Is Leaky Gut Making Your Celiac Symptoms Worse? Ep. 227

Leaky gut is a term that gets thrown around a lot - but what does it really mean, and how does it tie into celiac disease? In this episode, I break down leaky gut in simple terms so you can finally understand what’s happening inside your body. You’ll learn:

·         What leaky gut actually is (without the science jargon)

·         Why people with celiac disease are more prone to it

·         The everyday triggers that make it worse

·         The symptoms to watch for, from bloating and fatigue to rashes and food sensitivities

·         Simple steps you can take to start repairing your gut

I’ll also share why focusing on gut healing is one of the most important things you can do after a celiac disease diagnosis.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding Leaky Gut Basics
• 2:40 Common Causes of Leaky Gut
• 6:06 Healing Strategies for Your Gut
• 9:48 Next Steps and Free Resources
• 11:52 You're Not Alone in This

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:24

Now you might have heard the term leaky gut floating around and wondered: is it something that you need to worry about or is it something that happens due to celiac disease? So I wanted to talk about this on today's episode in some real world terms so that you can understand it and see if it's something that you might be struggling with and give you some answers for how to deal with leaky gut if it's something that you're struggling with. Now the thing is your gut does want to heal, okay? Your body naturally should have a healthy gut. But for many of us, we suffer with problems with our gut due to celiac disease, and leaky gut is certainly one of those problems. So what is leaky gut? The best way to explain it is your gut is like a barrier. Okay, so your gut is meant to protect your the rest of your body from things getting into your bloodstream. So things that shouldn't be getting into your bloodstream, like food particles, like bacteria, should not be going past the gut barrier. So think of it like a coffee filter. So a coffee filter is designed to protect your coffee cup from having any of the ground coffee particles going into your drink and making it gross and gritty. But if that coffee filter got a tear in it or a small hole, then those pieces of ground coffee would then pass through and land in your coffee cup and ruin your coffee cup. So think of your gut the same way. If you get little tears in your gut, that is what causes leaky gut, and then these particles will go through and get into your bloodstream. So why is this a problem? So normally your gut will only let nutrients go through, it'll pass through what it needs to, and other pieces won't go anywhere that they're not supposed to. But when you have a leaky gut, particles, things like toxins, bacteria, pieces of food can go through those holes and end up in your bloodstream. Now, the things that can cause the damage to your gut are things such as gluten. So many people that have recently been diagnosed with celiac disease will find that they do have a leaky gut. People will get problems with leaky gut from things like medications as well. There's some medications that will cause issues for you. Toxins, stress will also cause a leaky gut, infections, and even having a poor diet. So there's lots of things that can cause a leaky gut. You might not have even had leaky gut when you first got diagnosed, but maybe your diet's changed so much. Maybe you're on a medication that your gut is not happy with, or maybe your life is so stressful at the moment, and that is causing leaky gut for you. So what happens with these issues is that barrier weakens, or think of it like the filter gets holes in it, and that's where the problem arises. So, with this, things are then going through into your bloodstream and causing problems within your body. Things like inflammation can occur. So I want you to imagine this, okay? So imagine your house, and on your roof is a small hole, and every time it rains, some of that water gets through into the roof, and it causes a little bit of damage each time. Okay, it's not flooding your house, but it's causing a little bit of damage. It's causing mold, it's causing damage to your ceilings, it's causing electrical issues, and all of these problems continue to get worse and worse and worse because you haven't patched the hole in the roof. It's exactly the same with your gut. Okay, you need to heal your gut so that you can get rid of these problems, just like you need to patch the roof and fix those problems so that they no longer continue. Now, as you probably know, gluten does cause problems to the small intestine and it can take time for us to heal after going gluten-free. But for many, they're not healing their gut, they're not doing all the right things to be able to heal their gut so that they can feel better. So that is one of the most important things that we need to do after a celiac disease diagnosis is to heal the gut so that we can start to absorb all the beautiful nutrients from our diet and start to lower our inflammation and start to get our energy back and feel better. It's so important. Now, unfortunately, there's lots of symptoms, and every time I talk about different health problems, a lot of the symptoms tie back to gluten. And it's no surprise that you'll notice things like inflammation, you'll deal with bloating or fatigue, you might even have food sensitivities that you never had before or never noticed before. You might have skin flare-ups like eczema or rashes, and you might even notice mood swings or feeling off. So let's talk a little bit deeper about some of the things that can cause leaky gut. So, first up, I want to talk about medications a little bit deeper. So, when we talk about medications, we're talking about things that are, you know, can cause gut issues like ibuprofen. And I highly recommend that my students within Ultimate Celiap system do not take ibuprofen for this exact reason. Antibiotics can also be an issue. And when we talk about chronic stress, we're talking about those stress hormones because they literally loosen the gut barrier. Alcohol can be an issue, so whether that's frequent drinking or binge drinking, you may need to cut out alcohol for a while just to help heal your gut. Processed gluten-free foods can be an issue as well. Many people start to eat processed gluten-free foods and eat more processed food than they did before their celiac disease diagnosis. You've got a lot of additives and gums and inflammatory oils within those gluten-free foods, so they're not good for our gut at all. And if this is not a way that you ate before, you might be noticing that they are making a huge difference to the weight that you are feeling now that you're eating gluten-free. Another problem is low fiber diet. So if you are not eating enough healthy carbohydrates, if you're not getting enough fruit and vegetables into your diet, you will find that the good bacteria is not thriving in your gut. You need these fiber foods to be able to, you know, boost the good bacteria in your gut. So, so important. And again, that ties in with having probiotics in your gut as well. Your body needs to thrive based on the bacteria. We are made up of so much bacteria, and if we're feeding the bad bacteria rather than the good bacteria, that causes so many issues with our gut as well. So, how do we make a start with this? There's a lot to face, there's a lot to deal with. The biggest one is getting on top of your gluten-free diet. That is without saying, like that's just a given. You're gonna hear me bang on about that every time. It's always to do with gluten-free, 100%. But if that's not your trigger, you know you're on top of your gluten-free diet, alcohol could be the thing that you need to reduce. So, like I said, whether that's cutting it out completely, cutting back, drinking less often, it is very, very important if that is something that is a big part of your lifestyle, because the flow-on effects of that are huge. So that is a big one to focus on. The next one is managing your stress. So if you're stressed out, if you I mean, we all have stress, I'm not gonna lie, I have stress as well, but we need to manage our stress. How can we do that? Getting more sleep, going for walks, whether it's meditation, whether it's asking for more help, making things easier in yourself lowers your stress as well. So you might need to look at what your stress triggers are and seeing if there's a way that you can lower those stress levels. And then you can add in things to help repair your gut as well. So there's a host of different things that you can add in. Certainly, probiotics are a fantastic one. If you're not already taking a probiotic, I'd highly recommend adding that to your regimen, uh, whether it be through eating sauerkraut or whether it be, you know, taking a supplement, that will make a huge difference to how quickly your gut will heal. We can drink things like bone broth and take collagen, and we can eat more of a healthy broad diet, getting more fiber into our lifestyle. And there's a whole host of other things that I also recommend as well. But you know, focusing on things like eating well, chewing slowly, allowing our body to digest the food that it's consuming, prioritizing good sleep, and moving your body daily. Believe it or not, when you move your body, it actually helps your body heal faster. So you might be thinking, how do I get tested for leaky gut? Well, the thing is most doctors don't actually test for leaky gut, believe it or not. You can get lab tests done individually, like on the side, but they're not always necessary to actually go and get done. Instead, you're better off actually just paying attention to your symptoms and how you are feeling and seeing how things are progressing over time. Now, this is something that you can work on slowly, you can work on quickly. It totally depends on you as a person. But if you haven't already grabbed a copy of my free three-day gut reset guide, there's way more information in there to help you heal your gut. And I highly recommend you grab yourself a copy of that. If you go to my website, belindawheeland.com, you can download it there completely free. It's got lots of information in there that goes a little bit deeper so that you've got it to refer to and you can check out some easier ways of you know healing your gut and making yourself feel better quicker. So make sure you go to my website, download a copy of that free guide, and and follow the steps that I've got in there because it is a bit of a game changer when you are dealing with these issues, and all I want for you is to feel better and to heal quicker. So that's belindawheelan.com, and you'll be able to grab a copy there. If you are on YouTube, I will pop a link below, and if you're on the podcast, I'll also pop a link in the show notes so you can go directly to grab yourself a copy. This might sound overwhelming and like a lot, but trust me, it's not. It is just another thing that we need to focus on, and if anything, probably one of the most important things that you can do if you are early on in your journey with celiac disease is to heal your gut because you will feel so much better, so much quicker. And if you're a little bit further on in your journey and you're thinking, hmm, some of this stuff is really resonating, it's still important. Leaky gut is not just something that people with celiac disease get. Lots and lots of people get leaky gut, as you heard me say. Things like alcohol, things like diet, things like stress, lack of sleep, lots of people are experiencing those things. So it's not just us. So please know that it's not just you. You are not alone in this. And if you need more guidance with this, go ahead, download that free guide and get some inside tips from me that will help you further heal your gut. So, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode, and I look forward to talking with you again on next week's show. Have a great week. Talk to you then. Bye.