Are you leaking?

Your gut that is - it doesn’t conjure up a very pleasant image does it? What exactly is it and how can it affect your health?

The gut barrier is comprised of three major lines of defence:

1.     The mechanical barrier (the gut cells themselves, that, all being well, interlock tightly together – called “tight junctions”)

2.     The biological barrier (your good bacteria)

3.     The immune barrier (your immune cells) - called “Gut associated lymphoid tissue, or “GALT” to keep it easy!

When these things are all working well together, there is tight control over what gets absorbed into your bloodstream, and then into other cells and organs in your body.

An unhealthy gut lining may have large “holes” in it, allowing food to be absorbed that hasn’t been fully digested (we see this often presenting as food allergies); toxins being absorbed that just shouldn’t, and bacteria, yeasts and parasites penetrating where they shouldn’t. 

You may have heard of leaky gut before – this is exactly what is happening when one of the three barriers isn’t working well.  Inflammation is triggered, along with changes in your healthy, protective gut flora that leads to problems throughout your body (including your skin).

The gut barrier is supposed to be able to transmit things across it, of course!  We need to absorb nutrients from our food, but modern lifestyles have driven an epidemic of inflammation traceable to changes in the gut lining. 

Even our medical specialists in gut health, gastroenterologists, are noticing the rapid rise of inflammatory gut conditions such as Ulcerative Colitis,  Crohn’s disease, IBS and more, presenting as pain, looseness, constipation, bloating, reflux and much more.

What are some of the key players that are contributing to the epidemic of gut health problems: 

• Stress has a big role to play here, as it affects how we eat and how we absorb our food. Given that the brain needs to prepare the body for food, by telling the gut to produce stomach acid, enzymes and bile, what do you think our takeaway food culture is doing for our gut health?  There is often no time for the brain to achieve these things, so food lands, often poorly chewed, in a gut that isn’t ready to receive it. 

• Mono-culture food (meaning a lack of variety)

• Highly processed foods

• Lack of nutrients that help you digest food and keep your gut lining happy (e.g. zinc)

• Infections that have damaged your gut lining

And the symptoms? Many, but here are some of the more common ones:

Abdominal pain, food sensitivities (often increasing), bloating, indigestion, gas, a burning feeling in your gut, diarrhoea and low energy

So what do you do about it?

There are so many gut healing protocols available online that I am overwhelmed as an experienced practitioner, so I can only imagine how this feels to someone reading about them who hasn’t had training. Because I’ve worked in this area for over seventeen years, I have a pretty good idea of what doesn’t work, and have honed in on the things that have the highest success rate.

Testing is not always necessary, but I have access to the best tests available also if we need to go there.

Let’s make 2023 the year of the gut (not a chinese animal year, a human organ year!). As well, not instead of - we don’t want to upset anybody.

Let me know if you want to know more about my protocols, and how I assess what’s actually going on for you.

flourishonline@gmail.com and you’ll get an answer.

Tracey.