Leaky Gut

Out gut lining only has three layers. The outer two are mucosal only and are made of, and maintained by, the bacteria and other micro-organisms in our microbiome. The inner-most layer is only one cell thick and the only layer that is actually made of human cells. There are usually tight junctions between these cells which don't allow large and unwelcome molecules to pass through into the body from the digestive tract. However, when these tight junctions are loosened, then all sorts of molecules can get through and into our system that shouldn't. This is where the name Leaky Gut Syndrome comes from, because the content of our digestive tract, which is external to our body, is literally leaking into our body.

Leaky Gut has been demonstrated to cause Auto-Immune Disease, which is not surprising as it allows a whole host of foreign material into your body that the immune system does not recognise and goes to work to attack. When these foreign molecules resemble our own tissues and molecules, our immune system unintentionally ends up attacking our own tissues, along with the foreign material, creating Auto-Immune Disease - where the body attacks itself. This same mechanism may be why we now see so many food allergies and intolerance to even healthy foods, because the large undigested particles that usually don't get into our system, manage to make it in before they are broken down properly along with the parts of the food that were never meant to get into our system - and therefore the immune system starts reacting to these. Some integrative medicine practitioners aren't even doing allergy tests anymore because they were consistently finding that the results would come back showing allergies to the foods each patient ate most often. Once the gut lining is restored, well-populated, and the microbiome population is being well fed (see Gut Healing), and the immune system has had enough time to forget those unintended molecules that got in from certain foods (usually around 6 months of not eating the food along with having a well restored gut) recovery from those food intolerances that were a result of leaky gut can occur.

If you're eating something akin to the Standard American/Western Diet then you will also have herbicides, pesticides, plastics, other petrochemical compounds getting into your body. Unfortunately some of these compounds do resemble particularly our own hormones and cause big problems for our hormonal systems. Blood markers of leaky gut have also been found to be elevated in Depression, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Autism, among other conditions.

There are a number of things that cause these tight junctions to open more than usual including weakened mucosal layers (damaged microbiome), gluten, glyphosate and other pesticides, and plastics and solvents. The gut proteins Occludin and Zonulin govern gut lining permeability and can be measured in the blood. From this we start to get an idea of what promotes Zonulin, which opens the tight junctions. Gluten, it appears, promotes Zonulin and these junctions to open up in everyone with the variable factor between people being how long it has this effect for. In some people they close fairly quickly and in many others they stay open for a considerable length of time.

Do you think you are suffering from or affected by leaky gut? Why?

Related Articles:

Microbiome
Gut Healing
Grains and Gluten
Herbicides and Pesticides
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Much Love,

Sophia Englezos