If you haven't heard this yet I'll write the condensed version of what I've learned and link some more in-depth articles for further study in the comments.
Now, I've discussed how functional medicine looks at people as a whole and likes to find the root cause of why things happens to us but I haven't written about the mechanism behind this yet. Many functional medicine doctors are saying that this is the root cause of all disease: something called intestinal permeability or "leaky gut".
Basically think of your gut lining as a cheesecloth. There are small spaces in the cheesecloth that allow tiny particles to pass through the barrier by design. This is how nutrients are absorbed.
Bring on gluten, dairy, sugar, corn, antacids, PPI's, NSAIDS and other medications such as antibiotics, harmful chemicals, alcohol..etc and each of these will damage the lining a bit and eventually there will be larger holes in the cheesecloth. This allows larger particles that don't belong there to pass through the lining and now this ramps up your immune system. This would then cause food sensitivities because your immune system will now be attacking the larger food particles that got through the barrier that don't belong there.
So now your immune system is triggered but not necessarily in the conventional sense. This is where I love the way Dr. Tom O'Bryan explains the immune system being like a multidisciplinary defense team- the way the military is made up of the army, navy, airforce etc...our bodies also have different ways to defend itself.
For example when you think of the word "allergy" you probably automatically think of the histamine response where there is probably some skin rash, swelling, itching, watery eyes, mucous/congestion or possibly even anaphylaxis. This is called immunoglobulin E or IgE response. Call this the army. But what about the immunoglobulin G response? IgG would be the navy. And this is where food sensitivities come in. The body reacts to the larger food particles that make it through the cheesecloth and this process eventually causes systemic inflammation.
Dr. O'Bryan describes the genetic component of this like a chain. The inflammation is what "pulls" on the chain and the chain eventually breaks at the weakest link. In my case for example, my genetic predisposition combined with all of this systemic inflammation caused by intestinal permeability caused my chain to break and I became celiac. I also developed fatigue, rosacea, anxiety, joint pain, and terrible daily headaches.
Others will develop heart problems, anxiety, depression, asthma, MS, skin issues like eczema, diabetes...the list goes on and on. And this is what they're saying is causing all of the autoimmune conditions! Autoimmune conditions are the 3rd leading cause of death followed only behind heart disease and cancer and these doctors are saying that those are probably also caused by the very same mechanism! This is why having inflammation in the body is so bad!
I've also read that if you have 1 autoimmune condition then you are more likely to develop 2 additional autoimmune conditions in your lifetime!
So when years had passed and I was eating a gluten free diet for my celiac disease but I wasn't getting any better, I had to make some lifestyle changes to heal my gut.
And that is first and foremost what needs to happen. Heal the gut. Get those junctions tight again. Do that by removing the foods and things that opened them in the first place. Once the gut is healed its possible that you will be able to tolerate many foods again!
Going for a 200 food IgE and IgG test was hugely beneficial for me.
It came back with many foods that triggered an immune reaction in my blood:
Gluten, all dairy, eggs- even duck eggs, all legumes except for chickpeas and lentils, beef and bison (that was hard because red meat is so important, but thankfully God blessed us with organic free range venison and lamb), mustard, peanuts, almonds, pineapple, garlic & vanilla - these last 2 were the hardest to avoid but I would find out later after at least 6 months of avoiding them that each of these were the cause of my daily debilitating headaches! If something so much as said "spices" or "natural flavors" I had to avoid it or within a half hour I'd have one of the headaches! As you can imagine a list like this can be quite overwhelming! I felt I was ready to do it though, as I'd already given up gluten for many years; and besides, most of the foods on my list were foods that my paleo diet would eliminate anyway so I felt as tho I was mostly there! And I knew that if I didn't 100% eliminate them for at least a year then my gut wouldn't heal. I'm happy to say that I've stuck with it 99.9% and I'm going on my third year eating this way and I have tried some of the foods on my list. I've began to tolerate spices again - in moderation. I've had some beef and felt alright. Dairy and eggs still hurt me but I'm in no huge rush to bring them back ever anyway.
I was so fortunate to have people in my life who had gone down this road before me and cheered me on along the way. My dear friend inspired me to come up with many of the recipes I'll be sharing throughout my project.
So I hope I've shed some light on the "why" behind healing the gut.
There is so so much on this topic. I literally read about it every day for a few years to get to where I am now. I feel like this project is a way for me to do a sort of brain dump to make room for more information! đ
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