Work Toward A Heavily Plant
If youre experiencing leaky gut, a diet thats fiber-filled and plant-based can decrease inflammation and irritation from gluten and other sugars. Meat and fish are fine to consume, but focus on gluten-free grains, vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats . Plus, the prebiotics found in high-fiber whole foods like asparagus and whole-grain oats are crucial to feeding the probiotic bacteria in the gut microbiome and keeping it healthy.
The Most Effective Ways To Help A Client With Leaky Gut Syndrome
Everyone and their mother seem to be talking about “Leaky Gut Syndrome” lately. As a wellness professional, you may even have clients coming to you with symptoms asking, “Do you think it might be leaky gut!?”.
Leaky Gut Syndrome refers to an increase in intestinal permeability or intestinal hyperpermeability in extreme cases.
A healthy gut lining allows only specific components of food to pass through into the bloodstream. This is how nutrients enter the bloodstream and promote health.
However, poor diet, stress, and some medications can damage the gut lining over time. The result is a more permeable gut lining, which allows larger particles to enter the bloodstream while failing to properly absorb key nutrients.
Undigested food particles, gut bacteria, proteins, and toxic waste shouldnt be able to enter the bloodstream. But when the gut lining becomes compromised they do, causing negative consequences.
While Leaky Gut was once thought to affect only those with serious medical conditions such as Celiac Disease, we now know that even slight increases in intestinal permeability can cause chronic health issues.
Common signs and symptoms of Leaky Gut include autoimmune disease, food sensitivities, digestive issues, inflammatory skin conditions, compromised immunity, joint pain, brain fog and low energy.
Today I’ll be discussing the most effective ways to help a client with leaky gut syndrome including
Heres How To Make This Happen
IDEA #4
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What Is Yeast Overgrowth
Your gut is home to a trillion microbes and to a form of yeast called Candida albicans. In a healthy gut, the presence of Candida is unremarkable but when it starts to overgrow, you experience discomfort including but not limited to tiredness, headaches, constipation or diarrhea, trapped wind, joint pain, and an increased craving for sweet food.
My Best Advice For Making This Easy
- For the next 4 weeks consider avoiding any occasions where youll be tempted to have a drink. i.e. Take yourself out of the drinking environments and make this month of saying no as easy as possible. Its just a month after all!
- If you cant or dont want to avoid these situations, then make sure you have your reason for not drinking ready to go. As it can be a real pain to have to explain some long winded story about intestinal hyperpermeability to every single person who asks and they do ask!
- Use other state-changing techniques to replace alcohols role. You see, many of us like alcohol because of how it changes our emotional state. Whether its blowing off a hard week at work or wanting to relax on the weekend with friends, it is a state change were after. Thankfully you can get as good a change from exercise, meditation, breathing, yoga etc.
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Struggling To Find A Doctor Who Understands Leaky Gut
Then take a moment to checkout our directory of doctors who have written about leaky gut and are knowledgeable on how to fight it from start to finish.
As with everything on this site, the directory is free to both readers and doctors. So there is no bias in recommendations or sponsored doctors and whatnot!
IDEA #12
How To Reintroduce Foods The Smart Way
- Order of foods Start with the least potentially reactive foods, eg in week 1 maybe start by adding some soaked and pressure cooked legumes back into your diet.
- Time for each food Wait 2-3 days after eating a new food, until you reintroduce the next food. Thats important, because some foods can take a day or two for any ill effects to be felt. So this means you will typically add just 2 foods back into your diet each week.
- Track with a diary Use a food diary to keep track of what foods youve added back in and how youve felt the hour after eating it, the next day and the day after. ie a food and symptoms tracking journal.
- Review with a health professional Once youve reintroduced everything, take your journal to your doctor or other health professional, and work out which foods can be permanently allowed back into your diet, which ones can be allowed now and then and which ones really shouldnt ever be a part of your diet.
IDEA #37
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Can You Treat Leaky Gut
You can, but the approach is similar to diagnosing a broken car, says Dr. Fasano. You dont know the exact problem until the mechanic lifts the hood, looks around, and tries different things there is not a simple, direct approach to fixing the problem, he says. Its the same with leaky gut. We have to try different strategies to see what helps.
Your first step is to share your symptoms with your doctor. If leaky gut is a possibility, he or she can try several strategies to help relieve symptoms and reduce inflammation. The most common is to review your diet and eliminate known dietary causes of inflammation, such as excessive consumption of alcohol and processed foods, and to explore whether you have any food sensitivities for instance, to gluten or dairy. In theory, reducing inflammation from your diet like this also may rebuild the gut lining and stop further leakage, says Dr. Fasano.
The best way to protect yourself from leaky gut is to invest more in your overall digestive health, he adds. This means being more attentive about following a gut-healthy diet that limits processed foods and high-fat and high-sugar foods, and includes enough fiber. Sticking to a regular exercise program also can strengthen your digestive system. For example, studies have suggested that taking a 15-to 20-minute walk after a meal can aid in digestion. Your gastrointestinal system is complex, but caring for it doesnt have to be, says Dr. Fasano.
Chew Each Bite Of Food 20 Times Like Gandhi
Chew your drink and drink your food, Gandhi.
Taking a digestive enzyme supplement will help breakdown your food when it reaches your stomach and intestines. And I think you should definitely take them I know I do.
But to really give your gut a helping hand , you should basically pulverize your food in your mouth by chewing each bite around 20 times.
The more you chew the more it gets pre-broken down and the more digestive enzymes you yourself produce via your saliva glands85.
By chewing your food like this, youll find your gut is better able to process it. Most of all, your body will be able to absorb more of the nutrition86and your leaky gut will not be bombarded by so many large undigested food particles.
And of course, 20 chews per bite of food is just a rough average. So if youre eating something really tough, like Uncle Bobs well done steak , then up the chew count, eg to 30.
IDEA #19
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Related Conditions To Leaky Gut To Watch Out For
IDEA #27
So What Is A Green Powder Drink
Well, it is basically a concentrated powder made from a collection of blended plants, fruits and herbs.
I personally drink one every day or sometimes every other day because it is such a convenient way to sneak in a few extra servings of veg.
One scoop added to a protein shake or fresh vegetable juice is simple enough and the body can easily absorb the nutrients, which is very important when your gut is leaky and thus not absorbing nutrients as well as it should.
To be honest though, this idea is far from essential when it comes to solving your leaky gut, especially if you are following the ideas above on what to eat and what to avoid.
Thats why I see it as more of an insurance policy.
And since good quality green powders can be expensive, definitely only consider this idea if you still have money leftover after buying L-Glutamine, digestive enzymes and probiotics .
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Starve The Candida Of The Foods It Loves Especially Sugar
Sugar is without doubt candidas go-to fuel source. And just like we wouldnt feed a deranged Popeye more spinach, we shouldnt feed our candida spoonfuls of sugar.
Obviously you want to avoid eating the main culprits. i.e. simple sugars like soda drinks, fruit juices, sweets, desserts and even fruit.
But you also want to stop consuming all refined carbs , processed foods, alcohol, low-fat products , condiments and any foods with yeast.
Meanwhile, if you can also stick to the leaky gut diet weve talked about above, you will give your gut the best chance of healing and thus fighting back against candida.
Following A Cleanse Replenish The Gut
After cleansing, replenish the gut by supplementing with gut-health promoting nutrients in the daily diet. See also our guide to Food for Leaky Gut
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Curcumin
Fighting inflammation is key to healing a leaky gut. A powerful antioxidant is appropriate like curcumin, the active ingredient from one of the worlds most famous spices, Turmeric. Curcumin supports the elimination of free radicals from the body and prevents tissue injury within the gastrointestinal tract. . Turmeric can also be added to just about anything like meat marinades, stews, sauces, and even smoothies. Non-Dairy Turmeric Lattes are now a popular drink too.
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Ginger
Sometimes considered as effective as aspirin and ibuprofen in fighting inflammation, ginger promotes digestion as well as motility within the gut. Ginger has been used for ages to relieve symptoms related to heartburn, nausea, migraines, menstruation, and morning or motion sickness. However, ginger also has an antimicrobial ability which resists bacteria commonly involved in leaky-gut or gastrointestinal infection.
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L-Glutamine
Surprisingly not considered essential, L-glutamine is the most concentrated amino acid in blood plasma. Its crucial role in digestive tract maintenance and immune response regulation makes it easy to recognize L-glutamines ability to repair the gut lining while also functioning as an antioxidant. L-Glutamine is so effective at repairing tissue that it has also been used to enhance and improve nervous system function.
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Quercetin
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Putting A Plan In Place
There you have it!
Seven complete strategies for supporting mucosal health & a bonus discussion on the health of the vagus nerve and enteric nervous system.Consider these options as a toolbox – not the complete story.
Support does not need to require taking twenty different supplements at a time. Understand that you can approach the gut mucosa from many directions. Personal direction depends on the level of inflammation, immune activation, and gut dysfunction.
Supplement wisely & seek professional counsel as necessary!
Take A Probiotic Supplement Daily
Unless youre going around eating sauerkraut all day like some crazed German Popeye, your gut will be crying out for probiotics, aka good bacteria.
In fact, long term youll find probiotics are the #1 thing to get more of in order to help maintain good gut health46,47.
The reason probiotics work so well is something I dive deep into in my article on probiotics and leaky gut syndrome.
But one of the most interesting roles it can play is its ability to fight leaky gut by enhancing the production of tight junction proteins as mentioned in Frontiers In Immunologys 2017 research paper on leaky gut.
In addition, the good bacteria can help to fight off bad bacteria and yeast overgrowth, so that your gut flora can start regaining a healthy balance48.
And best of all, continued use of probiotics can help ensure the ratio of good to bad bacteria stays in the healthy range, which means bad bacteria and excessive yeast may not return and cause leaky gut again. A bonus benefit is that a healthy gut flora will also aid digestion49.
When all 3 benefits are taken together you can see why probiotics are at the heart of any leaky gut recovery protocol.
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Other Tips For Gut Health
In addition to following the eating plan described above, its beneficial to avoid exposure to potential toxins found in to tap water, alcohol, cigarettes, pesticides, NSAID pain-killer medications and antibiotics, all of which can stress the gut. However, always consult with your physician if he or she has prescribed these for you.
Another tip is to consider following an elimination diet at first. Some foods seem to be in a gray area when it comes to worsening or promoting digestive health. For example, some people do better with certain protein foods than others do.
You may be wondering, are eggs bad for leaky gut? What about beans and legumes?
You may choose to eliminate eggs and legumes at first and then to try reintroducing them after several weeks. This can help you uncover whether they are problematic for you or not.
In place of eggs and legumes, try meat, poultry, fish and collagen protein or bone broth protein powder instead.
Reducing intake of FODMAP foods is also recommended as part of an elimination diet, since FODMAP carbohydrates can worsen digestive issues like bloating and gas.
Heres How I Recommend You Do The Breathing Exercises
- Download the The Breathing App app and do it before and just after each meal. Although it is somewhat annoying to remember or take the time out to do this, all you need to do is try it out for the next 30 days.
- If you really struggle to do it, then at least try to nail it once a day with your biggest meal.
- As insurance, make sure you take a digestive enzyme or two just before each meal.
IDEA #17
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Heres A List Of Popular Grains And Legumes To Temporarily Cut:
- Rice , oats, corn
- Beans, lentils, peas, peanuts
Make sure you avoid all the derivative products too, eg soy sauce , eg hummus etc.
Then in 30-90 days time you can consider adding them back in and seeing how you respond. My advice would be to add these back one at a time so you can see how you react to each specific type of grain or legume.
Intestinal Dysbiosis Pathogenic Infections And Low Beneficial Bacteria
Intestinal dysbiosis, whether from an overgrowth of bacteria , or parasites or fungi, are a well-recognized contributor to leaky gut by triggering the release of zonulin, and reducing the protective mucous layer in the large or small intestine . Poor diet, chronic stress, frequent antibiotic use, and regular lack of sleep have all been shown to contribute to dysbiosis as well.
Similarly, decreased beneficial bacteria in the gut are also associated with leaky gut, because beneficial bacteria help maintain the healthy mucous membrane in the gut and keep pathogens in check [61
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What Is Yeast Overgrowth And How Is It Related To Leaky Gut
Hippocrates said years and years ago that all disease begins in the gut and were finding more and more just how right he was. Your gut houses 70 percent of your immune system and of course the intestinal cells that break down food. Its where nutrients are absorbed and toxins are removed. Your gut is composed of about a tennis court worth of lining all scrunched together to soak up as many nutrients as possible.
Very simply, a yeast overgrowth happens when your bodys bad bacteria outnumbers its good. Candida, the most common fungus present in your mouth and gut, can be productive in small amounts, but when it is overgrown, it breaks through your intestinal wall and leaks into the bloodstream. When this happens, toxins that are supposed to be eliminated by the gut circle back into your system. This spillage of toxins into the blood is called leaky gut, and it is the root of many of our health problems.