Do You Have a Leaky Gut?
The gut microbiome: the hottest topic in biomedical research right now. As Hippocrates said, "All disease begins in the Gut," and if we have an imbalanced gut flora or increased intestinal permeability (leaky guy), than we are setting ourselves up for long term health complications. When we habitually use Advil and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, take antibiotics, use oral contraceptives like birth control or other hormones, make poor food combining choice, excessively drink alcohol, and live very stressed lives, we increase the gaps within the intestinal wall also known as the lamina propria. These gaps in the tight junctions allow bacteria and undigested proteins to enter your bloodstream and react with our underlying immune system. Did you know that 80% of your immune system is surrounding your intestinal wall? When these undigested proteins and bacteria seep through that barrier, the body reacts by mounting an inflammatory cytokine response in the bloodstream since it realizes that something is out of place. Ideally, our body selectively absorbs macro and micronutrients through the intestinal wall (the good stuff) and keeps all the bacteria and waste (the bad stuff your body doesn't want) in that digestive track tubing to be excreted through the anus. Think of this as your sewage system backing up and leaking into your water supply. Overtime, the plumbing builds up and has a cumulative effect, resulting in a larger immune response and more widespread chronic inflammation. If the immune system becomes hyper-vigilant because of all the proteins and bacteria moving through the body, your immune system becomes hyper-active and starts to attack all these proteins and pathogens that it sees as foreign because it's not supposed to be there. This can result in new food intolerance, autoimmune disease, digestive issues (IBS/colitis/Crohn's), thyroid dysfunction, malabsorption, brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, eczema/psoriasis and other inflammatory skin conditions. When we talk about getting to the underlying "root cause" of disease, leaky gut is often the underlying issue for many. Seal the gut to fix your health!
