Your gut is where your pain begins

Your GI tract has more functions than you may think. It helps with digestion and absorption of nutrients, but it is also where your body first attacks foreign invaders. Scientists now know that the majority of your immune system is in your gut.

Some other functions of the gut include modulating the immune system and vitamin production. It also synthesizes and produces antimicrobial components that keep infections in check. We are just beginning to understand the many other functions of the GI tract.

What is leaky gut?

Leaky gut, also called intestinal permeability, happens when the walls and cells lining the GI tract are damaged or not as intact as they should be. This not only causes poor digestion and absorption but also allows some of the waste contents in your intestines to leak into your bloodstream. When toxins, undigested food, and bacteria from your intestines get into your bloodstream, your body reacts in a number of ways. These particles are seen as foreign invaders resulting in a chain reaction of events and symptoms that can cause chronic inflammation and pain. (2) (3)

Toxins, bacteria, and chemicals that you are exposed to can all deposit in joints and muscles causing inflammation. Inflammation is the reason for a wide array of symptoms that may not fit into typical medical diagnosis. Pain caused by inflammation is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. Chronic pain can be felt in your joints or muscles but the underlying cause of it may be traced back to your gut. When you have conditions like diabetes, autoimmune disease, arthritis, or joint pain, for no apparent reason, your gut more than likely needs healing.

A damaged intestinal lining allows these minute particles to get into your bloodstream:

• Proteins and undigested food components
• Pathogens including bacteria, viruses, yeast, and waste products
• Toxins including chemicals and other contaminants

A damaged gut can make you feel bad but it also helps create:

• Leaky gut and intestinal dysfunction
• Bacterial absorption into other tissues of your body
• Nutrient malabsorption and deficiencies

Symptoms: vary for each person, the most common are:

• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Gas
• Cramping
• Bloating
• Aches and pains

With inflammation, especially when chronic, symptoms may include:

• Joint pain
• Muscle pain
• Headaches
• Mood swings and depression
• ADHD type symptoms
• Weight gain
• Eczema, acne
• Fatigue
• Food allergies and intolerances

More about pain, inflammation, and autoimmunity

Autoimmune diseases like celiac, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis are all genetic diseases. Leaky gut, environmental triggers, and certain foods, can turn these bad genes on.

When foreign invaders from your gut enter your bloodstream they trigger the production of antigens, an immune response in your body. Your immune system then creates antibodies to attack the antigens causing them both to deposit into muscles and joints resulting in pain and inflammation. If you are a non-secretor you may not produce enough antibodies which allow the antigens to do even more damage. Antibiotic use plays a huge role in the immune response. The non-secretor is already deficient in some good gut bacterias. Repeated antibiotic use can result in long term imbalances in their guts and this can lead to many problems.

Some causes or triggers of leaky gut:

• Antibiotics
• Sugar
• Gluten
• Alcohol
• Steroids
• Toxins and chemicals, including scents and formaldehyde
• Food intolerances and allergies
• Food additives, colors, and flavorings
• Nutrient deficiencies
• NSAIDs (non-steroid over the counter medications)
• Yeast and fungus
• Infections
• Genetics
• Certain food proteins
• Caffeine

Treatment is available

The good thing is that your gut can be repaired. Health can be restored and pain can be reduced or eliminated entirely, with the right choice of foods and nutrients. The key to making healthy changes is to be in touch with your body. Learn to understand the many signals that it gives you. It is very important to pay attention to how the foods you eat make you feel.

Steps to repair leaky gut:

Remove irritating foods and pathogens, replace them with better choices, and repair the damage:

Removing anything that can cause problems is the first step to repairing your gut. Some of the most common food offenders that cause inflammation for many people are gluten, sugar, dairy, GMO’s and eggs. Removing these foods will help eliminate bacteria, fungus, yeast, toxins, and viruses. Removing gluten, sugar, and dairy increases your body’s ability to produce natural enzymes. Enzymes are needed to break food down. This allows your body to absorb the nutrients it needs. As we age we produce fewer enzymes. We also produce less when we are under any kind of stress including illness, and physical and mental stress. Stress is known to modify the natural flora of the gut lining. Bacteria and yeast from your mouth and sinuses must also be kept in check.

Bacterial overgrowth

Overgrowth of bad bacteria, known as dysbiosis can cause pain and inflammation and lead to leaky gut. When bacteria and yeast overgrow, symptoms of IBS begin to occur.

Studies have found that SIBO (small intestine bacteria overgrowth) is associated with fibromyalgia. When bad bugs are killed or reduced, symptoms improve in most people with this disorder.

Replace bad bacteria with probiotics

Probiotics have specific functions in repairing the gut. They can help repair damage done by toxins, pathogens, and allergens. Bifidobacterium, Saccharomyces boulardi and lactobacillus can make a huge difference in the health of your gut. Studies have shown that L. plantarum can also help heal leaky gut by repairing tight junction cells in the intestines. Probiotics also help protect the gut lining from damage done by chemicals. It is important to eat foods that help these good bacteria thrive. Garlic, onions, artichokes, flaxseeds, beans, and peas work well as prebiotics. These foods feed the good bacteria in your gut. (1)

Repair With Nutrition

Repairing the gut requires good nutrition. Again, we are all different, so what works varies with each person. Some people may have deficiencies that need to be addressed before healing can occur. If you are a non-secretor you may not produce enough fucosyltransferase (FUT2) enzyme needed to process sugars in your body.

Nutritional substances that can help repair.

• Fish oil is known to decrease inflammation
• Vitamin D is important and many people are deficient in it
• B vitamins are essential in cellular repair
• L-glutamine is an amino acid and a major building block of protein. It helps to build new cells when the body is under stress.
• Berberine helps to repair tight junctions in the intestinal wall. These are the areas in the gut that when weakened allows molecules from the intestines to get into the bloodstream.
• L-lysine is needed for protein synthesis to help repair. Many nonsecretors are deficient in this important amino acid.

The worst foods to eat and why they have to go.

• Gluten
• Dairy
• Sugar
• GMO’s, especially corn and soy

Gluten is known to cause pain and inflammation. It is now common knowledge that you don’t have to have celiac disease to be affected by gluten. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is the term used for those who are affected without having celiac disease. Researchers believe that more than 40% of the population have genetics that can lead to gluten problems. Medical journals are loaded with articles about gluten and its effect on more and more people. Gluten not only affects your gut but also your muscles and nerves. Neurological problems associated with gluten can vary in severity. Dizziness and mental problems are commonly found in people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Gluten causes the tight junctions in the gut to loosen which increases the passage of destructive proteins into the bloodstream.

Dairy affects the gut in a number of ways. For some people, lactose is the problem, but for increasingly more people the protein is a major offender. Casein, the protein in milk, can act a lot like gluten. Your body sees them the same way, causing them both to create antibodies. Milk also contains unhealthy contaminants, synthetic hormones, pesticides, and chemicals like PCB’s dioxin and antibiotics. Just as the food a nursing mother eats goes right through to the milk, you are consuming contaminants when you drink or eat milk products. If you consume milk products, go organic.

Sugar is a known trigger of inflammation. It has also been found to alter brain transmission signals, leaving you to crave more. Its addictive qualities follow the same receptor pathways as cocaine. When sugar is eaten it is stored as fat. This includes soft drinks and fruit juice drinks which can create more fat around organs than fatty meals. A major source of sugar is genetically modified corn and its products. High fructose corn syrup is almost always genetically modified and contributes to insulin resistance. The sugar industry paid scientist in the 1960’s to play down the effects of sugar in heart disease. To this day the US government has limits on intake of every nutrient or food except sugar. This makes no sense because sugar is known to create many, many problems in your body, from obesity to heart disease, to Candida. Sugar can create fatty liver in a toddler if given regular amounts of sugary drinks over a short period of time.

GMO’s have their DNA modified in a laboratory. The most common GMO’s are corn, soy, beets, and canola. Many countries require GMO’s to be labeled but not in the United States. Very few studies have been performed on the effects of GMO’s, on our bodies so we have no idea what the full effects are. GMO’s modified to be herbicide resistant pose the most health risks. Most of them have the chemical glyphosate which is used to kill weeds, sprayed on them. This kills everything it touches except the GMO plants. Studies have found that the glyphosate used in roundup can damage the intestinal tract and move into the bloodstream to cause problems. Glyphosate interferes with the bodies ability to detoxify itself and it also alters the natural flora in the intestinal tract. Over time its effects build up in the body.

Corn, is usually genetically modified. When modified, it produces an insecticide called BT-toxin. BT-toxin kills insects by creating holes in their digestive tract. When you eat it, it damages your gut as well. Corn has been connected with arthritis. Eliminating corn reduced arthritic pain in a number of studies.

Soy, 90% of it is genetically modified. It is in both food and non-food products. Our ancestors ate very little soy, certainly not as much as we eat today. Soy can cause thyroid dysfunction, cognitive problems, and digestive diseases.

In summary

Diet is very important in keeping you healthy and lowering inflammation in your body. Some foods are just not for everyone. The cells lining the gut are not the same in everyone. Your blood type determines the cellular structure of the lining of your GI tract because every cell surface has certain sugar chains arranged according to your blood type. Your gut lining and blood type interact and influence each other when it comes to the foods you eat. They even affect the types of diseases that you are susceptible to. What works for you may not work for someone else when it comes to diet and healing. We are all unique, nutrition should be individualized with that in mind.

A good video on non-secretors and leaky gut.

(1) Rao, R., Samak, G. (2013). Protection and Restitution of Gut Barrier by Probiotics: Nutritional and Clinical Implications. Curr Nutr Food Sci., 9(2), pp.99-107.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3864899/ 

(2) Smyth, Megan, 2017 Intestinal permeability and autoimmune diseases Bioscience Horizons: The International Journal of Student Research, 10, hzx015
https://academic.oup.com/biohorizons/article/doi/10.1093/biohorizons/hzx015/4670557  
 
(3) Estaki, M, DeCoffe, D,  and Gibson, D, 2014 Interplay between intestinal alkaline phosphatase, diet, gut microbes and immunity. 20 (42) pp 15650–15656.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4229529/

(4) König, J Wells, J,  Cani, P, Ródenas, C, MacDonald, T , Mercenier, A  Whyte, J  Troost, F, and  Brummer,, R., Human Intestinal Barrier Function in Health and Disease
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5288588/