leakygutsyndrome

How to Move Past Food Sensitivities 💥

If you deal with food sensitivities ➡️READ THIS 👇👇

Just because you react to a food now does not mean you will never be able to eat that food again.

You read that 🧐 right.

Some people are able to optimize their gut & immune health and then happily eat foods that used to trigger them—without a problem 🥳

To be clear: I am talking about food sensitivities and NOT true food allergies here. You can see my recent posts that describe the difference.

Here are some ways to support your digestion & immune system to help calm reactivity:


✔️ Eat an “anti-inflammatory” diet, meaning whole foods that are rich in antioxidants

✔️ Support the gut microbiome with probiotic-rich foods

✔️ Chew your foods thoroughly and eat mindfully

This is only a tiny glimpse of all the things we can do to support people with food sensitivities because the solution is highly ✨individual✨

Curious about working on a root-cause approach to your health?

Schedule an initial visit and we can discuss food sensitivity protocols 💚

Food Sensitivities: Then What?!?

💥 Let’s figure out why!

If you’re dealing with food sensitivities, this post is for you.

Did you know there might be fixable issues that are driving food sensitivities or making them worse?

That’s right:

Research 📚 has linked food sensitivities to changes in:

👉 Gut Microbiome

👉 Intestinal Permeability (“Leaky Gut”)

👉 Gut inflammation

So…

Gut support makes a lot of sense.

Keep following along if you want to learn more about how I can help with a root-cause approach to health 🙌

References

Caminero A, Meisel M, Jabri B, Verdu EF. Mechanisms by which gut microorganisms influence food sensitivities. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2019;16(1):7-18. [link]

Ohtsuka Y. Food intolerance and mucosal inflammation. Pediatr Int. 2015;57(1):22-29. [link]

Ventura MT, Polimeno L, Amoruso AC, et al. Intestinal permeability in patients with adverse reactions to food. Dig Liver Dis. 2006;38(10):732-736. [link]

Sucralose: Good or Bad?

Everyone wants to put on their blinders when it comes to sugar substitutes.

“Zero grams of sugar” sounds perfect!

But that teaser should always be a red flag 🚩until you read the ingredient list. Does it contain sucralose?

A new study shows that sucralose raises such serious health concerns that one of the lead researchers said, “it is something you should not be eating.”

➡️➡️The research showed that sucralose breaks DNA and contributes to leaky gut syndrome. A key metabolite of sucralose increases activities of genes related to oxidative stress and inflammation.

This is not just some nutritionist on a rant about artificial sweeteners. This research was done at the Biomedical Engineering Department at North Carolina State University .

And for now?

Check that ingredient list.

Reference

Susan S. Schiffman, Elizabeth H. Scholl, Terrence S. Furey & H. Troy Nagle (2023) Toxicological and pharmacokinetic properties of sucralose-6-acetate and its parent sucralose: in vitro screening assays, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B. [study link & news release]

[New Study] Microbes Cross the Gut Barrier…

🤔 Have you heard that gut microbes can cross the gut barrier, activate immune cells, and drive inflammation in the body?

Research suggests that’s true, but here’s the thing… 

We’ve had no easy way to know which gut microbes tend to breach the gut barrier or which are most likely to contribute to inflammatory disease 🤷‍♀️ 

⭐Until now ⭐ 

Because now, scientists at Cedars-Sinai and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease have come up with a way to measure specific antibodies to gut microbes—in human blood serum (without even needing a stool sample!)

Here’s what these researchers recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine:

🩸 Blood samples were taken from people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and compared with samples from healthy individuals.

🧪 Researchers used a new technique that can measure IgG antibodies against gut microbes in human blood serum.

🦠 They found that specific gut bacteria were targeted by the immune system in people with IBD, including Collinsella, Bifidobacterium, Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae

What does this mean?

It means we now have solid evidence that gut microbes DO cross the gut barrier and DO trigger an immune response.

Plus, we know which specific microbes tend to do this in IBD. 

While this information may not change the way we practice medicine right now (at least in our practice, we already address gut permeability and inflammation with most patients)...

🩺 It does confirm that our current approach is valid and that in the future we may have ways to be even more specific with our treatments. 

If you or somebody you love is struggling with a chronic inflammatory condition, please know that this is where functional medicine shines. 

We are here to help and invite you to take the first step by calling us or booking online. 


Reference

Vujkovic-Cvijin I, Welles HC, Ha CWY et al. The systemic anti-microbiota IgG repertoire can identify gut bacteria that translocate across gut barrier surfaces. Sci Transl Med. 2022. [link]