You have a good chance of developing leaky gut if you have lived a time in any industrial nation. Leaky gut is when the lining of the small intestine becomes inflamed, damaged, and porous, allowing undigested foods, bacteria, fungus, and other foreign invaders into the sterile environment of the bloodstream. The gut becomes more permeable to these agents because it becomes more porous. A healthy gut lining keeps these out.
These agents are antigens or toxins to the body. When the foreign invaders get into the bloodstream, they trigger the immune system and cause inflammation. This will lead to a long list of symptoms and chronic conditions. Many conditions associated with a leaky gut include depression, joint pain, food allergies, skin problems like psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, asthma, and autoimmune disease.
Your diet is probably the most likely cause of leaky gut. Processed foods, such as the deamination of wheat and other grains, become an irritant to the intestinal wall. Eating more sugar than your body can handle creates a glycation problem, an “oxidation” of excess sugars will cause the body to be in a sympathetic stress mode. This is irritating intestinal lining. This includes desserts, fruit and fruit drinks as well as the candies and other sources of sugar you already get in your diet.
Taking medications like corticosteroids, antibiotics, antacids, and the over-common use of aspirins can create irritation on the intestinal lining. Chronic stress causes a constant surge of cortisol in the body. This also degrades the gut lining and contributes to leaky gut.
When the body is under attack from antigens and toxins allowed in from a leaky gut, it sets up a immune response. The best immune response is the ability of the body to produce antibodies to attack these foreign substances. In so doing, these antibodies also begin attacking body tissue. This is known as an autoimmune condition.
The process of leaky gut is a vicious cycle. Diet, medications and stress all need to be identified and dealt with so the body can repair the intestinal lining.
– Dr. Peter Lind
Dr. Peter Lind practices metabolic and neurologic chiropractic in his wellness clinic in Salem, Oregon. USA. He is the author of 3 books on health, one novel, and hundreds of wellness articles. His clinical specialty is in physical, nutritional, and emotional stress. Dr. Lind also writes the monthly publication, The Alternative Health Report.
