9 Symptoms of Leaky Gut & What To Do

If your gut is healthy, chances are you are too. But when it’s not, it can lead to a wide range of issues—seasonal allergies, brain fog, skin problems, hormone imbalances, digestive troubles, and mood swings. Surprised? These are just a few symptoms of leaky gut syndrome.

Conventional medicine does not recognize leaky gut syndrome as a medical condition. They view the body as a group of different systems. In contrast, we in functional medicine view the body as a whole unit working together — with your gut being the center of it all. (1) Let me explain.

With nearly 80% of your immune system housed there—and up to 95% of your serotonin (your feel-good neurotransmitter) produced in the gut (2)—it’s easy to see why it plays such a big role in your overall health. So, what exactly is leaky gut syndrome?

What Is Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Leaky gut syndrome is a condition that can set you on the path to chronic illness. Symptoms of leaky gut can go far beyond digestive issues. Thanks to our modern environment, these symptoms are much more common than you’d think. In fact, millions of people are struggling with leaky gut symptoms without even knowing it! Unfortunately, they’ve gotten so used to the uncomfortable symptoms that they’ve normalized them.

Leaky Gut and Intestinal Permeability

Think of your gut as a drawbridge. Your gut is naturally semi-permeable to let teeny-tiny boats (micronutrients) pass through your intestinal wall and into your bloodstream. It’s how you absorb your food. Certain external factors, including food, infections, toxins, and stress, can break apart the tight junctions in your intestinal wall, leaving the drawbridge open.

Once this happens, you have a leaky gut. So what does this mean? Much larger boats that were never meant to get through (toxins, microbes, and undigested food particles) can escape into your bloodstream. As a result, your immune system marks these “foreign invaders” as pathogens and attacks them. Now you have symptoms of leaky gut. 

Symptoms of leaky gut occur due to your body’s immune response to these invaders. Let’s take a closer look at these symptoms of leaky gut. 

9 Symptoms of Leaky Gut

Leaky gut syndrome has been linked to many conditions from hormonal imbalances, joint pain, and autoimmune diseases, to diabetes, anxiety, and eczema.

A properly functioning digestive system is critical to good health. Problems in our gastrointestinal (GI) tract can cause more than just stomach pain, gas, bloating, or diarrhea. They can be the root cause of many chronic health problems. If your intestinal wall has been compromised, and you have leaky gut, you’ll likely experience these leaky gut symptoms and signs:

1. Digestive issues such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

2. Food allergies or food intolerances

3. Brain fog, difficulty concentrating, ADD, or ADHD

4. Mood imbalances such as depression and anxiety

5. Skin issues such as acne, rosacea, or eczema

6. Seasonal allergies or asthma

7. Hormonal imbalances such as irregular periods, PMS, or PCOS

8. Diagnosis of an autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, psoriasis, or celiac disease

9. Diagnosis of chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia

If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, leaky gut may be the culprit.

Testing for Leaky Gut

If you want to support your leaky gut, you must first know if you have one. Symptoms of leaky gut are often attributed to other conditions. Thankfully, there are tests that can determine if you have intestinal permeability.

One of the more accurate tests is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test (ELISA). (3) This tests the levels of zonulin in your blood, which gives a biomarker of how much intestinal permeability there is. 

Dr. Alessio Fasano’s research showed that gluten triggers the release of zonulin. (4) Zonulin is a chemical that signals the tight junctions of your intestinal wall to open up. As a result, this creates intestinal permeability or a leaky gut. Higher than normal levels of zonulin is an indicator of a leaky gut. Optimal levels of zonulin are 22.3 to 161.1 ng/mL.

Another way to test for leaky gut is to determine if you have a food sensitivity. The best way to discover your food sensitivities is to do an elimination diet. An elimination diet is a short-term eating plan to pinpoint exactly which foods are causing the uncomfortable, painful, or mysterious symptoms you’re experiencing.

An elimination diet involves removing specific foods from your diet for a relatively short time. You then reintroduce these foods one by one while monitoring your body’s reactions and leaky gut symptoms to help identify which foods you are sensitive to. 

By doing an elimination diet, you combine scientific strategy with your body’s wisdom to help determine your personal food sensitivities. By ignoring food sensitivities, you could make your leaky gut worse.

What Causes Leaky Gut?

A poor diet is one of the leading factors of symptoms of leaky gut. Processed foods contain many ingredients that can lead to leaky gut. In fact, gluten is the number one cause. Gluten causes the gut cells to release zonulin, a protein that can break apart the tight junctions in your intestinal lining. (5) Other inflammatory foods (such as dairy) or toxic foods (such as sugar and alcohol) are causes as well.

Infections, toxins, and stress are the other three important factors that can cause leaky gut symptoms. The most common infectious causes are Candida overgrowth, intestinal parasites, and SIBO, or small intestine bacterial overgrowth. 

Toxins come in the form of medications including NSAIDS (Motrin and Advil), steroids, antibiotics, and acid-reducing medications. (6) Environmental toxins, including mercury, pesticides, and BPA from plastics, are also causal agents. 

Finally, stress can also be a cause. Chronic stress can weaken your immune system and disrupt the balance of bacteria in your gut. Unmanaged stress can keep your gut from healing properly even if you eat all the right foods. 

Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Diseases

When your gut remains leaky, more and more particles can escape into your bloodstream. Your immune system reacts by sending out wave after wave of inflammation to attack foreign invaders. This state of high alert causes your immune system to become overstressed and fire less accurately. 

This can lead your own tissues to get caught in the crosshairs and cause a flood of leaky gut symptoms. Eventually, this will develop into full-blown autoimmunity if your leaky gut syndrome is not addressed.

In addition, your immune system starts making antibodies against the substances that have escaped into your bloodstream. Many of these foreign invaders—gluten and dairy in particular—look very similar to your own body’s cells. (7)

Under constant pressure, your immune system can get confused and accidentally attack your tissues. This process of mistaken identity is called molecular mimicry. It’s another way that leaky gut syndrome can trigger autoimmune disease. 

Once you have an autoimmune disease, leaving your symptoms untreated can cause your condition to progress. This places you at greater risk of developing another autoimmune disease. In other words, it’s essential that you don’t ignore your leaky gut symptoms!

How To Repair Leaky Gut

You may be wondering how to deal with and prevent leaky gut symptoms. Don’t worry; I’ve got you covered. I suggest everyone begin by following the 4R approach:

Remove

Remove all inflammatory foods contributing to leaky gut such as gluten, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs. You’ll also need to ditch toxic foods, including sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. I know that may seem painful, but it’ll be worth it in the end! 

Finally, eliminate any gut infections you have, whether caused by Candida overgrowth, SIBO or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, or parasites.

Replace

Replace the bad with the good. Adding leaky gut repair supplements such as digestive enzymes to your regimen will help support optimal digestion and nutrient absorption and assist your body’s intestinal repair and inflammation responses.

Reinoculate

Restore the beneficial bacteria in your gut with high-quality, high-potency probiotics. This will re-establish a healthy microbiome. I recommend 100 billion CFUs (colony-forming units) while dealing with symptoms. Then, transition to 30 billion CFUs as a maintenance dose.

Repair

Provide your gut with the essential nutrients it needs to repair itself. My most comprehensive supplement for this is Leaky Gut Revive®. This supplement contains powerful, gut-repairing ingredients such as L-glutamine, aloe, licorice, arabinogalactan, slippery elm, and marshmallow root. With these ingredients,Leaky Gut Revive® nourishes and soothes your gut cells. Even more, it restores your gut’s natural mucosal lining, and maximizes gut-mending fatty acid production. 

Another one of my favorite gut-healing supplements is Collagen. It’s rich in amino acids that literally “seal the leaks” or perforations in your gut by repairing damaged cells and building new tissue.

Leaky Gut Support Protocol

Now that you know what to do, it’s a matter of executing properly. Lucky for you, I developed my Leaky Gut Support Protocol to help. In it, you’ll find all the tools and information you need to strengthen and balance your gut health, such as:

• Probiotic 100 Billion - Helps to promote beneficial microflora in your GI tract.

• Leaky Gut Revive® - Includes prebiotic fiber, slippery elm bark, and aloe vera to soothe the entire digestive tract and support the gut barrier.

• Liposomal Curcumin - Supports your body’s immune response and eliminates free radicals.

• Organic Greens - Detox with this blend of supergreens including chlorella, spirulina, and alkaline greens.

• ImmuneIG - Strengthens your immune system and supports GI function with immunoglobulins sourced from bovine serum.

• Complete Enzymes - This comprehensive blend of enzymes eases the digestive process and supports optimal gut function. 

• Vanilla Bean Paleo Protein - Sourced from grass-fed bovine, it contains collagen peptides to help support gut barrier function. 

• 30-Day guide, Detox guide, Sleep guide as well as Recipes.

Each of these supplements plays a unique role in repairing and protecting your gut. When used together, they create a powerful foundation for healing from the inside out!

How Do You Know When Your Leaky Gut Is Repaired?

Once you’ve followed my protocol to repair your gut, your symptoms (or a lack of them!) are the strongest indication of whether or not your gut is healthy. Here are a few good signs your gut is healing and on the right track:

• Digestive issues disappear: Gas, bloating, heartburn or acid reflux, and constipation are some of the first signs of leaky gut. When those symptoms start to dissipate and then go away completely, this is a good sign your hard work is producing results.

• Food sensitivities go away: If you have increased intestinal permeability, you likely also have multiple food sensitivities. Another sign your gut is repairing is that you can eat foods that once caused digestive problems.

• Skin issues clear up: Skin issues are another common symptom. Whether it’s eczema, rosacea, dandruff, rashes, or even acne, most skin issues are an outward manifestation of an internal problem in the gut. That’s why, once your gut begins to repair, you will likely see your skin issues also begin to subside.

• Autoimmune labs improve: Because gut health plays a critical role in your immune system, repairing your gut often leads to improvement in your autoimmune lab markers. Many patients see their lab results improve. Some even see their antibodies go negative!

• You are your optimal self: If you’re dealing with a leaky gut, you’re very likely living with symptoms that affect the quality of your life in some way. A good indication that the gut repair program is working is when your energy and vitality have returned, and you’ve regained mental clarity. An improved mood, a return to your ideal weight, and feeling like your best self are also welcome signs. 

The Final Word on Leaky Gut Symptoms

Your gut does more than just digest food. It’s the foundation of your health! When your gut is compromised, the symptoms can show up in unexpected ways. Mood swings, brain fog, autoimmunity — all of these can be signs pointing to leaky gut. 

By understanding the root causes and symptoms of leaky gut, you’ve already taken the first step toward real, lasting wellness. Repairing your gut using functional medicine’s 4R approach (remove, replace, reinoculate, and repair) is the next step in restoring your health. 

To that end, if you’re ready to tackle your leaky gut symptoms and feel like your vibrant, energetic self again, my Leaky Gut Support Protocol has everything you need to repair and restore your gut lining. With targeted supplements, step-by-step guidance, and a whole-body approach, this protocol is designed to help you heal from the inside out—naturally.

You don’t have to live with uncomfortable leaky gut symptoms. Give your gut the care it deserves, and watch your health transform.