Is anyone else out there fascinated with the colon… Or is it just me? And why on Earth would I want to talk about “Leaky Gut Syndrome” anyway? It is a rather eloquently named pathology don't you think? Contrary to the graphic image that it hints towards, Leaky Gut Syndrome does not have anything to do with that synthetic fat substitute that came out in the 80’s whiched caused anal leakage. I suppose that would be called "Leaky Butt Symdrome." Leaky Gut Syndrome is much more dangerous than that. And here’s why:
Quite simply put leaky Gut Syndrome is no more than a nasty inflammation problem. In fact it is inflammation in a big way that is located along the lining of the gastro-intestinal system. The lining of the gut is an extremely important part of the body not only in the digestion and absorption of our food but as a barrier to the outside world. Even though it is located within the confines of our skin it really is still technically touching the outside. This being the case it is surrounded with over half of our immune system. And when the immune system is activated we have inflammation.
In a healthy gut the cells are packed tightly together to form the lining of our intestines. Once our food is broken down appropriately the very small particles are then actively transported through the lining and into the blood to be made into energy. (That’s the short story!) Once the lining of the gut has become inflamed due to infection, drugs/medication/alcohol, food allergies, high cortisol, or a myriad of other things, the cells that make up the lining of the intestines begin to swell and separate just a little. Once this has occurred there is no longer a nice tight junction between the cells and slightly larger particles of food can pass through the lining. As I mentioned before the body is only used to very small particles which it chooses. These larger particles are now recognized as foreign invaders and an immune response is launched against them. This response is inflammatory in nature. So from then on you have a viscous cycle taking place. The more inflammation you have the more the cells allow larger particles to pass through and then more inflammation… Do you see the pattern? Very quickly the things that you like to eat most become damaging to your system and you get more and more inflammation. This is bad news! "Does that mean that I can't eat my Hot Pockets anymore?" Well yes, I think it probably does since the four most allergic foods are egg, soy, dairy and grain. So sorry.
Most people think of inflammation as something that leads to pain like in diverticulitis. And it certainly can. But people get into trouble when the inflammation is low grade and goes under the radar. The body recognizes this inflammation as a stressor on the body and sets the person up for big problems like heart disease, stroke, cancers and again, a myriad of other conditions. Leaky Gut Syndrome is often not noticed by the person, but with some basic tests we can screen for this condition and practice true preventative medicine. And from there you can get this condition under control.
If there is one thing that I want you to take home from this blog entry it is this: The surface area of the gut is enormous and has a huge impact on health in general. Take care of your gut. Do not fill it full of poison (even if it tastes like Hot Pockets!) and keep an eye out for inflammation in the body. Just about all chronic diseases have their start in low grade inflammation. Once the GI system is inflamed the disease pathway is well on its way.
Feel free to contact me with your questions or concerns. Geographical location is not a problem. All of these tests can be done long distance.
Hi
ReplyDeleteI will like to know more about the food you CAN eat when you have this syndrome. I heard that you should not eat yeast.
Any suggested diet?? or tips to follow.
Do you think colon hydrotherapy could help?
Thanks
Michelle, Hong Kong
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the question. It is a good one for sure and I am certain that other people share your concerns. What exactly do you eat if you are reacting to everything under the sun? Unfortunately the queston isn't completely straight forward because everyone will be different, but I will do my best.
The first step is to determine which foods you are reacting to. If you haven't done so already get tested for any sensitivities. If you show up positive for some or all of the major foods all that you can do is try really hard to avoid them for at least 6 months. The key here is to allow the gut to heal and then it should in theory, and if you have covered all your bases, be able to handle the previously offending foods again. It isn't easy eating like a monk I know but remember that it is only for a while.
It is really REALLY important though to deterine if there is an infecton lurking in your digestive tract. If there is then you must kill that first before any true healing can occur. So next on the ticket is to get a complete GI panel done. That bit of info can save you a ton of time and money in the long run.
Lastly look at the various stressors in your life. People with high stress tend to be prone to GI problems. You will need to fix your Adrenal system (stress hormones) as well as the gut.
So having said that, and to answer you question, I would say to stick to very mild foods like rice and steamed veggies. Keep it simple. Avoid soy, most grains, and dairy. I like eggs but if you have an allergy to them certainly avoid them as well. Also stay away from really spicy foods for now. You should take in herbs like gan cao (licorish root). That herb is very benificial to the stomach and intestines.
I don't know what to say about the colon hydrotherapy. It probably couldn't hurt, but the problem lies mostly in the small intestine and I don't think that hydrotherapy reaches that far. I could be wrong. But you should definately supplement with pro-biotics to replace any bad bacteria or infection that is there. These little "good" bacterias also have an anti-inflammatory effect and help the immune system as well as help with proper digestion. Find yourself a good one and take it often!
Hope that helps. Thanks again for the comment.
Sincerely,
Jim Chialtas, L.Ac.
Hi,im only 17 but i have just been told that i have a leaky gut.
ReplyDeleteI have been on a 'Mora' machine which detected it and also the foods i am intolerant to.
my herbalist is great and gave me a list of all the foods which i should stay away from 'dairy..etc' And she told me that my gut should get back to normal, eventually, using the homeopathic medacinies she gave me. but is this true? also can i eat pomengranites?! .
Is leaky gut a serious condition?I would like to get second opinions!
Thanks!! =]
Hi Mina,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question about leaky gut. To answer your question of is it serious or not I would have to say yes, it is a serious condition because it can lead to a lot of other types of seemingly unrelated problems. The bottom line is that if the gut is inflammed then the rest of the body will be inflammed as well. If inflammation all over the body is allowed to go unchecked a ton of other things can start to go wrong. But the good news is that yes, Leaky Gut Syndrome can be fixed. It may not be all that fun, and it may take a little while but with some perserverance you can certainly heal yourself.
As for foods... Yes, in my opinion, you should avoid the foods that you have allergies to for the time being. Any food that you may be allergic to say soy for example will cause more inflammation in the intestines. This will then create larger "gaps" between the cells in your intestines. It is through these gaps that larger proteins can squeeze through into the blood. This is Leaky Gut. The immune system launches an attack and creates more inflammation. We want to close up these larger gaps between the cells to stop the cycle and the first place to start is avoiding the offending foods if possible.
As for pomegranates, I don't realy see why you shouldn't eat them. Pomegranates are hugely antioxidant in nature and therefore anti-inflammatory as well. I haven't heard of them being either good or bad for Leaky Gut, so I say eat them because they are great for everything else.
You should also try taking in some fish oils. They are also very anti-inflammatory in nature and can help.
I don't deal with homeopathic remedies all that much as an acupuncturist, but I can tell you that there are a lot of compounds out there that can help to heal the gut. Deglycrrhizinated Licorice root (DGL)and L-Glutamine for example both have really powerful abilities for healing the gut.
I also recommend looking into a product called Clearvite from Apex. You can look it up online but need to order it from a practitioner. It invloves a 3 week "clense" where you moderate your diet and drink a powder replacement drink. This will really give your gut some time to heal. After that you can supplement with the other things. I can certainly ship this product to you if you are in the US and are interested.
Hope this helps! Good luck with what every you choose to do. Stay at it and you can get better. And please feel free to contact me directly with any questions. I am happy to help.
Sincerely,
Jim Chialtas, L.Ac.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI'm just interested in this subject bec. my doctor, after doing an IGE blood test, told me that I have leaky gut. As a result, for the past month, I have eliminated all wheat and most grains. I wanted to ask you about rice though, bec. I have been told that it is a definite starch and something to avoid. After working with a nurtritionist, though, she said that as long as I soak the rice, I can include it in my diet. Do you have any further comments on this?
thanks so much.
Rachel
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteThat is a good question. IgE's are antibodies made by the immune system. They have been activated by larger than normal particles of a particular food (in this case probably gluten) getting through the lining of the gut and into the blood. The immune system then thinks of the food particles as foreign invaders and launches an attack. This attack is inflammtory in nature and ends up leading to more leaky gut and inflammation. And so on and so on. So it is vital to lower the exposure to the offending foods.
To answer your question about rice, I do not believe that rice contains significant amounts of gluten (or gliadin) and therefore eat away. Washing the rice will help with the starch content, but I don't think that it has much to do with the part you are probably reacting to. IgE itself is not specific to any particular food. So unless your doc tested for IgE against gluten, or soy, or dairy, etc. individually you don't know which foods to avoid.
But if you know that the IgE is for grains you are dealing with the gluten (or gliadin) molecule and you don't need to worry about rice wether it is washed or not.
Hope that helps, and if you need any help getting over the leaky gut condition I would be happy to assist. I can work long distance and can have any products drop shipped directly to you. I have a three week program that works quite well for lowering the inflammation in the gut pretty dramatically.
Thanks for the question,
Jim Chialtas, L.Ac.
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteI am a 32 year-old mother of four, and last year I was diagnosed with leaky gut after long term use of antacids (between pregnancies) and being put on asprin and tetricycling for different ailments in the same year. Anyways, that left me unable to eat for weeks, and after test after test from the GI dctr kept coming back fine, I ended up at a holistic dctr. I still have not completely healed (I had another pregnancy thrown in there), but am now on a very strict diet of protein and veggies and some herbal supplements and enzymes. My question is, will accupunture also help me heal? That is one that I have not tried yet. Also, you talked about a 3 week cleansing. Is that worth it. I'm just concerned about losing more weight. It's hard to keep my weight up with the diet I'm on and I don't have any more to lose. Thanks for your help!
Megan
Hi Megan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question. To answer your question about acupuncture, yes, acupuncture can be very beneficial in more ways than one. Acupuncture is a regualting modality meaning that it is very good at helping the body work in the way that it should. Basic things like helping digestive function, or moving the food through the gut in a more efficient way can all be done with acupuncture. But other than that leaky gut is aninflammatory condition that is driven by adrenal gland disharmonies. Acupuncture can very effectively help with this by moderating how the body deals with stress to the system. I would strongly recommend giving acupuncture a try for your condition.
As for te 3 week clense I would also definately recommend something like this. Most people don't report losing any significant amount of weight. Perhps a pound or three, but not much. You are still eating throught the clense. Besides simple foods there is a protein based powder with all of the detox constituants in it. You are nourishing yourself through it all.
For another question for you... How is your thyroid? Are you by chance hyper-thyroid, or anuto-immune thyroid? Do you have symptoms of anxiety, jitteriness, bulging eyes? And how's your blood sugar? These are all questions that need to be answered for real progress to be made.
Hope this helps. If you would like to discuss anything further more personally please contact me directly. I m happy to help in any way that I can either locally, or abroad.
-Jim Chialtas, L.Ac., MTCM
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteI hope you can help and I really appreciate all the information that you are providing everyone out there who is suffering from this frustrating condition!
My 16 month old daughter has eczema and other rashes all over her body. This has improved drastically by eliminating everything in our diet (I am still nursing), except meat, fish, veggies and some fruit. She will still have a flare up if an offending food slips in a recipe.
I just recently received labwork back that says I have pinworms and blastocystis hominis...both parasites. I also high malabsorption and adrenal fatigue...both from leaky gut. In addition, I have 10 mercury fillings from childhood.
My question is where do I go from here? I'm breastfeeding my daughter and would like to continue, but I'm wondering if my milk (reactions to my histamines, detox from mercury, and/or undigested proteins) are contributing to her rashes. She was also diagnosed as having anemia at her 12 month appointment. Do you have any recommendations for accurate allergy/food sensitivity tests? I want to be sure to eliminate the offending foods before we start the healing process so we don't sabotage our efforts.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you! :)
Hi Mama Natural,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have a complicated case there. I am sorry to hear about all the difficulties! It is defiantely different when there are little ones involved. I have two of my own so I can apreciate your concern.
The first thing that I would recommend is to definately get rid of the gut infections! Any kind of infection in the gut will cause inflammation. And as I mentioned already it is the inflammation that is driving the leaky gut. It is imparitive for you to reduce the inflammation at whatever cost. If that means taking some strong meds from your MD, then this Acupuncturist says go for it. We live in a modern world, and there are cases for modern medicines. It sounds like your situation is complicated so I would support your choice to go big.
As for the mercury fillings. I do recommend getting them replaces as soon as you can. Try and find a holistic dentist who knows how to do this properly. Mercury is a driving force for a lot of nasty health problems.
But as for the food allergies, yes, you probalby have lot of them with the leaky gut. And you may be passing along the elevated immune responses to your child through the breast milk. As nice as it is to breast feed and have that connection, under the circumstances you might want to consider quitting. You will be able to control what goes into your chiild a lot easier that way. You could be feeding her inflammation response making the allergies worse.
There is a great company called Allcat who tests for all kinds of food allergies. The tests aren't very cheap.. Usually between $200 and $800 depending upon what you want to look at. But finding a practitioner in your area who can do that might really help.
So I recommend, fixing the gut by killing off any unwanted nasties in there, replacing with good bacteria (pro-biotics), and repairing the lining with such things as Mastic gum, licorice root, and L-Glutamine. There are complete formulas for this. You might also want to try a 3 week clense to lower inflammation in the GI very quickly. I can help you with all of this.
Good luck and let me konw how I can help.
-jim chialtas, l.ac.
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
ReplyDeleteGreat article, Jim! Thanks for posting :) I'm writing a similar article for my blog and LOVE your description of how the gut is supposed to be functioning vs what happens in LGS. With your permission, I'd like to quote that paragraph directly and will give you credit in the sources list.
ReplyDeleteLemme' know!
Melanie Miller, L.Ac.
Scottsdale, AZ.
www.TurningPointAcupuncture.net
Hi there. Is it common to get red, really itchy, patchy face rashes from leaky gut? I've had it on my chin for 15 months; tip of my nose and recently on a cheekbone and eyelid. It's driving me nuts because I start to itch after a meal and in my sleep. It’s gotten better from the diet as I've been on a super strict one and taking anti candida purging products. It’s been 7 weeks now and I honestly hoped that it would have gone away. So now I’m guessing that my gut is really bad if it’s taking this long. I’ve been on so many meds this 15 months from all the Derm’s prescribing this and that and no one has given me an answer. I’ve had acupuncture treatments at two different doctors. I’ve noticed a difference in both practices. The latter…used some tool to puncture tiny holes in the rash. She told me this would release the toxins buildup. It looks worse now. I have one other session with her and wondered if she’s helping or hurting. I asked her about Chinese face mapping and she said it made no difference where the rashes showed up. The other acupuncturist said that my cheek indicated Kidney, Chin…liver…eye lid…spleen and tip of nose…digestive. Any advice?
ReplyDeleteYes, skin conditions like what you describe are quite common when there is a leaky gut... Or any gut inflammatory condition. Many cultures throughout history to present link the gut and skin together. I don't have any opinion about pricking the skin or not. I would probably tend to not prick if it were me. However I do not have the luxury of seeing the skin first hand.
ReplyDeleteAs far as advice goes, I would recommend doing a gut repair program like the one I describe in my latest post. I can help you long distance if you like with something like this. Feel free to get in touch anytime and we can have a chat about it.