In my opinion, when we’re talking about optimal health, digestion and overall gut function is the first whistle stop because the vast majority of inflammation or lack thereof, stems from our stomachs…our gut also hosts the highest density of immune cells in our entire body.
Basically what I’m saying is, your stomach matters, a lot!
Now this is a really interesting thing to think about, your digestive tract is in your body, but it’s sort of not at the same time because when you eat something it goes into your mouth, down your esophagus, to your stomach, small intestine followed by the large intestine and then the rectum and ya poop it out…
Meaning, your digestive tract is actually separated from the rest of your body, it’s like a tube running from your mouth to your anus and the only things that are meant to get beyond that tube or gut barrier are nutrients, water and electrolytes.
Unfortunately, when you’ve got leaky gut or in sciency terms intestinal permeability, you have things that are getting into circulation that aren’t meant to be there, so when it comes to leaky gut, you essentially have a puncture in that tube that is running through your body (the digestive tract) and the contents of that tube are leaking…no bueno!
You can think about it like your skin, one of the primary reasons that we have skin is to separate our internal bodies from the external world, but when we get cut, we are much more likely to get infections for example.
Now the question that I’m sure that you’re wondering is, what causes these punctures?
The answer is eating foods that your body doesn’t tolerate and that you don’t digest well. It turns out that the digestive tract and the stomach get irritated by foods that you don’t digest well and they create these punctures or more accurately they release certain substances that open up things called tight junctions, and these tight junctions that are meant to be closed are now open and food particles get into areas that they’re not meant to get into.
When these food particles leak into circulation, the immune system comes to the rescue because the body is incredible and unbelievably intelligent and it’s like ‘oh that’s a foreign substance, what’s that doing here, we better address it,’ which it does…
The thing is, the immune system gets a little bit confused because it’s like, ‘what the hell is that stuff doing over here?’…so as your immune system is dealing with these undigested food particles that have gotten into circulation, it also attacks quote unquote ‘non-foreign substances’ which happen to be healthy cells in your body!
You can think about it like antibiotics, antibiotics do not decipher between healthy bacteria and unhealthy bacteria, they’re like bombs, they’re far from precise and so they just destroy everything…the good and the bad stuff…same idea here, the immune system isn’t distinguishing between harmful cells and helpful cells in the case of leaky gut, for example…
When I eat too much gluten, it irritates my stomach, leads to leaky gut (intestinal permeability) and then my immune system attacks the substances that aren’t meant to be in circulation, but it also attacks my skin and I get Eczema flare ups…
Here is where the individuality kicks in…
For you it might be dairy that flares up your skin, or perhaps your joints, or maybe it attacks the cells in your eyes and your vision begins to deteriorate…or you have multiple sclerosis and the immune system begins to attack your nerve cells or maybe it’s rheumatoid arthritis and your joints are impacted and the list goes on...enter whatever ailment you’re experiencing here.
The specific symptoms and manifestations of dis-ease depend on the person, however the root of the issue is the same…it’s leaky gut via nutrition.
Now instead of addressing your diet, quite often folks just get prescribed drugs by their doctors to suppress this immune response that’s leading to these skin, joint, eye etc. issues, but as you know, there is no free lunch, especially in biology…
And so when you take these drugs that suppress the immune system, it may reduce symptoms for a short period of time, however they don’t address what’s actually causing the immune system to overreact to begin with.
Also, it’s not like your body or immune system is drug deficient…we’ve been surviving for millions of years without these drugs, that ain’t it…it’s the underlying input (diet) which is leading to leaky gut, which is then causing an immune reaction to food particles that are getting into circulation that aren’t meant to be there.
So, it’s…
1. Improper diet
2. Leaky gut
3. Immune response
That is the order of things.
Now, what can you do?
The most important thing is prioritize your digestion and the 2 most common offenders for most folks are gluten and dairy, so if you’re keen on figuring this stuff out, you may choose to cut out gluten and dairy for 10-14 days, track your digestion, what symptoms you were experiencing prior, as well as classic signs of inflammation like swollen eyes, hands, feet, bloating, diarrhea, constipation etc.
Your issues may clear up super quickly which would be great, however you don’t actually know whether it was the gluten or dairy or both, so then you can re-introduce one or the other, test it and then adjust accordingly.
Now if you feel better without gluten and/or dairy, but your digestion still isn’t 100% and perhaps your skin is better, but not quite healed or your joints are improved, but you still have room for improvement...then you’re going to have to dig a little bit deeper and this is more nuanced stuff that I work on with my 1 on 1 nutritional coaching clients, for example…
Some folks have issues with FODMAP foods which are fermentable carbohydrates, some people have issues with oxalates which are chemicals found in certain foods, other folks don’t do all that well with high histamine containing food options, it varies and it’s super individual once you pass that initial gluten/dairy experiment phase, however…
Testing with gluten and dairy at first is a great way to kick things off and you can totally have fun with this, you can be like a scientist and experiment with your own body and get more and more in-tune with it to see what it likes and what it doesn’t like!
A common question that pops up is, ‘if I find out the foods that I’m sensitive to, does that mean that I can never eat them again?’ Not necessarily, because you can heal your leaky gut and then it’s entirely possible that once you’re fully healthy again that you can tolerate a much wider variety of foods, which is awesome!
How long does this healing process take? It depends on 2 main factors…how severe your leaky gut is and then how diligent you are with this elimination and reintroduction process, but I want to really drive the point home that…
It doesn’t have to be this daunting task, it’s all about perspective and curiosity is an amazing tool to guide you through this process via a question like…
What can I learn about my body today?
This incredible skin suit of cells that allows me to have all of these incredible experiences and asks for so little in return, just that I take care of it.
One could argue that we’re essentially renting our bodies…personally, I believe that we are spirits having a human experience vs. humans having a spiritual experience, however that’s just my personal take on it.
If we are spirits having this human experience…we’re renting our bodies for say 80, 90, 100+ years and that’s it!
Here are a few more cool questions…
If your body could talk, what would it say?
What would it ask you for?
How can you provide for it in a better way?
What are you doing well? Keep doing those things…and where is there room for improvement?
Be a scientist, get curious and I promise you that this process will not only not be a burden, it will be fun and best of all, it will be incredibly rewarding because once you do your due diligence and figure out what your body likes and doesn’t like, you get to reap all of the benefits in regards to fat loss, sense of well-being, mental health, mood and emotional stability, confidence, self-esteem and so much more!
Yes it requires work.
But man, it is so worth in my opinion and the truth is…
You can step into your power at any point, right now in fact, you can feel as good as you want to feel, thriving is your birthright…
