What To Do About A Leaky Gut – Best Biohack Strategy

The Leaky Gut Syndrome is the mother of many health comorbidities.  Follow the Vitamin Clerk’s two-part blog to biohack the leaky gut for long term good health.

 

The origin of the Leaky Gut Syndrome was conceived from research on gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases, which were considered autoimmune diseases.

Traditionally, the model of autoimmune disease was primarily a genetic problem, whereby your immune system targeted your own tissues.  Either your immune system had mistaken your tissue for a foreign antigen (called Molecular Mimicry) or your T-Cells self-activated even without the presence of an antigen (called Bystander Effect).

But in Western diets, inflammation from food-specific intolerances occurring later in life became more prevalent and suggested something more complex.  Nutritional sciences focused on gluten intolerance as gluten became broadly used in the food industry.  Further, knowledge of the gut microbiome was emerging, including its influence on human health and disease.

 

A new model of inflammation emerged.  It defined the Gut-Brain-Immune Axis.

This model was published in the early 2000’s thanks to research by Dr. Alessio Fasano.  His model involved the mechanisms regulating the barrier formed by the cells of the outer lining of your intestine.  These cells are called Enterocytes and the specific barrier is called Tight Junctions.  Dr. Fasano put the dysfunction of this barrier front-and-center in the pathology of many inflammatory diseases, including inflammation not directly related to the gastrointestinal system. Thus emerged the Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Tight Junctions were considered static and impermeable.  It prevented the passing of digested food, pathogenic microbes, and toxic foreign matter.  Now we know that the permeability of the intestinal barrier is actually dynamic and facilitates the transport of nutrients to the circulatory system. 

Our gut has many types of nerve and immune cells.  The intestinal barrier is the interface to all of these cell types.  Our body’s ability to regulate this barrier may be how the Gut-Brain-Immune systems are interconnected.

Unfortunately, for those with a genetic predisposition, the degree of permeability can be disequilibrated and lead to an inflammatory response—such as food intolerances. 

 

The “leaky gut” may be the beginning of all diseases—even Aging.

 

Nutritional and medical sciences have figured out that many unhealthy factors disrupt your intestinal permeability.  These include prolonged stress, processed foods, low-fiber diets, smoking, insulin intolerance, high BMI, and the composition of our gut microbiome.  Thanks to Dr. Fasano’s research, he found that the leaky gut is the start of many comorbidities related to the Western diet. 

How is this possible?  Opportunistic pathogenic bacteria in your gut make unique molecules called lipopolysaccharides, LPS, which are toxins.  Our immune system is adapt at recognizing the presence of LPS.  It turns on the inflammatory response to fight the possible infection.  If your intestinal barrier never returns to a normal state, the continued presence of LPS throughout your body leads to chronic, low-grade inflammation.

Low-grade inflammation leads to poor quality of life morbidities—diabetes, atherosclerosis, cognitive decline, depression, and fatty liver.  This is because pathogens and toxins that enter the circulatory system from a leaky gut also disrupt the function of the barrier of the brain, kidneys, and lungs.  Remarkably, even Aging is an outcome of chronic, low-grade inflammation—a byproduct of a leaky gut.

As for treating these quality-of-life morbidities, the emerging modern view is to address the barrier permeability dysfunction.  No medicine yet exists.  But we can control our diet with more fermentable fiber, time restrictive feeding habits, and healthy probiotics that help maintain a normalized gut barrier.

 

Biohacking the leaky gut problem means understanding the biology about barrier permeability. 

So, the leaky gut in medical terms is a dysfunctional intestinal permeability.  To biohack the problem, let's move on to how this barrier is regulated.  Continue on to Part 2 for my best strategy to maintain a heathy gut for life.

 

 

 

Drs. Rhonda Patrick and John Bagnulo are nutritional scientists with interesting lectures on YouTube about intestinal permeability.  

• Bagnulo, J. MPH PhD, Reversing Gut Permeability: The Role Of Whole Foods And Fermentable Fiber. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrqHlHA6xIc
• Patrick, Rhonda PhD. Intestinal Permeability And The Bacterial Link To Aging, Brain Barrier Dysfunction, And Metabolic Disorder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQAzGaW1JU

 

These scientific references explain the pathology of the leaky gut. 

• Berding, K., et al. (2021). Diet and the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis: Sowing the Seeds of Good Mental Health. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 12(4), 1239–1285. https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmaa181
• Di Tommaso, N., Gasbarrini, A., & Ponziani, F. R. (2021). Intestinal Barrier in Human Health and Disease. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(23), 12836. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312836
• Camilleri M. (2019). Leaky gut: mechanisms, measurement and clinical implications in humans. Gut, 68(8), 1516–1526. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31076401/
• Suzuki T. (2020). Regulation of the intestinal barrier by nutrients: The role of tight junctions. Animal science journal = Nihon chikusan Gakkaiho, 91(1), e13357. https://doi.org/10.1111/asj.13357
• Camilleri M. (2021). Human Intestinal Barrier: Effects of Stressors, Diet, Prebiotics, and Probiotics. Clinical and translational gastroenterology, 12(1), e00308. https://doi.org/10.14309/ctg.0000000000000308
• Khoshbin, K., & Camilleri, M. (2020). Effects of dietary components on intestinal permeability in health and disease. American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology, 319(5), G589–G608. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpgi.00245.2020