Episode 8: Leaky Gut and Your Microbiome: How These Impact Your Health and What to Do About It Episode 8: Leaky Gut and Your Microbiome: How These Impact Your Health and What to Do About It

Today, we’re going to talk about a huge topic. Digestion and absorption of your food is the foundation for the health of your whole body. It gives you all the blocking blocks for making your hormones and balancing your hormones. If you are growing a garden, you want to give each plant the right soil with all the right nutrients it needs. If you don’t, the garden could wilt and die. If you have leaky gut, you can experience digestive symptoms like gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation and heartburn. However, leaky gut also causes inflammation in the rest of your body.  It impacts the whole body. Some of the symptoms of leaky gut aren’t directly related to your digestive system and include: * Headaches and migraines* Joint pain* Skin rashes like eczema, psoriasis, hives* Getting sick often due to weakened immune system* Allergies and sinus issues* Autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis* Mood disorders like depression and anxiety* Acceleration of neurological conditions like dementia  What is leaky gut? As Dr. Toni likes to point out, leaky gut doesn’t sound very scientific. Actually, leaky gut is increased intestinal permeability. Your gut is like a big tube that travels between your mouth and anus. You have a layer of cells that separates your inside world from the outside world. The cells should be held tightly together so that only the things we need get through into your bloodstream.  When the cell layer becomes compromised, the junction that tightly connects the layer of cells together can become loose. This damage allows food particles through the cell layer into your circulation and your immune system sees these food particles as a threat like a virus or bacteria. Then, your immune system starts to mount a response against these food particles that it normally wouldn’t react to and builds antibodies. The antibodies can create inflammatory complexes with the food particle trigger and can travel throughout your bloodstream and be deposited in the brain, joints and other areas of your body. Leaky gut can be linked to a leaky blood brain barrier. Leaky brain can contribute to various symptoms like: * Fatigue* Brain fog* Headaches* Lack of concentration and focus* Behavioural issues You might experience food sensitivities differently at different points in your life. With the immune system and hormonal changes during pregnancy, Dr. Toni found that she could tolerate eating more wheat, dairy and yeast while pregnant and breastfeeding. The further Dr. Toni gets away from being pregnant and breastfeeding, the more she can’t tolerate those foods. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you may be able to better tolerate foods that you react to otherwise. Your immune system shifts to react less, which helps your kids be less likely to develop food allergies. Recent research suggests that women should not avoid high allergy foods like peanuts, nuts, wheat and dairy while pregnant and breastfeeding, in order to prevent allergies in their kids.. What is your microbiome? You have 10X more microbial cells than actual cells in your body. You have more bacteria in you than is actually you! We have evolved as human beings to depend on the bacteria along our digestive tract. Your beneficial bacteria plays a number of different roles in your body.  Benefits of your gut microbiome include: * production of short chain fatty acids like butyrate, which is important for maintaining a healthy blood brain barrier* production and absorption of nutrients like vitamin B12 along your intestines*...