LEAKY GUT AND AUTOIMMUNE CONDITIONS

Leaky gut syndrome occurs when there is excessive damage to microvilli (little finger-like cells that help absorption and push the food around) found in the lining of the gut. This damage is like poking holes in a fly screen, making waste products ‘leak’ into the blood, and interfering with the ability to absorb fats, vitamins and minerals. The leaked waste product can trigger an immune reaction that can then develop into an autoimmune response.

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body loses the ability to distinguish invading proteins from normal proteins that make up the body. The loss results in the destruction of your body’s tissue by your immune system.

One such protein is Gluten. Gluten gives elasticity to dough, holds bread together and gives ‘texture’ to many products. It is not classified as an anti-nutrient as such, but it is just as disruptive to our digestive systems and health in general. It is added to ice cream, sauces, soup mixes, salad dressings and thousands of products. (It can even be on stamps and envelopes!)

Gluten (aka gliadin – a prolamin) and glutenin (a glutelin) make up 80% of the protein within wheat – a protein to which humans have not adapted. A review paper in The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 ‘diseases’ that can be caused by eating gluten. These include:

• Addison’s disease

• Anaemia, cancer

• Aphthous stomatitis

(canker sores)

• Asthma

• Autoimmune thyroid disease

• Coeliac disease

• Dental enamel defects

• Epilepsy

• Fatigue, canker sores

• Inflammatory bowel disease

• Insulin-dependent diabetes

• Mellitus

• Irritable bowel disease

• Liver disease

• Lupus

• Multiple sclerosis (MS)

• Nephropathy

• Osteoporosis

• Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Skin rashes

• And more.