The Gut and Inflammation

What does your gut have to do with inflammation?

Your gut is the frontline of your immune system.

In fact, around 70-80% of your body’s immune cells are found in the gut, which makes sense when you consider that many toxins and pathogenic invaders can enter the body through our digestive system. Your gut then needs to be our first line of defence.

Your immune system also interacts closely with your microbiome (the community of bacteria that reside in your gut), which is important as our bodies need to be able to differentiate between friendly bacteria and any intruders that can make us sick.

Intestinal Permeability (commonly known as Leaky Gut)

Although commonly thought to be controversial, research into leaky gut (intestinal permeability) is now becoming more widely accepted and recognised as being important in gut health management. Our immune system has evolved over millennia to prevent pathogenic microorganisms in our gut from entering our body and negatively impacting our health. This protection requires intact tissue along the inner gut wall (the epithelium), and a healthy layer of mucus above it. Although numerous factors contribute to a breakdown in gut-barrier function, our diet plays a significant role.

The food you eat is broken down in the digestive tract and the nutrients are absorbed through the gut epithelial lining into the bloodstream, where they’re transported to the rest of the body. The gut wall also operates as a barrier, protecting the body from harmful substances by blocking their passage. This is controlled by small channels in the intestinal walls.

In a healthy gut, the epithelial cells that line the gut are tightly connected by proteins to form a barrier

between the gut and the rest of the body. Any materials that enter the body must pass through the cells themselves via specific channels. We now know that this barrier can be disrupted by a poor diet (high in processed foods, salt, sugar and trans fats), leading to leaky gut.

In a leaky gut, the proteins that form the tight connection between the cells become damaged, causing gaps to form between the cells. This means that foreign materials, undigested food proteins, bacteria and toxins, may enter into the blood stream where they’re not supposed to be. This can then create inflammation in the body, which is considered to be the precursor to disease, making it important to address any signs of inflammation in the gut.

The microbiome, can also have a huge impact on your nutrient absorption, which could potentially affect many bodily functions. Poor diet, medications, stress and food intolerances/allergies can cause overgrowth of certain bacteria that don’t normally reside in the gut (this is called dysbiosis). Imbalanced bacteria can cause systemic inflammation in the body. To thoroughly assess the bacteria in your digestive system, I use functional pathology – Comprehensive Stool Testing to determine what is going on inside your gut.

This non-invasive Comprehensive Stool Testing evaluates beneficial bacteria levels, intestinal immune function, overall intestinal health, and inflammation markers. It detects the presence of pathogenic microorganisms such as yeast, parasites, and bacteria that contribute to chronic illness and neurological dysfunction.

If you’re having gut issues,

I suggest to clients that we take a closer look and do a Food Diary with Symptoms to identify triggering foods. From here we can consider a possible a food-elimination trial, a sustainable approach that reframes your food choices by ‘checking in’ with your body and how it responds to different foods in different seasons and stages.

The aim is to reduce inflammation, and to be aware of and record inflammatory responses in a food diary, especially in the initial few weeks.

Inflammatory responses to a food may include:

sore back
aching joints
bloating
tiredness
abdominal pain
throat irritation
coughing or sneezing after eating
mood problems
headaches or migraines
itchiness
mucus
a foggy mind
indigestion
body stiffness
gaining more than 1 kg overnight (inflammatory fluid).

Good gut health may contribute to a stronger immune system, as well as improving bowel and digestive function. Ultimately, enhancing quality of gut bacteria offers many long-term benefits for our physical and mental wellbeing.

Speak with your naturopath or health professional with experience in managing gut disorders, who can help you repair a leaky gut with a nutrient-dense diet and strategies to assist with any gut dysbiosis.