Leaky Gut: How To Heal

Hey everyone, today I want to talk to you guys about a very important topic of leaky gut. Leaky gut means that the cells that line your small intestine have become damaged and the spaces that are between them, called the tight junctions have been opened up too wide. The problem with that is when the tight junctions are too wide, that allows things like undigested food particles and bacteria to escape out of the small intestine, get into the blood stream and cause a lot of immune reactions. And so in the real world, that looks like allergies, skin conditions, fatigue, chemical sensitivity, joint paint.

Almost anything you can think of can be traced back to a leaky gut. Today I want to talk about some of the essential steps that need to happen to get back on track so you can heal your gut and hopefully get on a road to recovery from a lot of your chronic health issues. The first thing that we need to do when addressing a leaky gut, is to remove the offending causes. Those can be certain foods, dairy is a very common one, sugar, for some people eggs can damage the intestine if they have developed a sensitivity.

The inflammation is going on there. Grains and refined vegetable oils, those are the big things that can really contribute to the problem. Also, check your medications, if you’re taking a lot of Tylenol or ibuprofen or any sort of over the counter pain killer. Chronic use really wears down the intestinal lining and damages the gut.

Also, it is really important to get evaluated by a professional to get check out for GI infections. So if you have GI infections going on, the inflammation that those infections cause wears down the intestinal lining. And also some of the toxins released by any bacteria can further damage the intestinal lining and stimulate the immune system and cause the problem. It’s really important to find a qualified professional, get a stool test done, get checked out for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

Those are some very common conditions that contribute to a leaky gut and if we don’t remove those infections, there is little chance of being able to heal. The next thing we need to do once we have removed any offending infections, medications or food, is to start the repair process. The first thing I like to do is strengthen the patient’s digestion. I do that by using things like betaine HCL with pepsin.

Which is kind of a fancy way of saying I am replacing your stomach acid. Also, digestive enzymes can be very helpful. And also food based digestive enhancers, so things that takes bitter. Such as; artichoke, dandelion, beets, beets are sweet but they are very good for the gold bladder, cinnamon and ginger and fennel.

All of those things naturally help to strengthen your digestion and gold bladder and gastric juices and enzymes, so that you can break your food down. And again, breaking food down is very important, because when it goes into the small intestine undigested, unbroken down. If you’ve got a leaky gut, those large undigested molecules are escaping through those tight junctions that are too wide and they are getting into the blood stream and causing a lot of inflammation and immune system problems. And so just to recap; remove any offending foods or over the counter pain killers that are contributing to the problem, get checked out for GI infections and get rid of those.

That’s going to take a while, maybe 8 to 10 weeks, but work with a qualified professional. And then you want to replace your digestive functions. Replacing hydrochloric acid if necessary, adding digestive enzymes if you need to or using bitter herbs that can stimulate your body’s own ability to make acid and digestive enzymes. All of those things are very important.

The next thing you want to do is replace any good bacteria that has been lost, either through inflammation or killing off any infections. And so, you can do things like eat fermented foods; kimchi, sauerkraut are great. You can also take a high quality probiotic, if you can find one that is spore-based. That is a good one to grab, because the spores tend to colonize better and stay in your digestive track longer.

And so the next thing you want to do and this is a very important step. You want to take things that actually help to heal the digestive track lining. One of the things that I love to use is hydrolyzed collagen powder. It is so great, because it is high in the amino acid glycine.

Which is great for liver detoxification, collagen is also great for skin and hair. But the collagen its self actually help to heal the GI tract lining, which is great. Besides collagen, I also really like to use l-glutamine, that’s also an amino acid but it provides food for the intestinal cells and helps to regenerate them and tighten up those tight junctions that were too wide before. Also, zinc carnosine is wonderful for healing any mucosal surface.

The GI tract lining and zinc specifically you want to get the carnosine form. Because that’s the one that’s going to have a beneficial effect for healing the GI tract. Other things that are great for healing the GI tract are N-Acetyl Glucosamine, slippery elm and aloe. All of those things are very soothing and provide a protective barrier to the lining so that your body has the opportunity to start repairing those cells.

I hope you guys found this helpful. Remember to work with a qualified professional. I always like to stress the importance of testing, not guessing, because you want to make sure that any therapies you use to try to and get better are going to be safe for you and effective. I hope you guys found this useful, comment down below with any questions and I’ll see you next time.

Source: Attune Functional Medicine