Biotin - hair loss & thinning hair
Biotin is a water-soluble vitamin and is part of the B vitamin family. It is also known as vitamin H, or vitamin B7. Your body needs biotin to convert certain nutrients into energy. Vitamin B...
Collagen, leaky gut & symptoms
Can collagen prevent leaky gut?
Collagen can help optimize the health of the intestinal walls and prevent leaky gut.
Collagen is found in the connective tissue of the intestines and can help support and strengthen the digestive system. Changes in the barrier function of your gut, also known as leaky gut, can allow particles to pass into the bloodstream. This can lead to inflammation.
There are several studies showing that people with inflammatory bowel disease have lower levels of serum collagen. By increasing your intake of collagen, you can help build the tissues that line your gastrointestinal tract and promote better gut health.
What is leaky gut?
Increased permeability of the intestinal mucosa - also called leaky gut - allows bacteria and other toxins to pass through gaps/channels in the intestinal walls so that they can then pass into the bloodstream, causing various diseases and conditions in the body.
As more and more people are affected by poor dietary choices, chronic stress, toxic overload and bacterial imbalance, it seems that the occurrence of leaky gut is becoming more common.
Leaky gut has been called "a dangerous signal for autoimmune disease" in studies. If you suspect you have a leaky gut, the first thing you should do is review your symptoms.
What is healing bowel syndrome?
"All disease begins in the gut." For over three decades, study after study published (several thousand articles to date) have discussed our growing understanding of immunity, gut function, and how modern diets and lifestyles negatively contribute to overall health by damaging our digestive system.
Many experts in this field refer to this very phenomenon as leaky gut syndrome.
What causes a leaky gut?
The intestines are protected by a single layer of specialized epithelial cells linked together by tight junctions of proteins. Leaky gut symptoms are a consequence of dysfunction in these junctions.
These tight junctions are the gateway between your intestines and your bloodstream. They control what is allowed to pass into the bloodstream from the digestive system. More than 40 different proteins in these junctions are now recognized to play a role in gut health. These junctions have a very precise job — they must maintain the delicate balance between allowing vital nutrients to enter your bloodstream, while at the same time preventing disease-causing compounds from your diet or lifestyle from passing out of your digestive system and into the rest of your body. .
This is how a report published in the journal "Frontiers in Immunology" describes the pathology of leaky gut:
The intestinal epithelium forms, together with factors secreted from it, a barrier that separates the host from the environment. In pathological conditions, the permeability of the epithelial lining can be compromised and allow the passage of toxins, antigens and bacteria into the lumen to enter the bloodstream and create a "leaky gut."
When you have leaky gut, some tiny particles that should never be able to enter your bloodstream can start making their way through anyway. There are also frequent abnormalities in the gut resulting from antimicrobial molecules, immunoglobulins and cytokine activities. This poses a major problem, since almost all of your immune system is located inside the gut.
The result? An acute inflammation, and sometimes autoimmune reactions. A normal part of your immune response that serves to fight infection and disease begins to "overperform," leading to chronic inflammation, which is at the root of most diseases.
What causes leaky gut?
Genetic predisposition — some people may be more predisposed to developing leaky gut because they are sensitive to environmental factors that trigger the body to initiate autoimmune responses.
Poor diet — especially a diet that includes allergens and inflammatory foods such as sugar, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), refined oils, synthetic food additives, and conventional dairy products.
Chronic stress
Toxic overload — including high drug and alcohol use. We come into contact with over 80,000 chemicals and toxins each year, but the worst culprits that cause leaky gut include antibiotics, pesticides, aspirin and NSAIDs.
Bacterial imbalance — means an imbalance between beneficial and harmful species of bacteria in the gut. A large body of evidence now shows that bacteria are important in supporting the epithelial barrier and preventing autoimmune reactions. At least 10 percent of all gene transcripts found in intestinal epithelial cells and related to immunity, cell profiling and metabolism are regulated by the bacterial flora of the gastrointestinal tract (microbiota).
How serious is leaky gut?
According to a review of the facts and research on intestinal permeability/increased permeability of the gut (leaky gut), the chronic condition of hyperpermeability is linked to many symptoms and health conditions.
What are the symptoms of leaky gut?
Some of the most prominent symptoms of leaky gut are as follows:
- Gastric ulcer
- Diarrhea
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
- Inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's, ulcerative colitis)
- Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
- Celiac disease
- Esophageal and colorectal cancer (colon cancer)
- Allergies
- Respiratory tract infections
- Inflammatory acute conditions (sepsis, SIRS*, multiple organ failure)
* SIRS means Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and denotes when the immune system responds with a systemic inflammation, with or without an infection.
- Chronic inflammatory conditions (such as arthritis)
- Thyroid disorders
- Obesity-related metabolic diseases (fatty liver, type II diabetes, heart disease)
- Autoimmune disease (lupus, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, Hashimoto's, and more)
- Parkinson's disease
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Tendency to weight gain or obesity
While these diseases are linked to leaky gut syndrome, a causal relationship has not been proven; in other words, it has not yet been established that leaky gut causes any of these conditions, just that people who have leaky gut are more likely to have a number of other health problems. So while the scientific evidence has yet to show that intestinal hyperpermeability (leaky gut syndrome) is actually responsible for these conditions, it does strongly suggest that leaky gut and other dysfunctions tend to co-occur.
How do you know if you suffer from leaky gut?
Below you will find four leaky gut symptoms and early-onset conditions that may point to problems with your gut health.
1. Food sensitivity
Due to the onslaught of toxins entering the bloodstream, the immune system of people with leaky gut triggers an excessive mass production of various antibodies, which can make the body more susceptible to antigens in certain foods (especially gluten and dairy products). In studies with rats and humans (children), a link has been seen between leaky gut and food allergies.
Allergies are thought to be one of the most common symptoms of leaky gut.
2. Inflammatory bowel disease
Researchers from Hungary showed in a study that increased intestinal permeability is often localized to the colon in people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and ulcerative colitis.
As far back as 1988, researchers saw that people with leaky gut had a higher risk of developing Crohn's disease.
3. Thyroid problems
One of the autoimmune diseases that leaky gut syndrome can directly affect is Hashimoto's disease. Also known as "chronic thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis," where the thyroid gland becomes chronically inflamed, exhibiting the same symptoms as hypothyroidism (low thyroid function), decreased metabolism, fatigue, depression, weight gain, and a host of other symptoms.
Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune disease where antibodies are formed in the body, which in turn leads to the body's immune system - in this case - starting to attack the thyroid gland. The antibodies that are formed are called TPO-ak. This leads to chronic inflammation, which causes the thyroid gland to break down and its function to deteriorate.
In Hashimoto's disease, the thyroid gland can sometimes shrink. In other types of thyroid diseases, it is more common to see enlargements of the thyroid gland - such as in hyperthyroidism and goiter - while in Hashimoto's disease, that phase can sometimes be absent and the shrinkage occurs immediately.
To see how your thyroid is doing, you can test yourself at BLODKOLLEN with a simple blood test called SKÖLDKÖRTELKOLLEN STOR .
4. Inflammatory skin conditions
Already 70 years ago, a theory was described regarding the connection between gut and skin, and how intestinal hyperpermeability (leaky gut) can cause a range of skin conditions, especially acne and psoriasis.
Creams and drugs with endless lists of (sometimes dangerous) side effects are often prescribed for these skin conditions, yet there has been consistent evidence (for decades) that part of the root cause may be in the gut.
Can collagen help with leaky gut?
The basic steps to healing a leaky gut are as follows:
1. Remove foods and factors that damage the gut.
2. Repair the gut with specific healing supplements like collagen and butyric acid. Butyric acid is a fatty acid that is created when the good bacteria in the gut break down dietary fiber. Butyric acid is found in animal fats and vegetable oils. However, the amount of butyric acid found in foods such as butter and ghee is small compared to the amount produced in the gut.
3. Rebalance your intestinal flora with prebiotics and probiotics (beneficial bacteria). This is key because bacteria in the gut are an important part of the intestinal barrier. They help promote resistance to colonization by harmful or pathogenic bacteria species by competing for nutrients. The intestinal flora also regulates digestion and the absorption of nutrients.
What can you eat for leaky gut syndrome? And what not to eat with leaky gut?
If you struggle with leaky gut or other gastrointestinal issues, start by removing junk (processed foods) from your diet as well as ingredients like sugar, GMOs, refined oils, and synthetic additives. A good diet that can repair a damaged gut includes foods/ food supplements such as:
- Collagen with prebiotics
- Collagen peptides
- Dairy products like kefir, yogurt and, butter, etc.
- Fermented vegetables and other probiotic foods.
- Coconut products
- Sprouts from chia seeds, flax seeds and hemp seeds
- Foods with omega-3 fatty acids, especially salmon and other wild-caught fish
- Herbs and spices
- Other nutritious and anti-inflammatory foods such as beef (from grass-fed animals), lamb, fresh vegetables and most fruits, apple cider vinegar, algae, and other superfoods.
