Greetings.
Eric Bakker, naturopath from New Zealand, author Candida Crusher.
I've got a question here from a guy in the States.
I'm not going to mention his name.
He wanted to stay anonymous.
He's asking me Eric, what are the signs and symptoms of leaky gut syndrome?
The signs and symptoms, there could be a ton of them.
I've done a few videos on leaky gut, and I did one just before basically on how do you
know that you've got leaky gut?
What are some of the conditions that are obvious with it?
The most common signs and symptoms of leaky gut syndrome are gas, bloating, diarrhea,
constipation, IBS, irritable bowel syndrome.
These are very common ones.
There are tons of them.
You can get digestive discomfort with leaky gut.
And a common place to get it is anywhere around here where the small intestine is.
Anywhere around this region, it's centrally.
The large intestine tends to be more the perimeter and the small intestine tends to be more central.
Anywhere central.
This is why people with parasites tend to have more of a sensation around the umbilical
cord because that is really a central part of the small intestine.
And parasites, in my opinion, especially acute parasite infections, tend to favor the small
intestine, particularly the center of it, the ileum.
But when you've got leaky gut, you could also feel sensations a little bit higher up.
And they can be here sometimes.
You could almost think you've got heartburn.
Leaky gut doesn't usually radiate any pain toward the back like a gall bladder pain or
pancreatic pain will.
It tends to be more frontal.
And it can be something like bloating, gas, or having to undo your waistband after a meal.
Generally, you're not going to get pains off to the side as I mentioned because that's
generally more colon or large intestine dysfunction.
It will be a central kind of disturbance.
For the lesser known complaints with leaky gut can be things like brain fog, itchy skin,
sore joints, seasonal allergies, immune dysfunction, insomnia, there can be a whole raft of different
things that signal leaky gut syndrome.
Remember, what we're doing with leaky gut is we're allowing undigested food particles
to enter into the bloodstream or potentially Candida or cell debris or all sorts of rubbish
that really should be digested properly and filtered through the microvilli.
But they're bypassing the microvilli, getting in through the intracellular junctions, and
challenging immune system.
When we challenge the immune system, there could be a myriad of complaints that could
be possible.
Thyroid dysfunction, autoimmune disease, diabetes, all sort of conditions can occur as a result
long term.
Leaky gut is something that you really want to fix up in the early stages rather than
let it build up over a 10, 20, or 30 year period when it gets seriously bad.
Imagine you've got a small amount of rot in a roof of a house.
In fact, my house that I'm living in now, this is the rebuilt section, but old house
up the front here.
I've got a 100-year old cottage.
We built this extension on.
But when we put a whole new roof over the lot, we found so much rot in the roof of the
old house.
It cost me a fortune to get all the new beams replaced.
Had that been repaired a long, long time ago, maybe 30, 40 or 50 years ago, it would have
been quite cheap.
But now, it was in the tens of thousands of dollars to repair that damage.
Because the damage just continued on and on.
And if the damage would have continued on for many more years, the whole roof would
have had to be replaced, all the timber at a huge cost.
Now, your digestive system is like that.
If you don't fix something up now when you've got a bit of gas or a bit of bloating or a
few headaches or aches or pains, you can imagine what will happen if you leave that undisturbed
for 20, 30 or 40 years.
Those are the functional complaints that end up becoming autoimmune diseases and even cancer.
Lots of people laugh and joke when they pass gas, they fart, but what they don't realize
is that this condition if it gets serious and long term, it's going to be a major problem.
And then there is no more laughing.
Then there is crying.
A stitch in time saves nine.
You will know you've got leaky gut syndrome by a functional complaint.
It may be mildly annoying.
It might be majorly annoying.
And as I mentioned, it's often going to be gas or bloating, but allergies are quite common
with it as well.
Skin conditions we mentioned in a previous video, acne, psoriasis.
Food intolerance, mood disorder, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, arthritis,
many conditions.
So you really need to work out if you've got leaky gut first before you know if you can
fix it up.
We'll talk a little bit about some testing for leaky gut coming up in a few minutes.
I hope that answers your question, Mr. XYZ in America.
Thanks for tuning in today.