Heal your Gut, Heal your Life

If you haven't noticed, I've been placing a great deal of emphasis on the gut—and for good reason. Science has shown that poor gut health is tied to many metabolic and chronic conditions. Plus, we’ve learned that nearly 80 percent of your immune system lives in the gut, and 90 percent of your serotonin (the neurotransmitter that regulates mood, digestion, and sleep) is produced there as well.

But today there are a number of insults that attack our gut on a regular basis. Some of them, like our diet, we have control over, but others, like environmental toxins, will find us whether we want them to or not (although there are ways to limit our exposure). This has led to an overwhelming amount of people suffering from a condition known as “leaky gut,” which likely affects all of us to some degree.

Let's talk more about leaky gut—what it is, what causes it, and how to treat it.

What Is Leaky Gut?

The only thing that separates your digestive system from your bloodstream is the lining of your gut and stomach. This lining acts as a barrier to selectively allow certain crucial nutrients to pass into your bloodstream through what are called “tight junctions”.

When these junctions are damaged, they begin to allow particles through the gut into the bloodstream that aren’t supposed to be there. This condition is known as increased intestinal permeability, or “leaky gut.”

Harmful bacteria, viruses, and even food proteins can pass through a leaky gut. When this happens, the immune system, which does not expect to find foreign material in the blood, responds by launching an attack that can result in a full-blown autoimmune attack or trigger allergies or sensitivities, which can all lead to widespread, chronic inflammation.

What Causes Leaky Gut?

Leaky gut is the result of the gut lining being under chronic, long-term assault. There is no single cause of the disorder, but a number of things can contribute to it, such as:

• Overuse of antibiotics and medications

• Environmental toxins or toxic burden load

• Poor diet and chronic stress

• Glyphosate and other chemical pesticides

• Gluten (protein found in)

• Bacterial imbalances

How Can I Know If I Have Leaky Gut?

If you think you might have a leaky gut, there are a number of indicators to look out for. Symptoms that can indicate leaky gut include:

• GI discomfort, including chronic diarrhea, constipation, and bloating

• Skin conditions such as eczema or acne

• Joint pain or arthritis

• Autoimmune or neurological disorders

• Headaches, fatigue, or "ADHD"

• Vitamin or mineral deficiencies

• Hormonal or mood imbalances

How to Heal a Leaky Gut

The only way to heal a leaky gut is to isolate and remove the underlying causes. I always recommend working with a Functional Medicine provider who can run the right tests to uncover the root causes of your unique challenge. Once you successfully find and remove (or limit) the root causes, you can repair and rebuild your microbiome.

Removing the bad. The first step in healing leaky gut is to identify and remove its potential causes. Because a poor diet is often a contributing factor, an elimination diet is a good place to start to see if certain foods are part of the problem. You can remove known inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy, and soy, as well as gut-busting foods that contain sugar, food additives (artificial colors, preservatives, thickeners, and stabilizers) and alcohol.

In addition, consider reducing or eliminating non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), unnecessary antibiotics and steroids, and acid blockers (in cooperation with your doctor, of course).

Finally, if you believe environmental toxins might be a cause, take steps to mitigate or eliminate them as much as you can. This might mean getting rid of plastic bottles and containers, purchasing a high-quality water filtration system, and choosing non-toxic personal care and cleaning products.

Repairing the damage. Once you’ve successfully identified the root causes, it’s now time to repair and rebuild a healthy gut. The primary way to do this is to promote your healthy gut bacteria with “biome-builders”—gut-healing foods the good bugs will love.

You can promote healthy gut bacteria by working on adding the following foods to your diet:

• Fiber. Aim for at least 25 grams of fiber daily from your organic vegetables, not processed grains.

• Veggies. Eat an abundance of polyphenol-rich veggies daily. Aim to fill your plate three-fourths full with non-starchy veggies for every meal. Try to eat organic whenever possible, or follow the EWG’s Clean Fifteen or Dirty Dozen produce list.

• Prebiotics. Include plenty of prebiotic foods such as artichokes, garlic, onions, leeks, dandelion greens or tea, jicama, chicory root, and asparagus.

• Probiotic foods. Include plenty of probiotic foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, fermented soy, unsweetened yogurt or kefir, miso, and natto.

• Bone broth. Include grass-fed bone broth for a gut-healing boost.

• Supplements. Consider adding supplements to help with leaky gut like zinc or curcumin. These supplements will help support digestion and nutrient absorption and your body’s inflammation responses. (Shop Bulletproof supplements here & use the code HEALTH20 at checkout for 20% off)

Over 1,500 years ago, Hippocrates said that “all diseases begin in the gut"...the data shows he’s still right today. Yet we live in an era where the gut is attacked constantly. We are all likely affected to some degree by leaky gut, but the good news is we aren’t powerless. We can take action to give our guts what they need to thrive, and in turn, they will return the favor.

I encourage you to use this article as motivation to do a “gut check” on yourself and see what improvements you can adopt to live a longer, better life—starting today.