Leaky Gut and Brain Fog

Leaky gut syndrome is a very common health condition which involves an increase in the permeability of the lining in your intestines. This process has become a cause for concern for many different people suffering from various signs and symptoms such as brain fog, low energy, difficulty concentrating, joint pain, arthritis, fatty liver disease, auto-immune diseases and now even neurological health conditions are being traced back to a weakening in the gut lining. 

So, how does this work? 

Well, it starts with some structures between your intestinal lining cells which are called the “Tight junctions”. As certain proteins called Zonulin and Actomycin begin to degrade and weaken, their job of holding these “Tight junctions” begin to decline, and so these tight junctions, which are the spaces between the actual cells that line your intestinal wall, begin to loosen up, allowing more of the contents of your small intestines and colon to travel up through this barrier of cells, and to start triggering the immune cells that are residing just behind this first line of cells in the intestinal barrier. 

Many nutritionist and holistic doctors say, “fix your barriers” and by this they mean your intestinal lining barrier, your external skin barrier, and then also the barrier inside your brain known as the “Blood-Brain-Barrier”. 

It is crucial to our health that we have healthy and functioning barriers, otherwise our bodies and consequently our brain tissues can start to become host to a long list of toxins, neurotoxins, chemicals, heavy metals, and parasitic organisms that can live both in our blood, but also inside our cells and in biofilms that they create on our mucous membranes all throughout our bodies. 

 

But, it really all starts in the gut. 

When intestinal contents, bacteria, whole proteins, and even whole food particles are able to make their way up through these tight junctions, our immune cells will get triggered, as our acute phase immune reactivity to proteins and organisms that are not supposed to be there. 

It is like having the walls of your house becoming infested with molds or external contaminants. It will eventually make you very sick, and so you want your immune system to clear out these pathogens as soon as possible. 

The difficulty arises when they are too many openings in our tight junctions, allowing too many contaminants and pathogens into our immune layer of our intestines, because now your immune system starts becoming triggered by too many things, and your immune cells start making Antibodies and Cytokines that were designed to kill of the pathogens, but are instead causing your own bodily tissues to become attacked. 

Now, you need to understand that the only reason we are alive at all is because we have an immune system. 

Even in a healthy adult, approximately half of all of the cells in your body are actually “ Non-self ” or foreign organisms living inside of your body. 

Without your immune cells working properly, our cells and tissues would rapidly become ravaged by these foreign organisms as can be observed by the tissue necrosis that quickly consumes us soon after you have become deceased. 

Our bodies quickly begin to rot as the bacteria that were already living inside of us begin to multiple and consume our tissues. It is only because of our fully functional Th-1, Th-2, Th-17 and Th-21 cells that we are able to fight off these pathogens and keep them from overtaking us altogether. 

Which brings me back to Leaky Gut syndrome. With an increased permeability of our intestines, and more toxins and compounds and organisms can leak into our bloodstream, it through this blood flow that these pathogens are able to travel all over our body and infect and poison every tissue of our body, including our brain, and can cause symptoms such fatigue, brain fog, poor memory.

It is now up to our Blood-Brain-Barrier to keep out pathogens, heavy metals and other gut-related neurotoxins that are entering our bloodstream via the Leaky gut condition in our intestines and colon. 

Our Blood-Brain-Barrier works very well. So well that even certain nutrients that our brain needs to function will be kept out under certain circumstances, such as the transfer of amino acids like L-Tryptophan and Phenylalanine which are responsible for the production of the two main principle brain neuropeptides: Serotonin and Dopamine. 

This Blood-Brain-Barrier is made like a woven basket out of glial cells called astrocytes. A the blood pressure is increased, as it does under stress, or inflammatory conditions that can cause swelling, well this swelling can start to cause blood and pathogens and toxins to push through this blood-brain-barrier, where they can actually interact with the neurons inside the brain, and lead to neurotoxicity. 

Symptoms such as dizziness, migraine headaches, blurry vision,  brain fog and fatigue could all be signs that toxins and pathogens that have entered your body through leaky gut condition, have also broken through your blood-brain-barrier and is now damaging neurons in various lobes of your brain. 

Now, your brain can usually clear out these toxins and pathogens, since it contains it’s very own elite class of immune cells called the Microglial cells, which are highly organized and very quick to signal one another that there is a pathogen or some other toxic load inside the brain. 

This same system that can help to protect your brain can also be the reason that a seemingly small impact to your skull or cranium that could cause a subdural hematoma or swelling, could trigger an enormous micro-glial activation event which could lead to brain damage, neuro-inflammation, destruction of brain cells, fatigue, spaciness, loss of memory and a reduction of executive functions or cerebellum functions that help to control balance and motor coordination for several months to even years after the initial incident. 

Now, you have to see that any condition that can disrupt your various brain functions would also effect autonomic functions that get transmitted along the Vagus nerve to your enteric nervous system, which are the neurons that innervate your digestive organs, pancreas, stomach, liver, gallbladder, small intestines and colon, which could result in a decline in digestive enzyme production, stomach acid secretion and also a decrease in intestinal vascular perfusion, which means that less blood circulation is getting to the cells that make up your intestinal lining. 

What this means is that and head traumas or neurotoxic events such as a stroke, transient ischemic attack, or even just having a food sensitivity to foods that are eaten continuously, such as gluten, corn or dairy, could lead to a breakdown of the brain’s functions that help to prevent leaky gut syndrome from occurring. 

So you see, it can become a two-way street. First the leaky gut syndrome effects the brain, but as the brain breaks down more and more due to chronic inflammation, or a hit on the head, or whiplash, which is quite common, well then the digestive organs and blood flow to the intestines will all decline leading to a worsening of that Leaky gut syndrome. 

And the cycle of gut and neuro-cognitive decline propels itself further and further with multiple triggers, pathogens, and stressors that can continue to worsen the situation. 

One of the most important things we can do in this situation is to follow a “Leaky Gut Diet” which helps to repair the intestinal lining, reduce immune triggers, bring down inflammation, support the immune system, and reduce the toxic bacterial overgrowth in the intestines that creates the biofilms and neurotoxins that usually set off this whole scenario in the first place. 

The rampant use of prescriptions antibiotics in modern allopathic medicine for every little cold or flu has created an epidemic of gut-related health conditions. 

This is die to the fact that modern antibiotics kill off bacteria…..all bacteria. 

The good are equally killed off with the pathogenic bacteria, and this is a major cause for pathogens like Clostridium botulin and Clostridium dificile, and many other pathogens to flourish, leading to even more biofilm production, more neurotoxin and Lipopolysaccharide, and more sulfur dioxide production that leads to such common gastrointestinal symptoms as gas, bloating and abdominal pains. 

There are just as effective methods for clearing out pathogens as antibiotic treatment, but which do not have such disastrous effects on the intestinal microbiome as these. 

Herbal treatments such as Oregano oil, Phellodendron and Berberine sulfate, along with 100’s of other natural plants and essential oils have been clinically proven to kill off pathogens living inside the gut as the allopathic treatment, but without such as devastating effect on the rest of the beneficial organisms. 

If this is not fully implemented into our healthcare system and routine anti-microbial treatments, “Leaky Gut syndrome” along with neuro-cognitive degenerative diseases will most likely continue to rise to astronomical levels among Western civilizations. 

Remember the essentials to treating Leaky Gut syndrome: 

• Stop eating refined sugar, and even high fructose foods like fruits and juices. 

• Eat less starchy carbohydrates such as breads, pasta, and potatoes 

• Eat plenty of soluble-fiber fish foods such as green vegetables, herbs, and spices. 

• Eat organic, grass-fed meats to get enough essential amino acids, cholesterols, B vitamins, and minerals to support the production of the proteins  zonulin, actomycin and the phospholipid  bylayer that constitutes every cell membrane in the body, including your intestinal lining cells and your Blood-Brain-Barrier. 

• Be aware of your Copper:Zinc ratio in your diet as too much of one can block the absorption and utilization of the other, and both are necessary for new cell generation, and collagen synthesis. 

• Eat plenty of organic bone broth and vegetable broths, cooked with organic coconut oils and organic butter to enrich your enterocytes with EFA’s essential fatty acids, including butyrate and Lauric acids, which can help to fight off pathogens and heal the gut lining. 

• Eat a good amount of ginger, black pepper and turmeric as these bio-botanicals help to kill off bacteria, improve digestion, and reduce inflammation. 

• Drink plenty of Reverse-osmosis filtered water to stay hydrated, since dehydration can weaken your cells, leading to leaky gut and leaky brain syndrome.