I Just Want To Feel Better!

Avoiding the Downward Health Spiral

Listen To Yourself

This hesitation in believing yourself about your own health results from a health care system that specializes in treating symptoms instead of health.

I recommend you listen to your body and believe what it tells you.

If You Feel Bad, Something is Very Wrong

If you take the right actions, you can reverse your declining health and resume a happy and fulfilling life.

If you don’t do anything effective about your health, your happiness can be reduced. Your health may continue to worsen, and you may eventually have a health problem that your doctor can diagnose. At this point, treatment will likely be long-term medication to control a symptom while your health continues to deteriorate.

The Spiral Down

Many people feel bad, can’t get help from their doctor, think that this is their lot in life and just suffer.

Some, however, put up a heroic fight to improve:

• First, you might go to your doctor. Doctors must diagnose you to do any treatment. If you can get no useful diagnosis, this is likely to result in either no help or a prescription for antidepressant drugs.
• If you discover that this is certainly not what you were looking for, you may research the internet for products to try. This often results in countless hours wasted while becoming more confused.
• You may use many different supplements, herbs, and remedies. Some of these may help and create hope, only to stop working after a while.
• Some people may search for professionals: naturopaths, chiropractors, and functional medicine doctors. In many cases, treatment will produce an improvement. But this can often be followed by a plateau with no progress and then a slow slide back into feeling bad.

The final result can be a person who feels bad and has convinced themselves that there’s nothing left to try. They may have come full circle back to thinking this is their lot in life.

You Don’t Need a Treatment; You Need a Guide and a Program

If you generally don’t feel well long-term, there is no single treatment that is likely to help. Your problem is probably more complex than a single solution from a drug, supplement, or diet.

What you need is an entire program to work with your body, diet, and lifestyle to restore your life and health. You’ll also need a guide to work with you through the program to make sure you get a full result.

This doesn’t have to be hard. It could be done in less time than you may be imagining.

I understand how you feel; it was my own frightening health experiences that inspired my clinic. I’ve been where you are myself.

I’ve been helping cases like yours for 28 years and have developed a comprehensive program that is individualized and unique to you. What I do isn’t a secret! You can go to my Information and Education Hub webpage and read as much as you like about what I do and how it works.

Here is your plan:

1. Use the link below to go to my online health quiz.
2. Fill out the quiz and submit it.
3. We’ll call you and do a phone consultation to determine if it’s likely that we could help you.
4. You’ll get started toward feeling better and achieving your health goals.

PREVIOUS FAILURES IN GETTING HELP WITH YOUR HEALTH CAN CREATE A FEAR OF TRYING ONE MORE TIME.

DON’T BE STOPPED. DON’T DELAY OR “THINK ABOUT IT.” TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW TO DISCOVER IF THIS IS THE SOLUTION YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR.

TAKE THE QUIZ!

Feeling So Much Better!

To Lose Weight… Stop Trying to Lose Weight

If you are frustrated (or beyond frustrated) by your inability to lose weight, I have some radical advice:

Stop trying to lose weight.

The usual actions for weight loss revolve around diet and exercise. Weight loss is supposed to happen if you burn more calories than you take in.

But in many cases, this has proven to be completely ineffective.

This can leave you frustrated, often trying one diet, supplement, or exercise program after another.

There Are Other Reasons for Stubborn Weight

Some people can lose weight by making a few diet changes and becoming a little more active (you may hate these people).

However, genuine cases of stubborn weight rarely succeed with calorie-based solutions because calories frequently aren’t the reason for the weight.

Less known but very common causes of stubborn weight:

• Food allergies
• Digestive problems
• Hormone imbalances
• Blood sugar problems

Many people can’t lose weight or stop gaining weight due to health problems that have nothing to do with calories or exercise.

Most attempts to lose weight are based on calories and exercise, thus maximum frustration.

An Essential Action

If you’ve had trouble with your weight and want to lose it and keep it off, you’ll have to be active. I have never seen a patient successfully lose weight without becoming active*. By “active” I mean walking each day, moving around during the day, and doing several hours of activity on weekends (yard work, hiking for an hour or two, etc.) on weekends.

If you have a health condition preventing you from being active, this may need to be improved to lose weight. Commonly my weight patients say they have no energy or motivation to be active. There are usually physical reasons for this which can be improved, resulting in good energy, better motivation, good activity level… and weight loss!

*Don’t start an exercise program without your doctor’s approval.

Cravings!

Often I’m asked, “What if I can’t control what I eat? I crave sugar, carbs, and junk food all day long.”

This can be a barrier to any weight loss. Happily, I researched and addressed this problem decades ago. I have specialized acupressure treatments that help the body reduce or eliminate cravings so you can control your food intake.

Weight Loss Formula:

1. Identify and resolve any health problems, such as hormones, allergies, etc., that will prevent weight loss (this is a worthwhile action for your happiness and future health, anyway).
2. Eat a healthy diet for your specific health challenges. For example, if you have blood sugar problems, you need to control your carbs and sugar more than most people.
3. If eating healthy is challenging, reduce your cravings and get on a diet consultation program.
4. Become (or continue to be) active daily.

You Don’t Need a Treatment; You Need a Guide and a Program

If you have been dealing with stubborn weight for a long time, there is probably no single solution to resolve this.

The reason for your weight problem is going to be more complex than a drug, supplement, or diet solution can handle.

You need an entire program to work with your body, diet, and lifestyle to restore your life and health. You’ll also need a guide to work with you through the program and ensure you get a complete result.

This doesn’t have to be hard. It could be done in less time than you may imagine.

I understand how you feel; it was my own frightening health experiences that inspired my clinic. I’ve been where you are myself.

I’ve been helping cases like yours for 28 years and have developed a comprehensive program that is individualized and unique to you. What I do isn’t a secret! You can go to my Information and Education Hub webpage and read as much as you like about what I do and how it works.

Here is your plan:

1. Use the link below to go to my online health quiz.
2. Fill out the quiz and submit it.
3. We’ll call you and do a phone consultation to determine if it’s likely that we could help you.
4. You’ll get started toward feeling better and achieving your weight and health goals.

PREVIOUS FAILURES IN GETTING HELP WITH YOUR WEIGHT AND HEALTH CAN CREATE A FEAR OF TRYING ONE MORE TIME.

DON’T BE STOPPED. DON’T DELAY OR “THINK ABOUT IT.” TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW TO DISCOVER IF THIS IS THE SOLUTION YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR.

TAKE THE QUIZ!

The Incredible Shrinking Woman!!

I just saw some startling statistics from a recent Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) report:

• After age 27, Millennials chances of major health problems increase sharply
• Millennials have higher rates of common health conditions than their Gen-X predecessors did at the same ages
• As their health continues to decline, Millennials are going to be a huge financial burden on the already overwhelmed healthcare system.

Think about this: Before they reach their third decade of life, Millennials are at risk for chronic diseases that their grandparents may be facing.

Two Questions:

ONE: Why? What is destroying the health of young people who have grown up with the latest advancements of medicine, diet and a cleaner environment?

TWO: How can this trend be reversed, and how can we make sure that the next generation isn’t in even worse condition?

Children’s Health Has Been Sliding for Generations

You’ve almost certainly noticed that there has been a long-term health slide for our kids. I can recall that when I was in grade school, kids weren’t on drugs for ADHD. The school wasn’t a “peanut free zone” because of severe food allergies. There weren’t any diabetics in my class. There weren’t more than a couple of “fat kids” in my class, either.

The reason behind this deterioration of children’s health would likely be a major reason for the data in this Blue Cross Blue Shield study.

The Reason? Gut Microbes

In your body, there are about 10 times as many microbes as there are cells. That’s about 360 trillion microbes… mostly in your small intestine. They provide many services for your body including:

• Digesting your food (which is your body’s replacement parts)
  
• Producing 75% of your immune system.

Here’s an article from Scientific American on gut microbes

If you damage your supply of gut microbes, you become much more likely to develop many health conditions, especially those caused by a weakened immune system. This would include health conditions created by inflammation, auto-immune, allergies, etc.

Gut Microbes are damaged by:

• Antibiotics (drugs you take, residual drugs in meat you eat, and environmental antibiotics in hand soap and many other products).
• Food additives (preservatives, flavor enhancers, dyes, etc.)
• Environmental chemicals you get exposed to all the time.
• Eating too much sugar and refined carbohydrates (this causes fungus in your small intestine to overgrow and destroy the beneficial bacteria).

There are certainly many additional challenges that make it difficult to maintain good health in our society. However, most of these stresses piggyback on the gut microbe problem or are made much worse by it.

Then there’s the single largest and most vicious reason for declining health: The Big Lie.

The Big Lie

“Many health conditions are permanent; you can’t get ever get completely well and will need ongoing treatment for the rest of your life.”

This Lie applies to diagnosed diseases as well as non-diagnosed symptoms.

Here’s a partial list:

Diabetes, high blood pressure, IBS, GERD, asthma, allergies, high cholesterol, depression, heart disease, arthritis, chronic respiratory diseases, fatigue, sleep problems, digestive problems, anxiety, hair loss, weight gain, back/shoulder/neck/knee/hand pain, brain fog, memory problems, menstrual and menopause problems, infertility.

I call this the Big Lie because I watch bodies become healthy and heal themselves of every one of these conditions on a regular basis.

None of these problems can be successfully solved using drugs or surgery, and our current medical system uses ONLY drugs and surgeries. So, medically all these conditions are permanent.

Also, our medical system considers that it is all-knowing, and that nothing else other than drugs and surgeries has any validity. So, if you can’t get well medically then you better just learn to live with your problems.

What To Do?

If you think that your gut health may be affecting your health and quality of life:

Click the button below and make an appointment to find out exactly what is going on with your body and how you could resolve this without drugs or surgery.

Gratitude is such a happy word.

To be thankful. To love and appreciate the good around us. The people and the things that make our lives better and worth living. The big things and the little things. I am so grateful for so many things.

I also am guilty of not really being that grateful a lot of the time.

I look at the bad. I will be honest. I get afraid a lot of the time that only looking at the good will make me less safe; will make me unrealistic and a “Pollyanna.” I must see the bad too. What’s wrong, what isn’t going right so that I can fix it and make it right. Do you ever feel like that? The problem with this perspective is that it can create fear, and fear does not beget gratitude. Fear begets more fear and as a consequence, more bad things are likely to happen as darkness very rarely brings light.

Sometimes the darkness can feel safer. From darkness we can keep finding all the wrong places, from there, all you can see are the wrong places. And there are more and more wrong places and after a time you have a hard time finding the right places. All you have been looking for is the wrong. What we put attention on grows, and when you find all the wrongs, you’ve been watering the wrongs for too long.

As a doctor, I often know when someone will get well and when they won’t. It starts with all the wrongs. If someone can only see what is wrong and cannot see anything that is right or that it could ever be right, it will always be more wrong than right. Sickness and health are that way. Sometimes we are afraid to let go of the wrongs because if we do, it just seems impossible. It seems we may have to be someone else; it seems we may have to do different things than we’re comfortable with. So, we hold on to the wrongs— and they have a way of spiraling down and down into the abyss of more wrongs.

How to recover? How to change this mindset? How to replace this fear with something better— with love? I have found that I can change the way I see things, I can start to see the rights in my world, by being grateful. Just as with acts of kindness, being grateful is never wrong. These last two weeks have been stressful in both our personal and work families. My husband’s dad who is 93 almost died from a heart arrhythmia and it took ten people in the ER to bring him back. With the technology we have today, he is back home with an unblocked heart and a pacemaker to guide things. He gets better every day.

I am grateful for the technology we have that saves lives in our emergency rooms. I am grateful this technology gave us more days with this wonderful, kind man who is the light of his family and who is such an example of love to so many. I am grateful he is in my life and the lives of my two boys and that I have had the last 23 years to claim him as my family too.

I am also grateful today that one of my valued staff members who had to have an emergency surgery last week is at home recovering. I am grateful that we have surgeons who can create modern day miracles and save people’s lives and give us back our family members and friends so we can love them some more. I am grateful for life.

I am grateful for my boys who are my life. I am grateful that they teach me every day to be a better person. I am thankful for my husband who does such a better job than I do at seeing the rights and putting more attention on them than the wrongs. It has balanced the days when I could only see from the darkness.

I am grateful for my pets. My beautiful, special pets who bring so much joy and silliness to our lives. I am grateful for so many things. Do you see the light gratitude brings? It is spilling over in my heart and drowning out the darkness and the wrongs, so much so that I want to tell you about so many more things that I am grateful for; the light on the trees, the flowers in the yard, a beautiful song, a lovely talk with a friend, a friend.

I am grateful for the beach, that I have known unconditional love, that my son got well when he was so sick. That I had another son and that I have two boys who are big and strong and who love me. I am grateful for good food and good times and love. The light grows and the darkness recedes. The wrongs may still be there, but they are not as big not as scary. I challenge you to try it.

Pretty soon, the wrongs will start to fix themselves or you will see what to do because you are the light, the joy the gratitude and darkness cannot live there. Just start. Get a gratitude journal or share one thing you are grateful for every day with a friend or family member. You may run out of notebook, because what I have found is that even when the wrongs hit, I find some gratitude in them. It may be between tears, and it may take a minute, but even in the “wrongs” there can be gratitude.

For example, I lost a valuable staff member at a really bad time, how can I find gratitude? I could blame her, I could blame myself, I could say it is all lost and now I’ll never find anyone good. Because darkness never gave birth to light remember? Or I could say, “I will find someone who is an even better fit, who will stay and bring their gifts to the business and help it grow even more than the person who left.” I could also be grateful that I could learn from the choice I made and see how I could improve the next time.

I lost my grandmother last fall. She was a very special person to me for all of my life. We were very close and the loss for me was very hard; it still is. If you have ever lost someone you love, you understand and it is very hard to find gratitude sometimes, and easier to find pain. The pain was so deep though, that I knew my grandma would have wanted me to frame it differently, because she never would want me to hurt like that. She was always so positive and so grateful even in hard times, especially in hard times and she taught me by her actions.

So, I was tasked with finding gratitude in the loss of my Grammy who I could not hug or go visit ever again. I couldn’t call her or ask her help or advice again. I couldn’t hear that beautiful voice again or know she was always just a phone call away. How to find gratitude in that? But you know what? There it was right there; in all that. The fact that my grandma was always there for me to share a hug or an accomplishment, to give me encouragment and love any time day or night it didn’t matter to her.

I used to spend weeks in the summer with my grandma and grandpa camping and playing in the woods as a child, visiting and making rhubarb pies with her. She was always there for me when I came home from college with a special meal just for me and hours to talk. She supported me through many hard times and always, always loved me no matter what.

I found my gratitude.

I had known unconditional love from this woman for almost 50 years. I know what it is! She modeled this for me, for my whole family. I know what it looks like, what it feels like and I am so very grateful for this gift that she gave me! Not everyone has this type of love, let alone for this long. The ache doesn’t leave from her loss, but it is now tinged with joy, with the light that she always had emanating from her heart.

Gratitude is magic. It fills the empty dark spaces, it makes light. Can you see it? Can you try it? Don’t be afraid. And if the darkness and the fear come back in, “gratitude it back out.” Replace it with love, with gratitude. Keep listing all the things. There are so many. We have so much, so very much to be grateful for. Gratitude will soften your heart it will bring you joy, and it will light the way in a world that tempts us to only see the wrongs.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this simple thing cannot change the world. This simple thing can change the world because it can change you; and you and I together can change the world.

It is a simple and gentle thing. Do it and keep doing it every day. If you do, eventually you will start to see more good than bad, more rights than wrongs. You will wake up one day with love in your heart and magic in your soul and you too will make your own miracles happen for yourself and for all of us. To a better world, with more light and more gratitude!

Love for the journey.

Depression: You Need a Program, Not a Pill

If you or someone you love is suffering from depression and anxiety, what is needed is real help.

What isn’t needed is temporary “solutions” that depend on theories developed to market pharmaceuticals.

FALSE: Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain

Recent studies have disproven this theory. In truth, there has never been a study that showed any evidence that it was true in the first place, so finally having the theory disproved shouldn’t be a shock.

Read about the recent study here.

This theory was first developed to justify antidepressant drugs. The pitch was that if your depression was caused by chemicals, then more chemicals could correct this.

What do Antidepressant Drugs Do?

According to the CDC, one in six American women over the age of 15 takes antidepressant medications.

What IS known about these drugs is that they are dangerous and addictive (see the “black box” death warning on most of them).

What is a mystery is how and why they affect different people different ways. Some people seem to get help from these drugs. Others can’t tell that they are taking them at all. Some get very negative reactions.

Overall, the longer a person takes these drugs, the more dangerous they become.

Also, the chances for possible relief of your depression and anxiety are not that great: about 20%:

Following is from “Depression: How effective are antidepressants?” NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine):

Studies involving adults with moderate or severe depression have shown the following:

• Without antidepressants: About 20 to 40 out of 100 people who took a placebo noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.
• With antidepressants: About 40 to 60 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.

In other words, antidepressants improved symptoms in about an extra 20 out of 100 people.

What is not included in this study are the health and life disasters that often result from long-term drug use.

The truth is the patient doesn’t need a pill; they need a program

Anyone with depression and/or anxiety has many interrelated health issues that have resulted in their symptoms. There is no “silver bullet” single drug or treatment that will solve the problem.

What is needed is an integrated program including:

• History of infections
• History of head trauma
• History of chemical and toxic metals exposure (such as amalgam dental fillings)
• History of previous drug use
• Dietary, exercise, and sunlight habits
• Testing for allergies, blood sugar problems, and hormone imbalances

I have been using this evaluation method and finding the root causes of depression and anxiety for decades in my practice. I can report that most patients improve, don’t take medications, and progress through any mental therapy course.

As a “bonus,” these patients make overall health improvements that often result in greater energy, better sleep, better digestion, less pain, and overall well-being.

Becoming healthy is itself a valid therapy for anxiety and depression!

Patient Story:

I Have a Real Sense of Hope Instead of a Chemically Induced High!

I have seen significant improvement with my last 3 – 4 visits. My headaches have all but vanished. I have so much energy and mental clarity, and it feels amazing. I have been waking up in the morning feeling like my night’s rest was adequate and restful instead of needing 3 hours to get myself fully alert. I can get so much more accomplished during the day than I used to. I have been off antidepressants for over a month and a half, and I have a real sense of hope about my life instead of a fleeting, chemically-induced high. My sugar cravings have diminished significantly, a truly amazing feat considering when I first walked in here about the only thing I ate or craved was sweets and sugar. The best part is that I have learned so much about nutrition and my body, information that will be invaluable to me for the rest of my life. THANK YOU! — J.R.

Introduction

Below this Introduction is a well-written in-depth article on Leaky Gut with some great examples of how it happens. This Introduction is a short version if you don’t have time for the full story.

There is this thing called “Leaky Gut” that you may have heard of or run across.

You may already know something about it, or it may be an unknown, just vaguely alarming.

You do need to know about it because it’s increasingly common and can mess up your life in ways that you would never normally associate with anything related to digestion.

Leaky Gut can be a Factor in:

• Attention deficit disorder
• Symptoms resembling autism
• Chronic and rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Eczema
• Food allergies and intolerances
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Joint and collagen problems
• Compromised liver function
• Malnutrition
• Multiple chemical sensitivities
• Psoriasis
• Skin disorders ranging from urticaria to acne and dermatitis
• Symptoms like schizophrenia

Leaky Gut can cause stress to your immune system leading to chronic problems (the ones that don’t get better) of all kinds.

What Is It?

To understand Leaky Gut, you must know about the two main functions of the “gut” (small intestine):

1. To absorb nutrients from the food you eat by transferring them from the gut into the bloodstream.
2. A barrier to protect your body from the microbes, undigested food and other unwelcomes from escaping out of the gut.

“Leaky Gut” happens when your gut fails to some degree with these two functions.

Leaky gut is associated with a wide range of general symptoms such as fatigue, abdominal pain or bloating, diarrhea, feelings of toxicity, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, and poor tolerance of exercise.

Because your absorption of food is affected, you can have multiple health problems from malnutrition, despite eating a healthy diet.

Do I Have Leaky Gut?

If you have one of the conditions listed at the beginning of this article, or if you have chronic health problems of long duration, there is a possibility that Leaky Gut is a contributing factor or the primary cause of your difficulties.

There are degrees of Leaky Gut. The problem is that once this gets started, it tends to become worse and rarely heals itself.

How to Avoid or Improve Leaky Gut

1. Clean up your diet. Food chemicals such as preservatives, colors, and flavor enhancers often worsen gut problems. Eat fresh foods, not canned, bottled, or bagged. Stop all fast and junk foods. Limit restaurant foods.
2. Find your allergies and avoid them. There are effective blood tests for this. Allergies are one of the main stress factors that worsen Leaky Gut.
3. Eat protein and veggies, limit carbs and eliminate sugars.
4. Avoid antibiotics (soaps and drugs) unless absolutely necessary.
5. Eat plenty of high-fiber foods.
6. Don’t take NSAIDs (like ibuprofen).
7. Eat fermented foods and take good probiotics.

I hope this helps!

Dr. Melodie Billiot

What Do You Mean By Leaky Gut

Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., DACBN, MS, CFMP

The intestinal lining has two opposite functions:

1. The absorption of nutrients from food in the digestive tract.
2. A barrier function, to control microbes or large food particles from going beyond the gut environment and getting into the bloodstream.

The digestive tract has tiny permeable openings between the cells (called tight junctions) to absorb nutrients from our food. If these pore-like structures open too wide, toxins from the gut can spill over into the bloodstream, overwhelming the liver and causing allergies or any of dozens of other ailments.

This malfunction is known as hyperpermeability because the lining has become too permeable (porous)

It’s also called Leaky Gut Syndrome because the gut begins leaking larger food particles and toxins from the gut.

It’s not a disease per se, but rather a natural process gone bad. Under normal optimal conditions, these pores open and close whenever nutrients are absorbed from our food. Only when the pores open too wide is leaky gut is said to occur.

The Big Picture Behind Leaky Gut: The Real Story

Here’s a detailed account of how leaky gut occurs. Let’s use the example of someone who has a food allergy. Suppose Mary has a wheat allergy and innocently eats a bagel; this can elicit a reaction in her body. If she has an immediate food allergy, her immune system may begin reacting right away. If she has delayed allergies, the reaction may not occur for as long as three hours, but it could take as long as forty-eight hours to occur.

What is surprising is that no matter when it occurs, Mary may not even be aware that it’s happening. She may have a vague feeling of discomfort that could include mild indigestion, a headache, or even joint or muscle aches.

Although she may not notice anything more than vague discomfort at the time, she may develop some chronic problems later down the road, such as auto-immune disorders, allergies, asthma, or arthritis. And she probably won’t link it to this microscopic process going on in her digestive tract as the lining becomes too permeable and begins leaking tiny particles.

On the other hand, she may have noticed that if she cheats on her allergy diet and has milk for breakfast, sometime that day or the next, her joints may be achy, and exercise will become a major effort.

The response of Mary’s body to the offending food also activates her immune system. When she eats allergic foods, her immune system sounds the alarm through chemical messengers, the cytokines. They act like horn-blowers calling out the cavalry, and their job is to bring the infection fighters (the antibodies).

Now the immune system is set in motion. While we always have cytokines as an essential part of our system, the gut will start leaking when too many cytokines and other immune chemicals are circulating in the bloodstream.

The Healthy Mucosal Lining

When Mary’s system is working properly, absorption occurs through tiny structures in the small intestine lining. All this is happening on a microscopic level. Nutrients are being absorbed through three structures:

• Directly through the cells of the gut lining, called transcellular absorption
• Between the cells, in paracellular absorption
• In the crypts, tiny crevices in the lining of the gut

Each structure is programmed to absorb nutrient molecules of a particular size and electromagnetic charge. Between the fingerlike villi lining the gut are crypts, crevices at the base of each villi, like the webbing between your fingers. Because of their larger size, the crypts absorb bigger molecules, such as the disaccharides, which are complex sugars.

Between every cell in the gut lining is a tiny pore-like structure called a tight junction. These tiny pores are also active during digestion. They expand and contract just as other muscles do, opening and closing to release nutrients from the gut into the bloodstream or contain the food mix as it passes through the gut.

The Damaged Mucosal Barrier

Too many immune chemicals can cause the pores to open too wide, causing too much permeability. When there’s inflammation or any crisis in the body, if too many immune-signaling chemicals are circulating in the bloodstream, they can overstimulate the tight junctions, causing the pores to open too wide.

This process can be compared to a house with doors wired to a fire alarm system. If the alarm system malfunctions, it may keep all the doors in the house open and won’t let them close. Clearly, other problems can result. Intruders could easily enter the house.

Leaky gut can raise the body’s exposure to intruders, such as bacteria, yeast, or large food particles that would normally remain in the gut. Again, when the pores open too wide, material is inappropriately released into the bloodstream. In Mary’s case, if her immune system detects large food particles in the bloodstream (perhaps other innocent foods, released through the leaky gut), it will assume they’re allergens and launch a second attack, flooding her system with more cytokines. Then the whole dynamic just gets worse.

Resolving hyperpermeability can have Real Benefits.

Leaky gut is associated with a wide range of general symptoms such as fatigue of unknown origin, abdominal pain or bloating, diarrhea, feelings of toxicity, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, and poor tolerance of exercise.

Hyperpermeability can be an underlying factor in such conditions as:

• Attention deficit disorders
• Symptoms resembling autism
• Chronic and rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Eczema
• Food allergies and intolerances
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Joint and collagen problems
• Compromised liver function
• Malnutrition
• Multiple chemical sensitivities
• Psoriasis
• Skin disorders ranging from urticaria to acne and dermatitis
• Symptoms like schizophrenia

Conditions that May Cause Leaky Gut

• Aging
• HIV
• AIDS with diarrhea
• Alcoholism
• Malnutrition
• Burns
• NSAIDS
• Cancer
• Pancreatitis
• Celiac disease
• Psoriasis
• Certain drugs
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic hepatitis
• Shock or anaphylaxis
• Crohn’s disease
• Toxic shock syndrome
• Cystic fibrosis
• Trauma
• Giardia and other parasites
• Ulcerative colitis

Compliments from Functional Medicine University