What is it? I thought it was almost exclusively something that happened to alcoholics, or people with chronic abuse of some sort. I guess it's fair to say I really had no idea what it is.
Wonderful Wikipedia says that it "is a name used to describe intestinal or bowel hyperpermeability. Tight junctions (TJs) represent the major barrier within the pathway between intestinal epithelial cells that line the digestion tract. Disruption of TJs leads to intestinal hyperpermeability (the so-called "leaky gut") which has been proposed by some researchers to involve a relationship with acute and chronic diseases such as systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, allergies asthma,and autism."
Hopefully you can see why this would be interesting to me. If stuff you eat can leak into your body because your intestine is permeable, it might screw with your inflammatory response and lead to serious problems.
The other interesting thing to me is that Leaky Gut can cause foods that you aren't techincally allergic or intolerant to, to cause a reaction in your body. I have been scratching my head over why nuts or strawberries would affect me one time so markedly and another time not at all. Leaky Gut is a theory that explains that.
One of my favorite sites, Women to Women, explains that "The leaking of these [food] particles alerts your body that something is wrong, and your immune system tries to come to the rescue by igniting inflammation. As inflammation increases, the layer of beneficial bacterial colonies lining the intestines decreases, which only makes the problem worse." Here is a diagram from this web site:
Further, the site says "Your gut plays a crucial role in immune function because it contains special areas called gut-associated lymphatic tissue (GALT) that protect you from allergy-causing food antigens and disease-carrying microbes. With leaky gut, these and other harmful substances can gain access to your blood stream and travel far and wide throughout the body."
How does a leaky gut start? Perhaps from things that you are really intolerant or allergic to, in my case I'd say wheat and milk for starters. This site also lists "certain medications, treatments...antibiotics ...radiation, chemotherapy, steroid drugs (corticosteroids), aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, other NSAID’s...Leaky gut may also show up along with parasites, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and irritable bowel syndrome that is traced to food intolerance."
Of the things mentioned here, I have had parasites, crazy amounts of antibiotics (for the c-section and then for the parasites, aside from the 'normal' for ear infections, etc.), and food intolerances.
Dr. Weil (whom I also love), says that food leaking into your body "triggers an autoimmune reaction, which can lead to gastrointestinal problems such as abdominal bloating, excessive gas and cramps, fatigue, food sensitivities, joint pain, skin rashes, and autoimmunity. The cause of this syndrome may be chronic inflammation, food sensitivity..." I added emphasis to show what symptoms I have had. Could it be that I have had chronic inflammation, because of food intolerances and parasites and stress and it finally got to be too much? Of course there could always be something additional going on too.
Another dude's (Chris Kessler) web site has a great illustration:
This sites says that one of the gut's primary functions is to prevent bad stuff (waste) from getting into our body. Our gut takes the good stuff and leaves the rest. And more: "Another important function of the gut is to host 70% of the immune tissue in the body...Problems occur when either of these protective functions of the gut are compromised. When the intestinal barrier becomes permeable (i.e. “leaky gut syndrome”), large protein molecules escape into the bloodstream. Since these proteins don’t belong outside of the gut, the body mounts an immune response and attacks them. Studies show that these attacks play a role in the development of autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s."
It is worth noting that every doctor I have ever seen says I have INFLAMMATION, what they fail to put together is that I have generalized inflammation, which signals some sort of underlying problem to me.
The thyroid doctor sees just the thyroid inflammation, the arthritis doc sees just joint inflammation, the gastro sees just intestinal inflammation.
My point is that it's a problem I like to look at as a whole, not in its parts. The Western solution would be to take a drug for each of these separate problems. Seems silly if cutting out certain foods and rebuilding my intestinal health would eliminate my symptoms.
But of course this idea is not totally accepted in Western medicine, at least not from what I can gather.
The solutions? From these sites collectively, here are their suggestions for helping heal the gut:
- Avoid foods that cause inflammation
- Avoid foods you are intolerant to
- Avoid processed, fried foods
- Take a fish oil supplement/Eat more fish (Omega 3s!)
- Try supplementing with glutamine
- "Glutamine has been found particularly helpful for maintaining the structure and function of the intestine. For example, glutamine has been shown to improve damage done to the gut mucosa from radiation and chemotherapy." -Women To Women
- Take probiotics
- Avoiding NSAIDS
And my update? After a WEEK of taking lots and lots of probiotics, I'm starting to have normal poo! I guess that's the important part of this whole post. If what has been wrong with me this whole time is just not having any good bacteria....wow. I guess having a balanced intestine really does make a big difference in health.
This very interesting, and makes me wonder if I need to investigate it more. My sister-in-law is a pharmacist who's trained to specifically blend probiotics for people after their saliva has been tested to determine what probiotics they need. She has been urging me to do this for years and I think you've convinced me. I really, really hope this helps you! If not, come to mayo. Their whole approach is that they assign one doctor to guide your care. It is that doctor's job to look at the big picture and coordinate all the specialists who work with you so that hopefully what you described is not happening. We're praying for you!
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