#102: What is Leaky Gut and How Does it Affect Your Health?

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, the gutsy gynecologist. I'm a triple board certified, OB, GYN and Functional Medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey. And I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determined your gyne health and your overall health. And it's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more band aid medicine, ladies. We're talking root cause resolution on this show. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. And I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, ladies. This week we are just doing a episode with me, one on one, just you and I. I'm talking about leaky gut. This is so important for you to reclaim your health, to understand what leaky gut is, what causes it, and how to heal it. Because the implications of leaky gut are vast. They are responsible for the majority of our health concerns. Seriously, everything begins in the gut. That is why I call myself the Gutsy gynecologist. Because most likely your gyn condition or your hormone imbalance, any of that stuff, it's probably all stemming from your gut. Ovarian cysts, endometriosis, chronic pelvic pain, recurrent vaginal infections, pain with intercourse, all of this is so often related to what's going on with your gut. So here we go. Our intestines have one layer of cells between the food that we're digesting and trying to process and the waste we're trying to create, right, what's ending up as stool and our bloodstream. So we have this layer of endothelial cells, and in between those cells, we have little gap junctions. They look like toll booths. They open, they let in good digested proteins, the amino acids, the vitamins, and the minerals that you're trying to absorb. All the good stuff, they're supposed to close and keep out bad stuff, undigested proteins, pesticides, foreign stuff like mercury, all of that. So things break those gap junctions. And when those gap junctions get broke, stuff gets into your bloodstream that shouldn't. That is what's called leaky gut. And this is at a microscopic level. So if you go to your gastroenterologist and they do a colonoscopy or an endoscopy where it's the upper one. They are looking at physical things that they can see with their eyes. They can tell you, is there an ulcer there, is there diverticulitis, is there Crohn's disease? That has literally destroyed the area. So you can visually see the changes in the colonoscopy. Leaky gut is not something that your physician can see with their eyes. Leaky gut is microscopic at the center cellular level. So even if they do biopsies from your colonoscopy, they can see if you have celiac disease. They can see if all the little villi. So the villi are these tiny like finger like projections that come off of these epithelial cells that they grasp and they bring in the stuff that they want to absorb. And so those villi are super important to absorb your vitamins and minerals and amino acids and fats and all of that stuff. And in celiac disease, the gluten process, the autoimmune process against the gluten destroys those villi. So those finger like projections are gone and the cell has difficulty absorbing things. So they can take a biopsy during colonoscopy for the pathologist to look under their microscope to see if those villi are still there. And that's how they dia whether or not you have celiac disease with that biopsy. But even that, they can't necessarily see if your gap junctions are destroyed because they are physically destroying them. When they take the biopsy number one and number two, it's a metabolic process that is dynamic. Those gates open and close. So it's not an anatomical thing that you can necessari look at and say, yep, that's intact, or no, it's not. So when those gap junctions get broken and they're not opening and closing properly, you know, throughout the day the way they're supposed to, when they break, they release a protein called zonulin and that zonulin level can get elevated and you can measure that in stool. And that's a really strong indicator of having active leaky gut. So the cool thing is these endothelial cells that line the intestines, they regenerate like every day or two. So even if you have an insult, say you take antibiotics for a week, your gut lining can heal from that. Our bodies have this amazing ability to regenerate and maintain homeostasis. And so you almost always will heal from that leaky gut and not have any long term sequelae. The problem is that it's not just antibiotics that Kill those gap junctions. All kinds of stuff break those gap junctions. In this day and age, we have this constant influx of things damaging these gap junctions and releasing zonulin and causing leaky gut. Birth control pills are a major one for women. And the longer you're on it, the more catastrophic the leaky gut situation can be. So any kind of synthetic hormones, antibiotics, pesticides in our food, which is like rampant, I mean, you can't even get away from that. Right? So that's a huge one. Is just the food that we're eating, the plastics in our food, that type of stuff, all those chemicals that are added to our foods, all those additives, those can break the gap junctions. And then a huge one also for women, women is chronic cortisol production. So, you know, we know that like major stress can cause a stomach ulcer. You know, conventional medicine has admitted, yes, that you can get a stress ulcer, but at a lower scale, like just on the daily, you're just brewing, things are constantly stressful, or you're over exercising with cardio, or you're just not handling your miserable relationship. Like you have this low brewing chronic cortisol production all the time that breaks those gap junctions and causes leaky gut. And so when this goes on for a while, things get into your bloodstream that shouldn't. And your immune system. Here's the thing, ladies. 70% of your immune system is lining your gut. It's not out in your lymph nodes and other parts of your body. Yeah, we have a ton of immune system in other parts of our body, but the majority of it is at your gut lining, ready as a frontline defense to protect you. And so that immune system is going to start attacking everything that it sees that it's never seen before or shouldn't be there. And it quickly assesses, are you foreign or are you safe? Do we know you? Do we not? And if all of a sudden it's seeing broccoli in a undigested form that it didn't see it ever before, it will start attacking and it will create antibody to that food, that broccoli, whatever you're ingesting and that it's seeing that it should not be seeing. And so once your immune system creates an antibody against something, every time it sees it, after that it starts an inflammatory process to attack and destroy. And you can develop all kinds of issues. If your immune system is constantly having to attack and destroy things that are coming into its bloodstream that shouldn't be. And so leaky gut often leads to Food sensitivities, It leads to systemic inflammation. It can lead to joint pain and headaches and skin rashes and fatigue because it strangles out your mitochondria. ATP production, like it leads to so many things. And the worst part is that it can activate bad genes. So our genes are potential information for our body to function, right? We have this DNA with information in it, but it gets expressed according to how it's activated. And so just because you have been bad genes, like I have a bad gene for Hashimoto's thyroid disease, I have bad gene for Raynaud's, I have bad gene for celiac. Things like that, they're not necessarily activated or turned on and expressed until they have certain triggers. And so what we understand now is that leaky gut is a necessary component of activating autoimmune processes. And so you can have the gene for lupus, but if you don't have leaky gut and certain bacteria and certain triggers, you probably won't activate those genes and they won't be expressed and you won't have the lupus rash and the lupus joint pain and the lupus heart issues and that kind of thing. It's really important to realize that so much of the diseases that we end up focusing on and the diagnoses we are searching for, like so much of it, is preventable and reversible by getting control of what's going on in our gut. So I would love for you guys to really focus on having a healthy gut, because a healthy gut begets healthy hormones, begets good gyne health, begets your entire health, really. The microbiome in your gut is running the show. And there are trillions of bacteria, yeast, fungi, parasites. They're all supposed to live in harmony. Nobody is supposed to be a dictator. We're not supposed to have one bacteria or one yeast or something overrunning the others and running the show. They're supposed to be balanced, in harmony with certain species at certain levels, right? It's supposed to be a community that's keeping us balanced. And when that community is imbalanced, your gut lining can be imbalanced. So here's a really cool thing. There are bacteria, such as Akkermansia and Faecalibacterium, that produce a mucosal barrier over this epithelial lining of our cells in our intestines. And they actually act like a barrier to prevent that bad stuff from getting through in case you do break those gap junctions and end up with leaky gut. If you have a nice mucosal barrier of good bacteria. Often that stuff doesn't get into your bloodstream, and you're okay. So that's why being on probiotics can be so beneficial for preventing a lot of disease. And so things as simple as that, like having the right bacteria living in your gut, can keep your gut healthy. So it's really important to know that you might need a probiotic, because some of us weren't born with the best microbiomes. Some of us were born by C section. And normally when we are born, we go through the vaginal canal, our mother's vagina, and we pick up the lactobacillus and the vaginal bacteria, and that starts to colonize inside of our GI tract, and that sets the stage where for good beneficial bacteria to be produced. Breastfeeding gives off bacteria. That whole situation helps colonize our gut. And so that continues on. And then as you grow and start eating foods, fiber and different prebiotics feed those good bacteria and nourish us. And so from the very beginning, it matters what kind of gut health you have, and that sets the stage for either health or disease. And so a lot of us have struggled with gut dysbiosis and leaky gut on and off our entire lives. I know I have because I had a lot of emotional stress as a child, and that produced cortisol all the time, and that destroyed my gap junctions and killed off my bad bacteria. And I lived on junk food. I lived on garbage. And so my gut has always been a struggle. But the amazing thing is that it is so you are so able to turn it around. It's a beautiful thing how much the gut can regenerate. Like, it literally can regenerate. So don't ever feel like you can't heal leaky gut or you have ulcerative colitis or Crohn's or celiac. That can't really get healthy, because it can. So it's about removing the triggers that are making it mad. It's about supporting gut health. So the biggest things are, you know, like I said, you want to get your stress under control so you're not pumping out cortisol all the time. But you want to think about triggers. Gluten is a very, very common trigger because it's the protein in wheat that has been genetically modified over this past century so much that our body doesn't even recognize it anymore. And so our immune system is constantly attacking when we eat gluten. Gluten stands for glue. It's like what makes bread chewy and dough. Like, and glue, it sticks to you, you know, like pancakes. So sometimes getting rid of gluten is necessary, usually symptoms of leaky gut. If you already have an autoimmune condition, you know you have leaky gut. But it also can be, like I mentioned, skin issues, headaches, chronic fatigue, brain fog, not being able to remember stuff, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, joint pain, all of that stuff. So that's super important. So get rid of the sugar out of your diet. Not only will it do so much for your weight and your hormone balance and your sleep, but it will literally be part of healing your gut and getting rid of systemic inflammation, which leads to diabetes and heart disease and all of those associated things. Eat foods that are fermented that nourish the good bacteria in your gut, like kimchi and kombucha, anything pickled or fermented. Sauerkraut, kefir, miso, tempeh, that kind of stuff. Another amazing product to heal leaky gut is bone broth because it has collagen in it. My favorite bone broth is by my girlfriend, Dr. Kellyanne Petrucci. So I'll put that link in the show notes because bone broth is super, super good for your gut. So I love it so much. Like I said, sleep more, decrease your stress. If you are doing a ton of cardio, switch up your workouts a little bit. Try to do more restorative stuff like yoga, pilates, stretching, weightlifting. Because when you're doing high intensity cardio, you're pumping out cortisol, which is destroying that gut lining again. So just keep that in mind and then we can do supplementation. I love doing certain supplements to heal an active leaky gut, like L glutamine, zinc, carnosine. Let me list them off. It's like marshmallow, slippery elm, aloe vera, deglycerinized licorice, sometimes known as dgl, citrus pectin, quercetin, cat's claw. So many good herbs and supplements that will heal that gut lining. Those gap junctions will regenerate, you'll have new cells grow and they'll be able to keep stuff out of your bloodstream so that your immune system can calm down and quit being on the offenses, on the defensive all the time and attack, attack, attack like you really want that immune system to calm down. And the other piece of it is what I've been seeing a ton of lately on my patients stool tests that we do is their IGA system, which is your frontline immune system that I've been talking about in your gut lining. Your IGA levels are depleted. We are fighting the fight so much nonstop, and now we've added this pandemic to the situation. So our IGA levels are depleted. Our IGA system is a branch of the immune system that lines everything from the outside world to the inside. So it lines the skin on our the outside skin, it lines the mucosal skin, our respiratory tract, our lungs, it lines our entire GI system, our stomach, our intestines, our vagina. So that is your first line defense from anything coming from the outside world into your world, your body. And I'm seeing a ton of women having low IGA levels because you've been fighting the fight too long and you just don't have any fight left. IGA is also like what's in colostrum, that first day or two of breast milk that's so important for brand new babies to get into their system. All those immunoglobulins, those are what your immune system needs to fight the fight. So I find supporting with immunoglobulin replacement to be super beneficial. So so many good things you can do to heal the gut, but you have to remember to remove the triggers so that you quit damaging the gut. Does that make sense? So when your gut is leaky, you're not absorbing things appropriately that you need to absorb, like your vitamin A and your vitamin D and your amino acids which make your neurotransmitters. They're what make your serotonin and your GABA and your dopamine, all those good important things for mental health. But you're also getting things into your bloodstream that your immune system doesn't want to see. And now it's overactive and it's being wiped out. It's like working overtime to the point where there's nothing left. So it's really important to start assessing your situation personally. See, do I have symptoms of leaky gut? Did I in the past? And maybe now I have the resulting sequelae of it like Hashimoto's or lupus or celiac or some autoimmune disease that I need to take care of. You gotta take care of your gut. You gotta find out what to kill off, what to support, what to replace, and go from there. Because that the gut is the basis of all of your health. So I hope you enjoyed this episode because it's important for every single human being to understand this concept because this is the future of medicine. Literally it begins in the gut. And if you can understand that and always focus on keeping your gut health intact. You are going to have an amazing, vibrant, fabulous life. Like that's just how it works. So I've told you what that looks like and if you want more information, you can check out the blog on my website. You can, you know, work with me on one on one if you need to. You can, you can get on supplements if you need to, but be proactive and focus on that gut health. So please follow me at the gutsy gynecologist and on Instagram and tick tock or Dr. Tabitha on Facebook. Come check out my website, www.doctor Tabitha.com. that's three A's, no eyes. And I would love it if you would hit me a five star review. Hit the subscribe subscribe button. Let itunes know this is what you want to hear. So thank you so much for your time today. Like, I'm truly honored. I love doing this for you guys and let's, let's get healthy together. Okay? All right. Bye guys.