Leaky Gut Syndrome and Constipation

First of all, what is leaky gut syndrome? It is a disorder that involves your intestine. The intestinal lining is damaged and makes it incapable of protecting the body by separating the nutrients from the waste, bacteria and toxins that can harm the body. The intestine is supposed to filter these substances and lead them to other organs of the body where they should be excreted, but, when you have leaky gut, the intestine is not able to do its job.

Leaky gut syndrome as explained at http://www.theleakyguthelp.com/, unfortunately, is not recognized by majority of doctors and it makes it hard to get a real diagnosis. However, there are many health practitioners that are working on how to treat this disorder by approaching it naturally. The natural methods are, in a way, better, because they can be very effective without the dangers of side effects and other problems caused by prescription medication and surgical procedures.

Constipation and Leaky Gut

One of the major signs of having leaky gut is the frequency of constipation. Constipation is a health problem that is not really taken seriously by most people because they think that it is not really that dangerous. However, if you are frequently constipated, it is very dangerous because the body is filled with waste that should be regularly taken out of the body. If waste is allowed to stay in the body, you are at risk of getting toxic.

The best way to get rid of constipation is to drink enough water that will make your stool softer and easier to secrete. How is this relevant to leaky gut? Simple, most people that are frequently constipated prefer to take medication or drink laxatives to make the bowel movement easier. But little do they know that when they take those frequently, the rectal muscles become loose and these medications and laxatives contain chemicals that can irritate the gut, making the problem worse.

Dehydration is one of the causes of constipation so drinking enough water to hydrate the body is a good first step. Next should be to eat more healthy. Your diet should consist of whole foods and organic produce such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and other natural or organic foods. These contain the right amount of fiber that helps with bowel movement. You should start avoiding foods that are full of additives, chemicals and other unnatural ingredients. That should give you a good start on how to treat leaky gut syndrome.

Symptoms of Leaky Gut Syndrome

In our previous posts, we discussed about leaky gut syndrome and ways on how to treat it. In this article, we will discuss some of the leaky gut syndrome symptoms.

Symptoms of Leaky Gut

These are some of the most common leaky gut syndrome symptoms:

Digestive symptoms like constipation, gas, diarrhea, heartburn, pain in the abdomen and bloating.

Mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, confusion, memory loss and aggressive behaviors

Shortness of breath, breathing difficulties, mood swings, chronic fatigue and weakness, infections and auto immune disorders.

There are different stages to the appearance of leaky gut symptoms. You will experience some minor symptoms at the beginning and if you let it progress and you don't pay attention to these symptoms, they will worsen over time.

When your leaky gut goes to the more advanced state, meaning that the damage to the gut, either the irritation or the inflammation get worse, the worse the symptoms that you will experience.

Leaky gut can cause auto immune disorders and this is the last thing that you want. Auto immune disorders will make your life miserable so you need to get treated as soon as possible.

Leaky Gut Syndrome Treatment and Diet

First of all, it is very important to know that there is no “instant leaky gut cure”. What I mean by “instant leaky gut cure” are prescription drugs or over-the-counter medicines. But don’t worry, that does not mean that you are doomed to suffer from leaky gut syndrome with no hope of relief. There are ways to deal with your leaky gut syndrome. The most important factor of which is nutrition and your diet.

Treating the symptoms of leaky gut syndrome and getting temporary relief is helpful but don’t be satisfied with just that. These symptoms are sure to return if you don’t deal with the underlying root cause, leaky gut syndrome.

Leaky Gut Syndrome Treatment Tips

Dietary. Foods contain substances that are either helpful of harmful to the healing of the gut. A great way to determine those foods that cause a negative reaction is by following a leaky gut syndrome diet.

Here are some dietary tips that are essential for any leaky gut syndrome treatment:

•     Eat foods that are rich in fiber. Fiber rich foods help in the cleansing of waste in the body. Some examples are: fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, berries, potatoes and squash. Make sure you only eat those that does not cause an allergic reaction.
•     Eat lots of onion, leeks and garlic. These are foods that kills yeast and prevent yeast overgrowth.
•     Drinks lots of water and fresh juices.
•     Make sure that the foods that you eat are gluten free.
•     Stay away from foods that cause an allergic reaction.
•     Avoid packaged and processed foods. These foods are void of nutrients because the nutrients are destroyed during the processing.
•     Foods that contain high amounts of refined sugar should be avoided.
•     Avoid dairy products such as eggs, milk, butter, cheese except for yogurt.
•     Avoid sodas, alcohol and drinks that contain caffeine.
•     Lastly, don’t overeat and only eat when you are hungry. Over eating can slow down the digestion process and this is a detriment to the healing of the gut.

Diet is the most important factor when trying to find the answer to the question “how to heal a leaky gut?”. Make sure that you follow the suggestions above in order to give your gut a fighting chance in healing itself.

Take Supplements.

•     Take probiotic supplements. Probiotic supplements increases the number of beneficial bacteria and is essential in maintaining the balance between the harmful and beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract.
•     Take prebiotic supplements. These are non-digestable ingredients that is said to stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive system.

Other helpful tips.

    Try to reduce the level of stress. Stress is a very common cause of leaky gut. To reduce the level of stress, one may engage in light exercises that clear the mind like yoga or meditation. Also, get plenty of sleep.

    Reduce the intake of medication. Always consult your doctor first before reducing the dosage of medicines that you take, though. Some of these medications have nasty side effects that cause leaky gut syndrome. Examples are: antibiotics and NSAIDs (non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs)

    One common cause of leaky gut syndrome are chemicals that can be found in your surroundings like: household cleaning products and products that you use on your body. If you can help it, try to avoid being exposed to them.

The treatment for leaky gut is very simple but it can be hard to implement because it requires drastic diet and lifestyle changes. It also requires discipline and perseverance. Some patients, however, can’t sustain these changes and give up after a while causing them to suffer from leaky gut needlessly.

How To Heal a Leaky Gut

By now you should know what leaky gut syndrome is or at least an idea of what it is. Just to reiterate, it is a condition of the gut where the intestinal walls are "leaking" or allowing certain harmful bacteria, toxins or parasites into the bloodstream. This results in chronic symptoms appearing and some of those are very painful and will interfere with how you live your life. This disorder is also associated with other diseases and conditions such as arthritis, ibd (inflammatory bowel disease), ibs (irritable bowel syndrome) and many more.

You should take this disorder seriously because if left untreated, you can be sure that you will experience constant pain and discomfort for a very long time. Even worse, leaky gut may even cause other serious ailments that can be fatal.

There are ways cure a leaky gut. Below, I will share some of the more helpful tips on how to go about dealing with your disorder.

- First thing to do is to drink high amounts of water everyday. Make sure that it is clean and safe to drink. You should consume around 10-12 glasses of water everyday in order to help with the movement of bowel. When the body is not getting enough water, you risk being dehydrated and this can cause waste to become hard and difficult to move. When waste matter is stuck in our bodies, bacteria that are present in it can get free and cause the body some serious damage. One of them is damaging the intestines and causing leaky gut syndrome.

If possible, only drink water but you are also allowed to drink fruit juices and vegetable juices just make sure they are fresh. Steer clear from alcohol, sodas, caffeinated beverages and other drinks that you are not sure about.

- Second important tip is to make dietary changes for the better. The food you eat supplies the body with essential and non essential nutrients that pretty much determines if your body is in good health. The state of the body's health, specifically the gut, is a very important factor in healing leaky gut syndrome.

Make sure to only eat foods that provide substantial amount of nutrients to the body in order to let the gut heal itself faster. Avoid foods or drinks that are detrimental to the gut healing process. Some of them are foods that are low in nutrients (junk foods, packaged foods), foods with high amounts of gluten and refined sugar, caffeine, alcohol and many more. The foods that you want to be eating are fiber rich foods, vegetables and fruits, gluten free foods and drink water.

You should help yourself in improving your digestion. This is doable, you just have to eat properly. Eating properly means you eat slowly and make sure to chew your food properly. Avoid overeating, if possible try to eat more frequently with small amounts instead of eating 3 times a day with very large servings.

- Limit medication intake. Medications are helpful and necessary especially if it is prescribed by your doctor. Medications have side effects and these can often cause or worsen leaky gut. Before you alter your medication dosages, consult with your doctor!

Also, avoid antibiotics if possible. Antibiotics help with infection by killing off the bad bacteria but it also kills off the good bacteria. You can counter this by taking supplements which takes us to the last tip in healing leaky gut;

-Take supplements, specifically, probiotics. Probiotic supplements contan live cultures that help in increasing the beneficial bacteria in the intestines. If the bad bacteria outnumbers the good bacteria, a leaky gut will worsen.

Those are the tips that I would like to share in order to heal your leaky gut. Leaky gut syndrome is an ailment that we should watch out for. The best way to combat this disorder is to prevent it. In my next few posts, I will point out some of the common causes of leaky gut in order for you to avoid them. As for the symptoms, you might want to go here.

Leaky Gut Syndrome Overview

What Is Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Leaky gut syndrome or Increased Intestinal Permeability is a disorder of the digestive system, specifically, the gut. The intestinal linings of the digestive tract is continuously irritated or inflamed. The intestine will then allow foreign substances into the bloodstream. These can be bacteria, toxins, undigested food and waste. The substances that make their way to the bloodstream are viewed as "invaders" by the immune system and they will act accordingly in order to fight them off.

If you have leaky gut syndrome, these substances will enter the bloodstream everytime you eat. This results in the immune system having to work continuously and in time it will malfunction and this can trigger various autoimmune disorders.