About 70 % of the people with leaky gut have gut-related problems. This means that 30 % have symptoms that are not directly related to the gut. If you have one or more of the symptoms or conditions described below, you most likely have a leaky gut! But don't despair! There is a lot you can do to heal your leaky gut!
This is part 2 of 4 about leaky gut. In this series of articles I will answer the questions:
"What is a leaky gut?" (part 1),
"Do I have a leaky gut?" (part 2),
"Why do I have a leaky gut?" (part 3),
"How do I heal my leaky gut?" (part 4).
Common gut-related problems today are Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Ulcerative colitis (UC), food allergies, chronic constipation or diarrhea, gassy or bloated gut, acid reflux, burping, indigestion, etc. are all warning signs that you might have a leaky gut.
Then we have all the autoimmune diseases. In an autoimmune reaction, antibodies and immune cells act like soldiers, accidentally possessing the body's own healthy tissues and attacking them. This can happen just about anywhere in your body, in your muscles, joints, gut, brain, liver, thyroid etc. An autoimmune reaction is simply an attack on healthy tissues in your body.
If you have an autoimmune disease, you most likely also have a leaky gut. Common autoimmune diseases are Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Graves' disease, Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren syndrome, Celiac disease, Multiple sclerosis (MS), and Type I Diabetes.
General skin problems may be related to leaky gut. Itchy skin, dry skin, eczema, rashes of various kinds, hives, acne and psoriasis are all warning signs.
How the well-being of the gut affects brain functionality is another area where we see a link to leaky gut. Chris Kresser describes in one of his articles how depression can be caused and triggered by inflammation which is produced in an arbitrary place in the body, usually the gut. Inflammatory cytokines make their way through the blood, the brain barrier and then suppress the activity in the frontal lobe of the brain, producing all the symptoms we associate with depression. Inflammation and leaky gut go hand in hand. Chronic headaches, mental fatigue, worry and anxiety and ADHD are all warning signs in this category.
Other warning signs can be if you have seasonal allergies, chronic fatigue, feel generally unwell, low libido, difficulty gaining or losing weight, muscle and joint pain, suffering from PMS and/or endometriosis.
A leaky gut may be an underlying cause of the symptoms you have, of why you feel the way you do. But again, don't despair! There is a lot you can do to heal your leaky gut!
In the next article I will describe what triggers leaky gut, what are the underlying causes and in the article after that I will go through what you can do to heal your leaky gut.
See you soon!