A happy gut is a healthy gut. Gut health is extremely important in restoring our clients’ health. Oftentimes, we find leaky gut, where the intestinal permeability is compromised and molecules that are not supposed to pass through the cells that are lining the intestinal wall travel into the blood stream. This causes low-grade chronic inflammation. Gluten for example, in sensitive people, has a tendency to cause gut cells to release zonulin, a protein that breaks apart tight junctions in the intestinal lining. The purpose of the tight junctions is to keep everything we consume contained in the gut.
Toxins, infections, and stress disrupt tight junctions, leading to leaky gut syndrome. When particles move from your gut into your bloodstream, your immune system triggers a response to these invaders and attacks them. Leaky gut triggers symptoms like gas, bloating, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), seasonal allergies and asthma, PMS, PCOS, autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, psoriasis, celiac disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, ADHD, acne, rosacea, eczema, candida overgrowth, and food sensitivities.
Oftentimes, the reason you have food sensitivities is because you have leaky gut. By fixing your leaky gut you will fix the way your body reacts to your food sensitivities. With a food sensitivity test you are able to eliminate the foods that are causing inflammation in the body so that you can give your gut a rest while we heal it.
Foods like gluten, dairy, sugar, processed foods and alcohol trigger inflammation in the body. As does prescriptive and over the counter drugs, candida, intestinal parasites, small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), pesticides, herbicides, BPA, mercury and other heavy metals. Sometimes a person may not experience any gut symptoms and still have leaky gut. As a matter of fact, around twenty-two percent of people with gut problems can have significant damage to their small intestines without suffering any gastrointestinal symptoms.
The surface area of your gut is around three hundred square meters, the size of a house. With such a large surface area, healing your gut takes time. A study from Harvard published in the medical journal Nature, found significant changes in the makeup of gut bacteria occurring three days after a dietary change. What you eat matters and impacts the overall health of your gut, especially the bacteria that take residence. Eating clean and organic food is of utmost importance.
If you suspect leaky gut, you can test the severity of your leaky gut with functional labs and perform a stool test to reveal if there is any dysbiosis, parasites or imbalances. It’s also very important to start an elimination diet to remove all toxic and inflammatory triggers from your diet and lifestyle. Our clients follow the Indigo Gut Restore program of removing the bad, replacing the good, restoring beneficial bacteria, and repairing the gut with essential nutrients. Lastly, stress is a great obstacle to cure as your gut is your second brain and is largely affected by chronic stress. Getting a handle on stress is the best thing you can do for your overall health and well-being.
A comprehensive stool analysis, food sensitivity panel, and zonulin testing are great tools to measure the status of your overall gut health.
