Women's Health Series
Leaky gut, how to right your ship
Leaky gut? What the heck is that? Or maybe by now, you have heard this term. I recall the first time I heard it many many years ago. At that time they were mainly referring to it as intestinal permeability. Fancy but more specific than leaky gut. So let’s get into some anatomy first.
Gut is a generic term whereas intestinal gives a bit more clarity, but not enough really. Our intestine is quite large or maybe it’s small, haha it’s both. (Sorry not sorry for that awful pun 😅) The small intestine is where the “leakiness” happens. What exactly goes in there anyway? Well, the small intestine is where the majority of your digestion happens. This is where enzymes are sent to break down your food. It’s also where roughly 90% or more of your nutrients are absorbed. Your intestine is permeable by design, but it’s meant to only allow very small particles to be released into the bloodstream. When it becomes “leaky”, it allows much larger particles to escape through that otherwise tight barrier of the intestinal lining. The lining has lost its integrity (bad lining, 😅)
To give you a mental picture, it’s like when you buy the weed liner for your flower bed and pretty soon it’s got tears in it and the weeds are popping through. So as you may have guessed or maybe already know, particles escaping into your blood stream is definitely not a helpful thing. It can cause a host of downstream situations, none of which are pleasant. To name a few examples: food sensitivities, bloating, autoimmune disease, histamine reactions, hormone imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, and the list goes on.
So what causes this to happen in the first place? Ah, well now this is a rabbit hole that could go on for miles, but we are not taking a trip down Alice’s Wonderland today. My focus will be on the hormonal aspect of it. Suffice it to say that much, much more could be said on this topic and this will be a simplified version. I will add though that sometimes a duck is just a duck. It’s definitely an area where a person can go off the deep end looking for a solution and yes I’m speaking from experience.
Before we dive into how hormones play a part in this scenario, it’s important to know who or maybe what is responsible for maintaining the gut lining. That would be your gut microbiome. Those clever little devils pretty much run your body. In terms of mass, the human body is more bacteria than person. The variety is astounding also and each with its own communal function. Some are garbage collectors, some are immune supporting, some produce vitamins and others produce neurotransmitters (the brain chemicals). They also are responsible for the communication that takes place from cell to cell. There is a delicate dance that takes place in the gut (and throughout the body). Because of this dance, the gut bacteria are very sensitive to stress.
When stress, aka inflammation, occurs the gut bacteria can end up in places they don’t belong. They can overproduce one type and underproduce another. In other words, this delicate balance gets out of whack. This leads to gut dysbiosis and loss of gut integrity. The tight junctions keeping larger particles from passing through the lining are no longer tight.
Are you starting to understand why gut bacteria are so important to the immune system?
So what do we know about stress and hormones? Cortisol is released when we are stressed. As cortisol goes up we enter the fight-flight mode. Whole body shifts begin to happen to mobilize us for defense. Nutrients are moved to certain parts like the muscles and other “less important” functions are neglected. This is all great when you are literally fighting for your life in a short-term situation. However, if this is an ongoing occurrence then your body is struggling all the time and we call this chronic inflammation.
So what does any of this have to do with the gut bacteria? Remember how I said they are responsible for cellular communication? Well, one of the ways they communicate is through hormones. Also recall I said that when the cortisol levels are high, other “less important” parts of the body get neglected. One of those is your reproductive system. Now that may not seem concerning if you are not interested in babymaking, but your hormones are the chemical masterminds of your whole system. If they ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, lol. So while you are making fewer hormones in order to keep up with the demand for cortisol, your gut microbiome is getting flooded with cortisol and the lining suffers. Insulin resistance sets in and now we’ve got a whole bunch more stuff happening.
So what’s the solution? Again this will be an oversimplification, but also again, it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel like it may seem when it comes to nutrition. Your gut microbiome is eager to communicate with you and will gladly give you insights into how to proceed if you take the time to listen to what your body is telling you. Start first by checking your diet. If it’s not something you would feed your pet, lol, why do you feed it to yourself? Or if like me, you are not a pet person, would you feed it to a baby under two? I’m not suggesting you go back to soft foods (or dog food 😅) just eat more consciously. If you can’t read the ingredients, return to the outer perimeter of the store, where most of the items come directly from nature (and if you can help it pick organic foods or grow your own to avoid all the hormone disruptors.)
Also and this is a big one, your body is listening to all your negative self-talk and viewing it as an attack! Your cortisol levels rise when you say negative things to yourself.
This includes any stories of unforgiveness in any form. It includes any form of separation between you and your highest truth, which is that you are perfect. So how can you address your cortisol levels in a simple, free manner? Change your thinking :D
How can I help? To start with I highly recommend getting more connected to your intuition. I also have a lot of tools to offer for emotional regulation and diet changes. And last but certainly not least, I am able to help you see your blind spots and stay accountable for what you choose. I love helping people overcome their stories. It’s a game-changer!