Does gluten cause intestinal permeability?

Is it just the trend or is gluten really making you sick? How can gluten cause intestinal permeability?

Does gluten cause intestinal permeability? 

Gluten is implicated in intestinal permeability because it triggers in many people, especially those who have an autoimmune disease, the release of a protein in the intestinal tract called Zonulin.

Zonulin as a substance is natural in the human body, promotes opening up of the spaces in between the individual villi which literally makes the intestines like a sieve. It’s triggered on purpose.  It’s actually one of the body’s heavy duty aggressive immune response activity which should be limited to cases of serious infections. For example when someone has cholera or something else that’s just an incredibly pathogenic.

Then part of the strategy of the body is to create intestinal permeability aka leaky gut, so that more and more immune soldiers reinforcements can come to the scene of the infection and help to wipe it out.  See how smart your body is and it wants to protect you and save your life!

It’s a necessary function in the body. BUT if a food like a wheat bread triggers the release of Zonulin when there isn’t an infection, when it’s NOT needed. Then the process becomes inappropriate and it will exacerbate intestinal permeability ( leaky gut)

What’s leaky gut or intestinal permeability?

Your intestines are your soaker hose, which works well with many littles holes for the very low level controlled passage of water out of the hose.  Your intestines are lined with something called intestinal lining.  The lining is composed of tight junctions called micro-villi.  Your intestines work really well if you have really tight junctions amongst the micro-villi and there’s controlled movement of nutrients. Poor diet,  low vitamin D, microbial imbalances, stress, toxins, use of antibiotics, medications, birth control pills can damage the micro-villi hence the junctions wouldn’t be tight anymore.  Damage to the intestinal lining ( also known as the precious brush border) can create greater permeability in your garden hose ( your intestines) so those junctions between your micro-villi widen and allow food to cross over into the blood supply before its time.  This is “leaky gut”.  It’s literally a leaky gut, where water is pouring out of the gut because the holes are too big and your garden is drowning.  So now it’s not very effective as a soaker hose anymore.  

What does leaky gut do?

It may create food sensitivities and/or expose the immune system to microbes and/or their waste products/toxins, both being potential sources of chronic inflammation.  With leaky gut, food is able to sneak out of your GI tract earlier than it should so two things happen:

• You miss out on absorbing a lot of nutrition from those foods 
• You’re putting something into your blood supply that causes your immune system to completely freak out and develop antibodies against a food that should be safe but because the food was in the wrong place, the immune system has tagged it as a foreign invader. 

Because of leaky gut and food sensitivities, every time you eat your immune system thinks it’s being attacked and that can absolutely cause GI distress.  

How do you know if you have leaky gut?

You know you have leaky gut when you have some of the following:

• eczema
• depression
• anxiety
• chronic headaches
• achy joints
• arthritis
• allergies
• low energy
• thyroid disease
• autoimmune conditions
• slow metabolism

What can you do about leaky gut?

1. Eliminate gluten for at least 4 weeks and see how you feel. I’m sure you’ll feel way better.  If it’s hard for you to eliminate it on your own, work with a certified health coach or a functional medicine practitioner to feel supported.  
2. Remove allergens, sensitivity foods, harmful microbes
3. Replace with digestive enzymes, stomach acid support, bile acids, and/or herbal remedies to boost immune system insufficiency. 
4. Reinnoculate with probiotics
5. Repair ( villi regeneration, nurturing the mucosal lining ( intestinal lining), increasing SCFA(short-chain fatty acids) with larch gum or other fiber additions
6. Rebalance ( stress relief, long-term diet changes, attitude)

  Some of the steps are easy and some are harder that’s why it’s important to work with someone who knows how to heal a leaky gut and can help you achieve success.  You can schedule a FREE 15 min discovery call with me so we can discover how I can help you THRIVE.