Leaky gut

[ed2w]

Does anyone know of any good leaky gut/stomach/digestion testing you can do to determine how healthy your gut is? I have so many issues in that area just want to make sure that it is not contributing to my over active thyroid.

[Paula101]

I must admit I never took any tests as such to determine my gut health.

I started taking Kefir, and L-glutamine (combined with enzymes & pre & probiotics), turned to a gluten free diet and can say any tummy troubles I had have virtually gone.

[Petriz in reply to Paula101]

Hi Paula,

Do you remember how soon after starting glutamine and probiotics you started to feel better? And what dosage of glutamine did you take? Do you still take glutamine today?

[Lynneypin]

My functional health doc ordered a urine leaky gut test for me. Came back positive.

[Santolina]

From Sarah Myhill: Leaky gut means that substances which should be held in the gut leak out through the gut wall – this causes many problems! Hydrogen ions (ie acid) cannot be concentrated in the stomach (hypochlorrhydria). This causes malabsorption of minerals and vitamin B12. Hypochlorrhydria is a major risk factor for fermenting gut since acid helps to sterilise the upper gut. It also is an essential part of protein digestion. Leaky gut causes allergy.

Normally one expects foods to be completely broken down into amino acids (from protein) essential fatty acids and glycerol (from fats) and single sugars or monosaccharides (from carbohydrates). The undigested foods stay in the gut and the small digested molecules pass through the gut wall into the portal blood stream and on to the liver where they are dealt with.

However leaky gut means food particles get absorbed before they have been properly digested. This means large food molecules get into the blood stream. These large molecules are "interesting" to the immune system who may mistake them for viruses and/or bacteria. In this event it may attack these harmless molecules either with antibodies or directly with immune cells. This causes inflammation. Inflammation in the gut causes diseases of the gut. Inflammation elsewhere can cause almost any symptom you care to mention. It may switch on allergy and/or auto-immunity, i.e. it is potentially a disease amplifying process.

Another problem with small digested molecules or polypeptides getting in to the bloodstream is that these molecules may be biologically active. Some of them act as hormone mimics which can effect levels of glucose in the blood or blood pressure. This is akin to throwing a handful of sand into a finely tuned machine - it makes a real mess of homeostatic mechanisms of controlling body activities.

Diagnosis

To diagnose leaky gut, we look at levels of Short chain polypeptides. This test now replaces a PEG test.

[Panda_26 in reply to Santolina]

Where do you source this kind of test please ?

[rslnhwt]

Leaky gut/low HCL/SIBO type conditions will often produce stool abnormalities. Symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, acid reflux also suggestive. Malabsorption of vitamins/minerals and even results such as high folate/b12 in SIBO. However other conditions can also cause these symptoms, Celiac, Crohns, IBD, parasites, any other food intolerances. If you've been given an IBS label with other conditions ruled out, it's useful to know that a large percentage of IBS sufferers are positive for SIBO.

There is a test you can do with baking soda to test stomach acid, though it's not entirely accurate:

drjockers.com/5-ways-test-s...

In many cases proper thyroid treatment should restore HCL production to normal. Digestive enzymes seem to help in the short term.

SIBO can be diagnosed with a breath test and treated with antibiotics. It can also be herbally treated with similar effectiveness:

siboinfo.com/herbal-antibio...

If you have an autoimmune condition then eating gluten will likely contribute to a leaky gut so it is in your interest to go gluten free. It may be in your interest to go gluten free even if you don't have one.