Episode 84 – Leaky Gut – Pt. 2

Show Notes

Leaky Gut (AKA altered intestinal permeability)

• What is it?
  • Remember, Hippocrates said “all disease begins in the gut.”
  • The ‘gut’ is a digestive ‘tube’, endothelial lining is one cell layer thick
  • Intent is to keep bad stuff out yet get good stuff in
  • Intestinal epithelial cells held together with tight junctions
• Why should you care?
  • Autoimmunity: RA, hashimoto’s, MS, DM1, etc
  • Asthma
  • Increased inflammation: CVD, arthritis, diabetes, adrenal fatigue, neurodegenerative processes
  • Food allergies
  • Headaches
  • Fatigue
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, autism
  • Malabsorption
• Why didn’t my doctor tell me about it?
  • They don’t know about it – I didn’t learn about it at all in medical school
  • Donald Kirby, MD (Director of the center for Human Nutrition at the Cleveland Clinic) said “From an MD’s standpoint, it is a very gray area. Physicians don’t know enough about the gut, which is our biggest immune system organ.”
  • UK’s National Health Service said “There is little evidence to support this theory, and no evidence that so-called ‘treatments’ for ‘leaky gut syndrome,’ such as nutritional supplements and a gluten-free diet, have any beneficial effect for most of the conditions they are claimed to help.”
  • Linda A. Lee, MD (gastroenterologist & director of the John’s Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center) – “We don’t know a lot but we know that it exists.” “In the absence of evidence, we don’t know what it means or what therapies can directly address it.”
• 4 main causes:
  • poor diet
    • anti-nutrients
      • phytates
      • lectins – sugar binding proteins. Protect plants from molds, parasites, etc. Gut cells contain sugar which bind these proteins damaging the gut and causing inflammation. Wheat, spelt, soy, rice.
      • Sprouting & fermenting grains reduces phytates and lectins
      • GMO are designed to increase resistance to bugs, increases lectins and phytates
    • Gluten – increases zonulin
    • Cow’s milk – A1 casein!! Pasturization destroys enzymes.
    • Sugar – feeds yeast, candida, bad bacteria
  • chronic stress – weakens immune system, bad bacteria and other infections take hold. Increased inflammation, causes leaky gut
  • toxin overload – Abx, pesticides, foods, tap water, medications
  • bacterial imbalance – major cause of leaky gut! Overgrowth of bad bacteria. Overuse of antibiotics, tap water, lack of cultured foods, lack of appropriate fiber