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The importance of a healthy gut can be difficult to digest. After all, your gut isn’t likely to cross your mind unless you have a gut feeling or a stomachache. But over the last two decades, it’s been on the minds of researchers who have found a strong relationship between the health of your gut and everything from your mood and mental well-being, to skin disorders, arthritis, autoimmune disease and cancer. But one surprising connection that’s hard to swallow is your gut’s effect on your immunity. If your gut becomes damaged in a condition known as a leaky gut, the damage extends to your immune system. Discover how to protect both your gut and your immunity.

Guts and Glory

Your gut deserves a lot of glory. Everything you eat and drink travels through your gut along your gastrointestinal track to be properly digested. All along this path are trillions of bacteria, with some harmful, but many beneficial and even essential for good health. That’s because more than 70% of your immune system lives in your gut! These bacteria teach your immune system how to respond so it’s able to keep you healthy and fight off disease. Since your gut is home to your immune system, having a wide variety of beneficial bacteria in your gut can enhance how your immune system functions.

Digest the Dangers of A Leaky Gut

A leaky gut is a digestive condition that occurs when the lining of your small intestine becomes damaged, allowing undigested food, toxins and bacteria to “leak” into the rest of your body. This causes harmful immune reactions that can trigger inflammation and changes to normal gut bacteria. This can lead to uncomfortable digestive and health conditions, including food sensitivities, gas, bloating, diarrhea, stomach pain, migraines, eczema, arthritis, chronic fatigue, autoimmune disorders and other serious diseases. You may also be likely to develop a leaky gut if you have an unhealthy diet full of unprocessed and sugary food, consume excessive alcohol, experience chronic stress, or have a disease like diabetes or lupus.. 

How to Help and Heal a Leaky Gut

Whether you want to heal a leaky gut or simply want to keep yours healthy, there are simple lifestyle changes that can improve the health of your gut and maintain the ideal balance of gut bacteria to ensure a strong immune system.

Go to the Pros

This not only means speaking to a healthcare specialist to determine if you have a leaky gut, but also reaching for probiotics. These probiotics are microorganisms that increase the beneficial bacteria in your gut, which help make your immune system strong enough to protect you from disease. You’ll find probiotics in a variety of delicious foods, such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi and aged cheeses. To boost the power and protection of probiotics, try adding prebiotic foods to your diet, such as onions, garlic, bananas, Jerusalem artichokes and leeks. If you think you may have leaky gut, but are unsure, you should consider a Zonulin leaky gut indicator test that measures the permeability of the intestinal wall. Elevated Zonulin levels indicate the presence of leaky gut, which prevents the intestines from functioning properly. If left untreated, elevated Zonulin can lead to various diseases including Autoimmune Disease, Celiac Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and IBS.

Supplement a Healthy Lifestyle

No matter how healthy your diet, it won’t do any good if your body can’t absorb the nutrients properly. This often happens when you have a leaky gut or experience digestive conditions. And whether you’re facing this problem or just don’t have the time to eat well, supplements and nutrient IV therapy can help feed your nutrient needs. Allowing you to instantly and conveniently fill in the gaps in your nutrition, pharmaceutical-grade supplements have been carefully designed to promote beneficial gut bacteria and support a healthy intestinal wall, which can help a leaky gut.