“All disease begins in the gut. – Hippocrates”
One of the first things I learned when I began studying Ayurveda is the importance of the gut and gut health. Ayurveda teaches that the gut is often the root of chronic illness. According to Ayurveda, dis-ease manifests when “ama” or toxins are not fully digested and eliminated from the body, allowing ama to accumulate in the body.
Knowing how important gut health is to overall health and well-being, I’m excited to tune in this week to The Gut Solution Summit, hosted by Sarah Otto and Jonathan Potts.
The Gut Solution is an 8-part documentary series that aims to look at the root cause of over 90% of disease. I highly recommend checking out this docu-series and supporting Sarah and Jonathan’s wonderful work.
I took copious notes today while watching Episode 01 and wish to share them with you here. To view the entire episode, visit the summit directly here.
Notes from The Gut Solution Summit – Episode 01
Did you know?
- 95% of serotonin is created in the gut.
- Allergies, auto-immune conditions, and skin conditions like rosacea all stem from the gut.
- If you experience bloating, gas, bowel disease, asthma, psoriasis, migraines, or TICs, it is highly likely that gut flora is playing a role.
- Antibiotics wipe out both the bad bacteria and the good bacteria in the gut.
- Glyphosate (found in GMO food), tap water, medications, antibiotics, stress – all of these disrupt the gut bacteria balance
- Ibuprofen is a common cause of leaky gut.
- Tap water: hormones, antibiotics, and fluoride are found in tap water.
When it comes to our overall health, the gut is the root to the tree. To experience optimal health and wellbeing, we need to first look to the gut and make sure it’s in balance.
An unhealthy or imbalanced gut contributes to the development of chronic illness and dis-ease as a result of what is called a “leaky gut”.
The Leaky Gut
What is a “leaky gut”?
A leaky gut refers to the condition when the gut becomes hyper permeable and [undigested food particles flow into bloodstream and clog up the liver. The liver can’t filter out all the trash so it flows into bloodstream. The immune system responds as if it was an invader. (When this happens, the) immune system goes into containment mode – it can’t take care of its other functions, so your defenses become unmanned.]
What contributes to a “leaky gut” in the first place?
Medications, hormones in food, stress, different chemicals and cleaning products – all of these things contribute to a leaky gut.
“When you have something that affects the ecosystem of the gut – whether they’re in the form of antibiotics or other toxins – and it makes that ecosystem sick, then the gut isn’t working anymore and it can’t take in nutrients. At same time, this compromises our immune system, which creates a cascade of inflammation in the body. The result? An immune response is triggered.
Leaky Gut & Inflammation
The other problem with leaky gut is that it causes endotoxins to leak into the blood stream.
Endotoxins are toxic substances bound to the bacterial cell wall and released when the bacterium ruptures or disintegrates. Endotoxins are present in the outer membranes of pathogenic bacteria. When bacteria like these release their endotoxins, our body initiates an inflammatory response. This inflammation can cause leaky gut or aggravate existing symptoms.
What happens when you have a Leaky Gut?
When you have a leaky but, toxins from your intestine travel into your bloodstream.
“Metabolic endotoxemia is a major contributing factor to the obesity epidemic and diabetes metabolic syndrome. It is tied to this overproduction of endotoxins in the gut and tied into gut leakiness as well. Because the more leaky your gut is, the more the toxins get in. And, the more of this pro-inflammatory group called propionibacteria that you have in your gut, the more endotoxin gets in.”
“50 years ago farmers started adding antibiotics to their feed because they learned they could fatten up their animals and get more money per pound. They’re basically making these animals obese and diabetic.”
When researchers give animals a broad-spectrum antibiotic, the gut of the animals instantly gets leaky and this can induce cancers or chronic diseases or diabetes in the animals.
There’s an amazing gut researcher named Patric Canny. He found that the lipopolysaccharide of gram-negative bacteria, if he injected it into animals, if it didn’t kill them, it would instantly make them fat because it caused leaky gut.
Research shows now that if we can reverse leaky gut, nourish the gut flora, get the flora back in, everything tightens up and people instantly lose weight.
If a person wants to lost 10 – 20 pounds, s/he usually can lose it in 3-4 months. Losing 50 pounds in 5 months is do-able. Normalizing and resetting rhythms of the microbiome and recolonizing flora is key.
How Does Glyphosate & GMOs Contribute to Leaky Gut?
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Round Up, is considered the most damaging to gut health by researchers.
Round Up not only kills all the beneficial microbes in the plant, it bonds to all the mineral ions in the plant and turns them into salts. The moment those calcium or magnesium or zinc or essential elements turn into salts, they are in essence heavy metals.
Even though they’re essential nutrients to begin with, glyphosate turns them into heavy metal.
If you’re eating GMO food, you’re getting some of this in your food. When you consume this, it’s doing the same thing to your gut that it’s doing to that plant.
1995 was the beginning of GMOs and RoundUp being used or otherwise glyphosate being used on our foods.
Glyphosate was patented in 2010 as an antibiotic.
What’s the difference between an antibiotic and a pesticide?
They’re the same.
What about Preservatives, Chlorine, Flouride & Tap Water?
That’s just agricultural chemicals. What about preservatives?
Preservatives are both either antibiotic or anti-fungal.
If you want to keep a pool from carrying a disease, you gotta keep the pH at a certain level by using what? Chlorine. Why? Chlorine kills the bugs.
Now if you add fluoride to it, it’s even more powerful. It’s an even better bug killer.
If you’re drinking chlorinated, fluoridated water, what’s that doing to your gut?
The Gut-Brain Axis: How The Gut Contributes to Mental Wellbeing or Mental Illness
There’s a huge increase in gut disorders and there’s a huge increase in mental illness. And they’re linked. It’s a gut brain axis.
So if we’re destroying the gut, the ability to make neurotransmitters is impacted and our brain and nervous systems do not work properly.
Multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons, and mental illness are increasing, as a result of this agricultural practice.
In 2018, Dwayne Johnson proved the RoundUp caused his non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Now there are 8000 plaintiffs waiting on the side lines that have the same thing.
The SAD Diet: Standard American Diet
If you’re eating the SAD Diet with breakfast cereals every morning, it’s important to be aware that those cereals are being sprayed with glyphosate which means you are eating an antibiotic in the morning, a chelating agent, and minerals are being taken out of the system. You’re killing the bacteria.
So – if you have a muffin in the morning with tea, and maybe a sandwich with wheat or grain in it, and you’re using Canola Oil because you’ve been told it’s healthy, you’re eating foods that are processed. Canola Oil, by the way, has RoundUp sprayed on it.
What can you do to take your gut health back into your hands?
Your first step is to focus on the “low hanging fruit” – which means, the easiest foods to change first.
If you eat apples, for example, choose organic. Here’s why:
Apples are one of the most sprayed fruits in the world. So, the first thing you can do is go to your local farmers market and buy from a local farmer who doesn’t use pesticides or antibiotics. Other products to source from the local farmers market include: dairy, chicken, carrots, and other fruits and veggies.
Also, find a co-op.
Additional Ways to Heal Your Gut
- Seek out a Functional Medicine Doctor or Gut Health Expert. If you feel you may be experiencing a leaky gut or symptoms caused by a gut issue, I recommend seeking out a functional medicine doctor who can guide and support you 1-on-1. In LA, SF and NYC, Parsley Health is a good place to start.
- Elimination Diet: In addition, an “Elimination Diet” in which you stop eating foods commonly known to cause gut issues (like dairy, wheat, nuts, and soy) is also beneficial and will provide insights.
- Learn about Inflammatory Foods: Find out which foods are inflammatory and eliminate these from your diet, one at a time.
- Food Journal: Tune in to how you feel and keep a food journal so you can more easily recognize patterns that emerge after eating or eliminating certain foods.
- Digestive Enzymes & Probiotics: In addition, learn about and get expert guidance on which digestive enzymes and probiotics may be beneficial to help heal your gut.
- Invest in a water filter to remove harmful contaminants from tap water. I personally use Berkey’s Travel Water Filter in my home.
Gratitude:
Thank you Sarah and Jonathan for sharing this valuable information on gut health with us all. To get access to The Gut Solution series, click here.