The Gut: The Final Frontier
Hippocrates once said, “All disease begins in the gut.”
As it turns out, he was dead right.
In a February, 2016 article titled, “The Gut Microbiota and Host Health: A New Clinical Frontier,” researchers describe the vast sea of potential cures for disease we are on the brink of finding through study of the human gut as something akin to our discovery of the Milky Way:
Imagine the scenario: a scientist at a conference claims to have found a new organ in the human body. It is comparable to the immune system in as much as it is made up of a collection of cells, it contains a 100 times more genes than the host, is host-specific, contains heritable components, can be modified by diet, surgery or antibiotics, and in its absence nearly all aspects of host physiology are affected. While this may seem far-fetched, it is the current situation in which we find ourselves. We now realise that the human microbiota is an overlooked system that makes a significant contribution to human biology and development. Moreover, there is good evidence that humans co-evolved a requirement for their microbiota.
In other words, we should have listened to Hippocrates . . . perhaps all or our major diseases today do begin in the gut, and perhaps we can use the gut to cure disease as well.
Could the Cure for Autism, Lupus and MS Lie in Gut Health?
Because of all we have learned about the gut in the past 20 years, the 21st century may well be the century we cure all kinds of diseases, from cancer, to infectious bacterial and viral infections, to rheumatoid arthritis, to diabetes, and a long list of other autoimmune diseases.
Why?
We have finally pinpointed the gut as the source of most of our most pervasive problems, especially autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes, which progresses into so many other deadlier diseases.
Here, in this first part of the guide, I want to try to capture the essence of the complexity and the cunning of the enemy we face if we want to defend gut health because if you want to conquer the enemies destroying gut health, you must first understand them.
See, all of our best artillery was hurtling the wrong direction.
You would think that science would have looked to the gut earlier, since the bulk of our immune cells are there (70%). But instead, and hopefully this will change, doctors have focused on specific organs affected by the autoimmune disorder, instead of at the very origin, the cause of the autoimmune disease itself. Instead, they are treating organ-specific symptoms.
And they medicate them . . . With poisons.
As most conventional medicine does . . .
And here’s the problem with this approach—
When you have an autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto’s disease, you’ll see an endocrinologist, and if you have Crohn’s or colitis, a gastroenterologist for celiac disease, a nephrologist if you have an autoimmune disease affecting your kidneys, and a rheumatologist if you have arthritis.
Each of these doctors, in turn, will prescribe all kinds of medications to treat your symptoms.
And here’s where things get really bad.
You’re taking all these toxins and poisons (that are only masking symptoms of a much larger problem at work in the gut) and putting them into a gut that’s already leaking toxins into the system . . .
It is a perfect storm for creating deadly autoimmune disorders. We’re just beginning to see that by medicating an autoimmune disease caused by leaky gut syndrome, such as diabetes, we are possibly triggering more deadly autoimmune diseases, like multiple myeloma.
What we are all beginning to realize, I think, is that there is a fatal flaw at work in conventional medicine today, and that what we really need to fix is a broken medical model.
That and toxins. Toxic medications going in and toxins everywhere without . . .
The good news is that we’re on the verge of learning new things about how the gut affects disease throughout the body that might help us cure all kinds of it.
Scientists are now hard at work on cures for autoimmune diseases such as lupus (LSE) and multiple sclerosis (MS) and are looking to the gut as the key player in many other health problems that have long confounded them such as autism, Type I diabetes, depression and the common cold (rhinovirus).
With MS for example, scientists have found that women with MS lack this important microbe pictured here, the H. pylori microbe.
Zonulin: The Protein Behind Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Diseases
One of the key discoveries science has made that helped them to identify the gut’s role in autoimmune disorders is a protein called zonulin.
Now, zonulin is important to know about. Zonulin is related to gluten and gluten intolerance and we will talk about this in detail in this article.
This protein increases intestinal permeability in humans and animals.
It weakens the gut lining, causing those gaps between the epithelial cells to grow larger and to proliferate.
Over time, as scientists have conferred on different autoimmune diseases from MS, to IBS, to type I diabetes, they found this protein was the common denominator in all of them. In this way, they have finally come to acknowledge leaky gut as causing these diseases and that an abundance of zonulin is to blame.
What zonulin does, specifically, is cause the gut lining to weaken; then, junctions form between the epithelial cells, toxins flow into the blood, and this leads to a production of antibodies that attack the entire system. More specifically, this process triggers the release of antibodies that attack islet cells—which are responsible for making insulin.
Islet cells are located in the pancreas. They are the cells that are responsible for breaking down food into glucagon and insulin. When blood sugar is high, for example, they release insulin, which acts as a leveler of blood sugar by transferring this sugar to cells and out of the bloodstream.
When blood sugar is low, they release glucagon.
So we need those islet cells to remain strong. They cannot do this when they are being attacked by antibodies.
And we need our insulin. So this is a big problem.
This process of leaky gut to diabetes, for example, is illustrated below.
In fact, researchers can now induce type 1 diabetes almost immediately in animals by exposing them to zonulin.” Click here for this study.
In a healthy individual, the immune system protects the body and defends it against infectious organisms like viruses and bacteria. With an autoimmune disorder the body no longer attacks these foreign invaders.
So we have a body ignoring invader, attacking itself, and at risk of all kinds of disease.
Instead, it begins attacking itself, misidentifying healthy tissues and organs as “the bad guys” instead of the good guys. It’s also neglecting the true invaders.
In short, the body pulls a loaded gun on the wrong enemy. It pulls the gun on itself.
That is what “autoimmune” disease means “cells and antibody’s which attack the individual’s own tissues.”
Autoimmunity triggers an inflammatory response, such as rheumatoid arthritis in the joints, or muscle aches and weight gain with Grave’s disease. And some autoimmunity disorders cause inflammation in several systems at once, like diabetes, which causes inflammation in the eyes, kidneys, and muscles.
The Gut and Brain Health
And here’s what’s up . . .
I (and countless others, including naturopaths) believe it is our own environment, the way our body has evolved to survive in our environment, toxic medicines and toxins in our environment causing all of this of course.
The only thing we can do in the face of this is create a gut environment that is strong, stable, and as healthy as possible.
We need to armor the gut to withstand a polluted world.
But one thing to keep in mind—you cannot have a healthy gut lining without healthy gut bacteria inside of it. One is never present without the other.
Leaky gut and poor gut microbiota go hand in hand.
So we need to both heal the intestinal lining, strengthen it and fortify it against perforations, we also need to create a healthy environment inside the gut, or the gut, again, will develop leaks.
See, The Gut Can Heal, If You Heal It Within
If your gut environment is healthy, your gut cells will completely heal and regenerate, and you get a new intestinal wall, basically, every two or three weeks
(1) as long as the gut has not become extremely damaged from injury
(2) if you have healthy bacteria in the gut that facilitate this regeneration
See, your intestinal walls cannot heal in the presence of bad bacteria such as yeast and other parasites. In fact, yeast can grow in the gut and develop roots that actually perforate the gut lining.
Healthy gut bacteria produce byproducts that help keep the intestinal lining strong, and without enough of these, the gut is susceptible to tears and perforations. Then, the chronic enemy—Inflammation—causes more ulceration, which destroys areas of the mucosal lining of the intestinal wall.
So, now you’re thinking, okay Jackson, in the face of all of this science, what should we do to make sure we are healthy and impervious to disease and toxins leaking into our bloodstream?
And I have the answer.
A two-step process
(a) heal and strengthen the mucosal intestinal barrier
(b) ensure that we have a healthy, lush sea bed of microbiota to foster a healthy gut within.
What I have done for you to inform this two-part guide, is that I did weeks of reading.
I reviewed all the extant present literature on gut health, combined with what I’ve been reading for years following the best biochemists on the web, and other globally recognized leaders in ancestral health and biochemistry, and brought you a wealth of preventative gut knowledge.
This ultimate, two-part guide will tell you
Part 1. How to achieve maximum gut impermeability
Part 2. How to establish and maintain a colony of healthy bacteria in the gut through strategic eating, aligning your stomach acids properly, exercising right, recovering correctly from exercise, and other researched methodologies of maintaining gut health.
Let’s go.
Part One: Leaky Gut Syndrome
Since we’ve already discussed how leaky gut can affect our health, in this part of the guide to gut health, we will discuss
Then we’ll address microbiota and creating a perfect gut environment in part two.
Leaky Gut Syndrome in Simple Terms
So what is a leaky gut, really?
A normal gut leaks nutrients of a certain size into the bloodstream, where they are then shuttled to the hepatic blood vessels, which then shuttle them to the liver, our detoxification organ.
A leaky guts leaks the wrong kinds and too much of them. In scientific terms, leaky gut means “impaired intestinal permeability [and] is defined as a disturbed permeability . . . leading to a loss of intestinal homeostasis, functional impairments and disease.”
In laymen’s terms, it means your gut has become too “permeable.” If you think of the world permeable alongside a related term “permissive,” one could say that your gut is allowing too “permissive” by allowing too many things to pass beyond its barrier that it should not.
So just think of the lining of the gut as having become punctured or torn. Indeed, bodybuilders and other athletes can end up with a leaky gut from the kind of tears that happen when they lift, run, jog, etcetera.
Many of us can have a leaky gut from a host of reasons beyond athletic stress, such as punctures from gluten, too much yeast in the gut, and by having an abundance or lack of certain kinds of bacteria in the gut.
So . . . What am I Leaking Exactly?
By “leaky,” doctors mean that your gut is leaking things out into the bloodstream that it shouldn’t . . . nutrients that should have gone other places, proteins you needed in other area of the body, and toxins that should have been discarded as waste.
If you picture your gut as a long earthworm with just a mouth and an anus, our gut is kind of like that. Ours is just more serpentine, so to speak.
Everything you ingest eventually moves from mouth to waste—what isn’t absorbed as nutrients that enter the bloodstream and are shuttled to the cells, the bones, the brain.
Since a leaky gut is too full of holes, “leaks” between epithelial junctures, it’s allowing toxins and undigested food particles to escape out into the bloodstream, where they should not be.
You can see this illustrated below with the breach in the villi in the middle:
What leaks into your bloodstream?
When these larger food particles and toxins enter the bloodstream they cause the immune system to “buckle” under this flood of incoming agents, causing . . .
Now, your gut normally keeps all toxins and undigested food properly within this tube that runs from mouth to the anus, where the waste products of foods and nutrients that are not shuttled to our cells are discarded in the form of waste (poop).
But here, with all of these particles leaking into the bloodstream instead of staying inside the gut, we get toxicity.
Then:
(1) Toxins leak through the intestinal wall because of the holes in the epithelial lining.
(2) These toxins cause inflammation.
(3) Inflammation attacks different organs.
(4) And they all end up in the liver ultimately, where they overstress this already burdened organ, . . .
Then, there’s a big problem
Because the liver is balking under the weight of all these toxins, these toxins back away from the liver like a loaded concert hall that cannot admit any more people.
Now, the toxins circulate just anywhere, causing damage wherever they flow, like angry kids who couldn’t get into the concert they wanted.
They can cause a foggy brain if they flow to the brain and ultimately degenerative neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and MS.
If they flow to the joints, they present in joint pain and inflammation of the joints. They cause inflammation wherever they go.
What is most troublesome, though, is when these toxins hit the organs that produce white blood cells like the pancreas, weakening that important organ, leaving us susceptible to all kinds of deadly diseases, including cancer.
So, we need a solid intestinal lining.
This image below illustrates the quick progression of leaky gut to diseases as toxins and undigested food particles cross into the bloodstream, wreaking havoc on the system:
Other Important Findings in Gut Research Today
Two other important areas of research are targeting how the gut impacts thyroid and brain health.
The Gut Lining and the Thyroid Connection
Poor gut can health can directly affect the thyroid, causing a host of thyroid related diseases, including contributing to obesity, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, hypo or hyperthyroid and other serious disorders.
And scientists are also finding how thyroid health can, vice versa like, influence the health of the gut as well.
Since all kinds of toxins leak into the system, affecting all the organs in the body in some way or another, they also affect the thyroid. In fact, since the gut is the place where thyroid hormones are converted from T3 to T4, the thyroid is especially impacted.
So, we know that leaky gut can cause all kinds of autoimmune disorders, and the many autoimmune disorders are directly related to the thyroid. Besides Hashimoto’s disease
are all autoimmune diseases that are directly related to the thyroid.
But thyroid issues also cause leaky gut as well. So we have poor thyroid function causing leaky gut, leaky gut causing inflammation and thyroid problems.
Thyroid hormones have a strong effect on those epithelial cells, the junctions in the lining of our gut. Two of these thyroid hormones, T3 and T4 in fact, have been shown to protect the gut lining from ulceration and gastric ulcers are associated with low T3 and T4 levels.
Gut bacteria is also necessary for converting thyroid hormones. 20% of thyroid function is dependent upon a healthy supply of gut bacteria so it can convert T3 to T4. Without adequate beneficial bacteria in the gut then, this conversion cannot happen.
When the gut is not healthy and there are not sufficient bacteria to accomplish this conversion, dysbiosis occurs, which is an overabundance of bad bacteria. This hampers the conversion of T3 to T4. Studies also evidence that gut infection reduces thyroid hormone levels, promoting autoimmune thyroid disorders such as hypothyroidism.
Some studies have also found a connection between a gut bacteria called Yersinia enterocolitica and Hashimoto’s. In fact, antibodies to this bacteria are 14 times higher
in people with Hashimoto’s disease.
In this study above, for example, researchers found evidence of a strong causative relationship between the pathogen Yersinia enterocolitica and autoimmune related thyroid disorders.
As you can see, then, maintaining healthy gut bacteria balance is very important in maintaining good thyroid function and avoiding thyroid disease.
Low Stomach Acid and the Thyroid Connection
Stomach acids are much more important than people think, and part of that, I believe, is because physicians wrongly prescribe acid reducers for problems that are actually caused by low stomach acids, such as GERD, heartburn, burping, and gas. Because of this common mistake, most people have come to view stomach acids as a bad thing.
But without adequate stomach acid, we cannot absorb nutrients from our food or digest them thoroughly, which is a big problem I’ll describe below.
In fact, low stomach acids can be both a symptom and a cause of thyroid disorders.
Hypothyroidism contributes to hypochlorhydria, a condition in which stomach acid is too low. When you have low stomach acids, you cannot digest food properly and this poorly digested food can rot in the stomach and putrefy.
The small intestine tries to reject this rotting food and the putrefied food shoots back up into your esophagus. The food is too “non-acidic” for the stomach but too acidic for the esophagus and you get heartburn. This poorly digested food eventually makes it into the digestive tract, contributing to intestinal inflammation, infection, and leaky gut.
Although hypothyroidism can be the cause behind these low stomach acids, poor diet and processed foods can also contribute to low stomach acids, poor digestion, and leaky gut, which, in turns leads to autoimmune disorders of the thyroid.
The Gut and Brain Health
Today, researchers are finding that the gut also has a huge impact on the health of our brains. See, every single thing we do, feel, or get excited about or fascinated by is controlled by the brain. Since scientists are now calling the gut “the second brain,” it’s not surprising that research is targeting the gut, especially beneficial gut bacteria, as a possible causal agent behind mood and anxiety disorders from Major Depressive Disorder to PTSD.
Scientists have been studying the gut microbiome balance in individuals who have anxiety and depression and individuals who do not and are finding striking differences in the balance of bacteria there. In fact, they have learned that by regulating good bacteria in the gut, they can decrease feelings of anxiety and enhance feelings of well-being and are looking to regulating gut bacteria as (finally) a cure for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
In one study, scientists used imaging techniques to see how drinking a fermented beverage rich in probiotics benefited the brain, and the study found that beneficial bacteria promoted positive changes in the emotional centers of the brain.
Other studies have confirmed that use of both prebiotics and probiotics improve feelings of well-being, lower cortisol, reduce stress, and decrease anxiety in humans. So we may be moving toward treatment of depression and anxiety disorders with food first, and drugs later.
As Dr. Siri Carpenter notes, “The days of analyzing a patient’s gut bacteria to treat her depression or anxiety are probably far away. Still, scientists following this line of research have become increasingly convinced that to fully understand our emotions and behaviors, we need to study the gut as much as the brain.”
As you can see from the research I’ve presented today, gut health has a pervasive and highly consequential effect upon all the systems in the body.
So now let’s look at
What Causes Leaky Gut Syndrome?
When it comes to what causes leaky gut syndrome, scientists are not absolutely certain and are still working to discover all its causes. However, there are all kinds of suspected culprits that may work together or alone to cause intestinal permeability.
First I want to talk about three things that are strongly believed to cause leaky gut in detail, because we know of a strong causal relationship here, and then I’ll list some other possible causes of leaky gut.
Gluten and the Monster Wheat We Have Created
One reason we believe we are seeing so much gluten sensitivity and leaky gut we strongly believe is caused by gluten is because of the sheer strength of wheat grains today. The industrial revolution and the mechanization of farming have led to the development of new, hardier types of wheat that are gradually becoming resistant to stronger and stronger pesticides. Consequently, farmers are growing stronger and stronger types of wheat that are higher in toxic gluten peptides that cause gluten related disorders of all kinds.
Let’s look at what William Davis, author of Wheat Belly (a book I highly recommend), says about wheat:
Modern wheat, despite all the genetic alterations to modify hundreds, if not thousands, of its genetically determined characteristics, made its way to the worldwide human food supply with nary a question surrounding its suitability for human consumption . . .
. . . [wheat, although] disguised as a bran muffin or onion ciabatta, is not really wheat at all but the transformed product of genetic research conducted during the latter half of the twentieth century. Modern wheat is no more real wheat than a chimpanzee is an approximation of a human.”
When we try to ingest these scientifically-manipulated, industrially grown grains that have been bred and re-bred to become stronger and resist pesticides, our guts are basically going, “Okay, I don’t know what to do with this substance. It is not meant to be here! Reject! Reject!”
Think of ingesting cardboard, and you get some idea of the quality of modern wheat. Like modern wheat, it would have some fiber and no nutritional value except to injure your gut.
Gluten digestion releases the hormone zonulin, which injures the gut lining.
What king of conditions/events trigger the release of zonulin?
Two things:
For those of you who don’t understand, let me explain what gluten is in laymen’s terms, because today, everyone’s tossing around gluten terminology like everyone already understands what gluten is, and you might not.
Gluten is the main protein in wheat and other cereal grains such as barley, rye, and spelt. When the flours of these grains are kneaded, a gluey substances develop that gives the bread or whatever you are making the ability to stand up—to be springy, like a loaf of bread or a muffin.
You know what kneading bread does to the dough, right? It’s to make the dough gluey and elastic so it will rise and have a good leavened consistently.
This gluey component is rich in proteins called gliadins and glutenins, which are resistant to gastric digestion and increase the permeability within the small intestine due to both the presence of zonulin and through negatively impacting the tight junctions in the gut.
Furthermore, homeostasis in the gut is negatively affected by the inhibition of new epithelial cell growth, which could replace those broken epithelial cells but which now cannot because they are inhibited.
Furthermore, glutens are unique among grains in that they are resistant to digestive enzymes in the gut, resulting in a constant exposure of the proteins to the intestinal immune system.
This whole process is what connects gluten to celiac disease, and now, scientists believe, to type 1 diabetes. In mice, a gluten free diet prevents diabetes development which a cereal-based gluten rich diet promotes diabetes development.
We’re not just talking crack cocaine here—we’re talking all drugs, from NSAIDs to
antibiotics.
As science is beginning to finally admit, drugs, in any form, are poisons. If you study the ingredients in everything from blood thinners like Warfarin to what calcium supplements really do to the arteries, you will come to the conclusion that you should always opt for natural remedies before you put any pill in your body.
Opt for natural plant based vitamins or get your vitamins and minerals from good organic produce before you look to a (possibly) cardboard or sand filled supplement.
Even the gelatin that surrounds some of these empty, poisonous medicines can build up and cause intestinal blockages.
Other drugs that have been targeted as a chief cause of leaky gut are
This can be caused by yeast overgrowth. Candida sets down roots in the small intestines or through already-damaged epithelial cells, and then pathogenic bacteria can overpopulate the gut, running the balance of bacteria there, resulting in gut dysbiosis.
The problem is then bacterial overgrowth can damage the lining of the gut further.
Then, these bacteria begin producing bacterial enzymes, (1) bacterial mucinase, which destroys the protective mucosal lining of the gut, and (2) protease, which degrades pancreatic and brush border enzymes.
Because the gut is where nutrients are absorbed, this can also create a situation of malnutrition, which slows the gut from healing.
So, getting tested for candida You’ll want to start by checking your levels for candida antibodies called IgG, IgA, and IgM. This can easily be done through most medical labs, and high levels can clue you in to an overgrowth of candida can be helpful in curing leaky gut disease, and in knowing how to eliminate the yeast overgrowth, especially sugar and refined carbs.
Other Causes of LGS
Other factors that can injure the intestinal wall and/or cause intestinal permeability
–(The Environmental Illness Resource).
Symptoms of Leaky Gut
Symptoms of a leaky gut vary, but look for ones that begin with lingering gastric distress, such as heartburn, gas, and bloating and then are associated with other symptoms like recurrent yeast infections or a consistently white tongue or gastric distress, rashes, and food allergies.
I’ve compiled the lists below by consulting the major leaky gut specialists on the web.
Digestive symptoms of leaky gut
General signs in the body include
Brain related symptoms include
More severe conditions /consequences of leaky gut include
How to Heal a Leaky Gut and Restore Your Intestinal Permeability
Now let’s talk about why we’re here. So, if we have a leaky gut, can we heal it? How do we heal it? And how long will it take.
When trying to heal the gut, you have to do three basic things: Give the gut time to heal, regulate the bacteria to heal within, and stop distressing the lining while you try to heal it.
You can aid this process by following these tips, eating suggestions, and recommendations below.
You cannot heal from any disorder from adrenal fatigue to leaky gut if you are consumed by stress. So, if you have a stressful life then, it is important to try to manage stress. Try mindfulness, meditation, moderate exercise, eating a health grain free diet for a while and other steps from my gut restoring protocol while you seek new ways to manage stress. Stress is not only a destroyer of gut health, it can lead to just about every kind of dysfunction in the body you can think of.
Medicines are stressful to the body too. If you have been on antibiotics, birth control pills, or have experienced chronic infection, you can follow my steps for restoring gut health below
Plant based digestive enzymes have multi-faceted skills for healing and preventing leaky gut. What’s great about these is that they break down food into very small particles before it leaves the stomach, preventing the problem of undigested food putrefying in the gut and easing digestion. In this same way, these plant based digestive enzymes also prevent undigested food molecules form irritating the intestinal lining and increase nutritional uptake as well. And they also help to act as kind of “garbage collectors” in the gut, by removing excess toxins, bacteria, and damaged cells for the mucosal lining. What this accomplishes for the gut is giving a clean slate of healthy cells to rebuild with. Until your gut is repaired, what is great about plant based enzymes is that they also flush out toxins in your blood as well.
Some examples of digestive enzymes are
Some health gurus advocate animal-sourced enzymes, such as pancreatin sourced from an ox or hog as well.
This means, giving up all of the following – if you really want the gut to fully heal. You can add things like fruit back later. The reason I put fruit on this list is because it is high in sugar and sugar feeds gut bacteria, which you want to avoid until you regulate the bacteria.
Toxic foods to avoid:
Sugar can be disguised on food labels in myriad forms. Here is a long list of forms you should be looking for, including and beyond all of the “oses”:
Researchers are finding that L-Glutamine plays a critical role in helping to heal the mucosal cells of the gut. In fact, as researchers note, “Glutamine has protective effects on intestinal mucosa by decreasing bacteremia and epithelial cell apoptosis, enhancing gut barrier function, and influencing gut immune response.” So, overall, L-glutamine helps get rid of bad gut microbiota and keep the intestinal lining healthy, as well as aiding in keeping your immune system strong.
Look for these five species in particular:
Lactobacillus plantarum is excellent for keeping pathogenic microorganisms out and from preventing them from flourishing in the colon and the gut. It also prevents dangerous bacteria from penetrating the gut lining and entering your bloodstream, so it’s very important.
Lactobacillus acidophilus is the most commonly seen probiotic in supplements and this is because this is a highly beneficial and important strain of beneficial bacteria. It helps in the production of lactase, helps produce vitamin K, and helps your body break down lactase into simple sugars. It is highly important for the immune systems. It also helps regulate bacteria in the gut after antibiotic use.
Lactobacillus brevis is another common probiotic ingredient. It’s overwhelmingly important in supporting gut health, helps prevent ulceration of the gut, and is important to the immune system by naturally increasing killer cells.
Bifidobacterium lactis is a highly important strain of healthy bacteria that helps to heal digestive discomfort, support overall gut health, regulate healthy bacteria in the gut, and is highly important for supporting the immune system.
Bifidobacterium longum can help reduce gastrointestinal discomfort caused by stress and may be beneficial in treating/preventing colon cancer. It’s most distinctive feature is that it soothes irritation in the gut.
The GAPS diet has been highly successful in healing leaky gut syndrome and in treatment of IBS, autism, and other disorders as well. The diet is strict, but has had huge success. What I like about it is the diet is geared to avoid all foods that work to irritate the gut lining and embraces fermented foods as well as gut-healing bone broth as well.
Overall, the goals of the GAP diet are to
I highly advocate this diet. You can read all about it here.
The diet includes avoiding gluten and embracing fermented foods and avoiding many of the foods I mentioned above to avoid when trying to heal a leaky gut, including conventional meat and dairy.
Vitamin D, Zinc, and Omega 3’s will reduce inflammation and aid in healing the mucosal lining of the gut, so it’s important to get these in the diet in a healthy way that will fortify, not irritate the gut lining, as many synthetic vitamins can.
So, let’s look at how to get more D, zinc, and Omega 3s into the diet naturally.
The best way to get Vitamin D naturally is through a half an hour of sunshine a day (or you can use a 10,000 LUX light box to help).
Vitamin D is hard to get in food and is most so for vegetarians, and it can be found in huge amounts in certain not-so-oft consumed foods such as cod liver oil, which contains over 1,000 percent of the RDA for vitamin D (which is 600 mgs. for men and women ages 14-70). If you are going to use cod liver oil, however, you want a high quality, non-fermented cod liver oil (you cannot ferment oils, folks).
Some foods that are rich in vitamin D include:
Zinc
Foods high in zinc include: oysters (they have 524% of your RDA for zinc). Grass fed beef and lamb run a close second (37% of the RDA). Other healthy, non-gluten containing sources include spinach, cashews, pumpkin seeds, chicken, yogurt, and kefir (also good for gut health in general).
Omega 3s
Getting more Omega 3s in your diet means eating more fish (recommendations below), beans, flaxseeds, and walnuts, are just some choices.
Great Omega3 rich fish choices include
| Type of fish | Total omega-3 content per 3.5 ounces (grams) |
| Mackerel | 2.6 |
| Trout, lake | 2.0 |
| Herring | 1.7 |
| Tuna, bluefin | 1.6 |
| Salmon | 1.5 |
| Sardines, canned | 1.5 |
| Sturgeon, Atlantic | 1.5 |
| Tuna, albacore | 1.5 |
| Whitefish, lake | 1.5 |
| Anchovies | 1.4 |
| Bluefish | 1.2 |
9. Try a low-FODMAP diet.
FODMAPs are specific types of carbohydrate that are poorly digested by certain people, particularly those with dysbiosis and SIBO. We’ll discuss this technique next.
The acronym FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides And Polyols.
These are foods that are comprised of short chain carbohydrates and they are not completely absorbable in the digestive / gastrointestinal tract. Because of this, they can cause gastrointestinal stress, such as gas, pain, and diarrhea.
For an informative chart on low FODMAP and high FODMAP foods, click here.
Conclusion
The best way to restore the lining of your gut is to avoid foods of all kinds that irritate the gut, get your gut health checked for parasites and yeast, to embrace fermented foods, to avoid gluten, refined carbs, and SUGAR, and the other steps listed here today.
Trying the GAPS diet as well as avoiding FODMAPs will assure you that you’re giving your gut time to heal.
Remember, given a healthy gut environment, the gut lining can completely repair itself between 5-7 days or as much as 2-12 weeks, depending upon the extent of the injury to the gut, the health of the gut, and the age of the individual (younger people heal faster, of course).
By avoiding consuming foods that irritate the gut while regulating your beneficial bacteria and stomach acid, you will create a healthy environment for the gut to heal itself, which is WILL DO, if you let it.