little area in our abdomens in our bellies
i find that amazing also it gets more interesting
that our digestive tract is essentially a tube and it’s the only thing separating the
rest of our body from the external environment that’s kind of
scary but it does a really good job when it’s functioning well so
so your digestive tract is going to be exposed to more antigens antigens are
the things that are going to trigger your immune system they’re going to be exposed to environmental antigens
and balanced bacteria or dysbiosis dietary antigens viruses
these are supposed to be there in certain quantities but your gut is going to be exposed to more
of this and your systemic immune system is your entire life
so your gut barrier is so vitally important hopefully you’re
starting to shape that i’m going to build on that case a little bit more so your gut barrier is only one cell lining
thick those cells make up the endothelial
tissue and these cells are called enterocytes these interior sites
are very very smart they’re very very specific i like to
it’s good to know kind of what our normal functions of our
gut are so healthy gut gut what is that what is that again
leaky gut i also want to say has other names the more kind of medical term is intestinal hyper-permeability
or increased intestinal permeability your gut has normal functions of
digestion absorption elimination and defense it’s supposed to break down your foods
get the nutrients it needs to help reabsorb those into your system to get those nutrients to other organs and
other tissues that need that so it has to know what’s good and what’s
not um that’s part of absorption
we want to get rid of the things the viruses the bacteria the yeast that aren’t supposed to be there the food the
food products we don’t need through waste and defense kind of gets to our immune
function there
so if any of these functions are impaired we can start to see
this function and occur that can unravel our health and lead to chronic diseases
and chronic inflammation so in that
one cell lining thick that separates you between the express of the environment outside environment
those enterocytes and that that intestinal lining you have this
it’s called good associated lymphoid tissue and galt is that immune system in your
gut like i said it’s intelligent it’s selective it’s got to know
when as things pass through the system what gets let’s out into your
environment and it rejects the things that don’t need to be toxins
uh again bacteria viruses yeast that don’t need to go into the system and what’s
interesting is that it spends more time uh
sorry not i’m just about that not reacting than reacting
our immune system should be functioning so well that we don’t even know that it’s doing its job
it saves us from so many things that we don’t even realize or appreciate
so if you’re doing well think your gut and if you’re not let’s work on it
it’s kind of um when this starts to break down that creates that
permeability um and it’s that selectiveness of those
enterocytes that are bonded together so tightly with
with a gap type tight gap junctions
um that allow us to [Music] to be so kind of
not reacting to everything so if you think about it there’s a reason why
we all breathe in pollen but we don’t all have allergies there’s a reason why we all eat food but
we don’t all have food sensitivities or allergies
so this so your guy is going to be a gatekeeper
it’s going to let things in that are vital um for life
and let things kind of occur
as they should and also protects us from so much more
we can have kind of leaky gut nearly honestly anywhere in our digestive tract
even hyperpermeability in the esophagus leads to chest pain from acid reflux
so this is going to be occurring there in the colon in the small bowel
so normally a gut is supposed to function as
a unit so this is your healthy
intestinal lining these are those enterocytes
they’re all nice and snug together they’re buddies and
there’s your blood vessel that’s what a healthy kind of gut
barrier is going to look like it’s going to function as a unit
it has these tight knit wall to protect us
it’s going to keep bad bacteria and toxins from reaching into
your blood cells nothing’s getting through that all the meanwhile
it does decide when healthy things go either through between the cells or they can go through
the cell themselves into your bloodstream
so if the gut barrier starts to break down
these junctions loosen up these junctions stop being so selective
and they don’t they aren’t as good as they were before in
keeping out bacteria or viruses or toxins from getting into our bodies
so then we’ll start to see widening of those what should be tight spaces
we see the ability for those larger particles bacteria viruses or toxins to get in and
then they end up in our bloodstream so
when the gut lining becomes inflamed the gut gets sick
he got so
i like to i think that kind of the easiest thing to think about this is comparing this to
if you like coffee comparing this to how we make coffee and a drip coffee maker right
we we use a coffee filter we put the ground up
beans in that coffee filter water should be in the container we start it and we just want that nice
black dirt water of coffee in um in our cup we do not
want coffee grounds in our cup i don’t like that i don’t know about you so
if our gut barrier is functioning well it’s like this it’s like a coffee filter doesn’t have any holes in it
we’re not we’re just getting that sweet nectar of life coffee and we’re not getting the grossness of grounds
there’s holes in that filter you’re gonna get a mouthful of grounds and that so
i just that’s not like that so
i don’t know about you you’re right if you if you love coffee grounds and let me know
so i just want to say i hope you realize that this going on is is bad
simply put we we should never have these antigens these potential bacteria
getting into our bloodstreams and causing uh inflammation if this was severe so
leaky gut is not that you have these holes in your bowel per se that are just spewing out bacteria and causing you to
go into a bacterial blood infection called sepsis that’s not as this is that’s a more life-threatening um
event but this is going to perpetuate illness
and with so much immune system contained in here with so much of your health relying upon the digestion the
reabsorption of nutrients the elimination of the things we don’t want we don’t want to recycle
what’s in our stool back into our body i don’t know about you not me we want to get the proper nutrients in
our food to help support our gut healing as well as health for the rest of our body so if this is what’s going on
it’s harder to accomplish that and so we always have to go back to the gut when we think about this i want to
say that this is going to be quite common more than 50 percent of americans will
probably have leaky gut and we’re going to have again i want to
realize there is some permeability here or else we would not have any nutrients
reabsorbed into our a circulatory system um so it’s it’s selective
of what’s going to be beneficial to us we just don’t want this hyper permeability that’s going to cause
illness so um
so what are some
causes of leaky gut we could have a bacterial overgrowth
bacteria usually lives pretty harmoniously in our
guts as long as the gut is healthy um
however as the health of the gut declines or we’ve had to use antibiotics
bacteria might that doesn’t need to overgrow might overgrow
the bacteria that is just this kind of neither here nor therefore called commensulfora will overgrow and take
prominence over your most beneficial bacteria in your gut that helps to keep your hair healthy
and so this can cause inflammation in the gut and it can cause those
junctions in those cells to loosen up um
like he got food sensitivities food sensitivities if it’s causing our
immune system to react constantly um that that default immune system
it’s going to cause this chronic kind of inflammatory state that is meant to be kind to us to try to take care of the
initial insult but if we’re not aware of these sensitivities it kind of keeps on
going and again may perpetuate
food additives this one is interesting things like carrageenan
um and some others these these are made to be like they have
bacteria in them that cause their own gluten kind of substance
and essentially
will contribute to this inflammation in the gut went along with food sensitivities i
want to kind of circle back to that speaking about gluten and gluten can definitely be associated with this so
even when this aside from celiac which is
in a worse condition here uh autoimmune condition uh
and that seal our gluten can perpetuate the key gut
you’d add it is kind of kind of going along with this things like pesticides
um things like kind of roundup glyphosate glyphosate
fungi those those may cause those food
sensitivities and those may be kind of reactive to our gut lining
that is fighting so hard to keep out toxins but may cause that leakiness and like
that antibiotics kind of how i mentioned with a bacterial overgrowth we have kind of overused and
misused antibiotics when you need them you need them please take them serious infections
can be life-threatening but antibiotics when not used judiciously
may cause those imbalances of bacteria may cause definitely cause a yeast overgrowth once
you everything is supposed to be in balance if you don’t have bacteria to keep yeast in check then you may have a
yeast overgrowth and that can cause leaky gut
you can have serious just that competitive bacteria if we
some antibiotics have a serious side effect of a c difficile infection this bacteria can be in your gut normally
it’s just when there’s nobody else near and keep it in check that
this can be a serious infection and cross-cut permeability
epis ppis are our proton pump inhibitors things that we take for reflux or heartburn think about
nexium think about omeprazole or prilosec protonix
these are going to contribute to leaky gut these medicines are are really made to just take short term unless you have
a few different conditions that like various esophagus that you need to take this for longer but these are supposed
to be short-term medications and other chronic use of those acid reducers
may impair our ability to break down foods and impair our ability to reabsorb
nutrients and thus leaky gut
stress so stress
stress is a big underlying cause of leaky gut and many of you might laugh because you’re like well i’m just always
going to have leaky gut because stress is just everything
and how we medicate stress we’re always going to have it but it’s more about how we’re going to deal with it medicate it
than just getting rid of it the stress is going to alter the gut
ecology because it’s gonna
decrease your nutrient availability because when that fight or flight is turned on blood is shunted away from
your gut it prioritizes it to the things that are helping you fight or fly
and many of my patients nobody want to ask the poop in the middle of having to run away from a lion tiger or bear oh my
so when you’re shutting blood away from the gut you’re impairing digestion you’re not absorbing nutrients and
you’re not eliminating food so you’re leaving this fermentable product just sitting in
your gut um and you are what you don’t poop you don’t throw out the trash
gonna start to sting
so we’re taxing our immune system because we’re also
shunting blood away from it so
if you can’t get the nutrients you can’t support our
our probiotics our bacteria in our gut if we
can’t get rid of potential toxins and viruses through waste
we’re gonna have this perpetual inflammation and our gut lining we’re going to have poor immunity we’re going
to have increased uh symptoms we’re going to have increased
fatigue we’re going to have increase in illness we’re going to have
potential rashes or acne and the list goes on
we’re not going to have good gut healing with all that stress
instead and says think about your motrin or ibuprofen a leaf naproxen
those are all the same um about diclofenac the prescription one’s meloxicam
these are going to perpetuate kind of like you got to at
the end of the day you have to weigh out risk versus benefit if we’re in pain and that’s what’s causing it
let’s use them however is there this is a chronic use of these medications can we decrease
those through other healing and decreasing your inflammation in your body
alcohol consumption yep
alcohol is you know they would say kind of the devil is in the dose um either something is for benefit
or a great harm depending on how much we dig in
so depending on the level of dysfunction and your level of health or your goals alcohol may not be a good
idea for you that alcohol is locks into the body and having to
kind of stress your body to have to deal with detox of it um
it’s not kind oh
so why does this matter yeah yeah so my gut’s leaky a lot of
people have it there’s no way there’s i’m not gonna do anything perfectly
why should i care
so many conditions are related to leaky gut um and there’s going to be a lot of correlations
there’s for this there’s lots of kind of research in the literature literature
gathering data about how intestinal permeability affects our chronic conditions of health
so this is not just going to be about your digestive conditions this is not
just going to be about inflammatory bowel disease like ulcerative colitis or bronze colitis celiac disease acid
reflux or gerd it’s not just going to be about those and just because you don’t have
digestive symptoms does that mean you don’t have leaky gut so we get concerned about this because
this has gone to increase your risk for autoimmune disease i already mentioned a few of inflammatory bowel diseases
you’re going to think about rheumatoid arthritis lupus you’re going to think about
arthritis other arthritis can magicians can be caused by the gut we can get hives
lindsay jost um that i talked about kind of histamine to dao a few weeks ago as your visit
that will kind of kind of go under why kind of gut health is important for how we do allergies
so i would take a look at that but so he got communicated the hives
eczema acne other rashes allergies if you’re suffering from
environmental allergies you definitely have to check on your gut
health you know mood disorders like your
lifestyle like depression anxiety so we have more signals going from our
gut to our brain and our brain to our gut if we have inflammation in our gut
lining then that inflammation is going to kind of so the signal is going to affect our
brain and it’s also going to affect our mental health
you’re suffering from chronic fatigue gut look at gut
so also this chronic low-lying inflammation can be associated with obesity
if you’re having trouble losing weight leaky gut gonna be associated with brain fog with
swelling diabetes
cholesterol issues
so how do we kill leaky gut
has to be continued sorry this is anti-climactic i want you to kind of understand why this is
important if if you’re not surely if you’re not sure why this is
important please ask me a question and i will try to clarify this for you
so we can treat this and it will take some time but we treat
each of our patients as unique individuals one sacred soul at a time
it depends on your symptoms it depends on other lab work up there’s testing we can do to look at
this because much like
a car mechanic we have to look under the hood or drive the car around to kind of know what’s going on
so stool testing this is why we ask a lot of you to
collect your stool um many people don’t want to do that again but it’s very helpful to help us target
a treatment regimen to help you dietary antigen and physician testing
could be helpful to see what’s triggering that immune response continually and what’s kind of getting
you stuck with the inability to heal
the intestinal barrier assessment is going to look at leaky gut markers of zonulin a histamine dia ratio and an
endotoxin made by bacteria called lipopolysaccharide
this is to be continued i hope to follow this up with the 5r approach to see what we do
to work on gut healing so
as a happy gut is a healthy gut and a healthy gut is a happy god
is your gut happy is your gut healthy
i just want you to remember that health begins in the gut
if you have issues in your gut
even if we don’t have symptoms of gut dysfunction it is difficult to get you well
because of the role our gut plays in nutrient absorption
of digestion of getting rid of the bad guys
of supporting our immune function so if you’re wondering why you keep
going back if we’re just saying hey i’m tired or hey i have diabetes or have arthritis
but i don’t have i don’t have any issues with my poop i don’t have any digestion
issues and we’re like well we’d like for you to do this stool test or i’d like for you to do an elimination
this is why we have a great suspicion of gut dysfunction
so
if you have any questions please let me know thank you for
spending time with me today i really do appreciate you taking the time to then
hey
thank you so much for that comment um you appreciate that thank you
wow that is a really good question how long could we expect
this to take to resolve this is going to this is going to depend
on every individual so in some instances i want you to expect a
long haul i i want you to expect at least a year
i know a long time and so what i have found is
depending on the current state my patients are end it kind of depends on
the length to of time that’s for the gut to heal and i’d like to think of this as a
continuum at some point because we’re going to be subject to
stress you know if things the wills kind of fall off of life during certain events
then that might increase our dietary decisions
might decrease we might have more inflammatory foods we’re going to go for
those convenience foods fast food
so we’ve done if we have to have antibiotics we don’t want to fear them but we want to
potentially you know please ask your clinician about what can i do i need to take this antibiotic i’ll go ahead and tell you
that i would recommend taking saccharomyces polarity a yeast that’s an anti anti-yeast
we use that as sea defense you would take one capsule twice a day during the duration of your antibiotic to help
protect against the side effects the unwanted side effects that antibiotics may produce
if you had if your leaky gut is caused by bacterial overgrowth or sibo
so you don’t have a very high recurrence rate and this is going to be an ongoing kind of issue and struggle
so kind of my answer to how long does it take to heal it’s going to depend on
where you start and
what degree of dysfunction is measured and then
that’s going to kind of depend on how long this makes it so
i want you to anticipate at least a year but it may vary so
what do you are you asking what do i do to maintain a healthy gut
so we’re kind of you know a little sneak peek um
into your kind of the next group visit i plan to do or maybe
somebody else will still look before me but what i do to main a healthy gut is fiber
i try to make sure i consume at least 25 to 35 grams of dietary fiber a day i do
not take an additional supplement for that i get it through a variety of vegetables fruits
i love broccoli brussels sprouts cabbage i like lots of berries blueberry
blackberry raspberries i do gluten-free oats and have a lot of
fiber add flaxseed um to my smoothies so
the variety of our diet helps to feed those gut bacteria which help for those gut bacteria
to make healthy short gene fatty acids which helps to
improve gut healing and function like omega-3 fatty acids every day
i try to make sure i adequately hydrate i think a probiotic
probiotic should not just be taken just because i i would try to
talk about that with your clinician if that would benefit you
i use digestive enzymes occasionally if we can help break down the food it’s going to be easier on our bodies and
it’s going to be less inflammatory so those are a few things that fit into the
perch of healing leaky gut that’s kind of how i maintain healthier one indicator of
healthy gut function is going to be are you eliminating every day you have a bowel movement are you pooping you want
your poop the question here is to say does your poop look like
stones or rocks um does it look like logs does it look like a snake
pudding or tea ideally our stool is going to look like snakes i know that’s kind of gross to
kind of talk about that much about poop but this is going to be an indicator of how
healthy your gut is when it gets everything it needs
does fasting help with leaky gut and what does intermittent fasting do to
your gut health oh these fasting is wonderful for your gut
health and i like to frame it this way do you like working 24 hours a day 7
days a week no neither do i i like to take breaks
long breaks so we can see increases and it’s kind of
like it’s called gut rest when we have fasting there’s so many kind of different
benefits to cellular health and and doing fasting
look at cliff signer’s last group visit but
that rest is is get letting letting your gut take some time off
so just like you don’t want to work all the time that you like to take some time off for some leisure activities and rest
your gut appreciates it too and sometimes our gut needs more rest
than eight hours a day so practicing fasting either depending on
who you’re seeing um they may recommend a water fast or a three-day water fast
even like a fasting mimicking diet that can create this very similar uh situation there
also intermittent fasting you’re going to give your gut a nice 16 hour a day rest
so [Music] your gut is going to benefit fasting from fast so
um again fasting you know i’d have to know your health
history would have to be think about if you’re on any kind of medicines for
diabetes that might hold your blood sugar we have to think about that a little bit differently um
what yeah that answered your question on that
so a big fan of fasting for gut health but how you do that
is important too so
okay
and if that is all the questions we have oh
another one
if your fungi in your system is out of balance what can you do with your food
and gut to help reduce the fungi
so this is gonna be very specific and
i would definitely talk to
your position on that so there are
funguses we’re exposed to on our foods and depends on what that is if we’re talking about yeast we want to have a
kind of low candida diet and that’s going to get preventable foods out it’s also
going to decrease things um
that are high in sugar high in starches because we’re gonna those things are gonna feed
then those things to grow essentially use of kind of natural
antifungals or medications
may be beneficial i don’t it depends on the severity of that situation
also may be important to get out aspergillus foods
in the diet so i would talk to you if you haven’t met with a dietitian yet
are we going to talk to her about that so
that’s that’s a very kind of good question um and it kind of depends on
the particulars here so
so yeah if i did not answer that question sufficiently um please reach out to
your clinician but you all have had a lot of great questions and you don’t know how much i
appreciate that because i appreciate your interaction
i really do enjoy doing these and getting to speak to our patients about topics that matter i would like to
know as well like what else the patients want to know about topics and functional medicine or
that that matter to them their health
all right do again i appreciate all your questions thank you for spending this time with me
and i look forward to uh the next time when i will talk about
the approach to healing leaky gut so
remember health begins in the gut you do not have a healthy gut it’s harder to heal the rest of the body
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