I have to admit, after all these years of spreading the message of the gut connection to total-body health, to hear my message coming from Dr. Oz was certainly gratifying. Just last week his show covered the condition that epitomizes the gut connection to chronic disease—leaky gut syndrome. You can watch the show, in three segments here:
https://www.doctoroz.com/videos/medical-mystery-solved-pt-1
https://www.doctoroz.com/videos/medical-mystery-solved-pt-2
https://www.doctoroz.com/videos/medical-mystery-solved-pt-3
His show highlights the story behind one mother’s search for the truth behind the mysterious joint pain of her son, who was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. That’s a fancy term for children’s arthritis with an unknown cause. As Dr. Smith likes to say, “idiopathic means the idiots don’t know the pathology” (because they fail to look for it).
Mother Susannah Meadows, a prominent investigative journalist, wanted to get to the bottom of her son’s joint pain. The treatment for her son’s condition began with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen or naproxen. When NSAIDs failed to work, he was prescribed methotrexate, which happens to also be a powerful chemotherapy drug. When his health did not improve, she decided to take the advice of her sister to visit an “alternative health practitioner,” despite her previous reluctance.
This alternative practitioner, whose identity is not revealed, suspected leaky gut syndrome as the underlying contributor to the joint pain experienced by Susannah’s son. It was recommended that she remove gluten and dairy, along with foods of the nightshade family, such as potatoes and tomatoes. She was also advised to cut his sugar intake almost completely. A high dose omega-3 supplement, probiotics, Montmorency cherry juice, and a Chinese herbal remedy were also included in his treatment regimen.
Susannah was cautioned that it might take up to six weeks before her son felt any improvements. To her delight, six weeks later, to the day, her son awoke and said, “Mommy, my knees don’t hurt anymore.” Now that is powerful. Her son was able to stop taking the methotrexate, and is no longer in pain. Susannah believes the dietary changes and supplements restored his health.
Leaky gut syndrome is a condition that involves damage to the intestinal lining, which normally lets small, digested nutrients pass through into the bloodstream. During leaky gut syndrome, the lining becomes damaged, increasing the ability to let larger particles—undigested food, bacteria, and toxins—pass through. I like to use the analogy of a screen. Think of your healthy intestinal lining as a screen. A screen lets in air but keeps out bugs like the intestinal lining lets in nutrients but keeps out foreign particles. Leaky gut is like getting holes in your screen that are big enough to let the bugs get inside your house, or foreign particles into your bloodstream.
When undigested food, bacteria, and toxins pass through a leaky gut, they enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body. The immune system responds to these “foreign invaders” in a way that produces silent inflammation (silent because you often cannot feel it or see it—until it gets out of hand). Silent inflammation is an underlying contributor to most, if not all, chronic disease, including the autoimmune disease arthritis experienced by Susannah’s son.
By removing foods that commonly trigger food sensitivity, such as gluten, dairy (and in the case of arthritis, nightshade vegetables), removing sugar that feeds yeast and potentially harmful gut bacteria, and supplementing with probiotics to replenish beneficial gut bacteria and omega-3 oils to reduce inflammation, the gut lining is able to heal.
I hope many people hear this message about the importance of digestive health to the overall health of the body. Whether they learn it from Dr. Oz, or myself, I am delighted to be a part of getting this message out to the world. As I say, heal your gut, heal your body.
I am certain that I have Leaky Gut Syndrome and have begun to try to heal myself. I am going to try to follow the diet plans recommended by the experts in this field, and I will be taking many of the recommended supplements, but the one thing I am going to have a horrible problem with is eliminating coffee in the morning. If I drink only two mugs of coffee in the morning, and not at any other time, will that sabotage my healing or interfere too much with the detox? Maybe I could limit my coffee to one BIG mug. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you.
What is formula for converting gm to teaspoons from the side of a box of food. So I can see how much sugar Im taking in.
Thank you
Hello All,
I watched Dr. Oz’s show on leaky gut syndrome as well. I have also seen Brenda’s PBS special. In recent past, I read a little on leaky gut syndrome thru the book Listen to your Gut. I have been suffering from generalized arthritis type pain for a number of years. Ironically, it slowly started getting worse and worse after taking NSAIDs, steroids and narcotics for chronic back/neck/shoulder and arm pain. I found myself achy all the time as if I was going to get the flu. Achy joints and muscles almost always. The fatigue was horrible. Insomnia, menstrual problems, IBS and a number of other issues came up. I read Listen to your gut and I started taking all the supplements and 15,000 units of probiotics which seemed to help, but not entirely. The fatigue was the worse. The pain came and went.
After seeing Brenda’s special on PBS and another special which talked about eliminating 7 specific foods, I changed my diet. I no longer consume any dairy products, starches, sugar, eggs, soy, gluten and artificial sweeteners. It has been exactly one month today and I can tell you that I am pain free and my so-called chronic back pain has decreased a good 70%. I haven’t had a bout of pain in 3 weeks. So within a week the results were evident. I have lost 18.5 lbs. and the best part: I have not needed my daily Zyrtec pills, my flonase, my astelin or even my Afrin nose spray since the first week!! My severe allergies and sinus congestion are GONE! That alone is such a great success.
My insomnia is gone! My PMS is non-existent this month and I’m due for my menses this week. NO breast tenderness, no additional back and leg pain. I’m sleeping like a baby and my bloat is completely gone.
This nutritional lifestyle could the the one that destroys the need for Big Pharma. After seeing my doctor last year for all this random senseless pain, she concluded I had Fibromyalgia and proceeded to write me scripts for MORE narcotics, muscle relaxers and an anti-depressant called Nortryptiline (which caused me to gain 8 lbs in two weeks). Clearly, the only thing that changed was that I slept 12 hours a night (reducing the number of waking hours which means I slept through any pain) and I found myself needing to buy bigger clothes. Needless to say, I stopped the medications and just “dealt” with the pain. Some days I found it necessary to take Advil, but most of the time I would just grin and bare it.
I love that the information is getting out there. I whole heartedly appreciate all the work you are doing Brenda. I also love that Dr. Oz is doing so many shows on natural healing therapies and methodologies!!
Kudos for both of you and all those who work hard to get this information out to us! It has been a huge blessing for me!!
To Janet Nash:
Read details on coffee here. http://leakygutresearch.com/leaky-gut-and-coffee/
I quit completely, it temporarily opens tight junctions for some 48 hours.
Very interesting. This is actually the first time I’ve heard about Leaky Gut Syndrome. My brother has been experiencing symptoms and my research led me here. Thanks for the info!
Thank you for sharing this information. It has helped to make changes to my diet and adopting a very relaxed lifestyle.