Several of my staff and I spent part of this last weekend at a nutritional conference. It is always good to hear the content and to think about different ways to help our patients. I often find myself writing the names of patients I want to help in the columns as certain topics are being discussed.

It has been about 2 years ago since I last spoke about leaky or hyperpermeable gut and at the time I discussed it over 3 articles. If you don’t recall the articles, one of the potential symptoms of LG is memory loss and you could potentially have LG. That was supposed to be funny, but it really could be true.

The speaker, Dr. Scott Bergman DC from the San Francisco Bay area, challenged the participants of the conference to take back the information we learned and start helping patients with our new knowledge. This is always the challenge for most people. You go to a conference, get loaded with incredible information, have great intentions to implement things on Monday morning and you wake up a month later and haven’t done anything with what you learned.

This time it will be different and I am starting by using the space in this article to share what we learned and beckon you to take your gut health more seriously. Let’s start the process by looking at some common symptoms that could indicate that you may have leaky gut:

· Chronic diarrhea, constipation, gas or bloating.

· Nutritional deficiencies.

· Poor immune system.

· Headaches, brain fog, memory loss.

· Excessive fatigue.

· Skin rashes and problems such as acne, eczema or rosacea.

· Cravings for sugar or carbs.

· Arthritis or joint pain.

Just looking at the above list will tell you the LG is causing inflammation. Having LG is like having tears in your gut lining which allows in toxins, bacteria, fungus, virus and food particles that should not be permitted in. You now have something in your body that your body doesn’t like and when that happens your body mounts an inflammatory response or attack towards that “thing” that shouldn’t be there.

Causes of leaky gut:

· Stress

· Toxins

· Alcohol

· Smoking

· Drugs

· Pathogens

· Poorly Digested food

This list can easily describe some of the habits that many of us have. Who would have thought that something like Ibuprofen or naproxen, that is taken regularly for pain and inflammation, could over the long-term cause LG and eventually lead to more inflammation in our systems? Since we are in the Christmas season and I love the movie Elf , I will reference Buddy the Elf and say, “That’s shocking.”

In the end, we need to respect our intestinal tract and all of the bacteria that lives in it. When I say respect, I mean to say, take care of it, not abuse it and feed it what it needs to survive and take care of the rest of your body. This concept is not new.

What can you do to help feed your gut? You can start by getting rid of crappy food including food that is processed, fast food, sodas, fancy coffees and just poor eating habits. Food that you can easily incorporate into your daily diet include: sauerkraut, home-made yogurt, fiber containing foods like flax seed, fresh fruits and veggies and lean proteins.

To some, making the necessary dietary changes can seem like the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, when that is the case, looking at making small changes to your diet and over time, these can accumulate and have a significant effect on your overall healthcare.

I am also a huge fan of supplements, products that supplement what you are not getting in your diet. Healing a leaky gut can be expedited using products that contain glutamine, an amino acid that is important for healing the intestinal lining and zinc carnosine, which addresses inflammation. Products that contain mucilage or mucus producing substances are greatly helpful: aloe-vera, licorice root, marshmallow, okra, slippery elm and other similar substances. My go to product is Dynamic GI Integrity because it has all the necessary ingredients for gut healing and it has a great peach tea flavor that makes it easy to drink on a regular basis.

If we can heal the inflammation, leaky gut, and re-establish a healthy lining, we can help decrease systemic inflammation and hopefully head off future illness.

My staff and I would be honored to help you out so stop by the pharmacy or call to schedule a consultation for help in fixing your gut issues.

Until next time, be vigilant about your health!!