Leaky Gut And Autoimmune Disease

by Tom Wilkins
(Ohio)

Thanks to everyone who put this website together and to everyone who contributes to it. It's nice to see a community of people who are committed to the subject. I'm 25 years old and have had IBS for about two years. I've tried just about everything and I'm not sure I can say that there's anything that's particularly effective. Ginger root pills are probably the most helpful, with prescription antispasmodics taking a close second. I once thought that probiotics and enzymes were helpful, but now I'm not so sure. I think stress plays the biggest role, and it's difficult to eliminate stress when you're a college student who also works part time and is active in several groups.

I haven't explored this website much yet, but I haven't seen anything about leaky gut syndrome (intestinal permeability) yet. I find that theory the most fascinating. I once read that leaky gut syndrome causes food particles to seep out of the intestines and get into the bloodstream. This creates an immune response as the body attacks the food particles and throws the immune system out of whack, causing autoimmune disease. That would explain my psoriasis and IBS, both of which are suspected autoimmune diseases.

I went through a phase of eating lots of spicy food, and I was also taking aspirin almost daily at the time. I believe that spicy food combined with aspirin tore my stomach apart, leading to a high degree of intestinal permeability, which ultimately caused my psoriasis and IBS. Now it seems that any type of food is an irritant, which makes sense given the leaky guy theory. I guess the question then becomes, how does one regenerate the intestinal walls so that they don't leak? I'm currently taking bovine colostrum in hopes that that might help.

However, the brain-gut connection is also a very important consideration. But what comes first: intestinal permeability or a brain-gut breakdown? I would say that intestinal permeability causes the brain-gut connection to get thrown out of whack. But then how do you retrain your brain to digest normally? I would like to think that once the intestines are restored to optimal health that the brain could retrain itself to digest normally. All of this, of course, is pure speculation, as I am not a doctor and probably have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm just going with my gut, no pun intended.