We are what we absorb, not what we eat
What is a healthy gut?
A healthy bowel must properly filter out toxic products and let only the nutrients to be absorbed.
The most important digestion occurs in the small intestine. It is here that foods are broken down into amino acids (from proteins), fatty acids (from fats) or glucose (from carbohydrates). Ideally, these food particles are broken down and absorbed into the blood by the lining of the small intestine. They are then transported through the body to feed and repair it.
The porous intestine and what causes it
The intestinal mucosa is made of villi or folded surfaces. This increases the absorption surface and these villi are made of cells held together by tight junctions.
These tight junctions relax with foods that are hypersensitive. Poor digestion of sugars, alcohol consumption, certain medications, stress, dysbiosis between bacteria and yeast, excess bacteria in the small intestine (SIBO), can all aggravate a porous bowel.
Proteins and toxins from undigested food particles then enter your bloodstream because of the increased permeability of the gut. Your body sees these foreign proteins as an invader and marks it as an antigen. Your immune system triggers an attack by releasing inflammatory messenger molecules.
Every time you eat this food and it leaks into your bloodstream, your body recognizes the protein of this food as an invader. Your immune system responds and messenger molecules are released.
What are the consequences of a porous bowel?
Most of your immune system is in your intestines, with its microbiota, and when it is constantly reacting to the food you eat, its focus is primarily on sending forces to put out the fire in the digestive system.
As a result, you have less immune reserves to fight colds, viruses, bacteria, abnormal cells, cancer cells, etc. Plus, your hyperactive immune system is perceived as a stress by the body that contributes to even more inflammation.
You now have systemic inflammation and hormonal imbalance of stress, and you have opened the way for autoimmune diseases and other diseases resulting from these imbalances.
How to prevent and repair a porous bowel? (4R rule in English)
Remove what irritates or creates hypersensitivities;
Replace offensive foods with predigested foods (fermented) and increase enzyme capacity for better digestion;
Reactivate good bacteria intestinal microbiota;
Repair the intestines with specific nutrients to the intestinal cells (small intestine) or enterocytes.
References
Leaky gut a danger signal for autoimmune disease (PubMed 2017)
Leaky gut; what it is and how to prevent it (Harvard University)
Leaky gut, leaky brain? (PubMed 2018)
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