Leaky Gut Syndrome and Viable Solutions
Like me, Anna struggled with digestive issues affecting her physical and mental health for many years. Gut health is critical for our well-being and life satisfaction. The health of our gut also affects our thoughts, emotions, and behaviour as there is a connection between the gut and the brain. Thus, gut health and mental health are closely related. This article provides a high-level overview of the leaky gut syndrome and practical solutions for a specific case as an example.
Anna’s common symptoms were heartburn, abdominal bloating, distension, fatigue, chronic stress, inflammation, and allergies, causing physical disturbances and emotional stress. After some meals, she felt worse. But, in her mind, she always ate healthy food. Anna practiced a Mediterranean diet, cooked at home, and refrained from fast foods and junk food.
In addition, she gained sustained weight in recent years. Despite her so-called healthy eating and exercise, she could not lose weight. Her waistline grew day by day. Her belly fat also affected her mood. Her family doctors kept prescribing anti-acids to reduce symptoms, worsening her situation. But unfortunately, suppressing symptoms did not allow addressing the root causes.
One day in desperation, Anna went to a health shop to try some herbal supplements as recommended by one of her friends. A naturopath in the health shop listened to her case and refrained from selling any products. He suggested Anna see a functional medicine doctor who can focus on gut health. Anna had never heard about functional medicine doctors before. She followed the naturopath’s advice to see the recommended one.
After listening to her symptoms, the functional medicine doctor looked at her issues holistically. He obtained Anna’s medical history from her family doctor. He also ordered various blood, urine, and faeces tests. After a thorough assessment, this specialist and the integrative doctor diagnosed Anna’s situation as a leaky gut syndrome. Thus, he created a comprehensive plan to solve her condition naturally and sustainably.
In this article, I summarize Anna’s solution plan under five categories. Interestingly, none of the solutions required any medicine or medical procedure. Instead, after identifying symptoms and root causes, the integrative healthcare professional helped Anna fix her leaky gut naturally with simple lifestyle changes with input from numerous specialists.
First, I’d like to provide a brief background on the leaky gut syndrome to set the context of my article. Our gut has around 4,000 square feet of the epithelial lining. The gut lining controls the harmful substances entering the bloodstream. If the delicate epithelial lining is damaged, harmful materials might enter our bloodstream causing autoimmune responses and inflammation. The denture in the epithelial lining is referred leaky gut. In medical literature, the common term for it is “increased intestinal permeability” or “intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction”.
As documented in this medical paper, “Intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction and increased permeability have been described in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, liver cirrhosis, acute pancreatitis, primary biliary cholangitis, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic heart failure, depression, and other diseases.”
Here is the summary of the five-step plan for naturally fixing Anna’s leaky gut.
1 — An Elimination and Customised Diet
Anna shared her diet with the functional medicine doctor. She said she always ate healthy food following a Mediterranean diet, including plenty of plant foods, seafood, poultry, a little red meat, and healthy fats, mainly olive oil, avocados, and butter. However, according to the specialist doctor having a healthy diet did not necessarily protect the patients from gut issues. Anna learned that healthy food for a person might be unhealthy for another person.
During the assessment process, Anna learned that some plant molecules such as lectins, oxalates, phytotoxins, glycosides, mycotoxins, solanines, and furocoumarins could affect the epithelial lining in her gut. The physician mentioned that some people could tolerate them, but some could not. Therefore, he recommended an elimination diet, referring Anna to a qualified dietician and an allergy specialist.
Assessing Anna’s report from the allergist and her diet, the dietician planned a customized diet by removing specific food that he suspected one at a time for a few weeks. He asked Anna to keep a journal during the period. They identified a few culprits that Anna’s body did not tolerate. Removing them from her diet was an excellent start for Anna. Her significant symptoms disappeared. Like me, Anna believed that a customized diet was essential for a healthy life.
2 — Measuring Biological Markers
The functional medicine doctor ordered various special tests for Anna, including blood, urine, and faeces. Her family doctor hasn’t ordered such tests for her before. The labs provided the critical analysis for the doctor to understand Anna’s gut and overall digestive health. The test depicted intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction and identified her chronic inflammation and autoimmune responses. The analysis of tests helped the doctor refine the solution plan.
3 — Increasing Stomach Acid
Adequate stomach acid is essential for digestion. After the test, one of the culprits was Anna’s stomach was not producing enough acid to digest food. With guidance from the dietician and naturopath, Anna was prescribed to use some stomach acid-building solutions. She mentioned apple cider vinegar, herbal tinctures, and digestive enzymes.
4 — Use of Collagen and Gelatin
The solution plan provided by the functional medicine doctor and the dietician included supplementing with natural collagen and gelatin, (Gelatin is a protein made from animal collagen, usually from cows and pigs. It’s commonly used to make capsules, cosmetics, ointments, and foods Collagen is one of the materials that make up cartilage, bone, and skin. Taking gelatin might increase the production of collagen in the body).
Anna learned that the proteins in gelatin could support the intestinal wall building the protective mucus lining in the intestines.
She used the supplements for several months to fix the dentures in the epithelial lining of her gut. Next, the naturopath advised her to drink bone broth rich in collagen and gelatin daily. Initially, she bought some from the health shop.
However, commercial bone broth in Australian health shops was expensive. She learned to prepare her bone broth at home using a slow cooker by buying cheap bones from her butcher to address the cost problem. A bag of bone was only $2, allowing her a weak’s supply. I shared my experience with collagen and gelatin in a story titled My Testimony of Hydrolyzed Collagen.
5 — Boosting Microbiota Colonies
Based on faecal tests, the last item in the functional medicine doctor’s plan was boosting Anna’s gut flora to improve her digestive health sustainably.
He referred Anna to a microbiome specialist who designed a tailored probiotic and prebiotic formula including various microbiota streams to improve the composition of the bacterial communities in her gut.
Anna used the prescribed supplements for six months. The tests after that period showed improvement in her gut flora. Her digestive discomfort disappeared. In addition, her skin got smoother.
What Else Happened After Anna’s Leaky Gut Fixed?
Following the repair of Anna’s leaky gut, both her physical and mental health impressively improved. She experienced the following eight benefits.
1 — Her heartburn, bloating, and distension disappeared.
2 — Her allergies and food intolerance vanished.
3 — Her inflammation markers improved.
4 — Her mood enhanced to a cheerful one.
5 — Her sleep quality improved and chronic stress reduced.
6 — Her food craving disappeared.
7 — Her skin got smoother, and her hair got shinier.
8 — She lost 50 pounds after a year.
Conclusions and Takeaways.
Anna’s story resonated with me as I also suffered from leaky gut syndrome in my younger years. The culprit in my case was some plant molecules and fibre. Unfortunately, even though plant fibre was usually good for many people, my body did not tolerate it. I shared my problem and solution in this article titled I Naturally Fixed My Leaky Gut.
A leaky gut not only affects the digestive system but also impacts our metabolic and mental health. For example, one of the reasons for Anna to lose substantial weight naturally after fixing her leaky gut was to reduce chronic stress and inflammation in the body. As a result, her cortisol levels significantly dropped, and finally, her metabolic hormones like insulin, leptin, and growth hormones got balanced. But unfortunately, elevated cortisol levels for a long time her body insulin resistance and prevented her from losing accumulated visceral fat.
Understanding the symptoms of a leaky gut syndrome is the first critical point. The next consideration is to find the root causes with support from qualified healthcare professionals. There might be various causes for different people. For Anna, the root causes were offending food, insufficient stomach acid, and poor microbiota. The five-step plan designed by the qualified medical professional with the help of a few specialists solved her problem naturally and sustainably.
Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include health or professional advice. I shared my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only for information. If you have disease symptoms, please consult your healthcare professionals.
