Hi there.
Eric Bakker, naturopathic from New Zealand, thanks for checking out my video.
We're going to talk about leaky gut today.
We're going to talk about the ten warning signs that you may have leaky gut.
I just spent about a good half an hour on the internet having a look at what I could
find on leaky gut.
You know, is it true?
Is it real?
Is it a fictitious disease?
Is it something we think about that's all in our head?
Or is it actually a problem in our digestive system?
Is it some made up phony kind of a disease that people profit from?
Is there any base in science for leaky gut or what we call intestinal permeability?
There's a ton of stuff on the internet that's validated in science.
In fact, I just had a look at the US National Library of Medicine, the National Institute
of Health.
I've also looked at PubMed.
So these are published medical studies.
I've looked also at CINAHL and InBase, and various other medical databases with credible
published research.
On this one here, the US National Library of Medicine, I found over 500 studies.
These are scientific studies.
These are not studies that come out of some place like Las Vegas or something, some fake
place.
This is actual real stuff.
But then, if you go to Wikipedia, and you actually believe Wikipedia, they call intestinal
permeability a fake disease that has no existence in science at all.
So who do you believe?
Do you believe Wikipedia?
Well, I don't really believe Wikipedia at all, folks.
And in fact, a lot of the stuff I read on Wikipedia to me is purely setup with pharmaceutical
interests, to be perfectly honest.
I've given up on Wikipedia.
I think it's a very biased website.
If you actually have a look at the scientific research, you will find a ton of credible
stuff supporting intestinal permeability.
So don't make a mistake.
You're going to get told, by one you know, community the medical community, that this
condition is completely fictitious that it's propagated by nutritionists and by people
like me.
And then, you know, you're going to hear from people like me that it does exist.
You're going to make up your own mind.
But I can tell you now, this condition is very real.
In fact, the study I just looked at said they believe that most autoimmune diseases have
their genesis or their origin in intestinal permeability.
So, that's very, very interesting when you read that.
I've got a 1930's medical textbook where they said that autoimmune disease comes from some
pathogen, some bug.
They knew it back then, but they didn't know about intestinal permeability.
You can please watch my other videos on leaky gut.
What it is, the causes, the diagnosis, how it can be discovered, you know, and what you
can do about it.
But now, I am going to talk about the ten warning signs that you may well have intestinal
permeability or leaky gut syndrome.
I first knew about leaky gut probably in the mid-nineties, but when I read this book: "The
Four Pillars of Healing," by Leo Galland.
So Dr. Galland is a New York physician, very very clever guy and still alive today.
I believe he is quite elderly by now but Dr. Galland really inspired me to do a lot more
work with stool testing and digestive work.
Which I really started doing in the nineties, a lot more than I did previous.
And since then, well the rest is history.
I've completed now many thousands of stool tests.
I've also completed well over a thousand intestinal permeability tests with people and have discovered
to my amazement how many people actually really have intestinal permeability.
It's phenomenal how many people have it.
And it generally comes about through stress, poor diet, and also medications.
There are many drugs that are properly prescribed and taken according to a physician that cause
intestinal permeability.
There are many drugs that cause this, even drugs like acetaminophen.
Drugs like proton pump inhibitors, like, you know that block acid in the stomach.
Many, many drugs.
Antibiotics are a prime cause of intestinal permeability.
But what are the warning signs?
What are some of the tell-tale things that think I've got a problem and it needs really
sorting out?
Well, the first one, I've got my little cheat sheet here.
The first one is going to be a problem with your bowel of course.
It's going to be gas, it's going to be bloating, it's going to be constipation or diarrhea.
So if you've got an ongoing problem with your gut, if you don't have that nice regular bowel
motion every single day.
Preferably two bowel motions but one good motion.
If you're not passing out, you know, a good ten to twelve inches of stool everyday, very
easy elimination, it could be a big chance that you've got intestinal permeability.
Then don't immediately think, well Dr. Bakker said that I, you know, he says in another
video I've got candida constipation or he says in another video I've got peristaltic
constipation.
That's true.
But one of the chief hallmark symptoms that we find in warning signs of a leaky gut or
problem with the permeability of the small bowel is a dysfunctional stool.
A poor ability to pass out a good motion.
So that's the number one.
But let's go through the list and I want you to get a feel for these ten different things
here to see if you, you know have maybe several of these.
And maybe this may warrant for you to investigate a bit further.
The second one is a poor immune system function.
Now this can be throughout the body, not just in the gut.
Because remember, a large proportion of the immune system resides in the small intestine.
The first three inches or seventy-five millimeters of the small bowel, in fact, is holding around
about sixty to seventy percent of the body's entire immune function.
So, if you've got permeability or leakiness of the small bowel, there's a big chance you've
got a dysfunctional immune system.
So how's that going to present itself?
It's going to present itself in increased ability to get acute infectious disease.
Increased chances of getting a candida overgrowth, parasite problem, a bacterial overgrowth,
small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and intestinal permeability go hand in hand.
Very very common to find them together.
So when the bowel becomes very dysfunctional.
When you're going to get an increased ability of the small bowel to leak, bacteria or undigested
food particles these are like micro, microscopic particles are leaking through, there's a big
chance that you're going to get a problem with your immune system.
And that can present itself in many, many ways and some of these ways we're frankly
going to talk about today in this video.
So, poor immune function.
Headaches, aches and pains especially in the head like downing pains or head pain in general,
brain fog, memory.
So really problems in the head.
When you get a lot of these problems, it can very well be tied up with your small bowel.
I cannot tell you in my clinic experience, how many people I've seen that the brain fog
disappeared, the headaches went away, they just felt a lot happier inside their head
when their bowel improved, particularly their small bowel.
I've seen a massive correlation with stool testing with lack of good bacteria and headaches.
I've seen a very, very big link with lack of bifidobacteria in the colon and cognitive
dysfunction in people.
You know brain fog, can't think clearly, memory loss, confusion.
Even people younger than me.
You know people in their 30's and 40's that felt really washed out, almost stoned.
And their stool test showed problems.
When we corrected that, and got their small bowel in particular working better, the large
bowel improved, the brain function improved.
Headaches can also be of course you know, in my case years ago, could be a visual problem.
It could be the spectacles aren't really right, it could be some issues going on.
So, headaches need checking out.
But in many cases, headaches are linked to small intestinal permeability.
Number four, nutritional deficiencies.
Well it stands to reason that if you've got a leaky gut, and you're not breaking down
and absorbing, and digesting and absorbing nutrition properly, you're going to have a
problem with your health.
And if we extrapolate that, if we pull that through, that can work in a myriad of ways
in terms of its effect on your health.
Often it will lead to what we're going to talk about in number five, fatigue.
Fatigue is often a consequence of nutritional deficiency.
So, your cells become starved.
They are not getting the gas or the fuel they need to function properly.
Now that could be a lack of any kind of a nutrient.
So nutrition, proper digestion absorbing is very much dependent on the health of the small
intestine.
So nutritional deficiencies is very common when it comes to leaky gut.
You're not breaking food down properly.
You're leaking, you know, for example, very small fragments of carbohydrate or protein
through.
They're not being digested and absorbed properly.
That's going to cause a lot of problems.
And again, I'm not talking out of, you know, my backside.
I'm not.
Because there is actually plenty of scientific research that you can look up.
And you know, through the National Institute of Health, Cornell University, there are many
universities now that have done scientific research into fatigue, nutritional deficiencies
and intestinal permeability.
Everything I'm telling you today is based on science, its not the woo woo factor.
It's not tarot card reading.
This is actual science.
So, I want you to keep that in mind.
So far, we've talked about the bowel problems, number one.
Poor immune function, number two.
Headaches, brain fog memory, number three.
We've talked about nutritional deficiency, number four.
Now we're talking about fatigue.
So tiredness is a very, very big red flag for intestinal permeability.
Tiredness can also mean adrenal problem, a thyroid problem or endocrine imbalance or
hormonal imbalance.
So you will often, you know, if you're tired consistently tired you need to get blood testing
done.
You need to get salivary cortisol testing done.
You need to get some test done to determine where the fatigue is.
For example, you could be a female who has lost a lot of blood through menstruation or
child-birth.
You could lack of iron.
You know, so, it needs checking out.
But I very commonly associate fatigue with a problem in the small intestine very much.
Number six, skin rashes.
Acne, eczema, acne rosacea, psoriasis.
Again, I cannot tell you how many times I've seen people's skin improve beautifully.
Very, very nice skin when we repair the small intestine.
When we got the bacteria back, when we got the candida going, when we started giving
probiotic foods to enhance the proliferation of good bacteria.
When the person was eating lots and lots of good vegetables and foods containing soluble
and insoluble fibers to really feed out the bacteria and improve transit time.
When the bowel functions well, it can get food in there, break it down, absorb it, you
know, the nutrition it needs from it.
Then excrete the waste that it doesn't need.
Toxic bile comes down then and helps to get rid of a lot of junk, too.
So bowel motions are important.
Bacteria are important and they prevent the reabsorption or uptake of garbage or crap.
Again because the bowel can absorb stuff very very efficiently.
Many people I talk to who've got a slow transit time and poor bowel function often have skin
rashes.
So remember, you can't produce good bowel function unless you've got good small bowel
function.
And when we talk about intestinal permeability, we talk about the small bowel not the large
bowel.
So, if you got a problem upstream, its going to effect downstream.
Alright?
So, if you got a skin problem, ask yourself this question: do I have any kind of a digestive
problem?
If you can tick that box, you need to get the digestion fixed and then watch what happens
to the skin.
Number seven, cravings, often for sugar.
So again, if your body is starved, if it's tired, if it's not getting the fuel it needs,
it's going to want energy.
And where does it get it from?
Dr. Pepper, or a Mars bar, or you know, some candy, or some ice cream.
It's going to go for sugar.
So craving for sugar can also be a sign of intestinal permeability.
Number eight, joint pains and arthritis.
So, toxic buildup again in the body of deposits around the joints you know.
Also the joints and connective tissue may not be getting the right food it needs to
regenerate and repair and rebuild.
And again, this comes back to point number four, nutritional deficiency.
So, joint pain and arthritis don't need to be a consequence of getting older like me.
Because I'll be sixty soon and I've got no joint pain at all, no muscle pain, no pain
at all.
So, I see people my age sometimes you know taking all kinds of pills for arthritis.
If they got their kidneys functioning better and their bowel functioning better, and ate
good healthy food especially alkaline, you know, kind of vegetables and fruits, they
wouldn't have this kind of joint pain or arthritis.
So again, ask yourself this question: have I got joint pain or arthritis?
Have I got any kind of digestive problem?
Do I have point number one, constipation, gas or bloating?
Do I have poor immune functioning?
And do I have any headache or fatigue?
Or aches and pains?
If you can tick those boxes get the digestion fixed.
Number nine, mood disorders, anxiety and depression.
Small intestine is very very now much linked up with mood disorders.
We know that because of the production of many beneficial neurotransmitters that aid
in this area.
So we believe now, or I personally believe that in the future, the psychiatrists of tomorrow
is gonna be the microbiologist.
The person who understands the gut function to a higher level and understands the bacteria
and the ability to build them up.
Will understand that there is a very positive influence on the gut and the mood.
So again, ask yourself the question.
If you've got anxiety and depression.
Have you taken antibiotics and things weren't right since?
Have you got a bowel problem?
Have you got poor immune system function?
Have you got skin rashes or cravings for sugar?
If you can tick these boxes, you may need to look at the gut.
And the last one, the most common one we see is autoimmunity.
So when the body actually starts attacking itself, when it sets about the immune system
on joints or muscles or nerve fibers or different parts of the body, there will be something
that's causing it.
So autoimmunity is very much validated with leaky gut.
I've got a paper here in front of me I'm going to read a little section out of it its called,
"Alterations in Intestinal Permeability."
And it's a 2006 study, Drs.
Arrieta, Bistritz and Dr. Meddings.
This was published in a gut journal in 2006.
Now let's just cut to the chase.
We're going down to the bottom of the article.
Let's have a look here.
I'm just going to read this out for you.
"For decades a variety of pathological states have been associated with abnormal intestinal
permeability.
Many of these are a consequence of the intestinal epithelial damage that is associated with
the disease but not involved in a causal manner in the genesis of the disease.
However, in several autoimmune diseases it appears that increased intestinal permeability
is a constant and early feature of the disease process.
Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that in some conditions increased permeability
is critical to development of disease and if it is abrogated the disease does not develop."
So what they are trying to say here basically is there's a definitely a link between autoimmune
disease now and intestinal permeability.
Many many men and women I see my age, even younger who develop autoimmunity have had
a leaky gut for years and years that was never resolved.
Because, remember, according to doctors, it's a fictitious disease.
It doesn't exist.
Alright?
But here we've got science validating its does exist but the medical profession say
it's a load of baloney.
You make up your own mind.
Thanks for tuning in.