Our intestinal barrier protects our inner world from the outer world. It is our body’s first line of defense and is home to seventy percent of our immune system. This barrier can be injured through multiple avenues, including poor food choices, stress, pharmaceuticals, environmental exposures and more. An injured gut is a leaky gut, and a leaky gut allows unwanted invaders into the bloodstream, having detrimental effects on our entire body.
While there are advanced and costly tests as well as GI symptoms that can detect a leaky gut--the gut is the gateway to our systemic health.
This means just about any chronic condition can be linked back to a leaky gut: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, skin issues, autoimmune disorders, obesity, hormone imbalance...even our mental health.
In almost all my patients, healing the gut is usually at the top of the list.