Autoimmune disorders are diseases of the immune system. Somewhere along the way your immune system went rogue and began attacking your own tissues. This means in order to treat, prevent, or reverse your autoimmune disease you’ll need to get your immune system back under control.
In order to do that, you must address your gut health. Your gut is the foundation of your whole body’s health because 80% of your immune system is located there. Without a healthy gut, you can’t have a healthy immune system, and are more open to infections, inflammation, and autoimmune disease.
“Leaky gut syndrome” is almost always associated with autoimmune disease. In fact, reversing symptoms of autoimmune disorders depend on healing the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. Any other treatment is just symptom suppression.
Hyperpermeability or “leaky gut” syndrome is the name given to a very common disorder classified by malfunction in the intestinal tight junctions in the digestive tract, allowing larger-than-usual particles to pass from the digestive system into the bloodstream leading to chronic inflammation and poor immunity.
Common leaky gut symptoms include: digestive disorders, food sensitivities, depression, thyroid dysfunction, nutrient malabsorption, skin conditions (rosacea, eczema), migraines, weight gain, autoimmune diseases (celiac, Chron’s, Lupus, Type 1 Diabetes, etc.), and more.
The good news is that a leaky gut is reversible, and addressing it could potentially alleviate some of these problematic immune responses.
If you suffer from any leaky gut symptoms, I encourage you to consult with your naturopathic doctor and/or holistic nutritionist about options for treatment.
The basic steps to healing leaky gut are as follows:
REMOVE foods and factors that damage the gut.
REPLACE these with foods with a short-term anti-inflammatory leaky gut diet.
REPAIR the gut with specific leaky gut supplements.
REBALANCE your microbiome with probiotics.