Photo Credit: Caleb George
Earlier in our gut series we talked about how moods can be impacted by our gut health, including anxiety and depression. If you didn’t get a chance to see it read it here.
We also talked about how our skin can be impacted by poor gut health, read that blog post here.
Today, I want to discuss a very hot topic that we often hear about but don’t often understand the underlying implications.
These are conditions that impact immune system health such as Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Disease. What do these words mean?
Imagine that your gut is like one long garden hose, or a tube that attaches at two ends (your mouth and by your tail bone). This garden hose keeps the digested foods inside and separates it from the rest of the abdomen and the blood stream.
So what happens in the leaky gut?
Basically, you get holes in this hose/tube and the contents (food particles) begin to “leak” out into the blood stream (much like water escapes a hose if there are holes in it). Your body doesn’t recognize them, so it tries to protect itself from the invasion. So, your body sends out white blood cells to the area to mount an attack.
Normally, white blood cells are released to help fight bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. In this case, however, the white blood cells are attacking harmless substances (i.e. food particles). If particles continue to leak into the blood stream, more white blood cells, which produce an inflammatory response in the body, are recruited to fight them. These antibodies and inflammatory messengers travel to other parts of the body and attack and destroy healthy tissues such as thyroid and your joints, etc. Your body thinks it is responding well and protecting itself; in reality it is destroying its own healthy tissues. This is known as an autoimmune process and it all starts in the gut.
So what causes this leaky gut?
Another famous word: INFLAMMATION. Or inflammatory chemicals which are produced when we eat the wrong foods, come in contact with chemicals, are exposed to high stress levels, etc. These factors irritate the gut lining (think about re-opening scraped skin over and over).
What can you do about it?
The simple answer is: address your inflammation. Address any factors that might be negatively irritating your gut lining. In my final post in this series we will delve into more detail about what that means and what we can do about it.
However, here are a few ideas, identify allergens that you know (even if you ignore) irritate your digestive system. For example, if you eat dairy and end up with diarrhea and constipation, it’s likely that you’re sensitive to it and it’s causing inflammation in your gut. Make sure that you drink plenty of water, as your food will not be able to be digested if you don’t have enough watery substance (your body doesn’t produce enzymes when there is lack of water in the system).
Stay tuned for my last post this week in which I will discuss on how to identify and come closer to healing your gut and your body naturally (read here)!
If you are struggling with gut related issues and would love to feel better click the button below to schedule your appointment!
If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.