Well I’m not sure about you, but I’ve been a little confused by all of this leaky gut talk lately! I understand what happens when something “leaks”, and when I think of my “gut”, I think my stomach…so what the heck is a “leaky gut” and how do I know if I have one? Why is it important to our health? I’m here to leak out the guts of this mystery (sorry…bad joke). Anyways as I was saying…
First things first, let’s talk about why there’s so much talk about leaky guts these days. According to Dr. Amy Myers, M.D. (https://www.amymyersmd.com/autoimmunesolution/), “…80% of your immune system is in your gut. The gut is the gateway to your health, so if your gut isn’t healthy, your immune system isn’t either.” Your gut includes all body parts and systems that are involved in your digestion:
- Mouth
- Stomach
- Small intestine
- Large intestine/Colon
- Anus
- Gall Bladder
- Liver
- Pancreas
- Nervous system
- Immune system
- Plus, the bacterias (trillions of them!) that reside in your gut and throughout your body.
So how do I know if my gut is in good health or not? Look for the following:
- You have solid and well-formed bowel movements 1-3 times per day
- You don’t have any visible undigested food in your stool
- You don’t have to take antacids or acid reflux medications
- You feel fine after you eat a meal
Now that’s a pretty short list!!
However, the list of possible symptoms associated with a leaky gut is quite long:
- Acne
- ADD/ADHD
- Anxiety
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Autoimmune Disease
- Bloating
- Blood Sugar Imbalances
- Burping
- Cancer
- Chronic Cough
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Congestion
- Constipation
- Depression
- Diarrhea
- Difficulty Concentrating
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Fibromyalgia
- Frequent Sickness
- Headaches
- Heartburn
- Hormone Imbalance Problems
- Infertility
- Insomnia
- Intestinal Cramping
- Irregular Periods
- Joint Pain
- Low White Blood Cell Counts
- Mood Swings
- Nausea/Vomiting
- Passing Gas
- Seasonal Allergies
- Skin Rash, Eczema, Hives, Rosacea
- Stomach Aches
- Stuffy Nose
- Thyroid Problems
- Weight Gain, Inability to Lose Weight
WOW…Really? C’mon…99.9% of all Americans probably have at least a few of those symptoms!! And that is because of the Western diet that we eat. Our farming and food producing technology (from pesticides, to hormones, to the way we process wheat) has come so far to make life easier for us and to have an abundance of food, but our bodies have not evolved as quickly as our technology in that regard. Our bodies still want to be fed like the cavemen ate…when they had to hunt for hours for their food and eat berries from the trees…food found on the land!! We were never designed to pull the plastic off a Stouffer’s frozen meal, pop it in the microwave, pop open a coca-cola and sit on the couch for the rest of the evening!
The good news in all of this is that it’s possible to heal most of those symptoms in 30 days, along with preventing, reducing, or reversing autoimmune disease. If you heal your gut, you can heal yourself. It is really that simple!
Now, the hard part is the 30-days it takes to make those changes. You must follow a 30-day elimination diet, and none of us like change! It is difficult and we do love the current yummy foods we eat, but we aren’t feeding our bodies the proper nutrients with our current diet. It is not something that is solved with another prescription medication or supplement, either! Can you continue eating those McDonald’s Big Macs, French Fries, and a Coke? Of course, you can! But understand that in doing so that over time, a diet like that (or even a healthier version that includes lots of whole wheat) will cause you problems. Your gut will start making tiny little tears (called fissures), and over years of a poor diet your gut will have many of these little tears. Those little tears allow undigested food and toxins to spill directly into your bloodstream. Our abundant little immune cell attackers are right outside our gut lining though – waiting to protect us. But when you have lots of those tears, our immune cells start getting overworked and confused. They start attacking even healthy cells. When those immune cells attack, it pumps inflammation all throughout the body to protect it. But when the immune system keeps working overtime and starts getting confused with good cells, the inflammation is pumped throughout the body when it’s not even needed. The inflammation is then what causes all of those symptoms listed above to take place.
The bottom line is that when your gut is healthy and doesn’t have those little tears, your immune system can rest and only work when it’s really necessary to protect you, you in turn don’t get all inflamed, and you stay healthy.
Gut health can be greatly improved by repairing the gut lining (where the tears are) that leak the bad stuff into your bloodstream. Let’s see how to fix our leaky gut:
- Get rid of the bad stuff! That means for 30 days eliminating the following inflammatory foods:
- Gluten
- Grains
- Legumes
- Dairy
- Sugar
- Nightshade Vegetables
- Eggs
- All Processed Foods, Preservatives, and Additives
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Plus, work to get rid of any intestinal infections
- Restore the essentials for proper nutrition and absorption!
- Digestive Enzymes (supplement form). The gut requires these enzymes for proper digestion and it also restores stomach acid.
- Get the good bacteria back into your gut! Once the bad bacteria are gone, your gut needs the good bacteria (that’s usually been stripped away by poor diet, stress, antibiotics, antacids, and steroids). You use probiotics to repopulate the good stuff…which comes in both pill or powder form. Non-dairy fermented foods are also great natural probiotics, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and other fermented veggies. Once all of the bad bacteria is eliminated and your gut is completely healed, you can then also add yogurt (another great probiotic) into your diet.
- Repair the Lining! There are a few things that work really well to really help the lining of your gut heal:
- L-Glutamine – helps to repair the lining of your gut with its amino acids.
- Omega-3 Fish Oils – helps decrease your inflammation.
- Aloe Vera & Licorice Root – can be used and are known for taming inflammation and soothing the gut lining.
This process is in NO WAY an easy one! The good news is that you will feel 1000 times better! If you are having a host of those bad symptoms, the elimination diet can restore your gut. You can slowly add the eliminated foods back into your diet – one group at a time – and see which ones make you start having the bad symptoms again. That is the best way to know what to permanently remove from your diet…because we are all unique INSIDE and out!!!
Happy Healthy Gut!!