5 Signs Your Leaky Gut is Healing
If you’re reading this, there is a good chance you have been following one of my programs because you have an autoimmune disease, thyroid condition, or other chronic illness. Whether it’s Hashimoto’s, Graves’, lupus, Crohn’s, rheumatoid arthritis, or any other condition, your gut could be the starting point of all these problems. Healing your gut is always the first step to reversing chronic illness and achieving optimal health and in most, cases that means healing leaky gut. So, what are the signs your leaky gut is healing?
- Digestive issues disappear
- Food sensitivities go away
- Skin issues clear up
- Autoimmune labs improve
- You return to your optimal self
If your gut health is compromised, it can lead to many issues throughout your body. You could be at risk for issues such as seasonal allergies, hormonal imbalances, mood imbalances, or even autoimmune disease.
The National Institutes of Health estimates that nearly 1/4 of us (about 70 million people) suffer from digestive issues: gas, bloating, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, and nausea. In functional medicine, we believe that these symptoms are often a result of a leaky gut.
The Road to Better Gut Health
The road to healing leaky gut can be bumpy, so knowing you’re making progress is sometimes the motivation you need to keep going. This is why one of the most common questions I am asked from people following my programs is, “How do I know when my gut is healed?”
So in this article, I’ll cover signs leaky gut is healing, how your gut becomes leaky, and how to heal it!
5 Signs Leaky Gut Is Healing
Following this protocol does take commitment, so of course, you want to see signs leaky gut is healing. While there are some lab tests available, I typically don’t use them to diagnose leaky gut because the vast majority of my patients have autoimmunity. We know from the work of Dr. Alessio Fasano that if you have an autoimmune condition, you have (or at least had) a leaky gut.
After completing my protocol to repair your gut, your symptoms (or a lack of them!) are the strongest signs leaky gut is healing. If the following list below describes you, then you are on the right track to healing leaky gut.1
Digestive Issues Disappear
Having a leaky gut does not always mean you have digestive issues. However, for many people, gas, bloating, heartburn or acid reflux, and constipation are some of the first signs of leaky gut. If a gut infection played a role in your leaky gut, then this may apply to you specifically. If your symptoms of leaky gut start to slow down or diminish completely this is a good sign your dedication is finally paying off!
Food Sensitivities Go Away
If you have leaky gut, you likely also have multiple food sensitivities. Your immune system attacks itself when partially digested food particles get stuck in your gut. They then escape into your bloodstream and can cause all sorts of issue throughout the body.If you suddenly get to enjoy foods again that once used to give you digestive issues, fatigue, headaches, brain fog, mood issues, and other symptoms of leaky gut. You will be able to reintroduce healthy foods and add more variety to your diet. Remember, the two biggest inflammatory foods (gluten and dairy) should never be reintroduced, even as you are healing leaky gut. After all, once it’s healed, the goal is to keep it that way!
Skin Issues Clear Up
Whether it’s eczema, rosacea, dandruff, rashes, or even acne, skin issues are another common symptom of leaky gut. Most skin issues are an outward manifestation of an internal problem in the gut. This can be why you might be seeing your skin issues subside as you begin healing leaky gut.2
Autoimmune Labs Improve
If your labs seem to have improved after you started the process of healing your gut, then this could be a sign that its working! Healing leaky gut often leads to improvement in your autoimmune lab markers. Some patients even see their antibodies go negative as one of the signs leaky gut is healing.
You Return to Your Optimal Self
If you are dealing with a leaky gut, you are very likely living with symptoms that affect the quality of your life in some way. Those symptoms are the best barometer for the health of your gut. The biggest way to tell if your leaky gut is healing is when your energy and vitality have returned, you’ve regained mental clarity, your mood has improved, you’ve returned to your ideal weight, and you feel like your best self.
It’s important to remember that, as with most health concerns, gut health is on a spectrum. On one end you have a completely healthy, balanced gut and are living symptom-free. On the other end, you have a leaky gut, a myriad of digestive issues and other symptoms, and potentially even an active chronic illness.
Healing your gut will move you back down the spectrum and you’ll see improvements in your symptoms of leaky gut along the way. However, one you start to see signs your leaky gut is healing, you may have setbacks or incidents that move you back up the spectrum. If this applies to you, then you’ll need to work your way back down again to healing leaky gut.
I walk you through this entire approach in-depth in my Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Program. This program which includes a 30-day meal plan with recipes and shopping lists to make following it easy and stress-free. You can also find all four of the gut-repairing supplements listed above (with a 15% discount!) in my Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Kit to help guide you through the steps of healing leaky gut.
Leaky Gut Before and After
Let’s go back to thinking of your gut lining as a drawbridge. When you have leaky gut, your drawbridge opens to allow undigested food particles, toxins, bacteria, and viruses to escape into your bloodstream and cause inflammation throughout your body.
As soon as you begin healing leaky gut, your drawbridge starts to lower, keeping those inflammatory agents within the safety of your gut. Here they can be broken down and expelled from your body via pooping, peeing, or sweating.
You can also check out my video on the signs leaky gut is healing below:
What Causes Leaky Gut
Leaky gut happens when the tight junctions that hold your intestinal wall together become loose. You can think of your gut lining as a drawbridge. Teeny tiny boats (micronutrients in food) that are meant to get through go under the bridge without a problem. This is an important system that allows vital nutrients from the food you eat to be absorbed into your bloodstream.
Certain aspects of our modern life such as diet, toxins, and stress can cause that drawbridge to go up. This allows partially digested food, microbes, bacteria, viruses, and toxins to make their way through and enter into our bloodstream. This can cause inflammation and, if not addressed, can lead to full-blown autoimmunity if you don’t take action to healing leaky gut.3
There are many factors that can lead to leaky gut, and the biggest culprit is gluten. That’s because every time you eat gluten, it triggers the production of zonulin. Zonulin is a protein which causes the tight junctions in your gut to open up.4 Other common causes behind leaky gut are infections such as Candida overgrowth, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), and parasites. Even things like stress and exposure to everyday toxins can lead to a leaky gut infection.
How to Fix Leaky Gut
Leaky gut leads to inflammation that can cause a range of issues from gastric problems, acne, and dandruff. At its most extreme, leaky gut can even lead to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis.
Instead of treating leaky gut symptoms, you need to get to the root of autoimmune disease, and it starts by healing leaky gut. To restore the health of your intestinal wall, I recommend following functional medicine’s 4R Approach.
- Remove. Remove the bad, getting rid of factors that negatively affect the gut, including inflammatory foods. These will include gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs, and sugar, infections from parasites, yeast, or bacteria, and irritants such as alcohol, caffeine, and drugs.
- Restore. Restore what’s missing from your gut. Adding digestive enzymes and Gut Restore with Betaine and HCL to your regimen will help support optimal digestion and nutrient absorption. It will also assist your body’s intestinal repair and inflammation responses. Follow a nutrient-dense diet with plenty of organic greens, vegetables, and fruits, healthy fats, quality proteins.
- Reinoculate. Restore a healthy balance of good bacteria by reintroducing beneficial bacteria through a high-quality, multi-strain, high-potency probiotic supplement.
- Repair. Provide the nutrients necessary to help restore your gut lining. My most comprehensive weapon against leaky gut is Leaky Gut Revive®, which contains powerful gut-repairing ingredients l-glutamine, aloe, licorice, arabinogalactan, slippery elm, and marshmallow root. With these ingredients, Leaky Gut Revive® nourishes and soothes your gut cells, restores your gut’s natural mucosal lining, and maximizes gut-mending fatty acid production. Another one of my favorite supplements is collagen which is rich in amino acids that quite literally, “seal the leaks” or perforations in your gut by repairing damaged cells and building new tissue.
These setbacks might include an accidental gluten exposure, which you can help overcome using these 3 steps to recover after getting glutened. Or it could be a larger setback from needing to take antibiotics (which wipe out your good bacteria), or even developing a gut infection while traveling. These may require a more in-depth treatment protocol.
How Long Does It Take to Heal Leaky Gut?
Depending on how long your gut has been leaky, healing leaky gut can take longer for some than it does for others. After all, you didn’t develop leaky gut overnight, so healing leaky gut will certainly take some time as well. What’s more, your healing time will also depend on whether or not your leaky gut stems from an underlying infection such as Candida overgrowth or SIBO.
Considering all these factors can help you predict how long it will take to fix leaky gut.
How The Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Kit Can Help
If you’re still working on restoring your gut health or experience a setback, be sure to follow my Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Program and add in the supplements from my Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Kit. The Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Kit contains the four powerful nutritional supplements I recommend for optimal gut barrier and immune function.
- Leaky Gut Revive® is a powerful combination of important amino acids and botanicals. These help promote your body’s intestinal tissue repair mechanisms, repair damage caused by inflammation, restore your gut’s healthy mucosal membrane, and maintain a healthy gut barrier.
- The Myers Way® Collagen Protein contains key amino acids needed for tissue repair and helps maintain a healthy intestinal barrier, as well as supports healthy bones and joints! It’s sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised beef, and is 100% non-GMO and kosher.
- My Complete Enzymes formula supports optimal digestion and nutrient absorption, as well as assists the body’s intestinal repair and inflammation response mechanisms.
- Finally, my Probiotic Capsules 100 Billion is a potent, fourteen-strain probiotic totaling 100 billion CFU’s per capsule for maximum digestive health and immune support.
It’s important to remember that your gut did not become leaky overnight. Chances are this is the result of years of exposure to inflammatory foods, toxins, and other stressors. That’s why it’s important to be patient with yourself and stick to your gut-repairing protocol. This commitment to your health will be worth it as your health is restored and you are feeling like your best again (or even better!).
Signs Leaky Gut is Healing FAQs
What causes leaky gut?
What are the symptoms of leaky gut?
How long does it take to heal leaky gut?
Article Sources
- How Long Does It Take to Heal A Leaky Gut?. Scott Frothingham. Healthline. 2019.
- Leaky Gut and Atopic Dermatitis. National Eczema Association. 2020.
- Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Diseases. Alessio Fasano. NCBI. 2012.
- All Disease Begins In the (Leaky) Gut: The Role of Zonulin-Mediated Gut Permeability In the Pathogenesis of Some Chronic Inflammatory Diseases. Alessio Fasano. NCBI. 2020.