What causes a leaky gut?
Conditions and symptoms like irritable bowel syndrome, stomach pain, bloating, food intolerances, and GERD, among others, are on the rise.
Why is this?
Much of this has to do with our rapidly changing environment and diet. Everything from how we eat, sleep, deal with stress, the air we breathe in, the water we drink, and more is dramatically different from how even our grandparents lived. But more specifically, how we live today impacts our gut health like never before.
Those conditions may seem like mere nuisances, but the effects of a leaky gut can negatively impact your health and worsen over the years to cause chronic illness, significantly if you can’t slow, stop, or reverse the damage that starts in your gut and spreads throughout your entire body.
Five Contributing Factors That Lead To Leaky Gut
1. Dysbiosis
Within our digestive tract lives over 400 different species of 100 trillion bacteria – also known as the microbiome – which all have unique abilities. Our bacteria are broken up into both good and bad bacteria. And while it sounds odd to have “bad bacteria,” it’s generally not a problem since the good bacteria keep them in line.
Depending on various factors, the harmful bacteria can start multiplying, outnumbering the good bacteria and causing inflammation. As inflammation sets in, the permeability of the tight junctions in your digestive tract weakens, increasing intestinal permeability (leaky gut) that allows toxins, undigested food, and even viruses to enter your bloodstream.
Modern medicine deals with this by using antibiotics—no doubt about it. Antibiotics work! They’ve been shown to reduce gut bacteria to one-tenth, or simply put, it kills 90 percent of bacteria in your gut. But there’s a catch. Antibiotics destroy both good and bad bacteria, and it can take six months for your good bacteria to regrow. Sadly, some strains don’t always come back on their own.
2. Poor diet
Poor eating habits are associated with diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions. New research suggests a poor diet — the standard American diet — can worsen a leaky gut. The following foods, staples of the standard American diet, are foods you want to watch out for:
- Processed grains: Most grains, even whole grains, promote inflammation and auto-immune diseases by increasing intestinal permeability.
- Refined Sugars: Added sugar staggers the balance of the gut bacteria, increasing inflammation and promoting endotoxin levels in the blood, which increases intestinal permeability.
- Genetically modified organisms (GMOs): While GMO manufacturers say their crops are safe for humans, GMOs have been shown to kill cells while also poking holes through the gut lining.
3. Acidity
Eating a diet high in acidic foods —most of the standard American diet — can weaken your digestion and increase intestinal permeability by disrupting your natural pH balance.
Although foods play a significant role in pH balance, other things also impact levels of acidity or alkalinity. Habits like drinking unfiltered water (heavy metals and toxins are acidic), medications, whether prescribed or over the counter, and breathing through your mouth can put your body in a state of acid overload.
4. Prolonged Stress
The longer you endure a stressful situation, the more it impacts your mind and digestion. Chronic or long periods of stress contribute to dysbiosis. Leaky gut syndrome is the enemy of gut health. For people who endure stress for a long time, the barrier between their gut and the rest of their body gets weaker and becomes leaky. This allows undigested food particles, bacteria, and germs to escape the gut and enter the bloodstream, which causes chronic inflammation. This is why leaky gut syndrome is so dangerous. A leaky gut can even increase your risk of other health problems like autoimmune disease. Luckily, there’s a way to protect your gut from stress, leaky gut, and all the negative things that come with them.
5. General Toxic Overload
Other things can cause leaky gut that most people don’t think twice about:
- Alcohol – Regardless of its form, alcohol is full of metabolites that damage the large intestine and the liver by causing inflammation.
- Smoking – Smoking changes the gut bacteria negatively, increasing gut permeability and making the user more prone to diseases like Crohn’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and ulcerative colitis.
- Personal care products – Everyday products, from lotions to deodorants and makeup, contain ingredients, like formaldehyde, that disrupt your microbiome, leading to dysbiosis.
Simple Steps To Follow For Better Gut Health
While it may feel overwhelming, there are simple steps you can take to help heal your digestion.
Here’s a short list of things you can do,
- Replenish after taking antibiotics: This can help replenish good bacteria quickly since antibiotics kill off good and bad gut bacteria.
- Eat foods that support your microbiome: Fermented and fiber-rich foods have been shown to help a healthy gut, especially onions and garlic.
- Find ways to relax: Regardless of why you’re stressed, you should always find ways to manage whatever is going on in your life. This can include meditating, hanging out with friends, or doing something fun with the family. In addition, taking small breaks can be a real-life saver when keeping long-term stress in check.
- Eat more alkaline foods and less acidic ones: What you eat daily can significantly impact your gut health. Switching to less acidic foods like buckwheat, fruits, vegetables, fish — high in omega-3s, and other alkaline foods will give your digestion a much-needed break.
To heal your gut, you need to focus on taking probiotics, colostrum, digestive enzymes, and G.I. Essentials. G.I. Essentials is designed to support and heal your G.I. tract.
G.I. Essentials is the most advanced formula today for optimal gastrointestinal health. It has been designed to support gut health, soothe the digestive tract lining, promote regularity and microbial balance, and support proper immune function.
G.I. Essentials is the only formula of its kind to combine:
- L-Glutamine at 5000 mg per serving fuels intestinal cells and maintains villi.
- Arabinogalactans at 1000 mg per serving support the immune system, aid regularity, and support the production of beneficial bacteria.
- Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) Root (DGL) at 500 mg per serving to help soothe the gut wall.
- Aloe Vera Leaf Extract supports the body’s ability to heal the lining of the stomach and keep the folds and pockets of the colon free of toxic material that gathers there.
- Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra) Bark at 200 mg per serving to reduce bowel transit time, absorb toxins from the bowel, increase fecal bulk, and enhance beneficial bacteria in the gut.
- Zinc Carnosine at 100 mg per serving helps stabilize small bowel integrity, stimulate gut repair processes, and help minimize free radical damage to gastric mucosal cells.
- Marshmallow (Althaea Officinalis) Root at 100 mg per serving helps soothe the gut.
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