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What to Do About It?

Are there answers to healing the leaky gut? Well, yes and no! This is not playing with words—it is an unmitigated statement of fact. There are answers as to how to heal the compromised gut wall. The question is, however, will the patient follow through?

Remember, according to most authorities, the inner lining of the intestinal mucosa regenerates itself about once a week. Therefore, we can assume it has remarkable healing powers, but, as mentioned previously, unless the irritant (whatever it may be) is removed from the scene, the cells of the villi and microvilli cannot heal. Consequently, through self-evaluation and the help of the patient’s personal physician, more often than not, one can figure out the cause of the problem.

The first thing I question my patients about is their diet. I seek out what their favorite foods are. In a majority of cases, I find that they not only like certain foods, they gorge themselves on them! What they do not know is that their favorite foods may be the foods that are tearing their guts apart. Literally! The greatest offenders will be covered later in this book.

Another question I ask my patients is whether or not they have been on drugs (prescription or otherwise) for any extended period of time. Another is whether or not the patient is a smoker or drinker, or both! In other words, do they consume too many gut irritants, and if so, for how long have they been doing it?

Here is what the questions should focus on. Once discovered and addressed, there is a good chance that the healing process can start. Again, the trick is to follow through. Avoid items that cause the breakdown, especially free radicals, consume those that built it up, such as antioxidants, and then—give time a chance! Like anything else, the patient must be committed. He cannot play at it and expect results.

[Author’s Note: The author recognizes the fact that the above explanation is relatively simple in its content. He also acknowledges the fact that many of his readers insist upon a more scientific, detailed explanation. For those who fall into this category, he enthusiastically refers them to the impressive work of Leo Galland, M.D., director of the Foundation of Integrative Medicine. His in-depth discourse “Leaky Gut Syndromes: Breaking the Vicious Cycle” can be downloaded from his Web site: www.mdheal.org/leakygut.htm.]

A Helpful Analogy

It may be helpful to consider the following analogy. You may compare your damaged intestinal villi to a neglected lawn. Grass cannot grow because it is being choked off by weeds, debris, stones, and all manner of things that prevent nutrition from reaching the roots of each blade of grass. Before long the grass withers, dries up, and dies.

But if the caretaker rakes the lawn, pulls the weeds, and picks up the dead leaves and debris, he will be preparing the land for the next step, re-seeding. He will then scatter the new seed and add nutrients to the soil. With regular watering, new sprouts will begin to show. Then he maintains the lawn with proper watering and regular care to keep the weeds and other destructive elements under control. All things being equal, a new lawn will beautify his property.

In essence, repairing a damaged, compromised gut wall is a similar process, only this time the blades of grass are the millions upon millions of microscopic villi that line the lumen of the intestinal tract. All in all, that twenty-two to twenty-eight feet of small intestines, if spread out, would cover the same area as a tennis court! The weeds, debris, stones, and dead leaves which cut off the normal elements (including sunlight) that provide growth, are analogous to the destructive elements that coat the deep recesses of the villi and microvilli. These deleterious elements are yeast and fungi in particular, but include bacteria, germs, viruses, fats, acids, undigested protein, and anything else the host consumes that can clog the junction of where the villi meet the intestinal wall. When this happens a slow, but steady, deterioration of the gut wall takes place.

To complete the analogy, the re-seeding of the internal lawn of the intestinal wall takes place when the probiotics (L. acidophilus and B. bifidus) are ingested and these good bacteria grow and populate the intestinal wall, overwhelming and replacing the bad bacteria and bringing about a state of symbiosis. The watering of the internal lawn occurs through the intake of large quantities of pure water that flush the toxic elements out of the system.

The problem is one doesn’t really know that the pathologic process is taking place since initially there are few, if any, warning signs. It is not until the end organ, i.e., the area infected, raises its head by one symptom or another clueing you in to the fact that something is amiss. It may be an effect upon the eyes and vision, it may be irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or Crohn’s disease, an inflammation at the junction of the small intestine and the large bowel (ileocecal valve), asthma (the lungs), migraine headaches, skin diseases like psoriasis or eczema, celiac disease—first recognized in young children who do not grow and have a bulbous abdomen. (See my chapter on Celiac Disease.) Whatever it is, it may very well be due to a gut that leaks toxins into the bloodstream which in turn travels throughout the body in search of a weak spot to muscle in on and take over, so to speak.

We have just covered what causes the perforations that take place in the gut wall. Knowing that answers a great many questions. This is, of course, the most important aspect of this study, for it not only provides us with a cause of the disease, but the solution as well.

To summarize, the scientific procedure that we have described is known as the “4 Rs”—Remove—Replace—Reinoculate—Repair. Each of these will be covered in Part II of this book.