“All disease begins in the gut”…Hippocrates

Hippocrates was right when he made that statement almost 2,500 years ago – that’s well before we’d refined sugar, created processed “food” products, and added antibiotics and a slew of other toxins to our food! 

Every bite we eat passes through the twenty-plus feet of our digestive tract, which is lined by our delicate “inner skin”. Just one cell thick, the thin lining of our intestinal tract comes into intimate contact with everything we swallow: the bread we eat, the mold and microbes on the bread, the herbicide Round-Up that is sprayed onto the wheat and the allergens (gluten) in the wheat itself. 

Given the challenge of dealing with all that we ingest, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mother Nature would build multiple layers of defense into the gastrointestinal tract.

CHEMICAL BARRIERS:

From the hydrochloric acid bath in the stomach to the enzymes secreted by the pancreas and the bile from the gallbladder, these chemicals help digest our food as well as inhibit the growth of microorganisms, preventing a range of gut infections. 

Each time we swallow, billions of incoming organisms take an acid bath in the stomach where they are rendered harmless. That is unless you’re one of the millions of Americans who take the antacid drug, omeprazole, on a long-term, daily basis. Because omeprazole blocks 99% of stomach acid output, it effectively removes this important chemical barrier. 

According to a study published this summer in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, people who use omeprazole are more likely to get COVID-19. Omeprazole is in a class of drugs called “Proton Pump Inhibitors”, or PPIs, which reduce stomach acid output by 99%. PPIs include brands such as Nexium, Prilosec, and Prevacid. 

The long-term, twice-daily use of PPIs doubles the odds of testing positive COVID-19, even after taking into account a range of sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical variables. 

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/9336455

https://journals.lww.com/ajg/Documents/AJG-20-1811_R1(PUBLISH%20AS%20WEBPART).pdf

If you’re taking this medication daily to control acid reflux, talk with your doctor about weaning off of these meds, while you work with your diet to control your heartburn naturally through the strategies outlined in this article.

https://www.drsallyskitchen.com/blog-main/2020/8/4/antacids-new-link-found-covid-19 

Because that delicate inner skin of the intestines can be breached, allowing its contents to gain entrance into the bloodstream, we need to keep our barriers tight!

INTESTINAL HYPER-PERMEABILITY, AKA “LEAKY GUT”

“Leaky Gut” is the casual term to describe the loss of a functional barrier of the intestinal tract. When the single-cell mucosal lining the intestine is triggered, it acts more like a sieve than a barrier. This breakdown of the mucosal surface of the small intestine (hyper-permeability) allows the flow of microbes, partially undigested food, allergens and toxins to pass into the bloodstream, often triggering immune reactions.

There are a variety of triggers to leaky gut, but one of the most common is wheat. But it wasn’t always this way: we’ve hybridized wheat to the point that it now contains very high levels of two toxic proteins, gluten and gliadin. These proteins make dough stretchy and easy to work with, but in high concentrations, they can also wreak havoc in our gut.

The issue is that gluten and gliadin open the “tight junctions” between the cells that line our intestinal tract, allowing partially digested food, microbes and toxins to enter the bloodstream.

Beyond gluten and gliadin, other common causes of intestinal hyper-permeability include the overuse of:

• NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, Motrin, Alleve)

• Antacids (PPIs and H2 blockers)

• Antibiotics

• Alcohol

• Steroids

• Chemotherapy and radiation

• Parasitic Infections and dysbiosis (imbalanced gut flora)

• Surgery

• Trauma 

In leaky gut, the continuous influx of microbes, food molecules and toxins across its lining results in almost constant stimulation of the immune system. 

In fact, 70% of our immune cells are clustered in and around the gut!  The small intestine is lined with small patches (Peyer’s Patches) of lymphoid tissue embedded in the epithelial lining, known as the “Mucosal Associated Lymphoid Tissue” or MALT. This tissue is where the immune system differentiates between friend or foe and either develops tolerance or tags a molecule for destruction. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004000/

So treat your “inner skin” as well as you treat your outer skin, knowing that so much of your immune system is nestled beneath it! 

Hydrate your inner skin by drinking pure water and green tea and above all, avoid the MAD Diet (Modern American Diet) and excessive sugar and alcohol, which are known to trigger gut inflammation and immune activation. 

Our immune resilience is related to the health of these barriers so let’s cultivate a healthy microbiome. Pamper your inner skin with fiber, phytonutrient-rich fresh veggies and fermentable foods, which reduce inflammation and help regulate immune function. 

One way to do this is to eat Kimchi, the traditional Korean pickled condiment that is typically eaten with each meal. Emerging evidence suggests that eating kimchi may help reduce the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections, especially in children. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd006895.pub2

Kimchi contains Lactobacillus species and other “probiotic” microorganisms, as well as cabbage, carrots, daikon radish, ginger, garlic and other colorful vegetables.  Evidence suggests that fermentation increases myrosinase, the enzyme that releases the anti-cancer compounds from the cruciferous vegetables like cabbage.

So check out my recipe for Kimchi. It only takes a few days to make and is a fun addition to many meals.

For a wonderful review of the healing benefits of kimchi and more kimchi recipes, check out “The Kimchi Diet”, by Dr. Suzanne Bennett.

Please let me know if you have any questions or health concerns.

A santé! (To your health)

Dr. Sally

Since I wrote this article, so much has changed and it hasn't been good news. So, I want you to take control by boosting your health and immunity with a few simple switches that include nutrient-dense recipes and better immune-supporting food choices. Join me now for my new online, self-paced course, The Good Food Way to Power Up Your Immune System that includes videos of my best healing recipes, step-by-step cooking classes, strategies, and lifestyle changes all designed to help you thrive during these unprecedented times.

The added bonus is that this energizing and educational course also MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE to a healthy digestion, better sleep, and overall mental health.

#immunesystem #digestivehealth #leakygut #gutimmuneconnection #healthyliving #healthydiet #naturopathicmedicine #functionalmedicine #kimchi #yum #microbiome #paleo