What is leaky gut? How do I know if I have it? What causes it? These questions are answered in this episode of Thank Gut It’s Fixed Show.
I’ve been helping my patients heal leaky gut for at least 5 years now. When I first started working with patients on digestive disorders, not many knew what leaky gut. Some doctors even claimed it to be fake medicine.
Things are different. Do a PubMed search and you’ll find more than 13,000 articles published on this topic. The medical term is called intestinal permeability.
How do I know if I have Leaky Gut?
If you have any of these symptoms or conditions, it’s very likely that you have leaky gut:
- Diarrhea or constipation, or both
- Gas and bloating
- Stomach or intestinal cramps
- Feeling very full quickly after eating, even when eating a small amount of food
- Excessive burping and belching
- Heartburn or acid reflux
- Brain fog
- Chronic fatigue
- Muscle and joint pain (or fibromyalgia)
- Behavioral and emotional issues (including children)
- Skin issues like blemishes, rashes, hives, psoriasis
- Chronic congestion and post-nasal drip
- Anemia and other nutrient deficiencies
- Sugar cravings
- Autoimmune diseases
- Food sensitivities and intolerances
Can you Test for Leaky Gut?
When working with patients privately, I incorporate an advance-technology DNA stool testing that includes certain markers that detect leaky gut. One of these markers is called Zonulin, a protein secreted by intestinal cells that controls the tight junctions that hold the epithelial cells together.
Elevated zonulin usually means that gaps in the gut wall are lasting longer. However, this marker is not the one and only indication of leaky gut. It’s possible to have leaky gut despite normal zonulin reading. The only way to know is to analyze the full stool test report and look for patterns of bacteria and other markers in order to assess the health and integrity of the whole gut wall.
What is Leaky Gut?
Watch this episode of Thank Gut It’s Fixed Show, to learn what leaky gut is, how to know if you have leaky gut, and what causes it.
How to Fix Leaky Gut?
Fixing and repairing leaky gut isn’t always a straight-forward process. In order to truly healy, you have to check off all these goals.
- Remove foods and food chemicals (like histamine, salicylic acid, etc) you’re sensititive to
- Remove foods that make you bloated or foods that are hard to digest (gluten, grains, dairy, legumes, etc)
- Remove pathogenic microbes (bacteria, yeast, fungi, parasites)
- Balance your gut flora with good bacteria
- Boost digestion and replace digestive enzymes
- Improve gut motility
- Reduce inflammation in the gut
- Increase anti0xidants, omega-3’s, and polyphenols
- Incorportae nutrients like glutamine, vitamin A, zinc
- Incorporate foods like aloe, licrorice, marhsmallow roots, glutamine–only if you can tolerate them
Without enough data about your own individual food sensitivies and the composition of your own microbiota (what’s growing in your gut), it’s impossible to know for sure the foods to eat, the foods to remove, and the supplements to take. Trying things blindly is like asking a doctor to prescibe a medication without allowing them to run a single test or even examine you.
No one size fits all when it comes to healing and repaing the gut. If you’re looking for a food and nutritional therapy approach that gives you exact and detailed step-by-step plans, you can either attend my free training HERE to get more info or book a Strategy Consultation by phone HERE.
