Leaky gut can cause several different disorders, and some doctors believe can be the source of some auto-immune diseases. The intestinal wall has tight junctions to prevent undigested food to escape into the blood stream. When the food is broken down into much smaller nutrients, they are small enough to be absorbed. So how does it start to leak? In any inflammatory response, blood vessels dilate to allow white blood cells to enter the affected area. WBC are bigger than red blood cells so they need a little extra room to get to the site of inflammation. So, when the intestines are under chronic inflammation, the tight junctions are not as tight. This allows larger food particles to enter the blood stream which in turn creates more inflammation. Other inflammatory conditions may get worse because now the immune system is being spread too thin. You can treat most diseases from a healthy gut, as many diseases start in the gut. Allergies, skin disorders, obviously digestive complaints but autoimmune disorders might even improve. Leaky Gut can be caused by a variety of factors. Food allergies, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO for short), yeast overgrowth, or other irritants possibly such as acidity, medications, and other chemicals. Your immune system has an allostatic load. It can only bear so much until it gets backed up which can lead to a variety of symptoms. If you can reduce food allergies and keep a healthy balance of your gut flora, the immune system may have enough power to deal with environmental allergies – the ones you can’t necessarily control. Most patients with chronic allergies would improve if they looked at the health of their gut where most the immune system lies. To help repair the damage, we have a few products listed below. Finding what is causing leaky gut is the key or else we are going to keep having to repair the intestinal lining. Gut health is important and we have a good understanding in how to help bring your digestion back into optimal health. If you have more questions I encourage you to come in or schedule a free consultation to see if we think we can help.
