What is Leaky Gut?
DigestShield® helps with Leaky Gut.
What is Leaky Gut?
The phrase “leaky gut” is getting a lot of attention in the media lately, but don’t be surprised if most of your friends haven’t heard of it.
Leaky gut, also referred to as increased intestinal permeability, is somewhat new and most of the research is in the early stages.
Inside our bellies, we have an extensive intestinal lining covering more than 4,000 square feet of surface area. When working properly, it forms a tight barrier that controls what gets absorbed into the bloodstream.
An unhealthy gut lining may have cracks or even holes, allowing partially digested food, toxins, and pathogens to penetrate it. This can trigger inflammation and changes in the balance of our gut microbiome, a community of bacteria that is normally in a 50/50 ratio of good to bad bacteria.
If you are experiencing chronic fatigue, a general feeling of unwellness, aches and pains, or just don’t feel like yourself, bad bacteria may be getting into your system.
What can be done?
We now have clinical evidence that shows increased intestinal permeability plays a role in certain gastrointestinal conditions such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, and irritable bowel syndrome.
Studies show that leaky gut may be associated with autoimmune diseases such as lupus, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, arthritis, asthma, psoriasis, obesity, and even mental illness.
Although it is unusual to hear the term “increased intestinal permeability” in most doctors’ offices, alternative and integrative medicine practitioners have worked on gut healing as an initial step to treat chronic diseases for decades.
It is common to see people changing their diets after getting sick.
Dr, Rogers recommends the “4 Rs”: Remove, Replace, Reinnoculate and Repair.
- Remove foods that can be inflammatory can lead to positive changes in the gut. The most common things to eliminate are alcohol, processed foods, certain medications, and any foods that may cause allergies or sensitivities.
- Replace an unhealthy diet with nutritious foods is very important to stop the cycle of inflammation. A classic example of this is replacing wheat with gluten-free alternatives. We also recommend supplementing with digestive enzymes to break down gluten, and dairy proteins that are hard for many people to digest and which can cause an immune reaction in certain people.
- Reinnoculate the gut with probiotics to create a healthy and balanced gut microbiome.
- Repair of the gut lining to stop the effects of Leaky Gut is likely to lead to improvement of the conditions that led to having to go to the doctor.
“At Performance Medicine, my patients improve significantly when they start eating a healthier diet and take DigestShield®.” – Tom Rogers, MD
DigestShield® contains 20 digestive enzymes to break food into small bits that the body uses as building blocks for our cells and for energy. The 11 probiotics re-tune the gut microbiome and the 5 prebiotics feed the probiotics and support the good bacteria.
