When you hear of someone who has a ‘leaky gut,’ it means that organs involving your gut are damaged. Usually, the walls of your intestine start to let particles and toxins from foods that are undigested to leak into your bloodstream.

A pathway between the cells loosens in areas where the gut lining cells begin to loosen. It exposes the immune system to toxins and activates an immune response to target those food particles, but it can also attack healthy body cells.

There can be numerous reasons for getting and suffering from a leaky gut, but you can get to the root cause of your leaky gut problem and resolve it quickly with functional medicine. However, before you can understand how functional medicine can help treat a leaky gut, you must first understand more about it and the differences between how integrative and functional medicine would treat it. 

Symptoms of Leaky Gut Syndrome

Most illnesses can start with your stomach and gut. The immune system response that occurs results in more inflammation and affects the healthy body cells and the toxins.

There are numerous signs of a leaky gut, but most will include the following:

• Joint pain
• Insomnia
• Digestive issues such as bloating, constipation, diarrhea, gas, indigestion
• Migraines
• Asthma
• Allergies
• Skin issues like eczema, acne, or rosacea
• Water weight gain
• Autoimmune diseases like celiac disease, psoriasis, or lupus
• Chronic pain or fatigue
• Hormonal imbalances like PCOS

When you suffer from a leaky gut, you will find that these signs and symptoms occur frequently. If you have spoken with your doctor, you may have been prescribed multiple medications for any symptoms mentioned above. However, when working with a functional medicine doctor, your first course of action will be to determine the cause of your leaky gut syndrome.

What Causes Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Your gut lining is thinner than a strand of hair, so it is sensitive to anything that might cause damage to create a leaky gut. The compromising of the junctions between cells creating those holes or pockets for toxins to leak into the bloodstream, could have numerous root causes. 

Some of the more common causes of leaky gut include:

• Your Diet – the standard American diet is full of sugar, starch, and other processed foods 
• Medications – if you use a lot of NSAIDs which include ibuprofen, Advil, or Aleve
• Toxin exposure – pesticides, preservatives in foods, or environmental toxins
• Steriods
• Acid Blockers
• Antibiotics
• Chronic stress and anxiety
• Systemic inflammatory disease
• Lack of fiber, probiotic, or prebiotic foods
• Reduced stomach acid

Mental health disorders, a poor immune system, and heart disease can also cause gut health issues. Everyone’s microbiome is unique, and certain elements cause trouble. With a functional medicine approach, you need intervention to help heal the gut, but also the tools and resources to ensure that you prevent it from reoccurring.

How to Treat Leaky Gut Syndrome

Ensuring that your digestive system is working properly is key to your overall health. With functional medicine, you can identify the root of what is causing your leaky gut to heal the entire problem. 

The immunologist at Rahav Wellnes in NYC implores that you take some steps to help heal your digestive system that will help lead to a significant improvement in (or eliminate) your leaky gut. Those steps are as follows:

Step 1 – Remove 

Remove anything and everything that could be causing your leaky gut from the causes listed above. For example, stop taking antibiotics or NSAIDs, and from your diet, stop eating all foods that could trigger an allergy or sensitivity, such as sugars, glutens, or processed foods (and processed oils in foods). In addition, if you suffer from chronic stress, you should work to determine what in your lifestyle is giving you anxiety and refrain from it. 

You may need to perform an allergy test or elimination diet to identify foods that trigger your health problems. You can also look at your microbiome to analyze your gut function or provide a stool sample to be tested.

Step 2 – Replace

Your gut will not release digestive enzymes properly, absorb nutrients, or functionally digest foods when inflamed. Therefore, you need to aid in healing your leaky gut by replacing those enzymes that may be missing. To do this, you should work to enforce the breakdown of your foods, such as including more proteins in your food, chewing your food more to break it down, or taking digestive enzyme supplements.

Step 3 – Reinoculate

Consuming probiotic supplements or foods will provide your body with better bacteria and work to combat the harmful bacteria causing your gut issues. Fermented foods offer a good source of probiotics and can be found in things like kombucha (with no added sugars), kimchi, and sauerkraut.

Probiotics work with prebiotics, and while you can take prebiotic supplements, you should look for foods high in soluble fiber. Those foods include garlic, leeks, onion, asparagus, artichokes, and other cruciferous vegetables. In addition, raw and organic foods help your gut to work better.

Step 4 – Repair

Helping your gut lining repair itself is the next step to ensuring your treatment and prevention of leaky gut. Supply your digestive system with nutrients you are missing, such as collagen, fish oil, zinc, and antioxidants that include vitamins A, C, and E.

Step 5 – Rebalance

Now is the time to work on maintaining and sustaining your health so that you don’t fall susceptible to leaky gut again. Of course, your lifestyle and choices surrounding your overall well-being make a significant impact on your gut health. For example, you should work to manage your stress with healthy outlets, take up meditation or incorporate exercise, and ensure that you are getting enough sleep at night. 

Knowledge and Application

 Institute for Functional Medicine suggests that understanding the root cause of your leaky gut and why it occurs is a massive factor in helping you to learn how to treat it. With the knowledge of your leaky gut triggers, you can work to apply steps that will repair your gut lining and ensure that you can maintain a happy gut and sustain longevity with your health. 

So, make all of the positive changes within your health and lifestyle so that you can heal and keep that leaky gut from coming back ever again!