If you read much about health, you know about controversial diagnoses. The list might start with candida overgrowth, food sensitivities, and toxic mold syndrome and end with adrenal fatigue, heavy metal toxicity, chronic Lyme, and multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because controversial conditions aren\u2019t routinely covered in medical textbooks, they can easily fly under the radar of your doctor\u2019s medical education. Worse yet, these diagnoses often aren\u2019t accepted as \u201creal\u201d by a majority of conventionally trained physicians. Even today, far too many doctors disbelieve the very existence of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaky gut syndrome, also known as intestinal hyperpermeability, is a disorder that never appeared in any medical textbook I ever encountered, and I\u2019ve not seen articles about it in JAMA<\/em> or the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>. I first learned of its existence at an integrative medicine meeting many years ago, and since then I\u2019ve encountered it numerous times in patients with previously undiagnosed chronic conditions. But when I mention leaky gut to gastroenterologists I know professionally, they always respond with a variation of \u201cI read about it somewhere\u201d and end it at that, sort of a last gasp of intellectual curiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaky gut was first described in a South African medical journal in the 1980s by a physician dealing with the consequences of intestinal parasites and chronic diarrhea. To this day, most new research on it emerges from medical journals outside the US. Now, decades later, because Stephen Barrett, MD, America\u2019s self-appointed quackbuster, wrote the Wikipedia entry on leaky gut<\/a>, it\u2019s listed among his other fad diagnoses and referred to as a \u201cdishonest ploy to make money\u201d even as perfectly respectable medical and scientific journals overseas are publishing scholarly reviews of it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In leaky gut disorder, any of several triggers damages the lining of the small intestine, where most food is absorbed. The single most common of these triggering agents is an irritating food. This isn\u2019t necessarily a food allergy, but rather a food sensitivity. Let\u2019s say you\u2019re sensitive to the gluten in wheat. Every time you eat a wheat product it irritates and inflames the lining of your intestine. Ultimately, this constant inflammation damages the protective barrier between the lining of your intestine and your bloodstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After weeks or months of this low-level inflammation, the intestinal lining becomes increasingly porous, and large molecules that were once kept away from your bloodstream now leak through. Depending on your individual intestinal lining susceptibility, other irritating triggers include dairy, egg, corn, citrus, soy, and various chemicals, additives, and preservatives. Non-food triggers include NSAIDs like ibuprofen and naproxen, alcohol, intestinal parasites, and candida. Chronic intestinal inflammatory diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn\u2019s also often have a leaky gut component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When your immune system, ever on the alert for foreign invaders like viruses and bacteria, IDs the large molecules (called \u201cmacromolecules\u201d) as the enemy it generates antibodies to clear them out of your body. These antibodies attach themselves to the macromolecules, just as they would to a virus or bacteria, creating what\u2019s called an antigen-antibody complex (an antigen is a foreign body that can trigger an immune response).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This antigen-antibody complex circulates through your body, becoming trapped in certain susceptible areas and immediately causing trouble by triggering local inflammation. For example, if caught within the microscopically small blood vessels in your skin, you can get a rash like eczema or psoriasis. Trapped in your lungs, you might develop symptoms of asthma. In your nasal passages, chronic sinusitis; in your joints–especially the small joints in your hands and wrists–joint pain, swelling, and stiffness; in your nervous system, brain fog and symptoms not unlike multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, in place of localized symptoms you might feel a constellation of symptoms like vague fatigue, brain fog, indigestion, and weight gain from fluid retention. The False Fat Diet<\/em><\/a>, by Elson M Haas, MD, blames much of America\u2019s obesity on undetected leaky gut syndrome, since all this newly generated inflammation causes a lot of fluid retention (hence \u201cfalse fat\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diagnosing leaky gut isn\u2019t difficult, but can only occur if your doctor is willing to recognize and suspect the possibility. Patients who have virtually any chronic symptom to which a doctor has responded \u201cWe can\u2019t find anything wrong with you–your tests are normal,\u201d should be on the lookout for leaky gut, even if their docs aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Find an integrative physician to help you with this protocol:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These two tests are usually covered in part by health insurance, but a third very useful test isn\u2019t covered by any policy I\u2019m aware of, though its out-of-pocket price has dropped considerably. Also, if you have a health savings account, you can cover it from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019ve located your leaky gut triggers and clear them, your intestine will start to heal itself. However, you can also take several steps to speed the process.\u00a0Our nutritionists at WholeHealth Chicago have created a highly effective nutritional program to quickly heal leaky gut. I\u2019ve seen many patients with undiagnosed chronic ill health simply blossom under this program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to avoiding trigger foods and clearing parasites or candida, a typical regimen for leaky gut also includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s mildly irritating that 20 years after the original description of intestinal hyperpermeability and scores of articles in medical journals worldwide that conventional US physicians, especially gastroenterologists, are so reluctant to explore this condition further. Oh well, who needs \u2018em?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be well, If you read much about health, you know about controversial diagnoses. The list might start with candida overgrowth, food sensitivities, and toxic mold syndrome and end with adrenal fatigue, heavy metal toxicity, chronic Lyme, and multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome. Because controversial conditions aren\u2019t routinely covered in medical textbooks, they can easily fly under the radar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,29,226,296,3,314,2346],"tags":[1511,1737,816,1738,1739],"class_list":["post-6576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-digestion","category-immune-system","category-inflammation","category-knowledge-base","category-l","category-mold-toxicity","tag-hyperpermeability","tag-immune-response","tag-inflammation","tag-intestinal-permeability","tag-leaky-gut"],"yoast_head":"\r\nHere\u2019s what happens with leaky gut<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Now the trouble begins<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Leaky gut diagnosis<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Healing leaky gut<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
David Edelberg, MD<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"