Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Leaky Gut and Fatty Liver

Our professors back in medical school always said we should listen carefully to patients as they usually could tell you what was wrong with them. Then I went into practice and patients began to tell me that they had a leaky gut.

A leaky gut? Yes, we knew that there were a few rare conditions where proteins and fluid leaked through the gut wall into the intestine. These were easily diagnosed and I can’t ever remember making this diagnosis. So, it was a head scratcher.

Now recent medical journal articles are providing some answers. And, yes, it turns out that many of my patients did have “leaky guts”. We just did not know the science behind it. Now, it looks like we do. More importantly, there may be simple things that we can do to correct it.

THE BUGS IN THE GUT

One point that needs to be remembered is that everyone has huge numbers of bacteria in their gut, mostly in the colon. These can never be cleansed away nor would you want to do so. However, we now know that there are good bugs and some not so good bugs in the bowel. We can call them bad bugs. The balance of whether you have predominantly good or bad bugs depends almost solely on what you eat

THE DIET OF GUT BACTERIA

Fiber. Yes, soluble planet fiber is the main and premier food for the good bugs in the gut. The bad bugs can thrive on almost anything else you eat. They particularly like the high fat, high sugar, low fiber foods found in the western diet. But the good guys like certain particular soluble fibers found in vegetables and fruits. These are called prebiotics. They are most prevalent in artichokes, chicory, dandelions, onions, bananas and certain others. When these foods are consumed in adequate amounts, the good bacteria flourish and the bad ones do not. It is as simple as that. The problem is it’s near-impossible to get enough prebiotic fiber by eating these foods. Unless you have Dandelion Salad and Artichoke Soup while gnawing on a Chicory root, it’s tough to hit the 4+grams per day you need. That’s why we created Prebiotin. Prebiotin is a 100% natural, plant derived pure prebiotic that dissolves easily in food or liquid.

GOOD and BAD BUGS and A LEAKY GUT

Here is what science now knows about this condition. The cells along the gut wall should be lined up very tight one to another with a thin grout-like material holding them together. Nothing gets between them, either in or out. What happens when bad bugs predominate in the gut is that they produce substances that actually loose this “grout or mortar” between the cells; a “leaky gut”. The space between the cells widens. Fluids can then seep out into the gut. More importantly noxious agents produced by these bad bugs-let’s call them toxins- can and actually do move through these spaces on into the blood stream. From there they move on up to the liver.

FATTY LIVER

This condition is very common in type 2 diabetes or the “metabolic syndrome” where a person is overweight, has hypertension, is at risk for heart disease and likely has pre-diabetes. It is directly related to the high fat, high sugar, low fiber diet so prevalent in our society. So, these toxins which come from the bad bacteria move into the blood stream through the leaky gut. They then cause fat to be deposited into the liver and along with that may cause inflammation which can actually lead to cirrhosis of the liver. That is right. You can get cirrhosis of the liver even without drinking alcohol.

To summarize:

· Bad bugs in the gut actually can weaken the binding substance that holds colon cells tightly together, creating a leaky gut.

· Toxins produced by these bad bugs then move through these weakened spaces and into your bloodstream.

· When they reach the liver, they can cause damaging fat to be deposited in the liver, creating a fatty liver.

· Prebiotics, such as Prebiotin, reverse the balance in the colon from bad bugs to good bugs.

· Hopefully, in adequate amounts they can reverse or at least improve this liver condition.