When it comes to the Leaky Gut scenario it isn't always one thing that leads up to it and when you have it, Leaky Gut isn't a single thing but a myriad of things going on at the same time. It can be hard for our western mind to wrap our head around it.
Let me give you a common scenario I see in my office. An individual goes through a stressful time in their life, whether it was a big event (e.i. divorce, tough job, job loss, etc) or a stressful time period. The increased stress causes the release of stress hormones, Cortisol and Catecholamines. These are survival hormones, good when you need to survive but they are catabolic, meaning they will break things down, so if they are present over a long period of time things start to break down. Stress hormones down regulate systems of the body that aren't as important during survival, the best examples that have to do with Leaky Gut are the immune system and the digestive systems.
Both these systems take a lot of energy and resources to run so during survival mode the energy and resources are used elsewhere at least that is what the stress hormones are communicating. These down regulated systems start to struggle after awhile, the digestive tract isn't digesting as robustly, the Stomach loses acid and its strong pH, enzymes to break down food aren't manufactured as readily. Food doesn't get digested as well as it should, resulting in undigested proteins, fats and sugars. This is part of the problem because it can end up being used as food for unwanted microorganisms like yeast and bacteria in the Small and Large Intestine. Also the struggling digestive tract loses some of its defenses leading to easier inoculation of undesirable microorganisms that can make their home in the GI tract, some common examples include H. Pylori a bacteria that can stay in the stomach, another example is Yeast or Candida which will wreak havoc in the lower GI.
The Immune system is a huge player in the GI tract a very high percentage of the immune system guards the GI tract, that is where we are exposed to the outside world and we need protection. The stress hormones, like we mentioned, also down regulate the immune system, take its resources causing to work less effective and efficiently. This is a problem when coupled with the struggling digestive tract. The stress hormones themselves can initiate a leaky gut, the constant exposure will cause the cells to retract, breakdown and cause gaps in between the usually tightly bound cells. This gives space for things to sneak past the selective process of the cells of the intestinal lining. Lack of selectivity allows for things that normally wouldn't pass through into the blood supply to get into our inside world. A lot of things haven't been broken down properly to a level the cells of the body can use, they have no place to got but to be broken down in the liver or for the immune system to break them down. The thing is when the immune system breaks it down it marks it as a bad guy, which is a point at which we can acquire food sensitivities.
We will also over burden our liver, which can cause congestion and a backing up of the lymph. The two worst scenarios that evolve are the development of food sensitivities and the inoculation and infestation of microorganism. Food sensitivities can be acquired in this scenario, usually foods we are exposed to a lot, the immune system is working less efficiently and in attempts to protect us and/or support the liver that is backed up by cleaning up parts of the body that has junk let in from the leaky gut, we will acquire food sensitivities. This creates a vicious cycle because every exposure to the substance creates an immune response in the form of inflammation, inflammation in the GI tract can cause a leaky gut scenario where the cells that line the digestive tract, retract or get damaged, creating gaps between cells and decreased selectivity of what is being brought into the blood supply of our body.
The infestation of microorganisms happens because the immune system is weakened, the digestive tract's protective barriers are weakened, the sluggish digestion creates food for the bugs also, so it is also a vicious cycle created that perpetuates itself. The infestation causes low grade infection and constant inflammation. Inflammation causes a leaky gut scenario. Now we have undetected food sensitivities and low grade, constant infections of microorganisms which we also call dysbiosis, both causing a vicious cycle of inflammation and a leaky digestive tract.
So many patients say: "I never had any issues until 3 years ago."
I ask: "What happened 3 years ago?"
"That is when my divorce started" or "That is when I lost my job." "but what does that have to do with my symptoms?"
I say: "It has a lot to do with it" and then I walk them through the above scenario. We use various tests to confirm which will be discussed in future posts. All the above scenarios will be discussed individually and in detail on this blog, with current research to support it. Not all Leaky Gut scenarios are explained by the above example, it is a common sequence of events though. Other scenarios, like parasites, heavy metals and other toxins exposure, and genetics will also be discussed. And strategies to support and help the body to heal from the Leaky Gut scenario will be discussed.
