What is Leaky Gut?
Do you have a screen door that you like to use in the spring? It’s so nice to have the breeze come through and bring the fresh air, while the bugs and critters stay out. Well, our gut lining is a lot like a screen door. You see we have this barrier, our gut lining, that separates the food coming through our intestines and our bloodstream on the other side. This barrier allows for the nutrients from our food to easily come into our bloodstream and fuel us while keeping any bad things out.
If we develop holes in our screen door, now we’ve got a leaky gut and those unwanted things can sneak right in and create a reaction in our immune system. These unwanted guests could be undigested food, bacteria, parasites or toxins that promote inflammation and lead to an overactive immune response.
The gut lining protects our bodies from everything we consume, and helps to sort out the bad from the good. Leaky gut, or increased intestinal permeability, is common and can be the driving force behind many inflammatory and chronic symptoms.
What causes Leaky Gut?
As I mentioned, the gut lining is thin - it’s actually one cell layer thick - so there are many risk factors for leaky gut including alcohol, sugar and processed foods, chemical and toxin exposure, antibiotic use, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like advil or aleve, stress, poor quality of sleep… and many more.
Each of these factors can irritate the gut and its lining, increasing the amount of particles allowed to pass through. Things that would normally be protected from the rest of the body start to enter the bloodstream, causing widespread inflammation and irritation to the immune system. In turn, this inflammation will further weaken the gut lining, until we’ve fallen into a vicious cycle. It’s no wonder so many of us wind up with inflammation, gut issues, and autoimmune conditions!
How does Leaky Gut impact us?
Leaky gut doesn’t just impact the gut and digestive tract, but can create or worsen body-wide symptoms and conditions. Some digestive symptoms may be bloating, gas, cramps, pain or discomfort.
More widespread symptoms may include:
Fatigue
Joint pain/Arthritis
Skin conditions like rashes, Eczema, Acne or Psoriasis
Respiratory issues/Asthma
Autoimmune diseases
IBS, Ulcerative colitis
Food intolerances/sensitivities
Chronic pain
ADHD, anxiety, depression
Seasonal allergies
Trouble losing weight
Brain fog/trouble concentrating
It might sound hard to believe but the health of our gut greatly impacts our whole body health! And if we have a condition or symptom we don’t like in some other area of our body, it often ties into a leaky gut.
How does Leaky Gut lead to all of these symptoms?
As we’ve discussed, a compromised gut lining allows toxins, bacteria, and unwanted particles into the bloodstream. Our body’s natural response to toxins is inflammation and flaring the immune system. This response is helpful and necessary, and keeps us from getting sick all the time.
However, when there’s an increased, consistent amount of toxins or unwanted things entering the bloodstream, the immune system can overreact. This overreaction is how chronic inflammation and autoimmune conditions begin to develop. When our immune system is constantly on high alert, it will start attacking helpful particles and cells, too.
How do you heal a Leaky Gut?
In order to treat Leaky Gut, functional medicine turns to the 5R Protocol, which stands for Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, Repair, and Rebalance. We’ll give an overview of the 5-step plan, and what each phase involves. If you’d like to follow the 5R Protocol, it may be best to receive individualized guidance from a practitioner. Changing our diet and habits is a good place to start but often testing is needed to fully understand what’s going on. Having guidance on this journey can be invaluable.
Remove: Get rid of stressors on our GI Tract – this could include food allergies, parasites, NSAIDs, harmful bacteria or yeast or mental/emotional stress. This usually involves some kind of diet change, or elimination diet to help identify what may be irritating the gut. It could also involve taking supplements to lessen the bad bacteria in the gut. Functional stool testing is helpful in this phase to help identify what parasites or harmful bacteria may be present.
Replace: Once you’ve identified and removed irritants, it’s important to replace them with foods that heal the gut lining. Typically this would include whole, low glycemic foods, healthy sources of protein and fat, and eating the rainbow of fruits and vegetables. This is also a phase where supplementation can help speed the process. Digestive enzymes can be very helpful and in some cases, hydrochloric acid and/or bile support are needed.
Reinoculate: Over time, a weak gut lining will allow for the “bad” bacteria to thrive, and deplete good or friendly bacteria. Our goal is to reintroduce and feed the healthy gut bacteria, which improves gut health and helps to kick out any intruders. We can start to reinoculate the healthy bacteria by taking probiotic supplements or eating probiotic fermented foods, such as yogurt, miso, tempeh, or sauerkraut. These will all help the beneficial bacteria flourish.
Repair: Help the gut lining repair itself by supplying it with key herbs and nutrients needed and reduce inflammation. Omega 3s are essential to closing those gaps in the gut lining. In addition, L-Glutamine, zinc and aloe vera can speed healing. One of the best combination products for this stage is GI Revive powder. (In order to view this supplement you’ll have to make an account. It’s quick and easy, and you’ll only have to do it once.)
Rebalance: It’s really all about maintenance – paying attention to lifestyle, stress, diet, movement, and making sure we’re getting the key nutrients we need for optimal health. After doing the first four phases, it’s important to keep our healthy habits going and our gut happy. I call these healthy habits the Foundations of Functional Medicine. If you’d like to read more about them, read our previous blog post here.
If you think you may be struggling with Leaky Gut, you are not alone! It is quite common. If you’d like to learn more about your gut health and how to heal the gut, reach out to our office to schedule a Discovery Call.