Episode 140: Adrenals, Stressors and Leaky Gut
A healthy gut means a healthy life.
Your gut plays a significant role in your overall health and well-being. Though resilient, the effects of chronic stress on your gut cannot be overlooked.
If you’re experiencing chronic GI discomfort a “leaky gut” might be to blame.
Join me in this episode as I deep dive into the link between your adrenals, food sensitivities, and a leaky gut and what you can do to repair and improve it.
Episode Highlights:
What is a leaky gut and what are its symptoms
The critical things that happen in your small intestines
Why the good more bacteria and how its a tool to protect and promote good gut health
Ways to reduce influencing stressors
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“What happens if you don’t address food sensitivities, and continue to eat the foods that cause an adverse reaction? It creates chronic, low-grade inflammation, and that is how sickness, disease, and leaky gut develops.”
Read the Episode Transcript:
Hi my friend! Welcome back to the show!
For the last several weeks, I’ve been talking about Adrenal Fatigue from several different angles, and it’ll continue to be topic of conversation for the foreseeable future because I believe so many of us are struggling with burnout and fatigue, yes during this Covid pandemic, but these are things we struggled with pre-pandemic.
And I’m so passionate about addressing these topics because:
I struggled with these things myself, and if I’m not careful, go through ebbs and flows of struggling with them Adrenal Fatigue was really the catalyst for me looking at my health from a different perspective, discovering Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition, which are more complete ways of approaching health, and ultimately what led me to pursue health coaching, and doing the work that I do now. And three, its also fixable. While there is no blueprint that will work for everyone, and to be quite frank, based on personal experience, healing from burnout, fatigue and adrenal depletion requires personal reflection, self-awareness and a willingness to not just change how you eat, and your daily habits, but your mindset as well. It’s a journey of self-discovery and self-development.
But, one of the first things you can do is to address how you eat, and what you eat. And in the last episode, Episode 139, I talked about food sensitivities and intolerances and how they are one thing to address on a self-healing journey and recovery.
But what happens if you don’t address food sensitivities, and continue to eat the foods that cause an adverse reaction?
Well, it creates inflammation. And that inflammation, though low-grade, if not addressed, becomes chronic, and that is how sickness and disease develops.
One by product that it can lead to is Leaky Gut Syndrome. And that’s what we’re talking about today.
Before I go on, I want to share a medical disclaimer. I am not a licensed medical professional, as discussed in Episode 133. However, I am someone who has had both adrenal fatigue and a leaky gut, so I’m going to share my knowledge with you based upon my own experience, and my educational background from several years of studying functional nutrition.
Long time listeners of the show will recall that I also talked about Leaky Gut in Episodes 007, in the context of the boundaries and non-negotiables that I’ve set for myself for my health, and then again in Episode 071 when I talked about Leaky Gut and how it impacts our skin, from breakouts in our complexion to other more serious conditions like eczema and psoriasis.
So, what is Leaky Gut?
Have you heard of it before?
I first heard about it in 2011 or 2012, about the time that I decided to remove gluten from my diet, but I didn’t really know too much about it.
But over the next few years, the worse my IBS symptoms, the more I started to read up more on it.
Then, when I started seeing a functional medicine doctor, while I was certain I had it, lab tests confirmed that I indeed had intestinal permeability, which is what you’ll hear conventional medicine refer to it as.
So what exactly is it?
Like in past episodes, I’m going to quote an excerpt from my studies at the Functional Nutrition Alliance to explain what it is. And I quote:
“Leaky gut is a condition where the integrity of the gastrointestinal tract has been compromised or damaged. This decreased barrier function has been linked to a number of autoimmune conditions such as MS, Celiac disease, and Hashimoto’s, as well as asthma, eczema, allergies and the autism spectrum disorders.
Leaky gut can be traced back to the use of immunizations, antibiotics and the ever-changing environment of our resident gut bacteria — growing increasingly deficient in beneficial flora.”
The “ever-changing environment of our resident gut bacteria.” What causes those changes? What you eat, toxins you’re exposed to, undigested food, pathogens, an overgrowth of bad bacteria. These things are junk that can wear down and break through that barrier function and enter your intestines and bloodstream, wreaking havoc there.
That breakdown of the protective barrier is what makes your gut “leaky.” Because things that the barrier would normally not allow in, can now enter.
I believe that it’s important to know how your body functions because I think when we have a basic understanding of our anatomy, and how the body is meant to function, then it feels less overwhelming, and you feel more assured and empowered, and are able to make informed choices for your health.
So let’s start with your small intestines.
Your small intestines are about a 20-foot long tube. Digestively, a lot of critical things happen there. It’s where your body breaks down and digests fats and where it absorbs carbs and protein.
It’s where food goes through a final breakdown, where protein is broken down into amino acids, where carbohydrates into simple sugars and glucose, and where fats are converted to fatty acids.
It’s where the nutrients from your food are absorbed into your bloodstream, which then are transported to the cells in your body to be used as nutrients. In other words, it’s where food is broken down to be carried to your cells.
Now, surrounding your small intestines is that protective barrier I mentioned. This barrier is thin, and it’s job is to block all the harmful things I listed - undigested food, pathogens, toxins, excess hormones, bad bacteria from entering into the small intestines because those things don’t belong there.
When that barrier is broken, all that junk can seep into the small intestines, i.e., your gut or what some call the gut microbiome.
And when that happens, your gut is “leaky”; you have a leaky gut.
To illustrate this, I'm going to use an analogy that was used in the Functional Nutrition Alliance’s teaching curriculum.
Picture a large peaceful castle surrounded by a protective wall.
On top of the wall are knights, and they are on the lookout, as the protectors of the castle. They stand tightly, shoulder-to-shoulder, and their job is to make sure that anybody entering the castle isn’t going to disrupt the peace and harmony of it.
Now those who are already inhibitors of the castle, they know the rules. They know where they are supposed to go, how to get there, what’s expected of them, and what to do if they encounter anything that’s out of the ordinary, or not supposed to be there. They maintain law and order in the castle.
Then there’s the bad guys, people who want to invade the castle uninvited. When they arrive, the knights are supposed to stand should-to-shoulder and protect it.
But, if they aren’t properly fed, nourished and supported, then they aren’t fully equipped to protect themselves, or the castle, and eventually, will be worn down.
And the invaders can then enter the castle and wreak havoc, cause cause and disrupt the peace and harmony of it.
So now let's break down this analogy:
The castle is your gut. It’s your small intestines. The protective wall surrounding it is that protective barrier we talked about. That protective barrier is made of the villi that surrounds your intestines.
And what the knights are. They are tight villi that keep the bad bacteria and junk out.
Side note: not all bacteria is bad. We all have and need good bacteria. Good bacteria is another tool in protecting and promoting good gut health. The trick is having more good bacteria than bad bacteria.
So when the bad bacteria and junk breaks through the protective barrier, not only does it wreak havoc on your gut, upwards of 70% of our immune system is located in your digestive system, and thats why leaky gut syndrome is a factor in autoimmune conditions.
Because the dysfunction that can happen is confusing your immune system to protect your body from itself. That’s essentially what an autoimmune condition is.
Besides your immune system, because your gut and your brain are connected by the vagus nerve, which is the largest nerve in your body, it also affects your neuro system - your brain function, and even your moods and emotions.
So when we say food sensitivities matter, hopefully, you can connect the dots and see how - this stuff isn’t meant to be messed with!
So we’ve connected it to IBS, autoimmune conditions, skin conditions, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth - something we’ve talked about in past episodes), brain function...
And because everything is connected, its signs of a leaky gut are allergies, poor liver function, sensitivities not only too certain foods, but chemicals, anxiety and depression, and even things like asthma, arthritis and other behavioral conditions.
So when we’re tired, burnt out, we cope by eating sugar and junk food, eating foods that have an adverse reaction in our bodies, we’re just piling on more stress, fueling the insomnia, and feeding the leaky gut.
And then it becomes this vicious cycle, where you aren’t sure what’s the cause and what’s the reaction, but it really doesn’t matter, because either way, its happening and you’re stuck in this never ending cycle.
So what if you are experiencing all the things I listed, including things like chronic fatigue, joint pain, general failure to thrive, and you suspect that you might have a leaky gut, what do you do?
First, you want to address sources of inflammation and you start with your diet. Sugar, gluten and dairy are high-inflammatory foods, so that’s where I would start, and that’s what we address in the 21-Day Sugar Detox that I coach people through.
Then you’ll want to figure out what foods you might be reactive to, and as shared in the last episode, you can do so by doing an elimination diet, and or IgG lab testing.
You’ll want to focus on repairing your gut health and there’s a number of ways to do that.
Cleaning up your diet is one way, making sure that you are fully chewing your food is another way. I know I sometimes have a tendency to eat quickly, especially when I’m hungry and I may not be adequately chewing my food. Remember, undigested food is one way that the protective barrier of the gut is broken down, and foods that aren’t fully chewed is how they become undigestable.
Taking a daily probiotic, or even better, eating probiotic foods like sauerkraut and kim chi, basically fermented foods, and also bone broth. These are healing foods that really support the healing of the gut.
Beyond food, the biggest thing you can do is to manage your stress. And adrenal fatigue is all about stress, so how can you reduce your stressors? Stress is unavoidable, but how can you learn tools and techniques to manage them?
This is why I’ve done episodes on meditation, embodiment, and shifting your mindset, because that’s really how you learn to manage your stress. It’s about how you process information, how you process experiences, establishing boundaries, your communication and relationships with others.
This is how you take a functional approach to health, how you take a holistic approach to health. It’s just just what pill, or what supplement you can take. Yes those things can help, but they’re just masking the actual root of the problem.
And when it comes to healing from fatigue, adrenal fatigue and burnout, its really learning how to reframe your mindset, clarifying your intentions and having your daily actions support your intentions.
It’s deep stuff, its really a journey in self-development, on a physical level with food and sleep and exercise, but on a deeply mental and emotional one as well.
So I’m gonna close this episode on that note.
Ruminate on this and if you’re so inclined, I’d to hear your thoughts. You can connect With me on my website at www.livefablife.com, or over on Instagram at @livefablifewithnaomi
I appreciate you taking the time to be here with me. I know you’re busy, and so giving your time is not something I take lightly.
Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next week. Bye!
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Nutrition Health Coach. She helps passionate, ambitious high-achievers who are being dragged down by fatigue, burnout, sugar cravings, poor sleep, unexplained weight issues, and hormonal challenges optimize health, find balance, and upgrade their energy so they can do big things in this world.
Through her weekly show, The Live FAB Live Podcast, programs, coaching, and services, she teaches women how to optimize their diet, support their gut health, reduce their toxic load, and improve their productivity, bringing work + wellness together.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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