The detox is a popular theme during January, when resolve for better health is high. Booze, cigarettes and junk food are righteously eliminated, with the higher purpose of detoxifying the body of impurities. This noble urge to purify and energise adds a quasi spiritual dimension to the quest for good health.
Which is all well and good, but for anyone with digestive problems, in particular a leaky gut, all that effort may be hopelessly counterproductive. If you want to rid your body of toxins, you’ve first got to repair your barriers and stem the tide of toxins which are able to cross over the border between your gut and the rest of your body.
What, you might ask, is a leaky gut? Known as intestinal permeability, in medical parlance, leaky gut is a condition which arises when the lining of the gut wall is first damaged and then breached by undesirables – bacteria, undigested food particles and all sorts of food-borne toxins which make it into the bloodstream. When you consider some of the rubbish you may have eaten, a leaky gut is an unnerving thought.
Once toxins enter the blood they are able to travel all over the body, causing symptoms which include digestive pain, irregular bowel movements, irritable bowel syndrome, joint pain, skin problems, fatigue and mental ‘fog’. Conditions associated with leaky gut include inflammatory bowel disorder, coeliac disease, liver disease, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, type one diabetes and arthritis.
If you suspect you may have a leaky gut, it is crucial that you deal with the cause. Foods to which you are sensitive or allergic are common offenders, as they cause gut irritation, so must be eliminated. So too alcohol (and you’ve given up for January, anyway), which is notorious for its damaging effects on the gut wall. Certain medications, most notably non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are well established as causing damage to the gut lining.The best known NSAID is aspirin which can cause gastrointestinal bleeding. Proliferation of bad bacteria in the gut (known as dysbiosis) also creates damage to the gut lining. One of the best approaches to healing a leaky gut is to take probiotics – friendly bacteria – in supplement form. These have a beneficial, anti-inflammatory effect. You might also want to consider taking the amino acid glutamine. Its therapeutic benefits have been well documented and it has been shown to improve and protect intestinal barrier function.
Be sure to follow a diet which favours the friendly bacteria. This means no sugar or refined carbohydrates, which are manna to those unfriendly, if not downright hostile bacteria. Friendly bacteria thrive on fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans – anything high in fibre, basically. I know I keep going on about oily fish, that too is highly anti-inflammatory, and is a must for leaky gut repair.
References
Rao, R.K., Polk, D.B., Seth, A. & Yan, F. (2009) Probiotics the good neighbor: Guarding the gut mucosal barrier. American Journal of Infectious Diseases, 5(3):195-199.
Purohit, V., Bode, J.C., Bode, C. et al (2008) Alcohol, intestinal bacterial growth, intestinal permeability to endotoxin, and medical consequences. Alcohol, 42(5):349-361.
I have been suffering from CFS for years and have considered doing the york test as I also get bloated and stomach pains. I hear conflicting reviews on the york test so dont know what to do. Is it a reliable test? I’ve read that we release IgGs when we eat normally and that all this test is doing is picking up on that.
If I do start off by cutting out wheat should I replace it with a gluten free type like genius or just cut out ‘bread’ altogether and what do I eat instead? Bread and cereals are quite a large part of my diet so it is going to be quite a change for me.
Yes, cutting out bread and cereals is quite tricky when they have been life-long dietary staples. But it’s not impossible! In fact people are always surprised how easy it can be. If you like cereal for breakfast, stick with porridge. You can also get 100% rye breads, if you like that sort of thing. Rye does contain gluten, so only ok if you are just avoiding wheat. My favourite alternative to never-ending wheat are beans and lentils. They are much more nutritious than cereal grains and to my mind much tastier.
When it comes to testing, I only rarely make use of an IgG test because I find the dietary exclusion test, as described in I Wish I Hadn’t Eaten That, to be highly reliable, fairly painless and of course free! I only recommend excluding one food at a time, to prevent confusion as well as misery. Having said that, IgG testing can be helpful, especially when you suspect multiple sensitivities. It has been found to be reasonably accurate – I’m not sure exactly how accurate – but worth a shot if you don’t mind the financial outlay.
Hey There Mariacross,
Thanks for the above, I have been thinking about a detox plan for 10 days. Im intending on eating porridge for breakfast and tons fruit and veg the remainder of the day & plenty of water. I dont intend on reducing my calorie intake drastically, this is merely an experiment to lose a few pounds and have more energy. Good or bad idea????
Thanks
I can’t give individual advice outside the context of a consultation, but generally speaking I would not advise anyone to follow a diet of just porridge, fruit and veg. Sounds like a low calorie diet, and they notoriously do not work – see my blog on the subject, coming soon. If you want to lose weight there are better ways of doing so. The Harcombe diet is worth a visit – based on the low carb approach.