Although you may not have heard of it before, having a ‘leaky gut’ is very common and is associated with loads of symptoms and conditions all around your body. Not only the symptoms you may be experiencing with your gut, but also if you’re having difficulty losing weight or have allergies, for example.

Fixing a leaky gut (yes, it can be done) can alleviate a lot of symptoms, some trivial, some a bit more serious.

So what is ‘leaky gut’ exactly?

Your intestines are lined with a single layer of cells that are linked together by tight junctions. When you have leaky gut these tight junctions aren’t working as they should.

The gaps between the cells lining your gut determine what can pass through into your bloodstream from your digestive system. They need to be tight enough to ensure that no nasties pass through, but have enough room between them to allow the things we do want to pass through – vital nutrients for example.

When you have leaky gut, certain particles that shouldn’t be able to enter your bloodstream start to leak through. 

Much of your immune system is also located throughout your gut, and this may also be affected. The result being possible inflammation and autoimmune reactions.

What might cause a ‘leaky gut?’

Genes – some people may be more likely to develop leaky gut because they are sensitive to certain environmental triggers, causing their bodies to mount autoimmune responses.

Diet – certain foods are more likely to cause allergic or inflammatory responses. The main offenders tend to be

• grains, particularly wheat
• added refined sugar
• genetically modified foods
• refined oils
• food additives, and
• processed dairy products.

Stress – chronic, unrelenting stress will take its toll on your body in many ways. Therefore learning techniques to manage it is vital.

Toxins – The worst offenders as far as your gut is concerned are chemicals in household products; for example cosmetics, hair dyes and washing powder, together with alcohol, prescription drugs such as antibiotics and NSAIDS, drinking unfiltered water and pesticides.

Toxins are everywhere and it’d be unrealistic to try and avoid them entirely, but switching to natural household products and cosmetic brands, filtering your water and opting for organic foods where possible will go a long way to reducing your toxic load.

Leaky Gut Symptoms: Dysbiosis –

This is where the good and bad bacteria which live in your gut get out of balance. The pathogenic bacteria and yeasts get too much of a stranglehold and start to cause damage to your gut, and throughout your body too. A large body of evidence now shows that gut microbiota are important in supporting the cells lining your gut, and preventing autoimmune reactions.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, and also your sleep, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

So, how do you know if this is affecting you?

Here are some of the main leaky gut symptoms –

Leaky gut symptoms and signs

• IBS
• Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis
• Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

• Metabolic diseases such as fatty liver or Type II diabetes
• Autoimmune disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Propensity towards weight gain or obesity

At the current time it’s not known for sure if having a leaky gut causes these conditions, but its safe to say that leaky gut tends to occur concurrently with these other issues.

How to overcome leaky gut symptoms

There are basically four main steps I recommend in order to repair a leaky gut, these are –

• Establish what your trigger foods are, and remove them from your diet.
• Ascertain which diet and/or lifestyle factors have given rise to leaky gut – for example, ongoing stress or medications.
• Repair the gut lining with herbs and/or supplements.
• Rebalance the microflora with probiotics.

If you’re struggling to sleep, know you’re not alone. It’s a very common problem indeed. Strangely enough it’s an area which is very closely linked to our gut health. Not only does the health of our microbiome impact how well we sleep, or don’t sleep – but our sleep (or lack of it) definitely has a huge effect on our microbiome and overall gut health. Let’s look at how this happens, who is most affected and what we can do to support our insomnia and gut health.

How the microbiome affects insomnia

Numerous studies to date have demonstrated that the gut microbiome definitely seems to influence sleep quality.

Via the gut-brain-axis the microbiome determines sleep-related physiological functions in a few different ways, it seems –

• It can shift your circadian rhythm
• Affect the hormones that regulate sleep
• Alter your body’s sleep-wake cycle

An abundant and diverse gut microbiome correlates with more time spent asleep, and that sleep quality is improved. In other words, time spent actually sleeping when you’re in bed.

Serotonin – key if you’re struggling with insomnia

There is a strong link between the levels of serotonin we have circulating, our gut bacteria and how well we sleep. Serotonin regulates our sleep cycle, and our gut microbiome determines the levels of serotonin in our body. However the exact mechanism remains unclear. Serotonin has different functions in the brain and around the body, but studies involving mice given antibiotics to wipe out most of their gut flora, demonstrated that they had generally low serotonin levels and disrupted sleep cycles.

How does insomnia affect your gut?

Naturally, it also follows that a lack of sleep affects our gut in numerous ways. So if we don’t take measures to look after our gut health we could end up with a vicious cycle going on here.

How well you sleep, and how much sleep you get, certainly seems to affect the diversity of your gut microbes. This undoubtedly has a knock-on effect for your health generally.

The bacteria in your gut are dynamic and in a delicate balance. They respond to changes such as sleep deprivation and shift work. Changes such as these will cause some species to die-off, and some to proliferate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when you keep waking up in the night it seems it gives rise to a proliferation of less-than-desireable species proliferating: Specifically those species which cause bloating.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, and also your sleep, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Insomnia causes changes throughout the body

All these factors on their own may not sound too troubling, but your gut health certainly influences the rest of your health too. These changes in your microbiome may lead to –

• Tissue inflammation
• Decreased insulin sensitivity
• Leaky gut
• There is also a clear link between sleep disturbance and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), heartburn and acid indigestion.

Unfortunately it doesn’t take long for all these negative effects to start occurring either. As little as a couple of nights disturbed sleep can have this effect :-/ So if you’re someone who has insomnia, works shifts or is a new parent, for example it’s definitely worth supporting your gut.

Prebiotic-rich foods

• Leeks
• Onions
• Garlic
• Chicory

If you’re chronically sleep-deprived then supporting your digestion with probiotic and prebiotic supplements would probably be wise.

Usually when I tell clients their test results have shown gut parasites they’re mortified! But it’s not generally as bad as you first think. Read on to discover whether or not parasites may be behind your digestive symptoms, and what to do if you suspect they may be.

What are parasites exactly?

A parasite is an organism that attaches itself to a host and benefits from living there. It will sustain itself by living off the host, sometimes at their expense. However this isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some parasites live on your skin (don’t worry they’re so tiny you won’t know they’re there!) They eat dead skin cells, so in this respect are actually quite helpful. Others, however, live off the food you eat so are not really so helpful.

Sometimes parasites can cause severe disease in humans – malaria for example, is caused by a parasite.

Other examples are –

• Giardia lamblia
• Entamoeba histolytica
• Threadworms
• Tapeworms
• Hookworms

Are gut parasites causing your symptoms?

Parasitic infections can happen to anyone. This is regardless of their health status, and happens if they come into contact with infected food or water.

If your gut test results come back showing you have parasites, your immediate reaction is going to be to get rid as soon as possible!

But there’s really no need to panic, as the likelihood is they may have been living with you for a long time, and may or may not be playing a part in your digestive symptoms.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Gut parasites and Your Gut Environment

Like other pathogenic bacterial species, whether or not parasites are causing you harm is highly dependent on your overall gut environment.

There are a few species however that are always going to be highly problematic – that’s why it’s always advisable to seek advice from your GP if you experience suspicious symptoms, for instance after travel.

It is estimated that around 80% of us have parasites living in our guts, and these are generally acquired through consuming contaminated food or drink. However if you have ‘dysbiosis’, in other words, imbalanced gut flora, leaky gut syndrome, or compromised immunity you may be more susceptible.

As much as dysbiosis may be caused by parasites, it may be that you had dysbiosis first, which has paved the way for the parasites to flourish. This is why it’s always important to look at the overall health of the gut environment, and take a closer look at what’s going on.

Testing for gut parasites

The only way to tell for sure whether or not parasites may be behind your symptoms is to test. Two species that often crop up when we test are

• Blastocystis hominis
• Dientamoeba fragilis

These tend to show up as part of a larger dysbiotic picture. Therefore supporting digestive, and overall health, is key.

Supporting gut health and minimising gut parasites

Sometimes a targeted herbal approach is required to restore balance to the gut, using antimicrobial supplements such as

• Oregano
• Berberine
• Grapefruit seed extract

However, I wouldn’t recommend going straight in with these without testing first, and without guidance from an experienced practitioner. These antimicrobials are potent and may eventually end up negatively impacting your beneficial bacterial colonies.

Supporting the overall health of your gut is key to restoring balance, and consuming the following foods will help you achieve that –

Garlic and onions,  These both contain sulphur compounds which have anti-parasitic properties.

Ginger has antibacterial and antiparasitic effects.

• Probiotic-rich foods such as kefir, natural yogurt and sauerkraut help maintain a healthy balance in the gut.

• Apple cider vinegar is superb for digestion (however be careful of your teeth).

So, in summary having a parasitic infection is highly likely to be part of a bigger picture of digestive health imbalance, requiring an overall approach to restoring digestive, and general health.

You’re doing everything ‘right’ diet-wise and you’ve been told everything ‘looks normal’ …. but you’re not feeling great, you’ve got horrible debilitating symptoms and you just KNOW everything is a long way from ‘normal’.  If you’re experiencing this kind of situation, the only way to sort things out once and for all is to get to the root cause of your issues.  What’s the best way to find the root cause?  Usually through private lab tests.  Here follow four really important reasons to use lab tests to test your gut, in order to get the best result possible for yourself.

1. Lab tests for yeast infections

If you think you have a yeast infection, then stool and/or organic acid tests are the only reliable way to know for sure.

• Looking at your tongue
• Spitting into a glass of water and watching what your saliva does
• Taking online questionnaires

All of these are non-diagnostic for yeast overgrowth in the gut.

Health care providers can diagnose oral thrush by looking in the mouth, but oral thrush does not necesarily equal Candida in the gut.

Questionnaires can be helpful for organising your symptoms and your thoughts, and pointing you in a particular direction for further exploration, but they are not diagnostic. Although they can hint the something might be wrong in that particular region.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

3. Lab tests for ‘leaky gut’

If you’re getting non-gut symptoms, some of these can be traced back to having ‘leaky gut’ or intestinal permeability.

Symptoms throughout your body may have their root cause in your gut. These conditions include the following –

• Autoimmune reactions and diseases
• Food allergies or sensitivities
• Asthma
• Skin disorders like eczema and psoriasis or acne
• Arthritis and other body aches or pains
• Fatigue
• Changes in mood, weight and appetite

There are several tests we can run to check the health of your gut and to ascertain whether or not the condition of your gut is impacting, or even causing, further symptoms throughout your body.  Comprehensive gut testing is highly effective for this.

So, the bottom line is, if you’re getting any of these symptoms lab tests are a really good place to start.

In addition, there are more really compelling reasons to give it a go, including –

• It takes the guesswork away
• You’ll get much quicker and effective results
• It’s a very good motivator – when you can see what you’re dealing with, actually written in black and white, it’s really very motivating.

Gluten-Free: Five things you need to know

You’ve no doubt heard a lot about going ‘gluten-free’ and noticed ‘gluten-free’ products springing up all over the place. But is it actually beneficial for your health to avoid gluten altogether, and why might gluten be bad for you? Here are FIVE things you need to know, and what you should do if you suspect you’re gluten intolerant.

As with most things nutrition-related, whether or not you need to avoid gluten depends on a number of factors. Let’s dive into what the potential problems may be with gluten.

The difference between coeliac disease and gluten intolerance

Gluten intolerance is a totally different condition to coeliac disease. Coeliac disease is a fairly rare condition in which the villi (delicate projections lining the gut) become completely destroyed when gluten is eaten. For a long time coeliac was considered the only condition where gluten needed to be avoided, and you either had it or you didn’t. If your test results came back negative for coeliac, then you could freely eat gluten, as it didn’t appear to be a problem for you. However, as time went on it appeared this wasn’t the case and Non-Coeliac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) was recognised.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Gluten-free? How gluten affects your microbiome

Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity can result in significant and negative changes to the microbiome (your resident gut flora). This may result in an imbalance of beneficial and not-so-beneficial-bacteria. Seeing as though our general health and wellbeing depends on the health of our microbiome, it’s easy to see how gluten may be problematic for some.

Gluten is an anti-nutrient

As gluten is an anti-nutrient it’s going to be reasonably difficult for most people to process, whether they’re especially sensitive to gluten or not.
Anti-nutrients are substances present in all plant-foods, including grains, lentils, beans and seeds etc. Plants contain anti-nutrients as a defence mechanism, to stop them being so appealing to predators.

Thinking of going gluten free? Here’s what to do if you suspect you may be sensitive

Unfortunately the only way to know for definite if gluten is a problem for you is to remove it from your diet totally, for a period of at least 2-4 weeks.

If gluten does indeed turn out to be a problem food for you, you’ll notice your symptoms start to subside over this time. Slowly start to reintroduce gluten. If your symptoms reappear then its definitely time for you to go gluten-free. If you don’t notice any changes, it’s unlikely that gluten is causing your problems.

If you’re suffering with your gut health, for example with IBS, bloating, SIBO, or candida, the chances are you may have tried restricting your diet in one way or another. When restricting your diet, you need to be careful you’re not missing out on vital nutrients.  Eliminating grains, gluten, or FODMAPs for example, may provide temporary relief from your symptoms. But these foods may well contain vital nutrients which you may be missing out on.  So, supplements for gut health, do you need them?

Supplements aren’t magic bullets and they won’t compensate for a bad diet. The number one rule is that your diet comes first,  although supplements may just be the icing on the cake as far as your health is concerned.

For reasons I’ll explain, it may be a good idea to supplement so you can avoid some of the more common nutrient deficiencies.   These deficiencies may cause all sorts of health niggles from headaches, to a lack of energy, digestive issues or hormonal ups and downs.

Whether you decide to supplement or not, a top notch diet is vitally important. You need to be eating nutrient dense foods and avoiding processed products as far as you possibly can. Good quality protein, healthy fats and a rainbow of fruits and vegetables are what’s required.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

Supplements for gut health: do you need them if you’re eating well?

• Often our diets aren’t as nutrient-packed as they could be. We may eat well for a few days each week and then it might all go to pot when we’re busy at work, away for the weekend or on holiday, for example

• A lot of food is highly processed and contains lots of additives. Whilst much of the fresh produce we consume has been sprayed with pesticides.

• The soil used for farming is alarming depleted in vital minerals, much more so than it was a few decades ago.  A great way to overcome this is to use a box scheme – I use Riverford and have done for a long time.  Feel free to use this link to get £15 off your order.

• Often fresh produce has travelled a long way to get to your table, and is likely to have been refrigerated for long periods of time. The longer food takes to reach you, the less nutrients it contains.

In addition –

• If you’re suffering with digestive issues such as IBS you may have an underlying problem such as a yeast infection, SIBO or low stomach acid. All these problems affect your gut’s ability to absorb vital nutrients.

• Stress will drastically impact your ability to digest food properly, and hinder your absorption of nutrients. Added to that your body’s stress response will use up lots of nutrients – especially your B-Vitamins.

• Occasions when your body is under extra pressure such as PMS, perimenopause, menopause and especially pregnancy will undoubtedly cause your nutrient requirement to increase.

• Vitamin D will definitely need to be supplemented during the winter months if you live in the Northern Hemisphere.

•  A lot of people don’t like fish! Yet the fats that oily fish contain – Omega-3s – are vital to your health and wellbeing. Omega-3s are needed to protect your cardiovascular system, to help your brain function properly, avoid mood disorders and reduce inflammation. If you’re not eating oily fish 2-3 times each week then you’re likely to need to supplement.

Supplements for gut health: which kind of supplements should you take?

Unfortunately the brands you commonly find in supermarkets aren’t great quality.  They usually contain a lot of added fillers or even artificial sweeteners or sugars. Added to that the nutrients they contain often aren’t in forms which are easily absorbed by the body. So they won’t do you much good!

Some great quality brands you can easily get hold of in health food shops are Nutri, Biocare, Pure Encapsulations or Cytoplan, for example.

Vitamin D with K2 during the winter.

This is vital to keep your levels topped up after the sun has disappeared. You need good levels of Vitamin-D to keep your immune system healthy, your bones strong and just about every other bodily function you can think of ticking over nicely!

Extra Vitamin-C

Again, this is vital for your immunity, to help your adrenal glands cope with stress and assist in the production of collagen.

IMPORTANT: If you’re taking medications of any kind, suspect you may be, or are, pregnant or have any other health concerns always check with your healthcare provider before taking any supplements.