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Glutathione and Your Intestines.
keywords:Leaky
Gut,leaky gut syndrome,intestinal health,health of your intestines
Article:
The intestinal tract is usually
overlooked and ignored until there's a problem. Just as the skin is a
barrier that keeps foreign substances from entering the body from
the environment, the mucosa lining is the barrier of the intestines,
inside the body, that keeps foreign substances (viruses, bacteria,
parasites, toxins, and so on) from entering the body from what ever was
ingested so that these materials and organisms are discharged through
the rectum. These are things that if they got into your body it would be
perceived as foreign and would cause a significant reaction within your
blood cells for an allergic type of reaction.
So the intestinal wall provides a protective barrier as it were
against these things that might want to gain entry into your body.
If something does get into your body
then your immune system tries to detect it and eliminate it before it
can make itself at home and reproduce or hurt you and lastly if it does
get a hold of you-you catch a cold, you have an infection or whatever
your immune system's job is to help you eliminate it.
When we look at the immune system we have to start looking at it
closely into the intestinal tract.
Some of the things that can occur if your GI tract
is unhealthy are abdominal pain and cramping, anxiety, nervousness,
feeling of chronic tiredness, constipation, feeling of a depressed mood,
diarrhea immediately after eating, sensitivities to different foods,
gas, bloating, indigestion, joint pain, stiffness, liver dysfunction,
muscle aches and pains, poor memory, even skin disorders like psoriasis
and eczema.
All these
health issues are related to a problem within your intestinal tract.
It's commonly referred to as “leaky gut syndrome.” The intestines
are lined with a mucosal surface and these cells are known as
enterocytes. When
enterocytes are tightly held together it's called a tight junction where
one butts up against another one with the purpose with allowing the
right things to come through and keeping things out that should be kept
out. That is the purpose of
the enterocytes. What we
find is that there are many different things that can cause a
dysfunction of these tight junctions of enterocytes.
They become inflamed, they become irritated by many different
things –more later.
As they become inflamed they start separating apart, they spread apart a
bit and that allows these
tight junctions to open up.
When they open up things start migrating through to the blood stream
that are not suppose to be there.
That is the beginning of Leaky Gut Syndrome. Remember Leaky Gut
again simply tells us that the normal barrier has been disrupted.
Many different things can disrupt that normal barrier.
One of the most common things would be an overgrowth of abnormal
bacteria. So for example use
of antibiotics can make not only all the bad bacteria, but also the good
bacteria die off. If the
good bacteria doesn't come back in a healthy balance, you have a
bacterial imbalance inside the intestinal tract which causes a lot of
irritation. The irritation
causes atrophy or shrinkage of these enterocytes resulting in the tight
junctions opening up. When
the tight junction opens up things that normally would not be allowed
through simply pass through and they wind up in the bloodstream and then
the bloodstream starts reacting to these normal components and this
could be bacteria, could be viruses, it could be parasites, it could be
chemicals in the food you eat, it could even be some of the food
particles that normally would not get through.
One important thing to consider is the
disruption of the healthy bacteria and the pathological or dangerous
bacteria that lives within our intestinal tract.
Leaky gut is correlated with autoimmune disease, celiac disease,
Crohn's disease, all sorts of environmental allergies, hives and acne,
inflammatory joint problems and even pancreas issues, The list goes on
and on.
The first
thing to do for a healthy colon is to promote healthy bacteria with pro-biotics.
How do you know if you have leaky gut syndrome?
The answer is a urine test where you consume a two different
sugars--one is Mannitol and the other is Lactulose,
Typically what happens is Mannitol is a small molecule and is
normally allowed to pass between the enterocytes into your bloodstream
so it's always welcomed through.
Lactulose is large in size and would not be allowed to pass
through. So if you have
healthy mucosa in your intestinal lining and you did a Mannitol -
Lactulose challenge test what would happen is you would find and after
six hours you would find is there is a lot of Mannitol and essentially
no or very low amount of Lactulose in your urine.
If both the
Lactulose and Mannitol are high then we know that that person has a
disruption of their tight junctions within their intestinal tract so
their ability to keep things out is diminished. On the other hand if
both Lactulose and Mannitol are low then what that tells us is the
individual is dealing with some kind of malabsorption problems and
that’s a different issue. Fortunately it's much less common then leaky
gut. Leaky gut is probably
far more common the we realize because doctors just don't tend to test
for it. If you find that
your Lactulose is low and your Mannitol is high – that's a normal result
you have a good healthy mucosa.
When things pass
through the intestines to your blood stream that are not supposed to,
your liver (the body's washing machine) has to work overtime to try and
clear these additional toxins from your body.
It uses huge amounts of glutathione for its functioning creating
a deficiency in glutathione in the blood stream as it is the liver which
supplies glutathione to the bloodstream. The second thing to do is boost
your glutathione.
The third thing to do for a healthy colon is to
supplement with L-glutamine. As opposed to all other cells in your body,
enterocytes prefer glutamine over sugar as a fuel source for the
production of ATP (Adenosine triphosphate).
ATP (the energy of cell) contributes to a healthy production of mucus (mucen).
If you've got the proper amount of mucus production by these
cells the intestinal wall is a better barrier for keeping things out
that should not be in there. L-glutamine helps to maintain the function
of the entire GI tract and that does include the liver and the pancreas.
The greatest users of L-glutamine in the body is the mucosa and
the muscles.
Lastly, Acetyl D
glucosamine is also necessary for the production of mucin which lines
the intestinal mucosa of the entire intestinal tract making it difficult
for other things to get near the tight junctions that can move through.
It will also inhibit the growth of certain types of bacteria that
would be the ones that are considered not good for your health and can
also decrease the production of what are called endotoxins.
These are simply toxins made by certain bacterial strains. Acetyl
D glucosamine directly affects the GI tract.
In the Diabetologia journal published in 2006, they
were looking at intestinal permeability for people with type 1 diabetes
(childhood diabetes). What they found in type1diabetes is they all have
autoimmune disruption of pancreatic function and in other words the
pancreas seems to be destroyed by the person and so that’s a component
of type 1 diabetes. They
looked at this study where they did the Lactulose – Mannitol testing for
a total of 81 different subjects with type 1 diabetes and what they
found with that is that all of the subjects even before they started
showing symptoms had increased intestinal permeability in other words
the Lactulose was getting through even before they knew for sure they
had type 1 diabetes.
There's another report in The Gastro and Neurology report that was
published 1999 again looking at permeability so this is the Lactulose
Mannitol test (leaky gut) and intestinal disorders
“Ample evidence indicates that permeability has increase” in
other words tight junctions are not tight, “ in most patients with
Crohn's disease and 10-20% of their clinically healthy relatives.
This abnormal leakiness of the mucosa in Crohns patients and
their relatives can be greatly amplified by aspirin preadministration.”
In other words aspirin will open up those tight
junctions. From the same article: “Permeability is also increased in
Celiac disease and by trauma, burns, non-steroidal inflammatory drugs.”
In addition things that damage those walls,
the strength of the tight junction, would be chemotherapy and
radiation treatments which often result in gastrointestinal symptoms.
Does a colonoscopy identify leaky gut? It will tell
you a lot but a colonoscopy will not tell you if you have leaky gut
syndrome which is on a microscopic level.
On a side note,
those with autoimmune issues such as Lupus, arthritis, and so on, acetyl
D glucosamine
is important to counter the impact of the body
being attacked by its own immune system. Studies have shown that
acetyl D glucosamine decreases that likelihood dramatically such
that people who have autoimmune disorders seem to do fine even if their
immune systems become healthier with the use of something that supports
the structure and function of their immune cells.
In summary for a healthy colon:
-
Use a pro-biotic to populate your intestines with healthy bacteria.
-
Boost glutathione to support liver function and replenish
glutathione spent by toxins.
-
Add L glutamine to feed the mucin and keep them healthy.
-
Utilize Acetyl D glucosamine for the production of mucin.
Information taken from
Dr. Daria's weekly calls at
http://smilin2themax.com/AudiosDrDariaDavidson.aspx
Dr. Daria Davidson is
a board certified medical doctor focusing on holistic medicine with 30
years of practice.
Richard
Kuhns has been writing for the internet for over three years. He has
shown thousands of individuals how to get healthy and stay healthy with
his top selling self;help mp3
downloads at http://www.Dstressdoc.com
Please go to http://www.GlutathioneForHealth.com to find out more
about glutathione, receive a free bulletin re the health benefits of
glutathione, and take advantage of a risk free two month trial offer.
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