When I first heard of the term 'Leaky Gut', I turned my nose up. It sounded so offensive, and a little gross if you ask me. I didn’t know exactly what it was, nor did I need to at that time, and had no idea I would eventually end up with it! Stomach problems were never an issue for me, all through my early twenties, I ate healthier than most, had digestion that worked like clockwork, a fast metabolism, and the only food my body had a reaction to was dairy.
Now, fast forward to 2018, I am reacting to a variety of foods including garlic, cashews, peanuts, pinto beans, dates, sugar alcohols, and the list goes on. I am bloating after many meals and find my digestion is up and down, definitely not the same well oiled machine I once harboured.
I knew for quite some time that something was up. I am VERY in tune with my body, but i just didn’t want to face it, because well, this shit is hard. I feel like i already eat such a restricted diet, so to add in a whole other list of foods i shouldn’t eat in order to heal my gut was very overwhelming for me. And given what I do on this platform, i knew it would affect that aspect of my life too.
But enough was enough, my symptoms were continually getting worse and I had to face the facts that I had leaky gut syndrome and I needed to figure out how to fix it.
In this blog post I will be covering as many aspects of this majorly common and undiagnosed digestive problem as I am able. In the hopes to give an insight for those of you reading, and maybe even help identify if you, yourself have leaky gut and what you could do to heal it.
I will be touching on the following topics:
What is leaky gut including signs and symptoms to look out for.
What causes leaky gut?
What are the different types of leaky gut, and what type I have?
What am i doing to heal it?
WHAT IS LEAKY GUT?
Ok, so first up lets talk about what exactly leaky gut is. Leaky Gut Syndrome or also known as ‘intestinal permeability’ is a condition where the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged, this results in undigested food, toxic waste products and bacteria to ‘leak’ through the intestinal walls and into the blood stream.
When this happens your body idnetifies these ‘leaked food particles’ as a threat and instigates an immune response to attack these foreign invaders. Our gut is our biggest immune system organ, so when there are ‘holes’ in the gut lining you can only imagine how much havoc it can wreak on the whole body.
The immune response to these invaders can show up in the form of any of the following signs/symptoms.
Digestive problems likes IBS, gas, bloat, diarrhoea, or constipation
Hormonal imbalances like PMS & PCOS
Mood swings and brain issues like depression, anxiety, brain fog, memory loss.
Skin issues like acne, eczema and rosacea
Multiple food allergies, intolerances & sensitivities
Diagnosis of an autoimmune disease like crohns, lupus, hashimotos, celiac, or rheumatoid arthritis
Diagnosis of chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia
Seasonal allergies/asthma
Cravings for sweets or carbs
Nutritional deficiencies & excessive fatigue
With leaky gut, damaged cells in your intestines don't produce the enzymes needed for proper digestion. Because of this, your body cannot absorb essential nutrients from the food you’re consuming, this can also lead to hormone imbalances and a weakened immune system.
WHAT CAUSES LEAKY GUT?
Inflammatory foods. The main cause of leaky gut comes from your diet. Gluten is known to be the number 1 contributor to causing a leaky gut due to its high inflammatory properties. However other inflammatory foods like sugar, dairy, grains & alcohol also play a HUGE part.
Environmental toxins, like pesticide residues found in non organic produce, consumption of BPA from all the plastic our food comes in. And mercury which can be found in some tap water, contaminated fish, and in your fillings.
Straight up toxins, that are found in pharmaceutical products likes advil, antibiotics, hormonal pills, and steroids.
Stress also needs to be factored in here. When you go through a great deal of both physical and emotional stress, your stomach goes through that with you. A big part of the recovery process to heal a leaky gut, is reducing the amount of stress you endure on a daily basis.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF LEAKY GUT
According to Dr Josh Axe and his studies, there are 5 different types of Leaky Gut each type is caused by different environmental and diet factors, therefore each type has a different approach to healing fully.
They are as follows:
1. Gastric Gut
Gastric gut can be caused by impaired stomach, spleen and pancreas function. Generally due to overeating, eat too quickly, poor chewing, antacid use, and low stomach acid. The biggest symptoms associated with Gastric gut include burping, hiccups, acid reflux, heartburn, bloating, constantly feeling full, & SIBO (which stands for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth)
Foods to avoid if you're trying to heal a Gastric Gut:
Fried foods and overprocessed foods
Spicy Foods
Grains
Caffeine
Conventional Dairy products
Acidic foods like citrus, tomatoes, dark chocolate, cheese & alcohol
And lastly avoid overeating or eating too quickly
2. Toxic Gut
One of the biggest causing factors of leaky gut can be a stressed liver and gallbladder. Your liver plays an important role in the digestion of fat as it releases bile that helps break down your foods. When this is overloaded (by eating too much fat, consuming foods that contain pesticides or just is sluggish) this then puts strain on your small intestine to break down these fats. Over time this leads to malabsorption of fats, inflammation in the intestines and eventually breaks holes in the intestines, thus leading to a leaky gut. The main foods to steer clear from when trying to heal toxic gut are:
Alcohol
Conventional Dairy
Fried Foods
High Fat Foods
Nut Butters
Oils
Sugar
3. Stressed Gut
A stressed gut is caused by excessive emotional stress, adrenal fatigue, high cortisol levels (from over exercising), his oestrogen levels and thyroid issues. If you didn't think your stress levels affected your gut then maybe you'll change your mind after learning the fact that 90% of serotonin is released into the Gastro Intestinal tract. This means when you're emotionally stressed it directly affects your gut.
Heal your stressed gut by nourishing your body with:
Anti-inflammatroy foods
foods that boost the immune system
Foods full of Omega 3's (will caught salmon, flax seeds, algae)
Food high in B Vitamins
Supplement with selenium & magnesium
Add a good probiotic to your vitamin regime
Supplement with L Glutamine
And most importantly manage your stress levels.
Foods to avoid:
Cold Foods
High sugar food
Caffeine
Grains
Processed flours
Alcohol
4. Immune Gut
The most severe of them all. If you have an 'Immune gut' type, your body with experience an autoimmune type reaction to this severe inflammation. This usually presents itself in symptoms such as inflammation of the skin, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic pain and neurological disorders. You'll also experience food sensitivities to dairy & gluten and also foods that are generally considered healthy.
The cause of immune gut stems from an overuse of prescription drugs , birth control and antibiotics that just wipe out the good bacteria in your gut. This type of leaky gut requires an intense elimination diet of all possible inflammatory triggers. Foods to eliminate:
Grains
Wheat
Sugars
Nightshades
Nuts
Peanuts
Egg Whites
Soy
Milk
Shellfish
In addition to avoiding these types of foods its important to note that you should also avoid cold foods and raw foods as much as possible. It's important to focus on nourishing your gut with foods like cooked vegetables, bone broth, high quality meats, egg yolks, a lot of herbals teas and supplementing with probiotics, L-Glutamine, Collagen powder and digestive enzymes.
5. Candida Gut
Candida (candidiasisis) is a type of bacteria that is naturally found in our gut. But when there's an overgrowth of candida you end up with what they call a yeast infection, that's when you start to experience troubling symptoms of intense sugar cravings, brain fog, bloating, depression, anxiety, chronic digestive issues, inner ear itching, and constant low energy.
After answering a series of questions from Dr Axe along with the corresponding symptoms I have come to find that I have Candida Gut. Im sure this is solely to do with my love for sweets, and cold foods like smoothies and salads. The fact that I was on the hormonal pill in my teens and also went through a stage of drinking an excessive amount of alcohol in my wilder days i'm sure also played a huge part as these are all contributing factors to developing Candida Gut. Dr Axe has a whole regime to help you heal leaky gut which I would highly recommend if you suspect you have it.
WHAT AM I DOING TO HEAL IT?
The following, are foods I have removed from my diet, these are considered ‘danger’ foods.
Alcohol (don't really consume this anymore)
Conventional Dairy (again, this ones easy)
Sugar (over the past 14 days this has been somewhat of a struggle as I love my dessert. But i have been experimenting with different sugar free dessert options.
Cold & Raw Foods which means eliminating the smoothies & Salads. Even cold water is to be avoided. To combat this i keep a water filter on the bench so there's always room temp water ready to go and have been switching up my usual morning smoothie with a cooked breakfast of eggs & veggies on grain free toast.
Caffeine (this has been a little tough for me, I have been substituting with Matcha for now as I was a 1-2 cups of coffee per day kinda gal. Next week I will move to just completely caffeine free mushroom tonics
Kombucha (this promotes bacteria growth and can make candida symptoms worse, so steering clear of this for now.
Refined Grains - (Although i wasn't heavy into grains, I've been delving into the Paleo products of late, supermarkets like wholefoods and thrive market stock a good variety of grain free goods.)
Yeast - Including nutritional yeast (which was a staple in my house).
In addition to removing these foods there are a few other things I have been focusing on to restore my gut health with the following supplements.
L Glutamine - helps help the gut lining. I've been taking a heaped tbsp in a little water twice a day.
Probiotics - I've been alternating between Silver fern Probiotics and the Dr Axe Soil Based Probiotic. These help populate the good bacteria in my gut.
Digestive Enzymes - These help extract the nutrients from the food i'm eating and also gives my stomach a break from digesting food so it has time to heal itself.
Anti-fungal Oils such as Oregano, Clove and Grapefruit Seed Extract speed up the clearing of candida overgrowth.
Fermented Turkey Tail - Modulates the immune system and helps fight off infections, illnesses and disease. This mushroom also contains perfect prebiotics that assist the microbiome. This means that it can help the growth of the good bacteria in the body.
Collagen Peptides & Beef Gelation - Assists in healing in the walls of the gut, I have been alternating between Dr Axe. Collagen which contains 5 types of food based collagen, Vital Proteins Collagen peptides & Vital Proteins Beef Gelatin.
A new supplement i've included in my regime is Thorne Glutathione-SR. Glutathione is a protein composed of three amino acids, and is made primarily in the liver. It's one of the body's most important antioxidant and detoxification supporting molecules, found in every cell of the body. Supplementing with this provides support for the liver, brain, hearts, lungs, and eyes.
The following are foods that are on my 'nourishing' foods list and what I've been trying to fill my plate with.
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