Leaky Gut

What is it?

What’s it look like?

What can be done about it?

Doesn’t sound too ladylike, that “Leaky Gut.” Does it? And honestly, having personally endured it, I can attest it is not. It’s, well, it’s leaky and it cascaded into a myriad of even less appealing health challenges for me.

I’ve lived through the proverbial “Valley of the Shadow of Leaky Gut” and write this short synopsis to teach you a bit about this buzz phrase

What is it?

• Leaky Gut is a nickname for a condition called “Intestinal Permeability.”
• The connection between your Intestines and Immune System is real. 70-80% of immunity is located in the gut as a large network of lymph tissue referred to in an acronym, GALT (gut associated lymph tissue).
• The digestive system is comprised of cells, proteins, tissues and organs which work in harmony to create a barrier that defends the body against harmful bacteria, infectious disease, pathogens and toxins.
• Gut mucosa (think snot inside your intestines), connects with the largest concentration of immune cells in the body! These are known as gastrointestinal immune cells and they come from the lymphatic branch of the immune system.
• A healthy gut functions like a filter keeping bad things (candida albicans, partially digested food particles, pathogenic yeasts, bacteria, parasites, viruses, toxins) out of your bloodstream while allowing good thins (nutrients) to travel into the bloodstream.

What’s it look like?

• Like snot inside a water hose that has holes poked in it. More elementary than elementary in terms, it’s true!
• Think of your intestines like a water hose; an opening on each end, sealed throughout the length of the tube. Now, think of Leaky Gut as a soaker hose; an opening on each end, but holes throughout allowing water to seep out and soak the surrounding area. That’s a picture of Leaky Gut.
• In Leaky Gut, the spaces between the cells lining your intestines (called Tight Junctions) serve as doorways between your gut and your bloodstream.
• Sometimes, Tight Junctions malfunction and “open,” so to speak. This allows offenders to seep through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream.
• This seepage, or leaking, can caues the immune system to mount a response which can lead to inflammation, aches/pains, gastrointestinal disturbance, food sensitivities, auto-immunity, allergies, skin conditions, mood/behavior disorders, hormone, respiratory and nutrient mal-absorption problems.

What can be done about it?

• Through tailored testing and evaluation by a qualified healthcare practitioner, identify and avoid Leaky Gut triggers: Fear and Feeling Unloved, Food Sensitivities, Chronic Stress, the Standard American Diet, Environmental Toxins and Pathogens.
• Use antibiotics judiciously and probiotics religiously.
• Follow a therapeutic dietary plan – coupled with supplements and lifestyle changes – to target restoring the valuable and potentially lifesaving mucosal lining of the intestines.

What you probably won’t hear from your Doctor…

The Bible says much about health and nutrition, and I love teaching you scientific links between our body and the Bible! Did you know that fear, an old fashioned word for stress and anxiety, inhibits proper digestion? As a little girl, piano competitions would give me butterflies in my stomach. That’s one example of our gut responding to nervous thoughts and feelings. Or, put more accurately; it’s our gut responding to a spirit of fear.

God did not give us a spirit of fear. God gave us a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

And if we know that the majority of our immunity lies within our digestive tract, we can surmise that fear weakens immunity.  We can also surmise that stress, anxiety, the go-go-go style of living so commonplace in Western culture, the childhood pains of life that add up to a burdened adult heart all contribute to compromised gut function and compromised immunity. It only takes a quick Google search to gather a long list of diseases even the most non-religious physician links to fear, stress and anxiety.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4

What do I do from here?

• Prudence might tell you to seek counsel from qualified healthcare individuals about whether or not your health struggles are rooted in Leaky Gut.
• Wisdom would tell you to seek the Creator and His Word, the Bible, to learn about His love for you that casts outs fear and brings full restoration.
• I would tell you to stay in peace.

Love,
Jessica