if your dog had cancer would you treat them the same as a dog with
allergies or arthritis well if your answer is no then you have to watch this video because there's
an epidemic that's causing a wide range of serious health issues in dogs before we get started
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okay so when your dog eats the food passes from the stomach to his small intestine and
this is where most of his food is digested and absorbed whatever's left will then travel to
the large intestine or the colon where it feeds gut bacteria and then whatever's left
gets exited through the back door now the walls of the small intestine are covered in
finger-like projections called villi and each of these villi is covered in even smaller fingers
called microvilli now the villi and microvilli they they work by increasing the surface area of
the small intestine which just gives it a lot more real estate for your dog's food to be absorbed
now the microvilli are lined with only a single row of cells which are called epithelial cells
so that means that the only thing between your dog and the contents of his intestines
is a fraction of the size of a pinhead now this flimsy barrier allows nutrients to be easily
absorbed but it's not very good at protecting your dog from foreign invaders like viruses and
unfriendly yeast and bacteria now you might think that this is a pretty significant design flaw but
mother nature sorted this out millions of years ago as dogs and other animals evolved bacteria
evolved along with them and inside your dog's gut are trillions of friendly bacteria species
that help protect them from the nastier species and they do this in a few ways first they help
form a thick gooey mucous membrane along that really thin gut lining this mucous membrane helps
keep the bad guys from getting out and it also houses about 90 percent of your dog's immune cells
second friendly gut bacteria help crowd out on friendlies and if your dog has enough of them then
they'll live in the mucous membrane and make sure that the unfriendly bacteria stay transient and
don't attach to the gut lining that's a good thing because the thing that makes unfriendly bacteria
pathogenic is that they poop out toxic byproducts that irritate your dog's gut lining so the best
way to keep those harmful bugs from attaching to the gut wall is to make sure that there's plenty
of friendly bacteria that are already living there not only will the friendly bugs keep the bad ones
out but they'll also poop out really beneficial things for your dog this includes a lot of his b
vitamins vitamin k vitamin d amino acids enzymes and short fatty acids now these are special fats
that reduce inflammation in your dog by working alongside his immune system and most importantly
they feed the cells that line the gut and keep them healthy this is critical because if these
cells aren't protected then your dog can develop leaky gut so let's take a look at what leaky gut
is and the top causes and as always if you have any questions or comments just leave them below
and i'm happy to help out now when the cells that line the gut are healthy they have tiny little
spaces around them that allow digested food to pass through and not a whole lot else this keeps
harmful bacteria viruses and other nasties out of your dog the nice thick mucous membrane that coats
the gut lining is also filled with iga antibodies that make sure that unfriendlies don't give
through but if harmful bacteria start to attach to the gut lining then two things will happen
first delete away the mucous membrane and second their byproducts will irritate the epithelial
cells in the gut lining now when this happens the tight little junctions between the cells can
widen and the mucous membrane will shrink and leave them even more exposed to damage plus a
thinning mucous membrane will produce fewer immune cells like iga antibodies to protect your dog so
now your dog will have leaky gut and that inflamed poorly protected gut lining will now allow
toxins allergens bacteria and yeast to get out of the gut and into your dog's body and the result
isn't good this invasion causes immune response throughout your dog's entire body and this causes
a chronic prolonged inflammation and this is the real problem with leaky gut it causes inflammation
all over the body and in all of your dog's organs and after a while some of those organs are going
to start to break down including the immune organs so what you'll see is allergies joint disease
bowel diseases liver disease kidney disease and if inflammation is left unchecked you'll start to see
cancer in just the last decade there's been thousands of studies looking at leaky gut
because we're learning that the gut lining in its health plays a critical role in health and disease
okay so now that you know that leaky gut is a really bad thing for your dog how do you find
out if your dog has it well unfortunately you can't really test for it but it's just a good
idea to assume your dog has it the top signs of leaky gut are digestive issues immune issues
allergies organ disease behavioral issues and autoimmune diseases honestly if your dog has
any kind of chronic disease even ear infections or hot spots assume he has leaky gut and this
is especially true of dogs with food allergies true food allergies are rare in dogs if your
dog was truly allergic to a food then you'd get the same anaphylactic shock that people do when
they're allergic to seafood or peanuts most of the allergies that we see in dogs are just leaky gut
and that's because undigested proteins escape the gut and your dog's immune system reacts to them
so if your dog has allergies your first step to fix them is to stop the leaky gut
but how do you do that well first you need to start feeding the beneficial bacteria species
there's a ton of studies showing that the more bacteria that there are in the gut the fewer
health problems they'll crowd out the unfriendlies and they'll start making those short chain fatty
acids again that will help repair the gut lining now this is a bit of a problem if you're feeding
your dog a commercial food because most of them contain a lot of starch like grains or legumes
and these ingredients feed unwanted bacteria colonies and they can cause gut inflammation
greens and legumes also have pesticide residue like roundup and this is actually an antibiotic
so it kills good and bad gut bacteria so if your dog has leaky gut it's really important to feed
them a diet that doesn't have grains or legumes as an aside we actually have free cooked and
raw food recipes on our site that you can make at home now other foods that can harm your dog's gut
lining are high fat diets diets that are high in saturated fats and coconut oil which can directly
cause gut inflammation now apart from food some other things that you want to avoid are drugs
and antibiotics and be aware that stress can cause leaky gut too and that older dogs tend to lose gut
bacteria so you'll need to do some extra work for your senior dog so avoiding these common
pitfalls will help stop the damage to your dog's gut and there's also a few supplements that can
help restore a healthy mucous membrane healthy epithelial cells and gut bacteria populations
let's take a look at those now the first is l-glutamine and this is an amino acid that
feeds and repairs epithelial cells and it supports a healthy mucous membrane a typical dose is about
500 milligrams per 25 pounds of body weight every day the second one is n-acetyl glucosamine or
nag this is a form of glucosamine that also helps rebuild healthy epithelial cells and you'll want
to give your dog about 250 to a thousand milligrams daily depending on his size age
and his health now there's also herbs that you'll want to give that can help soothe inflammation and
bolster the mucous membrane and this includes licorice root aloe vera leaf marshmallow root
and slippery elm and finally you'll want to build up healthy bacteria populations
choosing the right foods will go a long way and this includes giving your dog fruits and veggies
now these are a rich source of polyphenols which are the preferred food of beneficial bacteria
species they eat the polyphenols and they make short-chain fatty acids from them and remember
short-chain fatty acids build healthy guts and immune systems and they reduce inflammation now my
favorite source is broccoli sprouts because they contain sulforaphane which can directly shut off
inflammatory pathways and finally you'll want to give your dog probiotics my favorite probiotics
are soil based because they have a special shell that protects them from the harsh gut environment
and research shows that probiotics reduce the inflammatory markers of leaky gut especially one
called pediacoccus acid election now this strain is also a must-have for any dog with leaky gut
now leaky gut is truly the biggest epidemic in dogs today and now you know how poor gut
health can cause virtually every chronic disease that we know of and most importantly
you now know how to fix it or prevent it now don't forget to leave your comments or questions below
i can also help you out with choosing your leaky gut supplements and if you like this
video please make sure that you like it share it and tell people about it thanks for watching