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This week's topic: Leaky Gut Treatment
What is the most scientifically validated treatment for leaky gut?
Overview of today's email:
- Overview of leaky gut
- Clinical takeaway
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1. Overview
I wrote a newsletter on "Explaining Leaky Gut" in February of last year (links to all previous newsletters can be found at the bottom of all emails, or click here).
As a reminder, some key points about leaky gut:
- Everyone has a permeable gut lining, and will experience transitory leaky gut in various situations.
- When leaky gut is a problem, we are referencing "pathologic gut hyper-permeability," also referenced as LGS (leaky gut syndrome).
- Even in integrative and functional medicine, it is still unclear if this is considered a condition, a root cause, or a symptom. More research needs to be done.
- In functional medicine we often use a variety of nutraceuticals, in addition to lifestyle modifications, to treat leaky gut.
However, when you look for evidence behind many of these nutraceuticals - specifically to address leaky gut - good scientific literature on humans is lacking. The majority of studies focus on improvement in surrogate markers of gut permeability (e.g. lactulose-mannitol ratio), but haven't proved that treatments restore the resiliency of the gut lining (or that addressing the gut lining actually improves systemic conditions).
What is the most "scientifically validated" treatment, per the literature? A high polyphenol diet proves to be the most consistent, followed by mixed results with use of probiotics and prebiotics.
I'm reviewing more of the research, and taking a deeper dive into this topic, in this month's Functional Medicine Collective.
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2. Clinical Takeaway
The epithelial gut lining is only one-cell thick.
This is where the tight junctions reside, and where we put most of our focus on addressing leaky gut.
However, the factors that affect the lining are dynamic and influenced by:
- The composition (and metabolites) of the microbiome
- The mucosa layer that blankets the endothelial layer
- Neuroendocrine involvement
For long-term support and prevention of chronic leaky gut, develop a maintenance plan that addresses all of the above.
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Functional Medicine Collective (FMC) 2.0
The FMC is evolving! In this (intentionally) small collaborative community, I aim to get to know each member and their unique challenges as we navigate the nuances of real-world functional medicine.
The first new change: monthly "practical reviews" of individual topics. Starting this month, I am taking a deep dive into individual topics pertinent to functional medicine, with an emphasis on the scientific evidence behind evaluation and treatments! Upcoming topics:
- Practical Review of Leaky Gut Syndrome
- Practical Review of Metabolic Endotoxemia
- Practical Review of Hormone Therapy (one hormone addressed per month)
- Practical Review of Perimenopause Evaluation and Treatment
Recordings of the above will be available for non-members to purchase for $297 per topic.
The other new change? A monthly self-scheduled 1:1 mentor call with me! And all members can have the option to sit in on these.
Click below to join!
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I hope this was clinically useful!
To see more of my deep dive into the literature, as well as my clinical insights and thoughts on this topic, subscribe to my paid Substack ($8 a month)!
Meg
P.S. These emails take a lot of time to create (and I don't receive a lot of feedback on whether they are useful to those that receive them), so I've moved to Substack for an extended version of these at a low monthly cost (available within 24 hours of releasing this email). Why Substack? It has the benefits of being able to comment and ask questions about the posts, you're not bombarded with ads, I'm using the platform as a "micro-mentorship", and it's low cost!
Additional resources that may be helpful:
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