Common Conditions Tied to Leaky Gut Syndrome

Leaky gut, as with many other health concerns, is often tied to other medical conditions. The imbalance that occurs from one condition often leads to further imbalance and predisposition for other health conditions. Prior gut related conditions, neurologic conditions, blood sugar imbalances and metabolic conditions can lead to an increased likelihood to get leaky gut.

Dr. Hayden and Dr. Horsley will dive more into this idea as well as cover several other key concepts as they continue this series, “Leaky Gut Syndrome – Your Symptoms Could be Directly Associated with Your Diet”. You will learn about what leaky gut is, what the symptoms are, how it is diagnosed, what the best treatment options are, and common conditions tied to leaky gut. These videos will be released over the next couple days on our youtube account, facebook account, and as a blog post on The Hayden Institute website.

Transcript from Video on Common Conditions Tied to Leaky Gut

Dr. Hayden: So far in our little mini series regarding leaky gut we’ve talked a lot about leaky gut as a standpoint of what it is, where it comes from, and even how it is diagnosed. Unfortunately, leaky gut is often associated with other conditions. Which means someone might have a diagnosis already and not even know that leaky gut is going on in the background. So, Dr. Horsley, today I want to know what are some of the most common diagnoses that someone may already have in their life that may also develop leaky gut.

Dr. Horsley: So naturally, you would think of a lot of got related symtpoms or gut related contitions that will convert and be associated with leaky gut, and that is correct. Many people who have IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome, will present with chronic constipation or daily diarrhea. The two symptoms may even alternate and present with constipation for a couple days, followed by diarrhea. It is a common condition in society that individuals complain that no matter what they do, their gut just doesn’t seem to be normal. This condition often can be associated with leaky gut- either where leaky gut has increased the symtpoms of IBS or that the prior IBS predisposed them to developing leaky gut.

Dr. Horsley: So another big comorbidity is going to be infections. Candida is one of these infections that tends to be very prevalent within society. Candida is a yeast overgrowth in the gut that can be a big factor in creating this inflammation and leading to that leaky barrier system and contributing to other different symptoms. Another condition that is often associated is going to be celiac disease. Celiac is where you have an autoimmune disease related to gluten. So that means that whenever gluten (a protein found in wheat) is taken in, your body will react. Often this reaction that takes place in the gut will leaky gut a breakdown of the gut lining leaky to leaky gut.

Dr. Horsley: Then there is also Crohn’s disease, another condition where you have a damaged gut lining. The gut has a large surface area to be able to absorb food effectively – one of the things that helps to further increase this surface area are things called vili. These are little hair like projections from the lining. In Crohn’s disease, these little vili are damaged – therefore limiting the ability of our gut to absorb key nutrients. This can be associated with other conditions and leaky to leaky gut.

Dr. Horsley: All of these above gut conditions can be associated with other syndromes, such as diabetes or other blood sugar imbalance related conditions.

Dr. Hayden: So it sounds like if someone has a lot of inflammation in their gut, that is going to predispose them to this inflammatory condition – leaky gut. So these chronic conditions, like Crohn’s disease and celiac disease, can lead to leaky gut. From a non-gut related diagnosis standpoint it’s common to see leaky gut in individuals that have neurodegenerateive conditions like dementia or Alzheimer’s. It is common in individuals that have liver conditions, such as non-alchoholic fatty liver disease, or different anemias. There are a variety of things that can lead to a compounding effect on inflammation in the body, which in turn, affects the digestive system and other barrier systems in the body. So if you’ve been diagnosed with a condition of the gut, the lungs, the sinuses, the skin, or the brain, there’s reason to believe that you could have inflammation that’s affecting the barriers everywhere else. This inflammation in the barrier systems may in turn lead to leaky gut related symptoms as well.

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