The Gut Barrier
I want to talk a little bit about the gut barrier system today, and its importance to overall health.
The gut barrier is multilayered, with each layer offering important barrier functions. The entire gut barrier is influenced by a person’s diet, lifestyle and environment, with diet making the largest impact. Our daily diet represents the largest environmental exposure to the gut barrier, resulting in war or peace. Up to 20% of people worldwide develop GI symptoms following a meal, caused by a spectrum of immune and non-immune mechanisms which underlie food intolerances.
Identifying the modifiable drivers of stress and inflammation causing digestive dysfunctions underlying functional gastrointestinal disorders helps to personalise treatment strategies to achieve and maintain optimal gut health.
The gut barrier is a single layer of cells that is about the width of a human hair. These epithelial cells have the job of absorbing all the nutrients from the food we eat, while at the same time keeping out microbes and microbial toxins.
The epithelial cells are covered with finger-like protrusions called villi (see picture above), which increase the surface area of the gut to further help absorption. One of the most important functions of epithelial tissue is as an essential barrier interface with the environment. It comprises a huge area, covering a surface of around 400m2 and forms a highly complex and adaptive system, able to respond to changes in the environment, regulating metabolism, immunity, digestion, absorption, nervous system function and detoxification. Any disruption to this delicate system can lead to a wide range of conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, diabetes, various skin conditions, autoimmune conditions, allergies, and more besides.
Many factors can influence the gut barrier, including genetics, diet, exercise, certain medications, the composition of the microbiota, microbial metabolites, and the immune system.
The “bottom” of the epithelial cells is attached to a region called the lamina propria. After nutrients are absorbed by epithelial cells, they diffuse through to the lamina propria and then to the bloodstream to be transported throughout the body. The lamina propria and other gut tissue is home to 70 percent of the body’s immune cells. These cells are constantly sampling the gut environment. Normally, this leads to an overall suppression of immune responses to the microbiota and tolerance to foods.
Any damage or ‘leakiness’ to the gut barrier system can result in an unwanted influx of microbes, microbial toxins, and large dietary proteins into the lamina propria where they can activate gut immune cells. Some of these endotoxins (more on this term later) may also reach the bloodstream, resulting in chronic, low-grade inflammation.
So how do we support the gut barrier and prevent leaky gut?
Ensure adequate digestive enzyme secretion. If you are experiencing any of the following: bloat, diarrhoea, constipation, intestinal pain, chance are you will not be able to optimally digestion and absorb nutrients from the food in your diet.
Supplementing with digestive enzymes takes some of the pressure off the gut barrier system and allows it time to heal.
Again, any gut dysfunction is almost by definition going to lead to or be caused by perturbances of the gut microbiota, so replenishing beneficial bacteria is necessary is most cases
Supplementing with broad-spectrum Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species, as well as soil-based organisms (Bacillus spp), and beneficial fungus (Saccharomyces boulardii) often has very positive results and helps to improve immune function
A nutrient-rich mucous layer lies adjacent to the semi-permeable epithelial barrier. This mucous layer is essential in the function and protection of intestinal epithelial cells. I quite often see erosion of the mucous layer in stool analyses, so stimulating repair and regeneration of the mucous can result in positive structural changes to the intestinal cells and improve their function, for example, increasing the length of the villi to facilitate better nutrient absorption.
Supplementing with certain raw building blocks that aid mucosal remodeling, such as N-Acetyl-Glucosamine and glutamine can be a good start.
So there you go. Digestive enzymes, probiotics, and specific amino acid therapy can help strengthen the gut barrier system.
If you are struggling with significant gut dysfunction, it will be necessary to obtain a very structured and specific personalised gut intervention in order to effectively resolve the issues. so feel free to book in and schedule a consult and i’ll be happy to help.
Kind regards,
Brady
