Now, there are some organs we can continue on without. But the liver is not one of them.

The liver performs hundreds of vital functions, including regulating blood sugar and controlling blood clotting, metabolizing nutrients, and, of course, removing toxins and waste from the bloodstream.

We know that alcohol’s harm to the liver is a direct punch. However, new research has revealed that it’s actually a one-two punch…

What I mean is that, while alcohol is directly attacking the liver, it’s also opening the door to invaders that also play an active role in wreaking havoc on the liver.

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Alcohol lets bacteria into the liver

Let’s start with a primer on what alcohol does to the liver…

• Alcohol harms the liver by triggering inflammation and the buildup of fat, kickstarting fatty liver disease (not to be confused with NAFLD or MAFLD).
• The chemical acetaldehyde, which is produced when the liver metabolizes alcohol, accelerates this harmful process. It’s also considered a carcinogen.
• Continued drinking can lead to alcoholic hepatitis, characterized by inflamed and damaged liver cells.
• The most severe stage, irreversible cirrhosis, involves the formation of scar tissue that disrupts liver function and can end in liver failure. 

However, a study at UC San Diego has uncovered a previously unobserved series of events that causes even more damage to the liver…  

When scientists examined human liver biopsies, they found that chronic alcohol use impaired the production of a cellular signaling protein in the small intestine known as mAChR4.

When levels of this protein are lower, it interferes with the formation of cells known as goblet cell-associated antigen passages, or GAPs. These GAPs play a key role in teaching the immune system to respond to microbes that escape the gut.

Without this layer of protection, gut bacteria escape and enter vital organs, including the liver, where they compound the damage already being done by alcohol.

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Added protection for your liver

So when it comes to the liver, the best thing to do it avoid alcohol. But the researchers know that advice is not always easy for everyone.

They hope that by developing drugs that boost levels of mACHR, it may be possible to reverse the series of events that do so much harm to the liver and afford some level of protection.

But ultimately, alcohol is a toxin that directly damages the cells responsible for the tight junctures in the lining of the gut. Alcohol-induced inflammation makes the damage to the lining worse — increasing permeability.

Together, that creates a condition known as leaky gut, which allows bacteria of all sorts to not only reach the liver but also other organs.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest limiting alcohol to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.

But it’s important to note that even low amounts are still associated with serious health risks, and for some individuals, especially those over 65, the recommended limit should be even lower. 

Sources:

Vicious Cycle Revealed: How Alcohol Helps Gut Bacteria Attack Your Liver — Science Alert

Alcohol Opens the Floodgates for Bad Bacteria — UC San Diego

The post Alcohol’s hidden partner in the attack on your liver appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Aspartame was touted as both sweeter and safer than saccharine, which was a possible carcinogen. But it didn’t take long for scientists to link aspartame to cancer as well as to anxiety.

And unbelievably, aspartame actually makes your body store more belly fat.

Every time a new sweetener comes on the market, it’s hundreds of times sweeter than the previous one. That’s to convince you to try it and get hooked on it.

But any artificial sweetener you can name turns healthy gut bacteria rogue, making you a sitting duck for disease and deadly infections.

Now the next generation of sweeteners is here. But proceed with caution. This one is not only toxic, you may never even know it’s there…

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Neotame: a clear and present danger to your gut

A study at Anglia Ruskin University in England found that neotame attacks the human gut in a one-two punch.

“Our studies indicate that neotame causes an increase in stress signaling in our human cells which reduces the amount of junctions that hold our cells together in a tight barrier,” Havovi Chichger, PhD, BSC, associate professor in biomedical science at Anglia Ruskin University, said in an interview with Medical News Today. 

Weakening the gut barrier causes the leaking of materials from the gut into the blood. This describes a condition known as leaky gut.

The damage to the gut can lead to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and because the gut lining becomes permeable, bad bacteria can move into the bloodstream and lead to sepsis.

Not only that, but the disruption it causes in the microbiome could lead to metabolic disease including insulin resistance.

Shockingly, Dr. Chichger stressed that even in concentrations 10 times lower than the acceptable daily intake her team saw the breakdown of the gut barrier and bacteria shift to damaging behavior.

This new research into neotame builds on previous work by Dr. Chichger which discovered that saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame could cause similar damage in the gut.

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Quick and disturbing facts and safer alternatives

You’re probably pretty convinced this sweetener is something you should avoid. But it may not be so easy.

It is sold under the brand name Newtame®. But since it is about 8,000 times sweeter than sugar, such a small amount is used in products that it may not be required to be listed on ingredient labels.

Here are more quick facts about Neotame that may help you…

• It’s found in sugar-free drinks and chewing gum as well as some foods, including yogurts and especially baked goods. It’s also used as a table-top sweetener for hot drinks, like coffee and tea.
• Neotame enhances or extends the sweetening and flavoring properties of some flavors, especially mint — so steer clear of mint-flavored gums, lozenges or candies.
• It often has a mild aftertaste similar to licorice.
• To avoid it, you need to avoid anything advertised as sugar-free.
• Monsanto (yes, that Monsanto!) was behind the discovery and development of neotame.

Instead of reaching for artificial sweeteners that are devoid of nutrition and directly cause damage to your body, lean towards naturally healthier choices…

Stevia. Not only is this plant-derived sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar (so you don’t need much), it also has been shown to benefit obesity, diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol — all conditions associated with metabolic syndrome. It’s considered safe for diabetics. Just read your label to be sure the brand you buy contains no added erythritol.

Raw honey is honey that’s been taken from the hive, strained to remove beeswax, then bottled and sold. It hasn’t been pasteurized or processed, so it still has all its natural vitamins, enzymes and phytonutrients.

Yacon syrup is derived from a root vegetable similar to a sweet potato. It’s considered good for people with diabetes because is contains fructooligosaccharides (FOS) — a type of starch (inulin) that isn’t digested, so it shouldn’t raise blood sugar. However, people who are on a FODMAP diet should avoid it. It may also cause upset stomach, gas and nausea in some.

Coconut palm sugar has a low glycemic index but should be treated like sugar because it contains the same amount of calories and carbs.

Blackstrap molasses. Perhaps the most nutritious sugar substitute of all, organic blackstrap molasses is rich in copper, calcium, iron, potassium, manganese, selenium, and vitamin B6. It is low glycemic but people with diabetes should only use in moderation. Make your own brown sugar substitute for baking by using 2 tablespoons for each ½ cup of coconut sugar in a food processor.

Bananas, figs, dates, raisins and no-sugar added apple sauce are also great ways to naturally sweeten a recipe, get a little extra fiber and plant nutrition.

Sources:

Artificial sweetener has potential to damage gut — Eureka Alert

The artificial sweetener neotame negatively regulates the intestinal epithelium directly through T1R3-signaling and indirectly through pathogenic changes to model gut bacteria — Frontiers in Nutrition

Artificial sweetener neotame may have potential to damage gut, lead to IBS — Medical News Today

The post The hidden sweetener tied to IBS, sepsis and insulin resistance appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Despite efforts to find alternatives, PFAS are still present in all kinds of products we use and consume — new clothes, takeout containers, cosmetics, personal care products, nonstick cookware and stain-resistant furniture and rugs, just to name a few.

PFAS are linked with numerous health impacts, including celiac disease, liver damage, certain types of cancer, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and decreased fertility. They’re also linked to higher risks for diabetes, obesity, asthma and thyroid disease.

So, what can be done? Even if we stopped using all products containing PFAS today, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PFAS are detectable in nearly all people living in the United States.

Luckily, a recent discovery points to a possible solution — and it’s one that already resides in your body….

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Gut bacteria help remove PFAS

Bacteria that encounter chemicals like pesticides have mechanisms to deal with them. For example, studies have already seen that gut bacteria can pick up and store unintended targets such as pharmaceuticals. But it wasn’t known if the same could happen with pollutants like PFAS.

To find out, an international team of researchers exposed human gut bacteria to two common forms of PFAS and other pollutants. And the results were encouraging…

Multiple bacterial strains, including E. coli, absorbed PFAS in lab dishes, storing the chemicals in clumps inside their cells, according to Dr. Kiran Patil, a molecular biologist at the University of Cambridge and senior author of the study.

“We found that certain species of human gut bacteria have a remarkably high capacity to soak up PFAS from their environment at a range of concentrations, and store these in clumps inside their cells,” Patil says. “Due to aggregation of PFAS in these clumps, the bacteria themselves seem protected from the toxic effects.”

Even better, the gut bacteria of so-called “humanized” mice, whose intestines have been cleared of existing microbes and replaced with nine kinds of microbes that live in human guts, had more PFAS in their poop than microbe-free mice. This suggests that gut bacteria can carry forever chemicals out of the body in feces.

The researchers also discovered that as the mice were exposed to increasing levels of PFAS, the microbes worked harder, consistently removing the same percentage of the chemicals.

Within minutes of exposure, the bacteria absorbed between 25% and 74% of the PFAS.

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Could probiotics flush out PFAS?

The results are certainly promising. Next, researchers could track differences in gut microbiomes and PFAS levels in people from the same place, to see if the same method is just efficient at clearing these chemicals from our bodies

They are already planning to use these findings to create probiotic dietary supplements that boost the levels of these helpful microbes in the gut to protect against the toxic effects of PFAS.

In the meantime, the researchers suggest several actions we can take to protect ourselves against PFAS, including avoiding PFAS-coated cookware and using a good water filter. While it’s challenging to remove PFAS from your drinking water, some filtration techniques are more effective than others. Granular activated carbon absorption filters, ion exchange resin filters and reverse osmosis filters work the best.

Keeping your gut healthy by promoting a balanced microbiome is always a good idea, if for no other reason than to avoid leaky gut. Over time, the gut lining can become permeable and allow chemicals that would normally be excreted in waste to find their way into the bloodstream.

If you have problems with constipation, be sure to address them. Slow motility — which references the amount of time it takes for waste to leave your body — allows the bad stuff to sit in your colon long enough to be absorbed into your colon walls, where it also can make its way into the bloodstream. To test your motility speed, try this at-home test.

Sources:

Gut microbes may flush ‘forever chemicals’ from the body — ScienceNews

Gut microbes could protect us from toxic ‘forever chemicals’ — University of Cambridge

Human gut bacteria bioaccumulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — Nature Microbiology

The post Could we actually poop out ‘forever chemicals’? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, a leaky gut lining could be behind your uncomfortable and even dangerous health issues and yet it could go completely ignored by your doctor.

Sadly, the incidence of undiagnosed celiac disease — an autoimmune condition that damages your gut lining and allows all of the bad stuff from your intestines to leak out — has skyrocketed in the United States over the past 50 years.

Luckily, researchers are now shining a light on just exactly how leaks form in the gut lining, which can provide hope for treatment that works.

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The gluten connection to leaky gut

As you may already know, if a person has leaky gut syndrome or celiac disease, gluten is not their friend.

Here’s the issue…

Whether you’re enjoying a hearty sandwich, scarfing down a yummy doughnut or having a pancake breakfast, the gluten in the food you eat must be broken down into proteins by an enzyme known as tissue transglutaminase (tTG).

In people without leaky gut or celiac, these proteins are absorbed.

However, in those unlucky enough to have a real problem with gluten, things don’t work as they’re supposed to.

And that’s where the new research comes in…

Scientists from Bielefeld University found that because your body cannot completely break down gluten proteins if you have celiac disease, large gluten fragments, or peptides, can form in your gut.

This happens because a form of the tTG enzyme called tissue transglutaminase 2 (tTG2) modifies gluten proteins, forming structures or oligomers that then build up in the gut lining.

Once there, these large molecules, which the scientists are calling 33-mer deamidated gliadin peptide (DGP) act as a key, opening the tightly closed junctures of the gut lining and leading to leaky gut syndrome.

What happens when your gut leaks?

According to the study, this is a dangerous prospect since, “If 33-merDGP oligomers are formed, they may damage the epithelial cell network, allowing gluten peptides, bacteria, and other toxins to pass massively into the bloodstream, leading to inflammation and, in celiac disease, autoimmunity.”

Just a few of the problems you can experience include:

• Fatigue
• Diarrhea
• Bloating and gas
• Abdominal pain
• Nausea and vomiting
• Constipation
• Headaches
• Joint pain
• Itchy, blistery skin
• Elevated liver enzymes

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In addition, a leaky gut can set off a cycle of weight gain, since endotoxins that escape the gut and enter the bloodstream interfere with the normal functioning of fat cells. Specifically, these toxins stop the browning process that turns bad white fat into calorie-burning beige fat.

Fighting back against leaky gut

Avoiding gluten is the best answer, but doing so is not easy, unless on the strictest of diets. Even ordering gluten-free at restaurants is a big gamble.

The good news is that you can help strengthen and support the health of your gut to reduce your symptoms and your risks.

My colleague, Virginia Tims-Lawson, has put together a list of five must-have supplements to repair a leaky gut.

It’s a list that includes probiotics, which you may get even more of a boost from, by choosing a supplement that’s spore-based.

Finally, be sure and check out this list of five sinister foods to avoid, along with five foods that can offer help leaky gut syndrome.

Sources:

Celiac disease: New findings on the effects of gluten — ScienceDaily

Celiac Disease — Mayo Clinic

Increased Prevalence and Mortality in Undiagnosed Celiac Disease — Gastroenterology

The post How this sneaky protein triggers leaky gut syndrome appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

While antibiotics are invaluable for fighting bacterial infections, they can also present serious risks if overused or misused, and it appears that physicians are finally getting that message.

For instance, antibiotic overuse has been linked to gut problems because it destroys much of the friendly bacteria that make up the gut microbiota. One study found that it takes the gut microbiota as long as six months following antibiotic use to recover. Still some species of bacteria may never return.

When this happens, the effects extend far beyond the gut, potentially interfering with healthy aging and metabolic health, for starters.

As if that weren’t bad enough, researchers have discovered another lasting way antibiotics harm the gut — even if you haven’t taken them recently…

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Antibiotics’ effect on the gut lining

While previous research has shown the impact of short-term antibiotic treatment on the intestinal environment, it is less clear how repeated antibiotic use over time affects the gut.

So, researchers at Umeå University in Sweden teamed up with those at Tartu University in Estonia, who had built a deep cohort of individuals who provided stool samples and health records, to learn more.

The research team selected individuals who had taken at least five courses of antibiotics in the past, but not within six months of the stool collection. They then compared the microbiomes of these individuals with those of individuals who had not used any antibiotics within the last ten years.

As expected, analysis revealed changes to gut bacteria composition, indicating that repeated antibiotic use can have a lasting effect on the microbiome that can persist at least months after the most recent treatment, according to Kertu-Liis Krigul, a Ph.D. student at Tartu.

But that wasn’t all…

The researchers transplanted the human microbiota into mice and used specialized methods to analyze the function of the gut’s protective mucus layer. This continuously expanding layer lines the intestines and prevents bacteria from crossing it. However, if the gut microbiome is disrupted, the barrier can lose its ability to function properly.

They observed that bacteria from humans with a history of repeated antibiotic use contained higher amounts of bacteria that damaged the mucus layer, resulting in increased permeability.

That means dangerous bacteria could penetrate the intestinal lining, a symptom of a condition known as leaky gut syndrome, which can trigger inflammation and potentially contribute to the development of diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

“Looking at the bacteria present in the gut in more detail, we could see that bacteria known to feed on the mucus layer were present at higher levels in these mice,” says Rachel Feeney, a Ph.D. student at Umeå. “This further supports a role for the gut bacteria in determining how well the mucus barrier can function.”

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Antibiotics themselves can do damage

In a separate study conducted as part of another international collaboration, researchers administered the antibiotic vancomycin to normal and bacteria-free mice.

By doing so, they discovered that the antibiotics themselves can directly disrupt the mucus lining in a manner independent from gut bacteria. The antibiotic was found to disrupt mucus expansion within a few minutes of application.

“Together, these two studies suggest that antibiotics can damage the mucus layer through at least two independent mechanisms, and that they may have long-lasting effects through an altered gut bacteria,” says Björn Schröder, docent in infection biology in the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå. “This further supports the notion that antibiotics should be administered in a responsible manner.”

There may be times when you can’t avoid using antibiotics to fight off an infection. When you do have to take them, it’s essential that you pair them with probiotics to help shore up your gut health.

There are plenty of foods that contain probiotics, including yogurt, kefir and fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut and miso.

You can also get probiotics from supplements — but if you do, make sure the supplement you take contains live cultures. And be sure to take it two hours apart from your antibiotics.

Sources:

Antibiotic usage can damage the protective mucus layer in the gut — ScienceDaily

Antibiotics damage the colonic mucus barrier in a microbiota-independent manner — Science Advances

Antibiotic Use and Stewardship in the United States, 2023 Update: Progress and Opportunities — U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The post How antibiotics wreak lasting damage in your gut appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were just one thing we could do (or take) that could grant us complete health and well-being?

The unfortunate truth is that no such “magic bullet” exists. But there is one thing that comes close… fermented foods.

Foods like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, miso and even coffee (yes, it’s fermented to a degree) have been linked to lower rates of diabetes and heart disease, as well as a reduced risk of depression, anxiety and obesity. They also help blood pressure, cholesterol, osteoporosis and digestion. They can even help fight the flu!

These benefits are unique to fermentation, which produces bioactive compounds, including friendly bacteria that help support our gut microbiome. In turn, the gut microbiome is linked to the health of many other body systems.

As this pathway to health has become known in wellness circles, there has been a trend toward fermented health foods. But there’s an old-fashioned, fermented “condiment” that can be just as good for your gut…

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Sauerkraut benefits support intestinal cells

A team of researchers from the University of California, Davis, examined how the metabolites in sauerkraut — a popular American hot dog topping — compared with those in the raw cabbage it’s made from.

They compared raw cabbage, sauerkraut and the liquid brine left behind from the fermentation process to see whether sauerkraut’s nutrients could help protect intestinal cells from damage related to inflammation, that can disrupt the intestinal barrier.

The results showed that sauerkraut helped maintain intestinal cell integrity, while raw cabbage and brine did not. The researchers noted that they found no noticeable difference between store-bought sauerkraut and the “homemade” version they produced in the lab.

“Some of the metabolites we find in the sauerkraut are the same kind of metabolites we’re finding to be made by the gut microbiome, so that gives us a little more confidence that this connection we found between the metabolites in sauerkraut and good gut health makes sense,” says study author Maria Marco, a UC Davis professor. “It doesn’t matter, in a way, if we make sauerkraut at home or we buy it from the store; both kinds of sauerkraut seemed to protect gut function.”

When performing a chemical analysis, the researchers discovered fermentation changes the nutritional profile of the cabbage, increasing beneficial metabolites such as lactic acid, amino acids and plant-based chemicals linked to gut health. These changes help explain why fermented foods are connected with digestive benefits.

The findings also revealed that intestinal barrier-protective compounds are consistently enriched during cabbage fermentations, irrespective of the scale or microbial additions.

“Along with eating more fiber and fresh fruits and vegetables, even if we have just a regular serving of sauerkraut, maybe putting these things more into our diet, we’ll find that can help us in the long run against inflammation, for example, and make our digestive tract more resilient when we have a disturbance,” Marco says.

Marco says she and fellow author Lei Wei, a postdoctoral researcher in her lab, identified hundreds of different metabolites produced during sauerkraut fermentation. They are now working to determine which ones play the most significant role in supporting gut health in the long term.

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How to add sauerkraut to a healthy diet

According to Marco, the researchers’ next step is to conduct human trials to see if the protective metabolites found in sauerkraut can have the same positive effects shown in the lab when included in everyday diets.

“A little bit of sauerkraut could go a long way,” she said. “We should be thinking about including these fermented foods in our regular diets and not just as a side on our hot dogs.”

Hot dogs, sausages and Reuben sandwiches are all made with processed and red meats, which are strictly verboten for a healthy diet.

It’s also important to know that not all store-bought sauerkraut is created equal. Canned or shelf-stable brands have been heat pasteurized and may contain additives. Pasteurization can kill the probiotics. So look for store-bought saurkraut in the refrigerated section. Making it at home is also pretty easy and recommended.

So, what’s the best way to add sauerkraut to your diet? You can put a scoop on the side of pretty much any meal, but if you really want to jazz things up, try the following:

• Top your morning eggs with sauerkraut
• Add it to your breakfast or lunch burrito
• Mix it with a smashed avocado to create a dip
• Blend it with hummus as a substitute for the acidity of lemon juice
• Chop it into your salsa
• Sprinkle it over a salad
• Combine it with tuna or chicken salad for a tasty sandwich
• Add it to your grilled cheese sandwich on whole-grain bread

Sources:

The gut health benefits of sauerkraut — EurekAlert!

The fermented cabbage metabolome and its protection against cytokine-induced intestinal barrier disruption of Caco-2 monolayers — Applied and Environmental Microbiology

20 Ways To Eat Sauerkraut — Fermented Food Lab

The post The fermented, gut-loving benefits of sauerkraut appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I’ve read article after article talking about the connection between the health of my mouth and the health of other parts of my body. As weird as it may seem, fending off gum disease can have a direct impact on your heart, lungs and brain — and that’s just the start.

Now it looks like we can add another organ to that ever-growing list…

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The road from your mouth to your liver

Gum disease, also known as periodontitis, is a widespread chronic inflammatory condition caused by bacterial infections in the gum tissue of the mouth. Its severity tends to increase with age, smoking, alcohol use and poor dental care.

Not only can it wreck your dental health, leading to bleeding gums, bad breath and tooth loss — but it’s also linked to several other severe conditions, like heart disease, diabetes, dementia and maybe even cancer.

People with liver disease are already at higher risk for these dangerous conditions. So, for them, getting gum disease compounds those threats. But it gets worse…

An international team of researchers discovered multiple ways that periodontitis may directly aggravate liver disease — starting with the “oral-gut-liver axis”…

The bacteria that cause periodontitis can be swallowed or enter the bloodstream during activities like chewing or brushing and make their way to the gut. Once there, they can cause dysbiosis, an imbalance between good and bad microbes, and leaky gut, a condition that makes the gut lining permeable. Endotoxins — byproducts produced by bacteria — can then easily make their way to the liver, triggering inflammation and causing the type of damage that leads to liver fibrosis.

Previous studies have shown that bacteria such as the one that causes bad breath and gingivitis can exacerbate inflammation and a buildup of fat in the livers of mice with pre-existing metabolic diseases. These microbes or their byproducts have even been found in liver tissue, suggesting that movement from the mouth to the liver is not uncommon.

Next, the immune system gets involved: Chronic periodontal inflammation leads to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-alpha and IL-6, which have been long associated with the progression of liver disease. In addition, the review highlights Th17 cells, a type of immune cell activated by oral pathogens that may travel to the liver and worsen metabolic dysfunction.

The bottom line: These pathways form a terrible merry-go-round of liver disease-impairing oral health and inflammation that drives liver damage.

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Human studies reinforce the connection

Data from human studies support this association. Patients with cirrhosis consistently demonstrate worse oral health than the general population, with higher rates of gingival overgrowth, tooth loss and bone loss. In fact, the prevalence of periodontitis among patients awaiting liver transplants can be as high as 72 percent!

Other studies have found links between severe periodontal disease and increased death risk in cirrhosis patients — and that people with advanced periodontitis are much more likely to have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), the most common form of chronic liver disease. This was true even after adjusting for risk factors like obesity and diabetes.

One small trial showed that periodontal treatment led to a short-term improvement in liver enzyme levels, indicating that oral health interventions may influence liver function.

The review authors caution that this research is still in the early days. However, the review calls for better collaboration between specialists who manage liver disease and dental professionals who manage oral healthcare.

In the meantime, it’s clear that oral hygiene is paramount, especially for those with chronic liver conditions, as well as twice-yearly dental visits. Take note of any changes to alert your dentist to — like persistent bad breath and red, swollen, tender or bleeding gums.

A dental probiotic can boost the oral microbiome. You’ll want the dental probiotic to be in a form that allows it to stay in the mouth for enough time to be absorbed by the microbiome. Some good delivery forms are lozenges, drinks, mouth rinses or chewable tablets.

If you have liver trouble, ask your doctor about supplements. Omega-3s have been shown to support liver health and guard against gum disease.

Sources:

Bad breath, bad news: how gum disease could worsen liver conditions — EurekAlert!

Periodontal disease and cirrhosis: current concepts and future prospects — eGastroenterology

The post Why bad breath is a red flag for liver trouble appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And it wasn’t long ago that a review of 50 studies proved what most of us have known all along… that the tart little berries really do kick UTIs to the curb.

But then there was that research that found dried cranberry powder decreased LDL (bad) cholesterol and improved heart and blood vessel function, brain blood flow and memory.

It turns out that may have just been the tip of the iceberg for what we’re learning cranberries can do for cardiovascular and metabolic health…

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Cranberries bring out the best in your gut

Mounting evidence indicates cranberries have tons of polyphenols and other bioactives known to improve gut health, strengthen the immune system, keep hearts healthy and balance blood sugar.

In a more recent study, researchers in Canada sought to confirm these findings by administering a cranberry extract capsule (the equivalent of ingesting about half a cup of fresh cranberries) to 40 participants in the morning and evening. The researchers collected blood, urine and stool samples at the beginning of the experiment and after four days of consuming the cranberry supplements.

The results reinforced the findings that cranberry extracts appear to improve intestinal microbiota and help prevent cardiometabolic disease — an umbrella term that includes:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Insulin resistance
• Diabetes
• and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

But what’s really shocking is beneficial effects were reported after only four days of use.

In addition to their high polyphenol content, cranberries contain high concentrations of oligosaccharides, small fibers believed to contribute to their bioactivity.

The research team showed that the polyphenols and oligosaccharides in cranberry extract boost Bifidobacterium, a bacterium in the gut associated with a reduced risk of cardiometabolic diseases.

“Normally, these bacteria are stimulated by dietary fiber consumption,” says Jacob Lessard-Lord, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF). “We observed the same effect with cranberry extract with a dose almost 20 times lower.”

The cranberry extract was also found to stimulate Akkermansia muciniphila, a bacterium that helps reduce inflammation of the intestinal mucosa and strengthen the intestinal barrier. This could help counter the harmful effects of a Western diet, which compromises the intestinal barrier’s integrity and can lead to leaky gut.

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“Alteration of the intestinal barrier allows the passage of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) derived from the intestinal microbiota, known as metabolic endotoxemia, and is a crucial factor in the onset and progression of inflammation and metabolic diseases,” says Yves Desjardins, research lead and professor at Université Laval.

But when Akkermansia muciniphila bacterium and Bifidobacterium are stimulated, the microbiota regenerates and recreates an anti-inflammatory environment. This strengthens the connections between cells in the intestinal barrier, reinforcing it.

Cranberries + healthy bacteria = less chronic disease

The researchers plan to explore the long-term effects of the cranberry extract. But for now, there seems to be enough evidence supporting the addition of cranberries to your diet.

Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to eat raw cranberries, given how tart they can be. And a lot of commercially prepared cranberry juice cocktails, cranberry sauces and cranberry fruit snacks are loaded with added sugar. And we know how sugar can ruin a good thing.

If you aren’t a fan of the taste of cranberries, a cranberry extract supplement may be the right choice for you or a dried powder mix (like those used in some studies).

If you want to give your gut an extra boost and protect against cardiometabolic diseases, make sure to eat foods rich in Bifidobacterium, like yogurt and cheese. Akkermansia muciniphila is a little harder to come by, as it’s not really present in foods. However, you can encourage your gut to make more Akkermansia muciniphila by consuming fiber-rich foods and foods high in polyphenols. Luckily, some of these foods have both, including:

• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Apples
• Black beans
• Chicory root
• Almonds
• And of course cranberries

Sources:

Cranberry extracts could boost microbiota and counter cardiometabolic diseases —  Université Laval

Short term supplementation with cranberry extract modulates gut microbiota in human and displays a bifidogenic effect — NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Cranberries – Cup Measurements — CookItSimply

The post What cranberries can do for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and more appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

For decades, researchers have associated these changes with two markers in the brain: beta-amyloid and tau.

However, in recent years, scientists have explored a new wrinkle in Alzheimer’s research: Discovering that the gut and the brain communicate through neurons in both organs. They’ve found evidence that dysfunction in this gut-brain axis is linked to brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s.

Now scientists led by the Institute of Nanotechnology in Italy have unveiled more clues that link gut and brain neurons — and how these processes may trigger Alzheimer’s…

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Zooming in on gut dysbiosis

“There are already many studies that support that changes in the gut composition can contribute to Alzheimer’s onset and progression,” says Alessia Cedola, a researcher from the Institute of Nanotechnology in Italy and corresponding author of the published study.

Where things go wrong is when dysbiosis, an imbalance in microbial diversity, sets in. Dysbiosis allows for the prevalence of dangerous bacteria that promote inflammation, which can then result in the breakdown of the gut-brain barriers.

How is gut dysbiosis linked with Alzheimer’s? “The main hypothesis is that changes trigger the escape of bad bacteria from the gut [a condition known as leaky gut], entering the circulation, reaching the brain and triggering Alzheimer’s, but evidence is still poor,” Cedola says.

To better look at this gut-brain connection, the researchers used nano- and micro X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT) to study structural and morphological alterations in the gut. This powerful tool eliminates the need for tissue manipulation.

The data found changes in cell abundance, tissue structure and organization in mice affected with Alzheimer’s. Specifically, there were relevant alterations in the gut structure and cells within the gut that, when working correctly, maintain gut health, support digestion and protect the intestinal lining from damage.

“This technique represents a real breakthrough for the thorough analysis of the gut, and it could be pivotal in early detection and prognosis of the disease,” Cedola says.

The researchers will next use XPCT to study how the gut communicates with the central nervous system and investigate the enteric nervous system and its role in Alzheimer’s.

“By gaining a deeper understanding of these processes, we hope to identify new therapeutic targets and develop innovative treatments for this devastating disease,” Cedola says.

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Support your gut’s integrity and diversity

While there is still research to be done to confirm the gut’s link to Alzheimer’s, there are already documented reasons to support the integrity of your gut lining and the diversity of your microbiome.

Both leaky gut and dysbiosis are linked to causing or worsening Celiac disease and chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel (the disease and the syndrome) and metabolic disorders.

Previous research has also linked leaky gut to inflammation along the brain’s right hemisphere.

Some steps you can take include:

• Following a gut-friendly diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, which features dementia risk-lowering olive oil
• Avoiding sugar and processed foods, which can negatively alter gut bacteria
• Getting plenty of prebiotics and probiotics, which you can do through diet or supplementation
• Exercise more, as it has been shown to boost gut health

If you want to get probiotics from diet, you’ll want to consume cultured dairy foods like yogurt or kefir and/or fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi. Prebiotic foods include chicory root, Jerusalem artichoke, dandelion greens, garlic, leeks, onions, asparagus and green bananas.

Probiotic supplements are also readily available. Look for one with multiple bacteria strains, which are more diverse and effective than single-strain varieties. Also, make sure the supplement contains 1 million to 1 billion CFUs (colony-forming units), which research shows are the minimum amount necessary to reach your intestines.

Sources:

The gut-brain connection in Alzheimer’s unveiled with X-rays — EurekAlert!

Investigating gut alterations in Alzheimer’s disease: In-depth analysis with micro- and nano-3D X-ray phase contrast tomography — Science Advances

The post A closer look at the gut’s connection to Alzheimer’s appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Psoriasis manifests as scaly, red and itchy skin, but is far more than just skin-deep. It can cause unseen damage, affecting the joints, blood pressure and heart health.

And according to researchers at Uppsala University, psoriasis even has an invisible gut connection to Crohn’s disease.

Here’s how…

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Inflammatory activity, impaired intestinal barrier function and Crohn’s disease

The scientist studied 18 patients with mild levels of psoriasis, along with 15 healthy controls as subjects, comparing samples from both their small and large bowel.

According to the researchers, “It turned out that psoriasis sufferers had higher numbers of certain types of immune cells in their small intestine, and the cells showed signs of pro-inflammatory activity. Interestingly, we found the same type of immune cells in skin flare-ups from psoriasis patients, suggesting that the inflammation of the skin may have an impact on the gut, or vice versa.”

But that wasn’t all…

Half of the psoriasis patients in the study had increased intestinal barrier permeability, also known as leaky gut.

The problem with leaky gut is that when the intestinal mucosa, which is supposed to act as a protective barrier, isn’t functioning properly, it allows bacteria and harmful substances to leak through.

As these substances spread through your bloodstream, your body experiences widespread inflammation.

“Previous research has also shown that people with psoriasis have more gastrointestinal problems than the general population. However we didn’t know much about why this is the case. With our study, we can now show that people with psoriasis often have invisible inflammation in their small intestines, with an increased risk of what’s called leaky gut,” says Maria Lampinen, researcher at Uppsala University.

The researchers say these results are significant, stating that, “Given that the psoriasis patients in our study had relatively mild skin disease and showed no visible intestinal inflammation in a gastroscopy, they had surprisingly clear changes in their small intestine compared to healthy controls. These changes could explain why psoriasis sufferers often have gastrointestinal problems and an increased risk of developing Crohn’s disease.”

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Reducing psoriasis symptoms and supporting the gut

This means that if you’re living with psoriasis, it’s vital to not only work to reduce psoriatic inflammation but also to promote a healthy gut.

Steps to take to slay psoriasis issues include:

• Losing any extra weight since higher BMI may contribute to increased inflammation of the skin
• Add in a vitamin D supplement because multiple studies have connected vitamin D deficiency to psoriasis
• Eat your way to clear skin with the diet that’s been shown to by eating the Mediterranean diet (which has been shown to reduce the likelihood of severe psoriasis symptoms by 29%), with its high levels of fresh fruits and veggies, olive oil and fatty fish

The Mediterranean diet also leans anti-inflammatory and nutrient-rich, making it a good choice for healing a leaky gut.

In addition to diet, these five supplements are the most recommended to help the gut lining heal. One, of course, is a daily probiotic.

Researchers at the University of North Texas found that people who took a spore-based probiotic benefitted from a 42 percent reduction in the amount of toxins that seeped into their bloodstream after meals.

I also have to give a shout-out to the black seed oil of the Nigella sativa plant. An immune system that overreacts is part and parcel of autoimmune conditions. The plant’s black seeds have anti-inflammatory properties and contain a compound called thymoquinone, considered to be an immune system modulator for a more balanced immune response.

Sources:

Inflammation may explain stomach problems in psoriasis sufferers – ScienceDaily

Gassy, bloated and tired? You’ve got a leaky gut – Easy Health Options

The one supplement that truly plugs a leaky gut – Easy Health Options

My psoriasis vanished when my extra weight did – Easy Health Options

The vitamin that squashes psoriasis symptoms – Easy Health Options

Don’t let psoriasis destroy your arteries – Easy Health Options

The diet that slays stubborn psoriasis symptoms – Easy Health Options

The post An invisible connection between psoriasis and Crohn’s disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

They’re most revered for their reputation in supporting heart and brain health. That’s because they contain a powerful antioxidant that rivals resveratrol, called pterostilbene.

But as researchers dig deeper into the little round wonders, they’re learning more every day — including how they can support the gut against painful and debilitating conditions by going after their root cause…

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Blueberries soothe inflammatory bowel symptoms

Blueberries, like some other dark blue and purple foods, are chock-full of anthocyanins — a special group of polyphenols well-known for preventing the damaging inflammation behind so many diseases, including gut-related conditions like hemorrhoids, colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

In a recent study, researchers have been able to pinpoint exactly how anthocyanins support the gut by zeroing in on a common anthocyanin known as malvidin-3-O-galactoside (M3G).

In studies using mice, the scientists found that M3G regulated key proteins that enhance the protective function of the colon’s mucosal barrier.

This mucosal barrier is essential for maintaining digestive health, protecting against pathogens, and preventing inflammation. When it’s damaged the colon can become an open door for leaky gut syndrome.

The scientists were able to mimic the symptoms of ulcerative colitis in mice and then treated some of the mice with M3G.

Supplementing with M3G increased mucous thickness, which indicated an improvement in the intestinal barrier’s function. Food intake in the mice improved and their body weight significantly increased, a sign that it was having a protective effect against colitis symptoms.

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Cell-to-cell communication that protects the colon

Another interesting benefit from supplementing with the anthocyanin was the regulation of something called the Notch signaling pathway, a cell-to-cell communication system that controls many cellular processes.

The Notch pathway is crucial in determining the life cycle of cells, including cell maintenance, renewal, proliferation and apoptosis (natural cell death). This means the pathway can also promote and inhibit tumor development.

Upon deeper analysis, the scientists found evidence that much of the regulation of the colonic barrier is mediated through its interaction with this pathway.

Blueberries for your gut’s sake

As if this superfood’s reputation wasn’t strong enough, the research clearly demonstrates the dietary anthocyanins they contain enhance the integrity of the colon’s barrier — suggesting its potential as a natural therapeutic agent for intestinal health, researchers say.

If you follow nutritional health like I do, none of this is really surprising. Blueberries have already been found to help lower blood pressure and reduce risks for cognitive decline.

And in some studies that focused on the compounds responsible for their health-promoting properties, they’ve found eating the berries in their entirety was most beneficial.

How ever you choose to enjoy them, adding a cup of blueberries to your daily diet could lead to benefits too numerous to count.

Best of all, blueberries are considered a low-glycemic food, ranking around 53 on the glycemic index (GI) scale. They won’t give you a “sugar high,” but they sure are sweet!

Sources:

Blueberry-derived compound shows promise in enhancing colonic mucosal Barrier function — Eureka Alert

Malvidin-3-O-galactoside ameliorates colonic mucosal barrier function via the Notch signaling pathway — Food Innovations and Advances

Recent Research on the Health Benefits of Blueberries and Their Anthocyanins — Journal Advances in Nutrition

The post The berry powerful enough to treat bowel inflammation appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

No one knows for sure what causes a leaky gut, but it seems to be tied to unhealthy habits like eating too much sugar, taking y NSAID painkillers (ibuprofen) often and drinking alcohol frequently. Stress also plays a big part in the problem.

Fortunately for us, there are natural ways to prevent and relieve this problem that plagues so many of us… and there’s one you may not know about.

First, let’s talk about leaky gut syndrome…

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What is a leaky gut?

Simply put, a leaky gut is just what it sounds like it is.

Normally, the intestinal lining acts as a strong barrier facilitating the digestive process. A healthy barrier allows nutrients to be absorbed in the small intestines and waste to exit the body.

But if the intestinal lining is weakened and eventually becomes permeable — or leaky — undigested food particles, toxins and bacteria leak into the bloodstream.

This can spur an inflammation (a sign of biological stress) cascade that, though initiated to repair itself, triggers the immune system to respond as if attacking foreign invaders.

The result: diarrhea and constipation, frequent infections, depression, anxiety, food sensitivities, skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis and even thyroid problems.

As the immune assault on your gut continues, it triggers other symptoms: joint pain, headaches, fatigue, bloating, weight gain, digestive issues… and could contribute to an autoimmune condition.

Brazil nuts can de-stress your gut

What you eat (or don’t) is the main factor in causing leaky gut … or making it better. For many people, eliminating gluten from their diet is the magic bullet that cures a leaky gut.

Other folks need to add things to their diet. For example, eating more fiber is known to re-establish a strong intestinal barrier.

But a team of researchers in Brazil may have found a tastier and easier way…

They’ve shown that eating just a few Brazil nuts a day can reduce inflammation and improve a leaky gut.

Their study included 46 female volunteers with a body mass index (BMI) that classified them as overweight or obese. Past research has linked obesity with increased gut permeability and inflammation.

The women were split into two groups. Over eight weeks, both groups followed a calorie-controlled diet, with one group snacking on just two Brazil nuts a day, and the other group not having any Brazil nuts.

The research team found that the group who ate Brazil nuts showed improvements in intestinal permeability, meaning that fewer toxins were “leaking” out of the gut. Inflammation was also significantly reduced.

The team felt that these changes were associated with the trace mineral selenium found abundantly in Brazil nuts.

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Other benefits of selenium, and where to find it

You don’t need a ton of selenium in your diet, but getting the small amount your body requires is important for protecting the brain and maintaining a healthy weight.

Selenium is also crucial for keeping your thyroid gland functioning properly and has been linked with reducing weight gain and promoting longevity. Sounds like a win.

So where do you find selenium?

Most people who eat a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish or meat will have good selenium levels.

But Brazil nuts are the highest food source of selenium, with just an ounce (6-8 nuts) containing 544mcg. A great choice if your diet is lacking.

If you have a nut allergy, other sources of selenium include:

• Tuna
• Sardines
• Halibut
• Turkey
• Beef liver
• Chicken
• Cottage cheese
• Brown rice
• Eggs
• Whole wheat bread
• Oatmeal
• Baked beans

Sources:

A Few Brazil Nuts Each Day Could Be Just The Thing Your Stressed Gut Needs — Science Alert

Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa H.B.K.) Consumption in Energy-Restricted Intervention Decreases Proinflammatory Markers and Intestinal Permeability of Women with Overweight/Obesity: A Controlled Trial (Brazilian Nuts Study) — The Journal of Nutrition

The post The nut that heals a leaky gut appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

There are now more than 100 autoimmune diseases — from rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto’s to lupus and inflammatory bowel disease. It was just a few years ago that we learned the chances of being diagnosed with one have gone up dramatically, especially if you’re a woman or over 50.

Research has known that autoimmunity happens via a trigger that creates havoc in your body, causing your immune system to suddenly attack itself — often one or more of your organs with varying degrees of damage.

They’ve also known inflammation fuels the flames of autoimmune disease. That’s why treatment has focused on easing symptoms with medications such as steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories.

But over the last couple of decades, one ingredient heavy in the standard American diet has been the subject of a lot of finger-pointing and blame. That would be gluten, the infamous wheat protein.

But in the medical world, the only disease blamed on gluten has been celiac. A debate has even raged on about whether people can be harmed by gluten who are only “sensitive” to it.

Now, finally, gluten is being put under the microscope and scientists are taking a closer look at the far-reaching harm it can do…

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A proinflammatory inducer of autoimmunity

For years, naturopaths and other alternative medicine specialists have warned that eating gluten could lead to wide-ranging ill effects, including autoimmune problems beyond celiac disease.

I’ve read and heard many firsthand accounts from individuals who have seen major health improvements, from reducing joint discomfort to clearing brain fog, managing high blood pressure and overcoming type 2 diabetes, just from avoiding gluten.

However, this has largely been pooh-poohed by the traditional medical establishment.

The new research suggests, however, that gluten and one of its key components, gliadin, which is blamed for inducing the harmful immune responses seen in celiac disease, has a much broader role in inflammatory and autoimmune disease than has previously been accepted…

How gluten fuels autoimmune disease

The researchers nailed down multiple pathways by which the gluten protein leads to autoimmune problems, including:

• Inducing gut inflammation – According to the researchers, gliadin peptides found in gluten induce mucosal inflammation in the gut, causing epithelial damage (that’s damage to the cells in the gut lining) and intestinal dysbiosis (imbalance of the microbiome), which can lead to celiac disease.
• Sending inflammation body-wide – The scientists also found that gluten peptides can compromise gut permeability, allowing immunogenic molecules to leak out to the rest of the body and trigger autoimmune responses in remote organs. (This process describes what’s known as Leaky gut syndrome, a condition that hasn’t been widely accepted in the medical community.)
• Setting off an inflammatory cascade – This gluten-mediated inflammatory cascade is thought to be involved in a range of autoimmune diseases, including dermatitis herpetiformis, gluten ataxia, gluten allergy, and potentially other non-celiac auto-inflammatory and neurodegenerative conditions.

The researchers’ conclusion?

Gluten is a pro-inflammatory molecule that plays a crucial role, not only in celiac disease, but also other chronic inflammatory, metabolic, and autoimmune disorders — and giving up gluten could help alleviate disease activity, making going gluten-free an actual treatment, not just a way to reduce symptoms.

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Battling back against the autoimmune effects of gluten

The researchers recommend that if you’re living with autoimmune issues, choosing a gluten-free Mediterranean diet is the way to go. However, there’s one important thing to remember… gluten is everywhere.

It’s hidden in vegetarian meat alternatives and condiments ranging from soy sauce to salad dressings. It’s lurking in bacon bits and canned soups. It can be found in the milkshake you order at the drive-thru. It’s even used as filler for the medicines you get at the pharmacy.

That makes completely avoiding gluten nearly impossible and why I typically suggest the extra protection that proteolytic enzymes can offer. Proteolytic enzyme treatments were first used in Germany in the 1960s for inflammation, osteoarthritis, autoimmune diseases and viral infections.

They usually contain a mixture of protein-digesting enzymes, including papain and bromelain, that promote digestive comfort and aid in the digestion of gluten peptides to guard against side effects like cramping, constipation, diarrhea, bloating and gas. Pineapple stem is a good source of bromelain and papain is obtained from the papaya plant and fruits.

For more tips on avoiding gluten see what my colleague Margaret Cantwell has to say about her 10 favorite ways to reduce inflammation and a little about her personal journey with gluten sensitivity. And if you’re not sure if gluten could be the root of your problems, consider an elimination diet. Here’s how.

Sources:

Gluten is a proinflammatory inducer of autoimmunity — EurekAlert!

Revitalize your brain – and joints? – with this one diet secret — Easy Health Options

Gluten: The “after-50” food allergy — Easy Health Options

The inactive ingredients in pills that trigger allergies — Easy Health Options

Autoimmunity indicators on the rise among Americans — Harvard Health Publishing

Autoimmunity Has Reached Epidemic Levels. We Need Urgent Action to Address It — Scientific American

Proteolytic enzymes — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

The post Researchers conclude: Gluten’s harm goes way beyond Celiac   appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Scientists estimate that people are ingesting an average of five grams of microplastic particles a week. That’s the equivalent of eating a credit card!

And it’s building up in our bodies…

Research shows microplastics can enter the bloodstream and cross the blood-brain barrier. In the human brain, researchers warn this could potentially increase the risk of inflammation, neurological disorders or even neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

Microplastics have even been found in the plaques that can clog our arteries.

Now, researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) have discovered that microplastics could make their way from your gut into the tissues of other organs like your kidneys, liver and brain.

Here’s what that could mean…

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Microplastics migrate from the gut

The UNM researchers exposed mice to microplastics in their drinking water over a four-week period. They added an amount of microplastics equivalent to the quantity humans are believed to ingest each week.

Results showed that not only had the microplastics changed the microbiota in the gut, but they also migrated out of the gut into the tissues of the liver, kidneys and brain.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the microplastics also changed metabolic pathways in tissues they travelled to.

Dr. Eliseo Castillo, a UNM professor leading the charge on microplastics research, says “That tells us it can cross the intestinal barrier and infiltrate into other tissues.”

We’ve known for a while now that contaminants can permeate the gut lining. It’s what’s known as leaky gut and is already considered an open door to disease.

“These mice were exposed for four weeks,” he says. “Now, think about how that equates to humans if we’re exposed from birth to old age.”

Previously, Castillo and his team found that microplastics changed the function of macrophages — immune cells that are protective against foreign particles — causing them to release proinflammatory molecules.

“During intestinal inflammation — states of chronic illness such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, which are both forms of inflammatory bowel disease — these macrophages become more inflammatory and they’re more abundant in the gut.”

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Dodging the microplastic menace

Castillo says he hopes his continuing research will help spark changes in how society produces and filtrates plastics.

But knowing the potential health impacts, is there any way to avoid microplastics? Unfortunately, the answer is “not completely.” But you can take these steps to minimize your exposure.

However, you may have even more control over keeping your gut from becoming an open door for microplastics to sneak into your body.

Research indicates you can eliminate some of the microplastics you consume in your urine, bile, feces and other bodily fluids and wastes. Just be sure your gut isn’t working against you…

The condition known as leaky gut has been around long before the threat of plastics. It’s an “open door” through which harmful microbes and toxins enter your bloodstream, causing illnesses including celiac disease, allergies, asthma, multiple sclerosis and a host of autoimmune diseases.

The “open door” that provides easy entry results from intestinal permeability — loose junctures or gaps in the lining of the intestines — that may develop from numerous factors, including poor gut health, particularly constipation, as well as aging epithelial cells (cells that line the intestine) that are unable to repair themselves.

If constipation is a problem, improve your transit time. The shorter the time stool sits in your colon, the less time microplastics have to damage and infiltrate your gut lining to jump into your bloodstream.

Don’t forget to work up a sweat either. Because chemicals like BPA have been found in sweat, exercise may be another way to help rid your body of these contaminants.

Sources:

Microplastics make their way from the gut to other organs, UNM researchers find — EurekAlert!

In Vivo Tissue Distribution of Polystyrene or Mixed Polymer Microspheres and Metabolomic Analysis after Oral Exposure in Mice — Environmental Health Perspectives

The post Microplastics: From your gut to your kidneys, liver and brain appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

On one hand, low-carb, high-fat diets like paleo, keto and carnivore have been linked with weight loss and improved inflammation, cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin levels — not to mention a 20 percent reduction in glaucoma risk.

On the other, there is a proven link between a high-fat diet and several serious health threats.

Diets high in fat, particularly saturated and trans fats, also can lead to heart disease, metabolic syndrome and an unhealthy gut environment.

Now, there is another disorder to add to the “bad” side of high-fat dieting…

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High-fat diet, leaky gut and anxiety

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder used an animal model to see the impact of a high-fat diet on the gut microbiome and behavior. Half the rats in the study were fed a standard diet of about 11 percent fat for nine weeks, while the others got a high-fat diet of 45 percent fat, consisting mostly of saturated fat from animal products. 

The typical American consumes a diet of about 36 percent fat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After nine weeks, the group eating a high-fat diet gained weight, as expected, compared to the control group. The high-fat diet group also showed significantly less diverse gut bacteria and hosted far more Firmicutes bacteria and fewer Bacteroidetes bacteria. A higher ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes is associated with obesity.

These rats also showed higher expression of three specific genes (tph2, htr1a and slc6a4) involved in the production and signaling of serotonin, particularly in a region of the brainstem associated with stress and anxiety.

We usually think of serotonin as the “feel-good” brain chemical. However, when activated, certain subsets of serotonin neurons can prompt anxiety-like responses in animals, notes lead author Christopher Lowry, a professor at CU Boulder.

Notably, heightened expression of tph2 in the brainstem has been linked with mood disorders and suicide risk in humans.

In short, the study found a diet high in fat appears to influence brain chemicals in ways that trigger anxiety.

“To think that just a high-fat diet could alter expression of these genes in the brain is extraordinary,” Lowry says. “The high-fat group essentially had the molecular signature of a high anxiety state in their brain.”

According to Lowry, an unhealthy microbiome may compromise the gut lining. This can result in a condition known as leaky gut and may enable bacteria to enter the body’s circulation and communicate with the brain through the vagus nerve, a pathway from the gastrointestinal tract to the brain.

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Get the “good” dietary fat

So, is fat good or bad for you? As Lowry stresses, it all depends on the type of fat. Healthy fats like those found in fish, olive oil, nuts and seeds — the essential omega-3 fatty acids — can be anti-inflammatory and good for the brain.

Lowry advises us to ditch pizza and fast food and eat as many different fruits and vegetables as possible. Ultra-processed foods are also sources of saturated fat. He recommends adding fermented foods for a healthier gut microbiome.

If you do indulge in the occasional burger, Lowry suggests adding a slice of avocado to it. Some research indicates “good” fat can counteract some of the “bad” fat, and avocado is loaded with healthy monounsaturated fats.

Also, you could take the antioxidant resveratrol to help counteract the effects of unhealthy fat, since it’s almost inescapable. According to previous research resveratrol can correct the harmful effects of a high-fat diet on the brain and may be a potential therapeutic agent against obesity-related disorders.

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to join a tiny handful of Americans who enjoy rare, fresh-pressed olive oil all year long. Take my word for it, there’s a difference in taste, quality and benefit! Click here to learn more…

Sources:

Study shows a high-fat diet may fuel anxiety — EurekAlert!

High-fat diet, microbiome-gut-brain axis signaling, and anxiety-like behavior in male rats — Biological Research

The post Explained: How a high-fat diet fuels anxiety appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But when the cells in our intestine are slow to repair or don’t fix themselves completely, the result is an “open door” through which harmful microbes and toxins enter the bloodstream, causing a range of metabolic diseases and conditions from diabetes and thyroid disorders to irritable bowel and chronic fatigue syndromes.

This “open door” is better known as leaky gut syndrome.

If you’re a post-menopausal woman, you’re even more vulnerable to leaky gut than men your age. Why?

It comes down to hormones and why, when we lose them, we not only gain weight but also gain a higher risk for metabolic diseases…

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Menopause changes women’s gut microbiome

The gut microbiome refers to all the microbes in your intestines, which act as another “organ” crucial for your health.

A new study has shown that the gut microbiome interacts with the loss of female sex hormones that occurs after menopause. This hormone loss exacerbates metabolic diseases, including weight gain and type 2 diabetes, fat in the liver and the expression of genes linked with inflammation.

As early as 2005, researchers began looking into how the microbiome could contribute to obesity, which is associated with metabolic conditions. At the time, however, most research was done on males.

Using models of mice with and without ovaries, first author Tzu-Wen L. Cross, a professor of nutrition science and the director of the Gnotobiotic Animal Facility at Purdue University, shared that “This is the first time it has been shown that the response of microbiome to the loss of ovarian hormone production can increase metabolic dysfunction.”

“The mice that were recipients of the gut microbiome of ovariectomized mice gained more weight and fat mass, and they had greater expression of genes in the liver associated with inflammation, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and atherosclerosis compared with those in the control group,” says Dr. Kelly Swanson, corresponding author of the study.

They also found that the mice without ovaries and those fed the high-fat diet had lower levels of these proteins in the liver and colon. This suggested their gut barriers were more permeable, compromised by either their diet or the absence of female hormones.

In other words, the gut microbiome of mice without ovaries, which hormonally resembles that of post-menopausal women, was much more vulnerable to the metabolic diseases impacted by leaky gut.

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How to protect your gut

Unfortunately, there’s not much we can change about losing our female hormones.

But a previous study published in the journal Clinical Nutrition in 2021 saw a polyphenol-rich diet improve intestinal permeability in older people — which may be the first step in the right direction.

Polyphenols are natural antioxidants found in a variety of foods. In the gut, they increase helpful bacteria, reduce harmful bacteria, and prevent the inflammation behind heart disease and other chronic metabolic conditions.

The study showed that including up to three daily portions of apple, cocoa, dark chocolate, green tea, cranberries, oranges or pomegranate juice — all polyphenol-rich foods — improved intestinal permeability by making specific changes in the microbiota.

When fecal and plasma samples were analyzed, there was a positive correlation between the polyphenol foods and an increase in cell metabolism products that improved gut health. There was also a decrease in the kind that caused intestinal permeability.

The next step would be to steer clear of a high-fat diet since it also correlated with intestinal permeability in the recent mouse study.

Sources:

Metabolic diseases may be driven by gut microbiome, loss of ovarian hormones — Science Daily

Gut microbiome responds to alteration in female sex hormone status and exacerbates metabolic dysfunction — Gut Microbes

The post The ‘other change’ behind menopausal weight gain and disease risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

From Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to heart disease to viruses, poor gut health seems to be the trigger that can start it all.

That’s why finally more and more doctors are beginning to recommend nutrients that help repair a leaky gut and promote healthy bacterial levels.

Now, there’s one more reason to focus on your gut health — pain relief.

According to research published in the journal Current Rheumatology Reports, there is a complex interaction between the gut and joints that could not only initiate arthritis pain but also offer a pathway to healing.

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Intestinal permeability and inflammation

“We know about the intricate relationship of the gut to the brain, lung, liver, and skin, so it’s not surprising that research is expanding about the gut-joint axis,” said probiotic expert and best-selling author Ross Pelton, RPh, CCN.

The gut-joint axis is exactly what the latest research set out to explore by reviewing a multitude of studies that delved into how gut health influences joint health.

Here’s how the results of their review boiled down:

1. Toxic leaking – The researchers discovered that leaky gut syndrome results in the release of bacterial endotoxins and metabolites, including lipopolysaccharides (LPS), into the bloodstream, which increases joint pain.
2. Bacterial imbalance – Gut dysbiosis (when bad bacteria outnumber the good in your gut) increases the production of zonulin, a protein that contributes to intestinal permeability. This increased permeability allows even more toxins to cross the gut lining to destroy your joints.
3. Systemic inflammation – All those leaking toxins result in chronic systemic inflammation, which attacks the synovial fluid in your joints, breaks down cartilage and magnifies joint pain.

Overall, the researchers say that their research proves that poor gut health leads to joint pain by kicking off osteoarthritis and accelerating its progression.

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Better gut health for better joints

So what do they recommend you do about it?

Well, past research has suggested that rebalancing the gut microbiome could enhance cartilage healing by creating metabolites with immunosuppressive properties.

To rebalance your gut microbiome:

• Eat gut-friendly – To improve gut health, avoid high-fat foods and instead eat a more Mediterranean-style diet, which can even include bread.
• Avoid sugar and processed foods – Ubiquitous in the Western diet, sugar and processed foods can negatively alter gut bacteria and leave your joints aching.
• Add probiotics – Probiotics are the healthy bacteria that live in your gut. Getting more of them on a daily basis, whether through supplementation or foods like kefir and yogurt, can help you tilt the balance to the good side.
• Include prebiotics – Prebiotics act as food for probiotics, so you can increase the results you get by combining them. Good sources of prebiotics include chicory root, Jerusalem artichoke, dandelion greens, garlic, leeks, onions, asparagus and green bananas.
• Move more – Exercise has been shown to be a great way to boost gut health, so be sure to hit the gym regularly. Continuing movement through osteoarthritis is also beneficial.
• Nutrients that repair leaky gut – You can find a full list here.

Sources:

New Information About the Gut-Joint Axis – Integrative Practitioner

The post 3 ways an unhealthy gut worsens arthritis and joint pain appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

According to the diet-heart hypothesis introduced in the 1950s that associated animal fat with heart disease, the answer is yes, though many question the science behind it.

It’s understandable that we’re confused on this point. Both the FDA and American Heart Association insist that because vegetable oils are polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), they’re absolutely safe and beneficial to health.

But there’s a dark side to a major component of vegetable oil…

Past research in mice has linked its main ingredient to ailments such as obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, fatty liver disease, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression and other neurological conditions.

And a recent study indicates it could wreak havoc in the gut as well…

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The problem with vegetable oil

Did you know that vegetable oil is mostly made up of soybean oil? There may be some corn oils blended in, but soybean oil is the most consumed edible oil in the United States.

And it isn’t just used for cooking meals at home. Soybean oil is included in packaged foods such as margarine, shortening, mayonnaise, salad dressing, frozen foods, baked goods, imitation dairy and meat products.

When soybean oil is used for these purposes, it’s often refined, blended and hydrogenated. And when oils are hydrogenated, they morph into unhealthy trans fats that raise LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol and lower HDL (or “good”) cholesterol.

“Our work challenges the decades-old thinking that many chronic diseases stem from the consumption of excess saturated fats from animal products, and that, conversely, unsaturated fats from plants are necessarily more healthful,” says Poonamjot Deol, an assistant professional researcher at the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside).

By work, Deol is referring to a recent study in mice that found a diet high in soybean oil can lead to ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by chronic inflammation of the large intestine.

The UC Riverside researchers consistently fed mice a soybean oil-rich diet for up to 24 weeks in the lab. When they examined their guts, they found a decrease in beneficial bacteria and an increase in harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli. These conditions can lead to colitis.

Linoleic acid at the root

According to Deol, a co-corresponding author on the paper, the concern is the linoleic acid in soybean oil.

Linoleic acid is an omega-6 fatty acid. We’ve known for a while that the major problem with the modern Western diet is too many omega-6 fats.

“While our bodies need 1 to 2 percent of linoleic acid daily, based on the paleo diet, Americans today are getting 8 to 10 percent of their energy from linoleic acid daily, most of it from soybean oil,” she says, adding that excessive linoleic acid can harm the gut microbiome.

For instance, invasive E. coli uses linoleic acid as a source of nutrition. And several good gut bacteria are unable to withstand linoleic acid and die out.

“It’s the combination of good bacteria dying off and harmful bacteria growing out that makes the gut more susceptible to inflammation and its downstream effects,” Deol says. “Further, linoleic acid causes the intestinal epithelial barrier to become porous.” 

That can lead straight to leaky gut, a condition where toxins leak out of the gut and enter the bloodstream. This greatly increases the risk of infections and chronic inflammatory conditions such as colitis.

To the research team’s surprise, the mice fed the high soybean oil diet also showed a reduction of endocannabinoids in the gut. These cannabis-like molecules made naturally by the body regulate a wide range of physiological functions.

At the same time, there was an increase in gut oxylipins, which are oxygenated PUFAs that control inflammation. The decrease in endocannabinoids and increase in oxylipins is consistent with IBD in humans, Deol says.

Toxicologist Frances M. Sladek, a professor at UC Riverside and a co-corresponding author on the paper, notes that for good heart health, the AHA recommends 5 to 10 percent of daily calories be from omega-6 PUFAs such as linoleic acid. The soybean oil used in the study had 19 percent linoleic acid.

“Every animal has to get linoleic acid from the diet,” Sladek said. “No animal can make it. A small amount of it is needed by the body. But just because something is needed does not mean a lot of it is good for you.”

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Minimize the amount of soybean oil in your diet

Sladek notes that future studies are needed to determine the tipping point for how much daily linoleic acid consumption is safe.

Until then, Sladek and Deol recommend olive oil, given it has lower amounts of linoleic acid. Instead, olive oil consists of 70 to 80 percent oleic acid — the antithesis of linoleic acid.

“Olive oil, the basis of the Mediterranean diet, is considered to be very healthy; it produces less obesity and we have now found that, unlike soybean oil, it does not increase the susceptibility of mice to colitis,” Sladek says.

Because most processed foods in the U.S. contain soybean oil, Sladek advises staying away from those foods.

Also, since most restaurants cook with soybean oil, it’s a good idea to try to cook as much of your food as possible. Check that the oil you use to cook with doesn’t contain soybean oil, and check out this post by a colleague on 5 healthy cooking oils and how to use them.

Sources:

Widely consumed vegetable oil leads to an unhealthy gut — EurekAlert!

Diet high in linoleic acid dysregulates the intestinal endocannabinoid system and increases susceptibility to colitis in Mice — Gut Microbes

Polyunsaturated Fat — American Heart Association

US-Grown Soybean Oil Achieves FDA’s Qualified Heart Health Claim — Today’s Dietician

Soybean oil is the most widely used edible oil in the U.S. — AgHires

Trans fat is double trouble for heart health — Mayo Clinic

The post What colitis, IBD and leaky gut have in common with vegetable oil appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Absolutely. If they stay where they belong.

But when leaky gut syndrome exists, those bacteria and their toxins escape into your bloodstream, where they do not belong, and wreak havoc.

They can cause chronic bloating, headache, indigestion, diarrhea and nausea, as well as more severe conditions, such as irritable bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

What’s more, researchers have discovered they kickstart a vicious cycle of obesity by interfering with the metabolism of fat cells.

Here’s how that happens, and what you can do about it…

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White fat vs. brown fat

To understand how this vicious cycle works, you’ll need to understand the difference between two types of fat we carry in our bodies.

There’s white fat. That’s the kind your body stores that shows up in bulges around your belly, hips, and thighs. That’s the kind of fat we don’t want.

Then, there’s our hero: brown fat.

Brown fat (the kind you want) helps burn off the calories we eat each day.

Browning is the process that turns white fat into brown fat and can be stimulated by exercise, exposure to cold and calorie restriction.

How leaky gut starts the obesity cycle

An international group of researchers took a look at how weight is affected when substances called endotoxins are released into the blood.

Endotoxins are found within the walls of bacteria. They are a normal part of the digestive tract, and their function is to trigger inflammation when an infection is present.

But when a leaky gut allows endotoxins to escape the gut and enter the bloodstream, it interferes with the normal functioning of fat cells. Specifically, it slows or stops the browning process, which is crucial to reducing the amount of stored fat and maintaining a healthy weight.

And since obese people already have less resilient guts, endotoxins have more chance of escaping into the bloodstream.

And so the cycle goes.

But if you can work to prevent leaky gut and keep endotoxins out of your blood, you’ve already won half the battle.

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How to help a leaky gut

A leaky gut leaks because damage to the lining has made it more permeable. Normally the junctures are just tight enough to allow nutrients to be absorbed and passed into the body, but keep bacteria and waste inside the intestinal walls until they exit the body.

If you’re not sure if you’re affected by leaky gut, first familiarize yourself with the most common symptoms.

Studies have shown that what you eat, and what you don’t eat, are keys to keeping the gut in healthy shape.

One of the most powerful foods to do just that is broccoli. In studies with mice, it was found to contain molecules involved in signaling cells in the intestines to halt inflammatory processes and repair damaged cells. That process helps keep the gut lining intact.

Next are polyphenols, natural antioxidants found in a variety of foods like apples, berries and green tea. In the gut, they increase helpful bacteria, reduce harmful bacteria, and prevent damaging inflammation. A recent study found that eating foods rich in polyphenols increased products of cell metabolism that improve the health of the gut and decreased those that cause intestinal permeability.

Certain supplements can also help.

Now, the foods you want to eat much less of include processed junk foods because they contain refined oils, added sugars and artificial sweeteners — and are considered inflammatory. They also contain gluten — which can aggravate digestive symptoms.

A whole foods diet, like the Mediterranean diet, is probably the best way to ensure foods that can promote weight loss and a healthy gut — which is ultimately the best way to keep your gut in shape and break the cycle.

Sources:

Toxic Fragments of Bacteria Leaking From The Gut May Drive Weight Gain — Science Alert

The impact of metabolic endotoxaemia on the browning process in human adipocytes — BMC Medicine

The post How leaky gut leads to weight gain appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sold under the name Splenda, sucralose has been linked to an increase in malignant tumors in mice. Research also shows sucralose upsets the balance of the gut microbiome, disrupts blood sugar levels and promotes inflammation.

Other symptoms reported by people who consume sucralose include:

• Red, itchy skin
• Wheezing and breathing problems
• Swelling of face, lips and tongue
• Bloating and stomach pain
• Anxiety, dizziness and depression

As if that weren’t bad enough, sucralose also has been found to increase the risk of coronary heart disease, a condition that makes heart attack more likely.

So why is it that sucralose appears to be nothing but trouble health-wise? Investigators may have found an answer — and it’s pretty alarming….

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Sucralose could damage DNA

In a previous study, researchers discovered that after sucralose is ingested, several fat-soluble compounds are produced in the gut. One of these compounds is sucralose-6-acetate.

Now, a study by the same research team has determined that sucralose-6-acetate is what’s known as “genotoxic.”

In other words, the chemical breaks up DNA in the cells exposed to it.

What’s worse, the researchers found trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate in the sucralose itself, not just as a byproduct of sucralose consumption.

“To put this in context, the European Food Safety Authority has a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances of 0.15 micrograms per person per day. Our work suggests that the trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate in a single, daily sucralose-sweetened drink exceed that threshold,” says Susan Schiffman, corresponding author of the study and an adjunct professor in the joint department of biomedical engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“And that’s not even accounting for the amount of sucralose-6-acetate produced as metabolites after people consume sucralose,” Schiffman adds.

Sucralose chemical could alter gut composition

For the study, the researchers exposed human blood cells and gut tissues to sucralose-6-acetate in lab tests.

“When we exposed sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate to gut epithelial tissues — the tissue that lines your gut wall — we found that both chemicals cause ‘leaky gut,’” Schiffman says. “Basically, they make the wall of the gut more permeable. The chemicals damage the ‘tight junctions,’ or interfaces, where cells in the gut wall connect to each other.”

What that means is with a leaky gut, things that would normally be flushed out of the body in its waste are instead leaking out of the gut into the bloodstream, Schiffman adds.

When looking at the genetic activity of the gut cells exposed to sucralose-6-acetate, the team found increased activity in genes related to oxidative stress, inflammation and cancer.

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What to eat instead of sucralose

Schiffman says their work raises a host of concerns about the potential health effects of sucralose and its metabolites.

“It’s time to revisit the safety and regulatory status of sucralose because the evidence is mounting that it carries significant risks,” she says. “If nothing else, I encourage people to avoid products containing sucralose. It’s something you should not be eating.”

Now, you may think that having an occasional diet soda is probably okay. However, bear in mind that sucralose-6-acetate is fat-soluble, meaning it could be stored in the body’s fat long after you consume it. Just imagine this chemical terrorist lurking in your cells and destroying your DNA — all after just one drink!

It’s best to replace your diet soda fix with a healthy unsweetened beverage like tea, coffee or plain water. They’ll all keep you hydrated, and with tea and coffee you’ll be getting additional health benefits as well.

If you absolutely must have soda and you want it to be calorie-free, then try soda naturally sweetened with stevia. Just make sure the soda in question uses 100% stevia that’s free of bulking agents like erythritol, which, like sucralose, should be avoided at all costs.

Sources:

1. Chemical Found in Common Sweetener Damages DNA — NC State University

2. Toxicological and pharmacokinetic properties of sucralose-6-acetate and its parent sucralose: in vitro screening assays — Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health

The post The ‘genotoxic’ sweetener that damages your DNA appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Those plaques are made up of cholesterol, phospholipids and other miscellaneous fats, immune cells and fibrous components.

Obesity and a diet high in fat and cholesterol are all established risk factors for atherosclerosis. In fact, some studies have shown that being obese makes a person two and a half times more likely to develop heart disease.

But the mechanics behind why have not been fully understood, until now…

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The window to the body and hard arteries

“The gut is the dietary window to the body,” said Srinivasa Reddy, professor of medicine at the University of California Los Angeles and corresponding author on the study.

It also appears to be the window through which bacterial toxins leave the gut and make their way into the bloodstream to cause systemic inflammation that turns up the thermostat on atherosclerosis…

Using a mouse model, the researchers found that on a high-fat high-cholesterol diet, the cells that line the small intestine churn out reactive phospholipids that make the intestinal lining more susceptible to invasion by bacteria in the gut.

“The normal defenses for intestinal lining cells to keep bacteria in the lumen of the intestine are reduced when they take up large amounts of cholesterol and fat,” said Alan Fogelman, a professor of medicine at UCLA and project supervisor.

“This also results in bacteria being able to come in direct contact with the cells lining your intestines called enterocytes. Without those defenses, this results in more bacterial products, like bacterial cell membranes that contain a toxin called endotoxin, getting into the bloodstream to cause inflammation.”

This is known as leaky gut syndrome.

“People who are obese and people eating high-fat, high-cholesterol diets have higher levels of endotoxin in their blood,” Fogelman adds. “It’s not at the level of causing sepsis, but it causes a low level of inflammation. When the cholesterol and fat come into the mix, the endotoxin kind of turns up the thermostat on inflammation and that accelerates atherosclerosis and leads to increased heart attacks and strokes.”

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Help your gut protect your arteries

First thing: stop allowing the worst offenders into your diet…

“We study natural emulsifiers in the diet called phospholipids,” said Fogelman. “For example, if you look at salad dressing and shake it up, it is the phospholipids, or emulsifiers, that keeps the oil in globules. Those emulsifiers can get modified by specific enzymes in the intestinal cells into very potent pro-inflammatory molecules in the body.”

He and the research team are looking for ways to reduce the phospholipid derivatives that cause endotoxin to enter the bloodstream. In the meantime, you can reduce bringing them into your body by shying away from the Western diet and leaning towards a Mediterranean diet.

Gut bacteria produce something called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs feed the cells in your gut. In fact, they’re their main source of food.

In previous studies, SCFAs were also able to reverse leaky gut syndrome — and SCFAs are key mediators of the favorable effects of the Mediterranean diet on intestinal barrier integrity and cardiovascular health.

Here are a few tips on helping your body produce a healthy supply of SCFAs:

• Plant-based fiber produces more SCFAs.
• Whole grains produce more SCFAs than grain that has been ground into flour.
• Starchy foods, like cornmeal, potatoes, pasta, peas and lentil are also superstars in SCFA production.

Sources:

High-fat diet ‘turns up the thermostat’ on atherosclerosis — Eureka Alert

Role of enterocyte Enpp2 and autotaxin in regulating lipopolysaccharide levels, systemic inflammation, and atherosclerosis — Journal of Lipid Research

What to know about short chain fatty acids in food — WebMD

The post The gut problem that hardens your arteries appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Has much changed since then?

Surprisingly, a Green Giant “Favorite Veggie” survey crowned broccoli as America’s favorite vegetable — yet only one in ten of us is meeting the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.

That means most of us are probably still not eating enough broccoli and we’re cheating ourselves of major disease protection…

Broccoli is packed with sulforaphane and other phytochemicals, like diindolylmethane (DIM), that can help fight diabetes, slow aging, strengthen your bones, protect your eyesight, defend against colon cancer and support prostate health.

And that’s not all researchers are finding out about this superfood….

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Molecule in broccoli keeps your gut intact

In a new study, researchers at Penn State divided mice into two groups to determine broccoli’s impact on the small intestine. They fed an experimental group of mice a diet containing 15 percent broccoli (equivalent to 3.5 cups per day for humans) and a control group a typical lab diet without the superfood.

The wall of the small intestine is designed to be permeable enough that water and nutrients pass into the bloodstream, but strong enough to keep harmful food particles and bacteria inside until it’s voided. The epithelial lining of the small intestine is made up of specific cells that support this healthy balance.

In the study, the researchers discovered that molecules in broccoli known as aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands bind to aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AHR), initiating activities that affect the functions of those cells.

An AHR is a transcription factor, a type of protein that when activated signals both your immune cells and the cells lining your intestines to stop all inflammatory processes and repair any cells that were previously damaged.

The analysis showed the mice that weren’t fed broccoli lacked AHR activity, resulting in altered intestinal barrier function and reduced transit time of food in the small intestine. These two things are harmful because reduced transit time means waste sits in your intestines longer. And if the barrier is not functioning as it should, harmful elements of the waste, including endotoxins (fragments of bacteria), can breach the barrier.

These mice also had decreased numbers of goblet cells, which secrete a protective layer of mucus on the intestinal wall; decreased Paneth cells, which secrete lysosomes that contain digestive enzymes; and a reduced number of enterocyte cells, which absorb water and nutrients.

“The gut health of the mice that were not fed broccoli was compromised in a variety of ways that are known to be associated with disease,” says Gary Perdew, chair in agricultural sciences at Penn State. “Our research suggests that broccoli and likely other foods can be used as natural sources of AHR ligands, and that diets rich in these ligands contribute to resilience of the small intestine.”

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The importance of your gut barrier

It’s much easier to keep your gut lining healthy than it is to repair it. If it’s damaged, via any number of factors including poor diet, antibiotic use, stress or aging, the barrier weakens, increasing intestinal permeability and allowing endotoxins to enter the bloodstream. This is known as leaky gut — a condition that acts as an open door to disease.

A person suffering from leaky gut may experience a range of symptoms from diarrhea to constipation, bloating, skin problems, joint pain, headaches and even confusion.

It also exacerbates weight gain. Researchers that looked specifically at the impact of endotoxins on fat cells discovered that key processes that usually help control the buildup of fat are interrupted by the material.

And as inflammation further wears down the intestinal barrier, its spreads throughout the body, triggering the immune system to over-respond.

The result? A wide range of symptoms that drag health down, lead to food allergies, intolerances and sensitivities, as well as autoimmune diseases. And because the symptoms and these types of conditions are so varied, often mimicking other illnesses, it can take years to get a diagnosis from a physician.

So, if you’re not over your aversion to broccoli it’s time to get serious about working this superfood into your diet.

Supplements can also support your gut lining and you can read about five of them here.

Sources:

Broccoli consumption protects gut lining, reduces disease, in mice — Penn State

Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Activation Coordinates Mouse Small Intestinal Epithelial Cell Programming — Laboratory Investigation

Do Pureed Vegetables Have as Much Fiber as Fresh? — Week&

The post Why broccoli is a gut-saving disease-fighting superfood appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, studies have suggested that the virus can cause lasting damage, from heart and breathing problems to kidney failure; and has been linked to eye issues that can cause blindness and to the development of Parkinson’s.

Most of us are lucky enough to have experienced only a mild bout with COVID-19 — but if you’ve noticed some uncomfortable GI symptoms post-infection, COVID may be to blame for that too…

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The GI tract: a virus reservoir

Researchers at Washington University have been detailing COVID-19’s lingering effects since the beginning of the pandemic. To date, they’ve cataloged approximately 80 adverse health outcomes associated with long COVID-19.

According to senior author Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a clinical epidemiologist at the university, “Gastrointestinal problems were among the first that were reported by the patient community. It is increasingly clear that the GI tract serves as a reservoir for the virus.”

So the team decided to extend their research to look into the virus’ effect on the GI system by analyzing about 14 million medical records. This resulted in the creation of a controlled data set of 154,068 people who had tested positive for COVID-19.

They then used statistical modeling to compare GI outcomes in the COVID-19 data set with two other groups of people not infected with the virus.

Overall, they found that beyond the first 30 days of infection, people with COVID were 36 percent more likely to suffer from a GI disorder than those who had not been infected with the virus.

Compared with patients in the control groups, people who had a previous COVID-19 infection were:

• 62 percent more likely to develop ulcers in the lining of the stomach or small intestine
• 35 percent more likely to suffer from acid reflux disease
• 46 percent more likely to experience acute pancreatitis
• 54 percent more likely to suffer from irritable bowel syndrome
• 47 percent more likely to experience inflammation of the stomach lining
• 36 percent more likely to have an upset stomach without an obvious cause

And that’s not all of it…

COVID-19 patients experienced a 54 percent higher chance of living with digestive symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating, vomiting and abdominal pain.

GI conditions that the researchers say were associated with a COVID infection ranged from mild stomach issues to life-threatening conditions such as liver failure.

In all, the team estimates that so far, COVID-19 has contributed to more than six million new cases of GI disorders in the US alone!

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Post-COVID gut help

If you were infected with COVID-19 and are now living with serious GI complaints, hopefully, your doctor is aware and doing what he can.

If your symptoms are more uncomfortable and annoying, such as mild IBS or acid reflux, a temporary diet change could provide the relief you need.

According to Dr. Mark Wiley, acid reflux and IBS sufferers should consume plenty of water, alkaline foods (like green leafy vegetables). These are nutritious foods that do not foster an acidic environment in the body (important during the healing process) and that also promote normal bowel elimination.

Fiber may be tricky for you. Fiber helps reduce constipation by helping form stools, but too much can cause cramping and gas. If adding fiber increases your discomfort, cut back down and plan to add it in gradually as your gut heals.

If you’re new to IBS due to COVID, you may not be aware that part of what’s causing your symptoms may be gluten. It irritates the bowels and can cause diarrhea. As such, avoiding products made with wheat, rye and barley (including bread, crackers, etc.) can be helpful.

Digestive enzymes can go a long way in helping with the cramping, constipation, diarrhea, bloating and gas that accidental exposure to gluten can cause.

Healing your gut is paramount in a post-COVID world. A damaged gut is prone to a condition known as leaky gut that increases susceptibility to viral infections.

If fatigue is an unwelcomed bonus to your GI symptoms following a COVID infection, there’s good news: L-arginine and liposomal vitamin C were found to improve that complaint in just 28 days.

Sources:

COVID-19 infections raise risk of long-term gastrointestinal problems – EurekAlert!

The post Gut problems since COVID? You and 6 million others appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s why eating them several times a week is directly tied to developing type 2 diabetes.

Each time I bring up the potato’s less-than-stellar qualities, it upsets some folks. I know you love your potatoes. I did too. But the science says that eating too much of this vegetable is just not good. In the standard American diet, potato-based dishes are far too common…

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Just think about that for a moment… how many servings of potatoes might you have consumed this week in the form of tots, fries, chips, mashed or creamed potatoes, baked potatoes, hash browns or potato cakes?

Well if you still feel devoted to the one veggie you really should drop from your table, let me bring out the big guns — and this is something even most nutritionists don’t know…

The potato plant comes with its own protection system made up of something called saponins. When mixed with water, saponins form soapy foam.

Have you ever noticed that frothy, thick white foam that accumulates on top of the water when you boil a pot of potatoes? I have. It’s sticky and sometimes hard to clean off the pot, but that’s not the worst of it…

Chemically, saponins are glycoalkaloids. They evolved to protect the potato plant’s root (the part you eat) from attack by microbes and insects — and they are toxic.

When animals, including humans, eat glycoalkaloid-containing tubers such as potatoes, these substances frequently create holes in the gut lining, thereby increasing intestinal permeability. If glycoalkaloids enter your bloodstream in sufficient concentrations, they cause cell membrane destruction of your red blood cells.

Potatoes contain two glycoalkaloid saponins that can wreak havoc on your gut: α-chaconine and α-solanine. In addition to causing leaky gut, they can aggravate inflammatory bowel diseases, like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome.

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At least 12 separate cases of human poisoning from potato consumption and 30 fatalities have been recorded in medical literature, and are fortunately rare occurrences. But the effects on the gut are likely not so rare.

The recommended safe limit for total glycoalkaloids in potato foods is 200 mg/kg, a level proposed more than 70 years ago. But more recent evidence suggests this level should be lowered to 60 – 70 mg/kg.

I no longer eat white potatoes at all, and my gut issues have all but disappeared — in part, as well, to giving up grains. But if you are not quite ready to totally drop the hot potato from your table, at least try to eat them prepared in ways that expose you to the least toxins.

From the list below, try to avoid any of these potato preparations with a combined glycoalkaloid concentration higher than 70:

Source: Are potatoes paleo–The Paleo Diet

The post Potato soup or toxic soap? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

You may have even got the news that choosing almonds over other types of snacks could help you nibble away your waistline.

And there’s more good news for nut lovers everywhere.

Research from a team of scientists at King’s College London has also revealed that when you get the munchies, almonds are the snack of choice to not only improve your gut health but also relieve constipation —  a problem that frequently affects about four million Americans.

And we wonder why we’re sick…

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Your gut’s connection to the health of your body

The team specifically delved into the impact of whole and ground almonds on the composition of gut microbes, which play a huge role in your health across your entire body.

Your gut microbiome is made up of thousands of microorganisms. These microorganisms help digest the nutrients from the foods you eat. And when your gut microbiome is unhealthy it can lead to other issues that can:

• Start you down the path to heart disease due to a lack of short-chain fatty acids
• Increase a molecule that makes your cells resistant to insulin
• Activate Alzheimer’s genes

Poor gut health can even weaken your intestinal barrier, which can lead to leaky gut syndrome — leaving you wide open to every virus or bacteria that comes around the bend.

So how did almonds perform when it came to gut health?

Fueling the cells that line the colon

Researchers recruited 87 healthy adults who were already eating less than the recommended amount of dietary fiber and who usually snacked on the unhealthy snacks that we all love too much — like chocolate, chips and ice cream.

Then, they split them into three groups. The first completely swapped their unhealthy snack for 56 g of whole almonds a day, and the second went for the same amount of ground almonds. However, the final group ate no almonds, but instead, were given muffins that delivered the same amount of calories as the nuts.

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After just four weeks, the scientists took a look at how each group’s gut health stacked up.

And sure enough, the almond eaters saw big benefits…

In both groups of people who ate almonds (whether whole or ground), the levels of a short-chain fatty acid, known as butyrate, were significantly higher compared to those that ate muffins.

This is an important finding because butyrate serves as the main source of fuel for the cells that line the colon. When these cells function effectively, gut microbes flourish and the intestinal wall is strong — not leaky or inflamed, which could decrease nutrient absorption as well as increase risks for illness.

In fact, eating whole and ground almond improved participants’ diets. Almond eaters had higher intakes of monosaturated fatty acids, fiber, potassium and other important nutrients compared to the control group.

And, drum roll please — maybe the best news of all was this…

Almond eaters also had an additional 1.5 bowel movements per week compared to the other groups, suggesting that eating almonds could be a great way to reduce issues with constipation.

So grab those almonds and snack away.

Sources:

Snacking on almonds boosts gut health, study finds — ScienceDaily

The post Almonds: The little snack that fixes big gut problems appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Aging is one of the causes of insulin resistance. And none of us are immune to aging, yet.

Though those with the money and clout, like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, are funding such efforts, most of us won’t be able to afford their drugs. And would you really want to choose between the blue pill or the red pill?

But, insulin resistance is something you can take into your own hands…

In case you need a refresher, insulin resistance occurs when your body’s cells stop responding to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. Insulin resistance is the first stop on the dangerous road to diabetes. But it also sets you up for obesity, inflammation, weak immunity and frailty.

Basically, insulin resistance can make all your worst aging nightmares come true. So, how do you stop insulin resistance from stealing your health, youth and vigor?

Well, a new study shows the best way to battle insulin resistance is a certain strain of healthy bacteria —  Akkermansia muciniphila.

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The dangerous domino effect that leads to insulin resistance

A study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine made some alarming discoveries about aging and insulin resistance in mice and monkeys…

Researchers found that as mice and monkeys get older, their intestinal wall becomes more permeable. The same thing happens to humans, by the way. It’s called leaky gut.

This permeability allows harmful stuff like bad bacteria to seep through into other parts of the body, leading to inflammation.

It also causes a decrease in butyrate, a fatty acid the gut creates when it digests certain foods. Butyrate contributes to gut health, so having less is bad.

The decline in butyrate leads to a decrease in the bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila in the gut too. All this combined triggers insulin resistance.

But here’s the good news…

Giving elderly mice and monkeys more Akkermansia muciniphila reversed this unfortunate sequence of events — even insulin resistance.

Previous research on this beneficial strain of bacteria shows that it probably has a similar effect on humans too. One study conducted on 49 people found that people with more Akkermansia muciniphila in their guts have smaller waistlines, lower blood sugar, better insulin sensitivity and lower cholesterol levels.

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Filling your gut with Akkermansia muciniphila

So, how do you get your hands on some Akkermansia muciniphila?

The bad news is you won’t find it in your yogurt or a probiotic supplement.

It is, however, found naturally in your gut. And there are foods you can eat to increase your supply. Research shows, for example, that eating a high-fiber diet increases the amount of Akkermansia muciniphila in your gut. So, eat plenty of high-fiber foods, like:

• Grapes
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Pear
• Apple
• Banana
• Orange
• Strawberries
• Green peas
• Broccoli
• Turnip greens
• Brussels sprouts
• Potato
• Sweet corn
• Cauliflower
• Carrot
• Whole wheat
• Quinoa
• Oats
• Brown rice
• Barley
• Bran
• Chicory root
• Lentils
• Black beans
• Split peas
• Chia seeds
• Almonds
• Pistachios
• Sunflower kernels

Some of the foods above are especially helpful because of their fiber type: inulin. A recent study found that Akkermansia muciniphila significantly increases in the gut microbiota after inulin supplementation.

You should also know that high-fat diets decrease the amount of Akkermansia muciniphila in your gut. So, keep your fat intake balanced to keep this healthy strain of bacteria around and insulin resistance away.

Sources:

1. A gut bacterium as a fountain of youth? Well, let’s start with reversing insulin resistance — Orlando Sentinel
2. Commensal bacteria contribute to insulin resistance in aging by activating innate B1a cells — Science Translational Medicine
3. Gut Bug Slims Waistlines, Improves Blood Sugar — Endocrine Web
4. Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes — National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
5. Chart of high-fiber foods — Mayo Clinic

The post How one gut bug can bring all your numbers down appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And we can rest assured that, as always, pneumonia is in the cards for a lot of folks — especially seniors — regardless of which virus hits them.

Pneumonia is a dangerous condition for older adults. They are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized after contracting pneumonia, and death rates from the illness can exceed 50 percent depending on underlying health conditions.

Some new research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine has provided some surprising insight as to why that is…

And it has as much to do with the gut as it does with the lungs…

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From a leaky gut to inflamed lungs

Researchers looked at the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniaein in animal models, studying changes in intestinal microbial populations after infection. 

“Streptococcus pneumoniae is normally carried in the nasal passages of healthy adults. People with healthy immune systems can just live with it, and it doesn’t cause any problems,” CU School of Medicine immunology graduate student Holly Hulsebus explains.

“But people with compromised immune systems, including older adults, tend to become more susceptible because their immune system can’t really control the bacteria that are normally there. Those bacteria can leave the nose and move to other places in the body. They can cause ear infections, and they also can spread to the lungs and cause pneumonia.”  

When Streptococcus pneumoniae infected older mice, they demonstrated increased illness and impaired lung function, as well as elevated levels of gut-derived bacteria in the lungs. The latter suggests that bacteria migrating from the intestines to the lungs could be partially responsible for the poor outcomes of Streptococcus pneumoniae lung infections in older people.

But how do bacteria leave the gut to travel and infect other parts of the body? A leaky gut — a condition that acts as an open door to disease, especially for seniors.

“Our working theory is that as you age, you have a heightened baseline inflammatory response, which then induces the gut to be more pro-inflammatory,” says Dr. Rachel McMahan of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “That causes potentially pathogenic bacteria in the gut to leak out into the organs, and then things can go downhill fast.”

When COVID-19 was at its height, a leaky gut similarly created a vulnerability to infection from SARS-CoV-2.

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Protecting your gut microbiome as you age

It’s been tough to get the medical community to acknowledge leaky gut as a real issue.

While awareness has climbed in recent years, most doctors still don’t really understand it. But the truth is, leaky gut affects as many as a third of all adults in the U.S., and as this research demonstrates, can have potentially catastrophic results for your health — particularly if you’re older.

But by focusing on the gut, the researchers may be able to find new ways to fight increased inflammation in the lungs. They plan to investigate the effectiveness of microbiome or fecal transplants that replace the bacteria in the aging gut with that of younger animals.

Until then, they specifically cite probiotics and a healthy diet as strategies for keeping gut bacteria in place in older individuals.

In past issues, we’ve recommended ditching refined sugar, dairy products, processed meats and gluten-containing grains like wheat and barley. All of these have been identified as triggers for leaky gut.

Instead, try eating a clean, organic whole-food diet with plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, fruits and vegetables, protein and gluten-free grains like brown rice, quinoa, millet and buckwheat.

If you want to really improve the integrity of your intestinal lining, get plenty of polyphenols. Studies show that including up to three daily portions of polyphenol-rich foods like apples, cocoa, dark chocolate, green tea, cranberries, oranges or pomegranate juice made specific changes to the gut microbiome that improved intestinal permeability.

Make sure when you source these foods that they’re organic so that they’re free of dangerous pesticides that are capable of harming gut integrity.

Sources:

How a Leaky Gut Leads to Inflamed Lungs — University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Age-Related Intestinal Dysbiosis and Enrichment of Gut-specific Bacteria in the Lung Are Associated With Increased Susceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae Infection in Mice — Frontiers in Aging

The post The shocking reason pneumonia is so deadly for seniors appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

While that figure is scary enough as it is, it becomes even more frightening when you realize it’s expected to skyrocket to 13.8 million by 2050.

So what can you do to keep yourself or your loved one from becoming part of that statistic?

Well, according to researchers from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, the answer may be quite simple: much more fiber…

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The gut-brain axis, fiber and the threat of Alzheimer’s

The LSU researchers’ recommendations center on what’s known as the gut-brain axis — the biochemical signaling pathway that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system.

Scientists believe it plays a major role in dementia development. In fact, this connection is believed to be the reason why people with certain types of GI issues are six times more likely to develop dementia and why they tend to develop it earlier in life.

The research from LSU Health Sciences Center just proved why…

The team found evidence a molecule containing a very potent microbial-generated neurotoxin called lipopolysaccharide or LPS, derived from dangerous Gram-negative bacteria in the human GI tract, generates another neurotoxin known as BF-LPS.

“LPSs, in general, are probably the most potent microbial-derived pro-inflammatory neurotoxic glycolipids known,” explains Dr. Walter J Lukiw of LSU Health New Orleans. “Many laboratories, including our own, have detected different forms of LPS within neurons of the Alzheimer’s disease-affected human brain.”

Basically, BF-LPS leaks out of the GI tract and is transported throughout the body, allowing it to cross the blood-brain barrier where it can wreak havoc. This “leakage” happens easily when junctions of the gut barrier are weak as is the case with leaky gut, a condition that can affect anyone, though older people are at higher risk.

Once in the brain, it results in serious inflammation and even inhibits neuron-specific neurofilament light (NF-L,), which is a protein that supports brain cell integrity.

The result?

Atrophy of the brain’s neurons and ultimately cell death.

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Use fiber to flush out your Alzheimer’s risk

And while all of that sounds really bleak, there’s good news…

The researchers also found that adequate intake of dietary fiber can head off that process.

This may sound weird until you consider the fact that if the Alzheimer’s cascade is kicked off by a bad bacteria in your gut, doing something that’s gut healthy, like eating more fiber, makes a lot of sense.

So how much fiber is enough? That one

depends on your age and sex.

The USDA recommends that women up to age 50 consume 25 grams a day, while men should go for 38 grams. Over 50, that number goes to 21 grams for women and 30 grams daily for men.

And since most of us only get an average of 10 to 15 grams of fiber each day, it’s clear we have a lot of work to do.

Luckily, upping your fiber intake is easy. You just have to add more fruits, veggies, whole grains and legumes to your diet.

There’s even a helpful list of the best and worst fiber foods to add to your diet, plus how much fiber you can get from each, here to make things simple. Also, consider fiber or greens powder mixes to get that brain-saving boost in fiber intake.

Sources:

Major contributor to Alzheimer’s disease discovered — ScienceDaily

The post Fiber helps flush neurotoxin linked to Alzheimer’s appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But it’s important to understand what leaky gut really is, and how you can keep it from making you sick.

Most doctors are less than well-informed about this syndrome that affects as many as one-third of all adults in the U.S. Most will tell you that it’s just a digestive issue associated with mild pain.

But the truth is that a leaky gut is like an “open door” through which harmful microbes and toxins enter your bloodstream, causing all sorts of diseases, including celiac disease, allergies, asthma, multiple sclerosis and a host of autoimmune diseases.

Research published in the journal of the American Society for Microbiology in June of 2021, suggests that leaky gut can even exacerbate the severity of a COVID-19 infection by enabling the virus easy access to internal organs through a weakened digestive tract.

The “open door” that provides easy entry is the result of intestinal permeability — loose junctures or gaps in the lining of the intestines. Experts aren’t sure why it develops, but it may have something to do with aging epithelial cells (cells that line the intestine) that aren’t able to repair themselves so well.

But other causes associated with leaky gut include food allergies and intolerances and unhealthy diets–all of which could damage the intestinal lining.

Regardless of the reason, it’s important to plug those leaks — and a new study has shed light on how to do just that…

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Polyphenols alter metabolism, protect the gut

A polyphenol-rich diet improves intestinal permeability in older people, according to a European study published in September in the journal Clinical Nutrition.

Spanish and Italian researchers, all of whom specialize in nutritional science, carried out a study where people aged 60 and older ate a polyphenol-rich diet for eight weeks.

Polyphenols are natural antioxidants. They are found in a variety of foods and work in our gut to increase helpful bacteria, reduce harmful bacteria, and prevent the inflammation that’s behind heart disease and other chronic conditions.

The results of the study showed that including up to three daily portions of apple, cocoa, dark chocolate, green tea, cranberries, oranges or pomegranate juice, improved intestinal permeability by making specific changes in the intestinal microbiota.

When fecal and plasma samples were analyzed, there was a correlation between the foods eaten and an increase in the products of cell metabolism that improved the health of the gut, and a decrease in those that caused intestinal permeability.

“For instance, theobromine and methylxanthine — derived from cocoa and green tea — are positively correlated with butyrate-producing bacteria (a fatty acid in the intestinal flora), and inversely with zonulin, a protein related to the intestinal permeability,” note the authors.

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Healthier food for a healthier gut

This study proves that changes in diet can be a solid strategy for preventing leaky gut, and therefore can help prevent many of the chronic diseases associated with aging.

“A higher intake of fruits, vegetables and foods such as those described in this paper provide fiber and polyphenols that could help counterbalance the damaging of permeability due to aging,” notes Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, lead author of the study.

But be picky about the fruits and vegetables you choose, because trading one disease for another just doesn’t make sense.

For example, artificial estrogens (xenoestrogen) caused by many toxins, including pesticides, have an impact on your body’s hormones (remember, insulin is a hormone), and causes a range of troublesome and potentially life-altering symptoms in both men and women.

That’s why, if at all possible, it’s best to purchase organic fruits and vegetables, which are grown without the pesticides that cause everything from fertility issues to obesity to cancer.

It’s also helpful to know which fruits and vegetables are grown with the most pesticides, and which are relatively “clean.”

Finally, buying fruits and vegetables in season makes it more likely you’re getting fresh produce that hasn’t been stored for months. Check with your local farmer’s market or agricultural organization to find out what’s in season in your part of the country.

Sources:

Polyphenol-rich diets improve leaky gut syndrome in the elderly  Eureka Alert

Crosstalk among intestinal barrier, gut microbiota and serum metabolome after a polyphenol-rich diet in older subjects with “leaky gut”: The MaPLE trial — Clinical Nutrition

What’s in Season? Produce Calendars for All 50 States — Farm Flavor

The post Why older adults are at high risk from this ‘open door’ to disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Understanding some underlying causes of leaky gut can certainly help.

Something that may not be of help is relying on doctors and other medical professionals.

Since it’s an unrecognized diagnosable disease, doctors aren’t able to prescribe a drug or treatment for it since there’s no “single” cause. They may only be able to treat your symptoms.

And because leaky gut syndrome and its symptoms have vast connections to numerous medical conditions, you can see the amount of confusion that can generate.

That’s why most people suffering from leaky gut spend years trying to get to the root of their annoying and often miserable health issues.

But knowing the symptoms — as well as identifying conditions that can be tied to leaky gut — is a good starting point for you to nail down what’s going on with your health…

In this article, we are going to take a look at some common medical conditions, ranging from something as common as a headache or fatigue to something more chronic like autoimmune conditions, and what the latest research says about how these diseases are connected to leaky gut syndrome — and vice versa.

The symptoms of leaky gut

Researchers have identified specific symptoms and their connection to leaky gut.

• Digestive upset: Have excessive gas, bloating, diarrhea, stomach, or digestive pains? You could be suffering from irritable bowel disease (IBD). The journal Intestinal Research has shown that weak junctions in your intestinal lining or intestinal epithelium, just one part of your body’s system of protective barriers, are typically associated with increased intestinal permeability in people with IBD. The combination of increased permeability and decreased barrier protection amounts to a leaky gut.
• Food intolerances or sensitivities: If you notice yourself reacting to certain foods — dairy or gluten in particular — hours after your last meal, you could be dealing with a food sensitivity (not the same as a food allergy, which will be discussed below). Damage to the gut, including increased permeability can result from food sensitivities or intolerances.
• Achy or painful joints: Scientists are discovering that “wear and tear” isn’t the only reason your joints are hurting. New research is showing that loose junctions in your intestinal lining are playing a role in body wide inflammation that can increase joint pain problems.
• Chronic fatigue: If you’re feeling more tired than usual, don’t be so quick to blame it on your age or think it’s all in your head. Studies are showing how fatigue is linked to increasing levels of intestinal permeability.
• Eczema, acne and other skin issues: Do you apply the latest creams and cleansers to address your skin issues? Those remedies only go skin-deep. You need to look deeper and address the underlying source of your skin problems that starts in the gut. Scientists now confirm that leaky gut plays a role by allowing toxins and bacteria to travel through the body.

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Conditions, disease and leaky gut

Once leaky gut sets in, you eventually become prone to a number of autoimmune diseases. Here’s are some conditions connected to leaky gut:

• Lupus: For a long time, the origin of this autoimmune disease, known for its butterfly rash, really stumped scientists. However, new research is showing lupus may have origins in the gut. One study found that those with lupus had reduced beneficial bacteria and an abundance of bad bacteria which contributed to higher levels of intestinal inflammation when compared to those who didn’t have lupus.
• Food allergies: Unlike food intolerances that cause pain because you’re missing the enzymes to break down your food, or food sensitivities that you notice only hours after you’ve eaten, food allergies can cause anaphylaxes, a life-threatening allergic reaction. This is in part due to food particles “leaking” through the gut into the bloodstream.
• Rheumatoid arthritis: What was believed to be genetic is now getting a second look-over thanks to the latest research out of the Mayo Clinic. Studies show that a leaky gut disrupts homeostasis in the microbiome (bacteria in the gut), allowing bad bacteria to escape into your bloodstream, alerting your immune system of the intruder and attacking your joints in the process.
• Fibromyalgia: Researchers are still in the dark about this disease’s origins. While they point to intense bouts of both mental or physical stress as the cause, new evidence suggests due to the excess toxins escaping through a leaky gut, your immune system is activated and attacks you, making you feel fatigued, weak, sore, forgetful and more.
• Thyroid diseases:  The most common thyroid diseases, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and Graves’ Disease, co-occur with those who have damaged or “increased” intestinal permeability, eventually leading to the body attacking itself, in this specific case, the thyroid being attacked.

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Relief starts with healing

In reading through the list of symptoms that can help you determine if you may suffer from a leaky gut, I’m sure you noticed a consistent theme: weakened or loose junctions and damage to the intestinal lining, which is quite literally a leaking gut.

Your intestinal epithelium (gut lining) is a protective mucosal barrier that research is only beginning to understand. Along with other epithelial barriers in other parts of your body, the breakdown of this protective system has been linked in the past 20 years to 2 billion chronic, non-infectious diseases which are believed to be triggered by distant inflammatory responses in the gut’s microbiome.

That means to heal from leaky gut and all of its effects, you must start with healing the epithelium, with tightening the junctures, reducing the inflammation and balancing the microbiome.

Here are steps you can start taking today to start that road to recovery:

• Probiotics: One of the quickest ways to begin the healing process of your epithelium is by rebalancing your microbiome with beneficial bacteria. Probiotics help to restore your gut flora, which creates a healthier gut environment. It can also help to ease digestion discomfort while reducing inflammation.
• Cut the fat: Diets high in saturated fat (butter, lard, coconut and palm oil, fatty meats like sausage and bacon) contribute to inflammation in your intestinal tract, damaging your gut lining and increasing permeability. Monounsaturated fats on the other hand have shown to be less inflammatory while improving overall health.  Monosaturated fat sources include healthy oils like olive, soybean, sesame, sunflower and safflower, avocados, almonds, cashews and peanuts.
• Dump the dairy: Study after study shows that dairy is a disaster for your digestion because of the inflammation it causes to the epithelial cells lining your gut wall. Consider plant-based milk products that are less inflammatory.
• Avoid gluten: Gluten can make you miserable if you are sensitive to it and dangerously ill if you have celiac disease. Doctors tend to only recognize that gluten is associated with celiac. But research in 2020 at Columbia University Medical Center conclusively linked gluten sensitivity, leaky gut and systemic inflammation. Without mincing words, the study provided biological evidence of increased intestinal permeability in people who have non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS). Substitute wheat for quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, millet, oats or corn.
• Work harder at clean living: It is suspected that our over-exposure to toxins, such as ozone, nanoparticles, microplastics, household cleaning agents, pesticides, enzymes, emulsifiers, fine dust, exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke and countless chemicals in the air, food and water contribute to leaky gut.
• Be aware of your transit time. Your bowel transit time is the amount of time waste sits inside your colon. The longer it sits there, like when you’re constipated, allows pathogens and chemicals to seep into your gut lining, disrupting and damaging it and contributing to leaky gut.

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Sources:

Mayo clinic inflammatory bowel disease Overview — Mayoclinic.org

Intestinal Permeability Regulation by Tight Junction: Implication on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases — Pubmed.org

Type 2 diabetes influences bacterial tissue compartmentalisation in human obesity — Nature.com

Gut microbiota’s effect on mental health: The gut-brain axis — Pubmed.org

Arthritis susceptibility and the Gut Microbiome — Pubmed.org

Chronic fatigue syndrome is in your gut, not your head – ScienceDaily.com

Thyroid-Gut-Axis: How Does the Microbiota Influence Thyroid Function? — Pubmed.org

Defective epithelial barriers linked to two billion chronic diseases — Science Daily

The post How do you know if you have leaky gut? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But while more research is helping to slowly educate healthcare providers, most still don’t know much about it and consider it a digestive issue associated with mild pain.

And while they aren’t wrong…

Leaky gut is more than just lower abdominal pain.

It can negatively impact your health and worsen over the years, especially if you aren’t able to slow, stop or reverse the damage that starts in your gut and spreads throughout your entire body.

Your gut’s barrier and what it does

Inside each of us is an extensive and elaborate intestinal lining that averages 10 to 16 feet long (a typical basketball hoop is 10 feet tall) and covers 4,000 square feet of surface area.

When working properly, that 4,000 square feet of surface area forms a tight, saran wrap-like barrier that helps control what enters the bloodstream. Like a highly regulated security team, it lets in nutrients so they may be absorbed (90 percent of absorption happens in the small intestine) while keeping pathogens, toxins, and undigested foods out.  

But what happens when the gut lining gets damaged?

Over time, the gut barrier eventually weakens, increasing the intestinal permeability, which allows that long list of things that shouldn’t enter your bloodstream to do so. This is known as leaky gut — a condition that may play a role in many chronic illnesses.  

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How leaky gut attacks the body

When this happens, inflammation starts occurring in your small intestine, making it highly irritable along the lower abdominals.

At first, a person suffering from leaky gut may experience a range of symptoms from diarrhea to constipation, bloating, skin problems, joint pain, headaches and even confusion.

But as the inflammation further wears down the intestinal permeability, it’s able to spread throughout the body, triggering the immune system to respond, attacking both the foreign invaders and you.

The result? A wide range of symptoms that can drag health down, lead to food allergies, intolerances and sensitivities, as well as autoimmune conditions. And because the symptoms and these types of conditions are so varied, often mimicking other illnesses, it can take years to get a diagnosis from a physician.

Here are some specific conditions that leaky gut may cause, influence or worsen…

Celiac disease: In someone with celiac disease, eating foods containing gluten, a wheat protein, causes inflammation in the gut that leads to intestinal damage and nutritional malabsorption. Researchers believe compounds in gluten damage and increase the permeability of the gut lining. It is thought that exposure to gluten upregulates zonulin, a novel protein known to open normally tight junctions in the gut lining. About 2.5 million Americans are estimated to have undiagnosed celiac disease.

Gluten intolerance: Of conditions related to leaky gut, gluten intolerance or “sensitivity” may be the hardest to diagnose, mainly because many physicians do not believe gluten is a problem outside of celiac disease. But according to research in the journal Gut, these patients show signs of both a weakened intestinal barrier and a body-wide inflammatory response. It is also referred to as non-celiac wheat sensitivity.

Chronic fatigue syndrome: A study from Cornell University separated people into two groups, one group with chronic fatigue and the other group as the healthy control. After testing their blood and stool samples, researchers found those with chronic fatigue had less diversity and more bad bacteria in the gut than the healthy controls.

Researchers from another study observed how pathogens that entered the blood stream through the leaky gut caused inflammation along the right hemisphere of the brain, which is connected to fatigue and impaired cognition. This is an example of the gut/brain axis—the connection between the brain and the gut (also known as the second brain).

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Multiple sclerosis: Research from Lund University in Sweden found a link between increased permeability of the intestines and MS, including high levels of inflammation along the gut lining which signaled the immune system to release T-cells that they observed attacking the myelin coating of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

This list of conditions associated with leaky gut is long and also includes:

• Irritable bowel disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Allergies (including food and seasonal)
• Asthma
• Metabolic disorders, including obesity
• Rheumatoid arthritis

The good and bad news about leaky gut

Getting help for leaky gut is an uphill battle. Though much research associates leaky gut with a number of conditions, doctors prefer to consider it only a symptom.

The biggest obstacle to treating leaky gut may tie back to the lack of nutritional education physicians receive in medical school and a lack of understanding of how ultra-processed foods, additives, medications and toxins affect the gut lining and ultimately the immune system.

In the meantime, what can you do if you believe your digestive symptoms stem from leaky gut? Or to avoid intestinal permeability?

Start by eliminating obvious food triggers, like refined sugar, dairy products and processed meats.

Keep a food diary to help determine what and when your symptoms are triggered.

Lean towards a clean, organic whole-food diet that includes omega-3s, vegetables, fruits, protein and gluten-free grains, like brown rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat and sprouted grains.

Altered gut microbiota is a major factor that affects gut barrier integrity. Keeping the microbiome balanced requires probiotics and prebiotics.

Sources:

What’s the Length of Your Small and Large Intestines? – Healthline.com

Digestion: How long does it take? – Mayoclinic.org

Leaky gut: What is it, and what does it mean for you? – Health.Harvard.edu

Physiology, Gastrointestinal – Pubmed.gov

20 Things You Might Not Know About Celiac Disease – Celiac Disease Foundation

Intestinal Barrier Dysfunction Develops at the Onset of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis, and Can Be Induced by Adoptive Transfer of Auto-Reactive T Cells – journals.plos.org

Neuroinflammation in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: An ¹¹C-(R)-PK11195 PET Study – Journal of Nuclear Medicine

Chronic fatigue syndrome linked to imbalanced microbiome – ScienceDaily.com

Study finds brain abnormalities in chronic fatigue patients – Med.stanford.edu

A Viewpoint on the Leaky Gut Syndrome to Treat Allergic Asthma: A Novel Opinion – Pubmed.gov

The gut-brain barrier in major depression: intestinal mucosal dysfunction with an increased translocation of LPS from gram negative enterobacteria (leaky gut) plays a role in the inflammatory pathophysiology of depression – pubmed.gov

Chronic exposure to Low dose bacterial lipopolysaccharide inhibits leptin signaling in vagal afferent neurons – Pubmed.gov

Hypothalamic Inflammation: Marker or Mechanism of Obesity Pathogenesis? – American Diabetes Association

Gut Bacteria May Hold Clues to Chronic Fatigue – Webmd.com

Gut Microbes May Be Key to Solving Food Allergies – ScientificAmerican.com

Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity is Real and Linked to Leaky Gut, Study Says — Health

The post What is Leaky Gut? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

From being overweight or obese to suffering from chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes and hypertension — chronic disease came to the forefront as a predictor of who was likely to fall victim to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As we move forward, with vaccinations and increased knowledge about the dangers of the respiratory virus, there’s one more area where your defenses could be lacking that you may be completely unaware of…

A leaky gut.

Encouraging the spread of SARS-CoV-2

As you may already know, the symptoms of COVID-19 COVID-19’s symptoms weren’t just upper respiratory. It’s been widely reported that people with the virus can experience anywhere from mild to truly awful GI problems, like nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.

So what’s the complex connection between internal organs like your lungs and your gut?

In research published in the journal of the American Society for Microbiology, microbiologist Heenam Stanley Kim, Ph.D., from Korea University’s Laboratory for Human-Microbial Interactions, in Seoul, believes emerging evidence suggests that dysbiosis and its associated leaky gut exacerbate the severity of infection by enabling the virus to access the surface of a weakened digestive tract and get to internal organs.

The ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to utilize ACE-2 receptors to grab hold of organs in the body was well-publicized throughout the pandemic. And when the virus latches onto the ACE-2 receptors in a gut with increased permeability — as is the case with leaky gut — spread can not only happen but worsen.

Since a leaky gut is a gut that’s protective barrier is no longer able to do its job — which is to keep what’s inside from “leaking” into the body — it can act as an open door for the virus to reach other organs.

The biggest contributor to a leaky gut? An unhealthy gut microbiome. Specifically, this is a gut without a healthy balance of bacteria. The condition is known as dysbiosis.

That’s how dysbiosis and leaky gut may go hand in hand to increase the risk from SARS-CoV-2, its mutant variations or a similar virus.

Healing the gut for virus protection and more

Still, the relationship between the gut and the virus is complex…

For example, half of symptomatic patients in Singapore had detectable levels of the coronavirus in fecal tests, but only about half experienced GI symptoms. Kim suggests that could all have to do with the health of the gut at the time of infection.

This isn’t all that different from findings about the flu virus and the gut…

A particular gut microbe was found to prevent severe flu infections by breaking down naturally occurring compounds called flavonoids — powerful nutrients that are commonly found in foods like black tea, red wine and blueberries.

Of course, the biggest contributor to a healthy gut full of health-promoting microbes and a strong intestinal barrier is diet.

As Kim noted, some of the countries hardest hit by coronavirus were ones where the “western diet” is common. The western diet is “a fiber-deficient diet is one of the main causes of altered gut microbiomes,” he said, “and such gut microbiome dysbiosis leads to chronic diseases.” 

Fiber is a nutrient with huge disease prevention that we don’t get enough of. According to a study recently presented at Nutrition 2021 Live Online, only 5 percent of men and 9 percent of women are consuming the recommended daily amount of dietary fiber. We need about 25 to 30 grams daily.

In addition to increasing dietary fiber, taking probiotics daily can increase the population of good bacteria in your gut. Providing prebiotics, such as garlic, onion, dandelion greens and Jerusalem artichokes to feed those good bacteria might provide even higher levels of protection.

Another important thing to remember about COVID-19, fiber and your gut health, is that research published in Nature Reviews Immunology found, after numerous clinical trials and other studies, that the secret to our immune response to vaccinations lies in the gut as well. In other words, the health of your gut can impact how well a vaccine may protect you.

Sources:

Poor Gut Health Connected to Severe COVID-19, New Review Shows — American Society for Microbiology

A leaky gut may be the link between poor gut health and COVID-19 severity — StudyFinds

The post How leaky gut leaves you vulnerable to a virus, like COVID-19 appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Think it sounds like the perfect storm to create a health crisis? Well, you’re right.

According to Dr. Robynne K. Chutkan, MD, FASGE Assistant Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University Hospital Founder and the Medical Director for the Digestive Center for Women, leaky gut can lead to everything from those aching joints to brain fog, fatigue, allergies, chronic sinus infections and unknown rashes.

And, if you suffer from leaky gut, you can go to doctor after doctor without ever receiving a diagnosis or the help you need, leading to hopelessness and despair.

But, there is good news if you suspect leaky gut syndrome is the cause of your symptoms. New research from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and published in PLOS Genetics, found that a change in diet can not only help prevent the development of age-related leaky gut, it can also protect against the systemic inflammation that comes with the disorder.

Skip the inflaming aging foods

Leaky gut is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a condition in which the lining of your gut becomes too permeable, allowing particles that should remain in your digestive tract to cross into your other tissues.

Yet, Kazutaka Akagi, the lead scientist in the Buck study who now runs his own lab at the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology in Aichi, Japan, noticed something interesting.

He found that a specific gene, known as dMyc, act as a barometer of cellular fitness in intestinal cells. When cells have too little dMyc, they are eliminated, leaving larger and larger gaps in the intestinal wall – something that explains why your risk of leaky gut increases as you age since levels of dMyc naturally decline with age.

So, his team set out to discover whether diet could influence the levels of dMyc in intestinal cells and thus stave off leaky gut.

They performed trials using fruit flies. That may sound strange, but the flies make a good genetic model for the study of human disease. And, they made an important discovery.

The decline of dMyc that happens normally with age was enhanced by a rich Atkins-like diet – in other words, one that was high in fat – and increased intestinal permeability. On the other hand, a restrictive Spartan diet maintained the dMyc level in the flies, preventing leaky gut and, get this — extending their lifespan.

When asked about the results, Professor Pankaj Kapahi, senior scientist on the study said, “The intestinal epithelium is affected by everything that moves through the gut. It would make sense that diet would have a major impact on the health of those cells, especially over a lifetime of eating.”

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Eat better, stop inflammation, live longer

This means that if you’re ready to repair your leaky gut and get rid of the symptoms it causes, changing your diet to increase the levels of dMyc in your intestinal cells is the first step.

As the study found, the key to this is dietary restriction and the elimination of rich foods.

It’s also important to eliminate any food that are specific triggers for your symptoms as my colleague,  Dr. Isaac Eliaz, discusses in his article, Fixing the Leaks in Your Body.

Finally, consider adding the five supplements to repair a leaky gut that Virginia Tims-Lawson recommends.

Don’t wait for your leaky gut to cause a health crisis in your life. Take the steps above today to decrease your intestinal permeability and say goodbye to your symptoms for good.

Sources:

1. Could Leaky Gut Be What’s Troubling You? — The Dr. Oz Show
2. Does dietary restriction protect against age-related leaky gut? — Buck Institute for Research on Aging
3. Why the fly? — Manchester Fly Facility

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Research shows leaky gut is common in people with irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune disorders like Crohn’s disease, celiac disease and food allergies too.

In case you don’t know, leaky gut syndrome is an issue where the barrier between your gut and the rest of your body gets weaker and becomes leaky. This allows undigested food particles, bacteria and germs to escape the gut and enter your blood stream, which causes chronic inflammation.

No one knows for sure what causes leaky gut syndrome, but it seems to be tied to unhealthy habits like eating too much sugar, not getting enough nutrients in your diet, taking too many NSAIDs and drinking too much alcohol. Stress also plays a big part in the problem.

The nutrient that repairs your leaky gut

If you have leaky gut, you’re probably wondering how you can reestablish a strong intestinal barrier so your gut’s all good again.

The answer’s simple — eat more fiber.

A recent study from researchers at Örebro University in Sweden found that fiber can strengthen your intestinal barrier so your gut’s not leaky.

The study included intestinal samples from adults over 65 with stomach problems. Researchers exposed these samples to a chemical that weakened the intestinal barrier, making it permeable. Then they added a few different types of fiber. And guess what?

The fiber decreased intestinal permeability by 50 percent. In some cases, it completely counteracted the permeability caused by the chemical.

But this isn’t the first time fiber’s shown promise in the fight against leaky gut…

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A study from earlier this year found that fiber can potentially reverse leaky gut by producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). And another recent study found that mice who eat a low fiber diet develop leaky gut — but feeding them fiber and probiotics reverses it.

So, if you’re struggling with gut issues and you suspect leaky gut is the cause, don’t fret… eat more fiber!

Trying the fiber fix for leaky gut

Most of us are eating far too little fiber. The majority of Americans only eat 16 grams of fiber per day. But the official dietary recommendation for fiber is 34 grams per day for men and 28 grams per day for women. And some health experts say that recommendation should be far higher…

Research shows that people who live in cultures where fiber intake is high (like 50 grams per day) are less likely to get serious diseases like colon cancer. But be warned… eating too much fiber can mess with your gut too, causing gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea. But that usually doesn’t happen unless you’re eating 70 grams of fiber per day or more.

So, plug up those gut leaks or (better yet) prevent them altogether by eating fiber-rich foods, like:

• Leafy greens
• Raspberries
• Pears
• Apples
• Bananas
• Oranges
• Strawberries
• Whole wheat spaghetti
• Barley
• Bran
• Brown rice
• Whole wheat bread
• Lentils
• Black beans
• Lima beans
• Split peas
• Almonds
• Pecans
• Pistachios
• Artichokes
• Broccoli
• Brussel sprouts
• Potatoes
• Carrots

The post Gassy, bloated and tired? You’ve got a leaky gut appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s right.

Leaky gut has been linked to everything from migraines to multiple sclerosis.

Yet, you’ll probably never even hear your doctor mention it… much less tell you how to fix the problem.

More and more people are suffering from leaky gut and the symptoms it causes every year, and you could be one of them.

So, what is leaky gut?

Simply put, it’s when your digestive tract becomes too permeable, allowing particles to slip through your intestinal walls and into your bloodstream.

When these particles, such as bacteria, gluten and even bits of undigested food pass through your intestinal barrier, your body sees them as foreign invaders and starts an immune cascade to fight them off.

And, the longer this goes on, the more your immune system reacts with symptoms like joint pain, headaches, fatigue, bloating, weight gain, digestive issues… and often eventually ending in autoimmune disease.

Other common symptoms associated with leaky gut include chronic diarrhea and constipation, frequent colds or sinus infections, depression, anxiety, food sensitivities, skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis and even thyroid problems.

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Causes of leaky gut

So, what causes your leaky gut in the first place?

The answer can be complicated and is often a combination of a number of factors including:

• Diet – The foods you eat can lead to leaky gut issues. Sugar, gluten, milk and even potatoes have been associated with increased intestinal permeability. Pesticides on the food you eat can also cause problems with your gut lining. This means that if you suffer from leaky gut, eliminating toxic triggers is vital to healing. Consider a cleanse or an elimination diet.
• Antibiotic use – Antibiotics kill off not only the bad bacteria in your body but also the good, leaving your gut in a state of imbalance which can lead to leaky gut.
• Stress – There is no doubt that the world we live in can leave us in a state of chronic stress which taxes our immune systems, leaving us open to disease development and inflammation of the gut lining. Explore healthy ways to decrease the damage of stress, like exercise, meditation or this easy tai chi movement.

All of these factors put together can result in leaky gut and the symptoms and diseases it brings with it.

But, with that said, how can you heal your gut and regain your health?

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Repairing your gut for overall health

Besides eliminating the causes of leaky gut that we talked about above by removing dietary triggers, avoiding antibiotic use and lowering stress, there are four supplements that can help restore your gut lining, decrease inflammation and decrease your intestinal permeability.

#1 – L-Glutamine

Glutamine powder is the most recommended supplement for healing your leaky gut and if you can only buy one, this is the one you want. It helps your intestinal lining repair so that particles can’t cross the barrier and enter your bloodstream to cause an immune reaction. Take two grams twice daily for at least four weeks to improve your leaky gut issues. Mix it in water and take on an empty stomach for best absorption.

#2 – Probiotics

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help to restore your gut’s natural balance. You can take them in supplement form or get them from cultured dairy products like kefir and yogurt and fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi.

#3 – Digestive enzymes

When you have leaky gut syndrome, you have a problem with digesting your food. By adding in quality digestive enzymes, you ensure your food particles are fully broken down and not crossing your intestinal barrier. Start with one capsule prior to each meal and move up to two if necessary. Protease, amylase and lipase are essential enzymes to break down food in different compartments of the GI tract.

#4 – Quercetin

Taking 400 mg of quercetin two to three times daily helps repair your gut integrity and decrease the release of histamines caused by your body’s food sensitivities.

#5 – Senna leaf

Your bowels may be sluggish due to problems with diarrhea and constipation. But you don’t want to take a harsh laxative and further stress your gut. Senna leaf, which can be found in milder formulations, promotes regular, gentle bowel movements.

Take care of your gut and it will always take care of you!

The post 5 supplements to repair leaky gut appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In a short time, we get relief.

But sometimes, digestive discomfort doesn’t ease up. In fact, more and more people today are suffering from chronic, long-term digestive problems that force them to endure ongoing pain, discomfort, irregular bowel movements and other difficulties. Unlike occasional indigestion, these chronic digestive troubles appear to defy conventional treatments.

However, all is not lost. Today, there are a number of safe and effective integrative therapies available that can help repair and rebuild the digestive system. From time-honored botanicals and targeted nutrients to specialized enzymes and probiotics, these and other adjuncts help improve not only digestive function but overall health and vitality.

“Health begins in the colon”

Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying, “Death begins in the colon.” In integrative medicine, we often say instead, “Health begins in the colon.” These sentiments reflect age-old principles held by traditional medical systems from around the world, which position digestive health as the key to longevity and vitality. A large and fast-growing body of published data has substantiated this critical link, demonstrating the direct relationships between digestion and cognitive health, immune response, hormone balance and more. So when we experience persistent gut symptoms, we must take action.

One of the first steps in repairing digestive health is to look at what it is exactly we’re trying to digest. Because in many cases, digestive difficulties and other ongoing health issues are a direct result of inflammatory reactions to common trigger foods, such as gluten, corn, eggs or dairy. These inflammatory responses, termed “food sensitivities,” may not cause full-blown allergic reactions, but they nevertheless trigger fiery flare-ups that damage the digestive wall over time, leading to what’s called leaky gut syndrome.

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Food sensitivities and leaky gut syndrome

Food sensitivities are problematic because they can be difficult to diagnose. Consider the array of potential symptoms: rashes, diarrhea, constipation, achy joints, exhaustion, asthma, sinusitis, migraines and depression. Any one of these issues could be caused by a dozen or more different conditions.

A closer look at the biology behind food sensitivities gives us more insight into the issue. Food sensitivities are akin to an autoimmune response, with the immune system treating certain food items as foreign invaders. As the immune response continues, the small intestine becomes inflamed, and over time, the chronic inflammation makes the intestinal lining more porous. Sometimes these cells can no longer form an effective barrier between the gut and the bloodstream. When that happens, undigested proteins, pathogens and molecules that would normally stay isolated in the gut, leak into the blood and act as antigens that create an abnormal immune response.

This is leaky gut syndrome, and it can affect numerous organs and systems throughout the body. With the immune system on constant alert and chronic inflammation setting fires in the gut, the body becomes vulnerable to allergies, autoimmune conditions and many other degenerative issues related to chronic inflammation. Without intervention, the problem usually gets worse.

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But some intestinal diseases don’t cause any pain. That doesn’t mean they’re not causing damage. I’d like to share some critical information about these sneaky, yet dangerous conditions, and how they are connected to many other chronic diseases.

Dysbiosis and leaky gut

You have heard of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). You have probably also heard of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). These are conditions of an unhealthy intestine that can cause symptoms of bloating, cramping, or gas. Now I’d like to talk about intestinal diseases that will likely not cause you to have intestinal symptoms: dysbiosis and leaky gut.

Dysbiosis refers to an unhealthy mix of bacteria in your intestinal tract. When you harbor unhealthy bacterial strains and yeast, then your small and large intestinal lining is ready to leak unwanted molecules into your bloodstream, even if you don’t have inflammation there which would cause you pain.

First, let me outline the usual causes of dysbiosis and a leaky gut condition. Here are the most common causes:

• Foods that disrupt normal intestinal flora such as refined sugar (feeds yeast); bread (contains yeast and promotes yeast).
• Foods that can be allergenic to the intestinal lining such as wheat protein (gluten), dairy (cow) protein, chemical food dyes, and preservatives.
• Digestive enzyme deficiency or low stomach acid (undigested foods become food for unhealthy gut bacteria and yeast).
• Foods that disrupt stomach acid balance (important for digestion) such as excessive alcohol and/or caffeine, foods high in trans-fats and hydrogenated oils, and spicy hot foods. Also eating late at night or under emotional/mental stress will disrupt natural stomach acid production and weaken the stomach lining.
• Foods low in fiber. Did you know that fiber ferments to produce the short-chain fatty acids acetate, propionate and butyrate, which help heal the intestinal mucosa?
• Lack of abundant micronutrients in your bloodstream including omega 3 fatty acids, organic vitamins, organic minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, and plant-derived chemicals (aka “phytochemicals”).
• Antibiotics promote the overgrowth of resistant bacteria, yeast and parasites.
• Motrin^® and corticosteroid arthritis medications.

Now let me share with you the consequences of dysbiosis and a leaky gut that conventional doctors are just beginning to learn about, even though the science has been available for many years now.

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Idiopathic disease

You’ve probably heard of autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases, there is some trigger that produces an immune response targeting your own body or organs. There are more than 160 known autoimmune disorders. Autoimmune diseases are among the top ten leading causes of death for U.S. women under age 65. 1 Autoimmune diseases are considered in conventional medicine to have “no known cause,” given the term “idiopathic.”

However, science, in the past several years, has demonstrated that one major source of these immune system triggers is proteins that make it through an unhealthy intestinal wall and into your bloodstream. Once there they cause the immune system to react and in turn, target your own body tissues causing inflammation in your body (not your gut wall directly). This dysbiosis and leaky gut is a major contributor to conditions such as arthritis, eczema and food allergy, and all autoimmune diseases. ^{2 3 4} Dysbiosis and leaky gut science was pioneered by Dr. Alessio Fasano and others. From what they have demonstrated, every inflammatory disease of the brain, eyes, skin, lungs, liver, intestines, joints, nerves, endocrine glands, including even heart disease, diabetes, and obesity — all begin from an unhealthy intestinal tract.

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World Health Organization says this about causes of chronic diseases

Even the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes what is behind chronic disease, arriving at the same conclusion as Dr. Fasano’s science on leaky gut. They write,

“The causes of chronic diseases are known; unhealthy diet and excessive energy intake [too much food]; physical inactivity; [and] tobacco use. The major modifiable risk factors, in conjunction with the non-modifiable risk factors of age and heredity, explain the majority of new events of heart disease, stroke, chronic respiratory diseases and some important cancers.” ⁵

This statement mirrors the conclusions of the authors of the China Study, work of T. Colin Campbell, PhD., of Cornell University, who led more than 20 researchers, spanning 40 years of compiled data from both animal studies and a study population of approximately 650,000 rural Chinese. They concluded that approximately 97 percent of all chronic illness (i.e. heart disease, cancer, diabetes) is attributed to an unhealthy lifestyle — and only 3 percent are attributed to genetics. ⁶

Nutrient-rich food is the most important first step

To reverse an unhealthy gut I recommend nutrient-rich, high fiber food as your predominant food source. As an example, a smoothie containing fresh apples, strawberries, spinach, rice milk, flax/olive oil and ice is nutrient-dense and healing to anyone’s intestinal tract. Many additional foods can be added to such a smoothie for flavor (i.e. liquid stevia) or calories (i.e. almonds, avocado, raw eggs). A smoothie is also an easy way to introduce nutrient supplements. I remember my first time drinking a generic brand of Aloe Vera juice. It tasted terrible! At that time I knew almost nothing about nutrient-dense and whole food nutrition.

[1] Walsh, SJ, LM. Autoimmune Diseases: A Leading Cause of Death among Young and Middle-Aged Women in the United States. American Journal of Public Health. 2000;90:1463-1465
[2] Jenkins, R.T., et al., Increased intestinal permeability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a side-effect of oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy? Br J Rheumatol, 1987.26(2): p. 103-7
[3] Jackson, P.G., et al., Intestinal permeability in patients with eczema and food allergy. Lancet, 1981. 1(8233): p. 1285-6.
[4] Fasano A. Leaky gut and autoimmune diseases. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2012 Feb;42(1):71-8.
[5] Article found online at: http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/part2_ch1/en/index12.html
[6] Campbell T, Campbell TM. 2005 The China Study: the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted. Benbella Books, Dallas TX.

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