Have you got a leaky gut?
Leaky gut syndrome is a condition where your intestinal tract becomes leaky, in other words the intestinal wall becomes weak allowing toxins, waste products and undigested foods to pass through the intestinal wall and into your blood stream which causes a great deal of distress to your body, your organs and your health.
There are many ways to check if you have a leaky gut, the best way to know for sure if you have a leaky gut is a simple test called the Intestinal Permeability And Leaky Gut Test. This test is precise, non invasive test that can be done right from your home and works by detecting if larger particles such as waste products, toxins and undigested foods have penetrated the intestinal wall that should not normally be able to do so.
Signs & symptoms you may have leaky gut syndrome
A leaky gut is a toxic condition so many health problems can result, the main reason leaky gut causes so many varied health problems is because many of the offending substances that get past your intestinal lining actually can cause damage to many of your body’s organs. While there are many complications that can come from leaky gut syndrome here are some of the more common signs:
- Acne
- AIDS/HIV infection
- Autism
- Childhood hyperactivity
- CFS Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Chronic hepatitis
- Chronic pancreatitis
- Coeliac disease
- Crohn’s disease
- Constipation
- Cystic fibrosis
- Depression
- Diarrhoea
- Eczema
- Fatigue
- Food & chemical sensitivities
- IBD (Inflammatory bowel disease) & IBS (Inflammatory bowel syndrome)
- Mood swings
- Psoriasis, dermatitis
- Urticaria (hives)
- Viral & bacterial infections
- Yeast infection (candida)
Causes of leaky gut
So what causes a leaky gut you may wonder, well there is no one answer, intestinal permeability is one the most important parts of not only digestion but also of nutrition, increased permeability of the intestine leads to reduced intake of essential nutrients, this happens because essential nutrients are not digested properly making the nutrients unusable, so when you have leaky gut you will also have nutritional deficiencies. When the permeability becomes increased that’s when the problems start. We know that leaky gut is a result of many contributing factors here are just some of the more common causes:
- Alcohol
- Antibiotics
- Anti-inflammatory drugs
- Chemotherapy, radiotherapy
- Dysbiosis (imbalance of good and bad bacteria)
- Food allergies
- Gastro intestinal disease
- Infections of bacteria, viruses, yeasts & parasites.
- Long term stress
- Low fibre diet
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Poor digestion
- Secretory IgA deficiency
The vicious cycle of leaky gut syndrome
The biggest problem with increase intestinal permeability is that once it starts it causes a chain reaction of events that make it hard the body to repair the problem. Once the lining of the intestinal wall becomes damaged and allows toxic substances to pass through to the blood stream other organs such as the liver, kidney’s and immune system are now under great pressure to attempt to clean up the mess, this causes a vicious cycle especially with the liver and immune system.
The liver attempts to remove the offending substances and excrete them back into the digestive system for removal which often gets reabsorbed by the leaky intestine again, over time the liver then becomes overburdened attempting to resolve the problem. The immune system is also put under greater pressure, this is because the immune system is busy dealing with all of the invading foreign substances, marking them as invaders attempting to kill or remove the substances.
Nutrition is the next big factor, when your organs are under more than average pressure to do their job the nutritional needs of the organs goes up, in the mean time the essential nutrients aren’t breaking down properly and can’t be used to make repairs and assist with detoxification.
And so the vicious cycle continues.
What can be done to about repairing leaky gut?
The first place to start is making sure you have tested for intestinal permeability, this provides valuable information on the condition of your intestine. The next step is assisting your body to repair itself, this is done by ruling out major causes that irritate the intestinal wall, food allergy testing especially an IgA allergy test can dramatically help discover offending substances.
Nutritional balancing is also another way to discover nutritional deficiencies that may be contributing factors, once discovered these nutrients can provide your body with the nutrients that it may be lacking to be able to start the process of repair and support other organs with detoxification.