Leaky Gut

[ErikTheElectric]

Anyone deal with it before? I've been accustomed to having a larger food intake (volume wise) over the years and never really took into consideration what the health of my gut was/is like. Took it upon myself to start taking a mild probiotic a few days ago and saw much of my chronic fatigue, energy, and digestion issues improve drastically.

I'm starting to think the large food volume (and combined with being an endurance athlete) as having a potential cause for my potential gut issues. (And the also the fact that I've never taken a probiotic in my life, with the occasional buy of some Kefir). The only thing that's perplexing is the fact that all of my lab work (that gets done routinely) is always normal, could all blood results be normal yet could someone still be suffering from Leaky Gut?

I ask because my Kidney/Liver enzymes are all normal (BUN, ALT, etc), and my WBC and RBC levels are normal as well.

/shrug

[Heisman2]

Leaky gut is not considered a real medical diagnosis. That said, there aren't really any studies looking at people consuming the volume of food that you consume so there may be some sort of aberrant physiology at play that would not otherwise be expected. I could imagine it causing large swings in blood sugar which can lead to symptoms.

I really don't think a probiotic will make a huge difference in a few days. Perhaps it has coincided with other changes you have made or perhaps there is a placebo effect. It shouldn't hurt anything though so if it's working more power to you.

Regarding lab work, you can definitely have normal labs with fatigue/energy/digestion issues. People commonly have issues with the former two when depressed for example and depression does not lead to abnormal labs. Many GI issues lead to normal labs as well.

[Mrpb]

Like Heisman, I don't consider leaky gut something real. If those probiotics really helped you it could be telling something about your regular diet. Maybe it's missing some things. More fiber, minimally processed foods like vegetables, oats, legumes will likely help. Highly processed, low fiber food the opposite.

PS. I was dealing with a lot of fatigue previously. What has really helped me is a large reduction in training volume.

[ErikTheElectric]

Leaky gut is not considered a real medical diagnosis.
Regarding lab work, you can definitely have normal labs with fatigue/energy/digestion issues. People commonly have issues with the former two when depressed for example and depression does not lead to abnormal labs. Many GI issues lead to n
normal labs as well.

Definitely. I can understand "Leaky Gut" not being an actual medical diagnosis, but there can undoubtedly be abnormalities in microbial gut flora. I did a bit more reading and found out some similarities between athletes and increased intestinal permeability. Which would make sense considering I'm also an endurance athlete.

https://www.naturalathleteclinic.com...s-and-athletes

Cheers!

Like Heisman, I don't consider leaky gut something real. If those probiotics really helped you it could be telling something about your regular diet. Maybe it's missing some things. More fiber, minimally processed foods like vegetables, oats, legumes will likely help. Highly processed, low fiber food the opposite.

PS. I was dealing with a lot of fatigue previously. What has really helped me is a large reduction in training volume.

90% of my diet consists of Vegetables, Fruit, Oats, Nuts, and minimally processed foods. (In large quantities)
So I doubt that to be the case.

Glad you found something that worked for you!

[Mrpb]

Dr. Jason Barker Naturopathic Doctor, Holistic Healthcare likes to cite the classic paleo studies. No surprises there.

A better source on probiotics: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-probiotics

[ErikTheElectric]

Dr. Jason Barker Naturopathic Doctor, Holistic Healthcare likes to cite the classic paleo studies. No surprises there.

A better source on probiotics: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-probiotics

Thanks sir! Reps on recharge.

[AdamWW]

I would consider speaking to a gastroenterologist and requesting some imaging tests if you're having discomfort or negative symptoms (though it sounds like your are more generalized and not specific to gut pain, or similar). I have personally undergone colonoscopy, barium swallow(s), abdominal CT's, and several other more GI-specific tests which focus on things like Chron's and more rare conditions.

Unfortunately for myself, the only thing that I have ever had confirmed is that my terminal illium is a bit irritated at times, and that I do have pretty severe reflux within the first 2-3 hours after eating, especially acidic foods. I mention that because all said and done these tests do get expensive even with solid insurance.

Of the three primary concerns you wrote, the 'digestive' issues could of course be due to lifestyle and intake/volume/lack of regularity on meal size/timing, but energy and fatigue could be a combination of many, many things.

I know you're also off of certain meds IIRC and also training with heavy weight, so while a vague diagnosis might be where you end up, sometimes it's not off the mark to assume that it's the ol' 'death by a thousand small cuts' situation, ya know?

Best of luck and HNY


PS - anecdotally, consuming ginger, turmeric, leafy greens (as opposed to larger amount of cruciferous veggies like broc**** and brussels sprouts), yogurt, as well as small amount of whole psyillium husk and peppermint oil have all produced subtle benefits in my gut feeling.

[ErikTheElectric]

Picked this up based on some reviews on amazon today.

Will be trying for the next few weeks.

[Ilikebeef]

Perhaps eating a large volume too often has increased the size of some of your digestive organs. And maybe something to do with the mechanics of digestion is now an issue, not necessarily the chemistry. I have had a few surgeries on my guts and the re-arranging of things can have an effect on the physical mechanics of digestion, how food moves through. I imagine with the amounts Ive seen you eat that some of your digestive organs are larger than the average persons. A CT scan would reveal if anything is wrong on that front. If that is a potential problem, im not a doctor so im just speculating.

[ErikTheElectric]

Perhaps eating a large volume too often has increased the size of some of your digestive organs.

Very likely! While I do eat a few lbs of actual food each day in order to satiate myself, most of the volume that's filled in my stomach comes from liquid (Water), so I'm not sure if that's going to have any substantial effects. Although I would bet that stomach lining/bacteria gets "out of whack" from stomach expansion in general.

Just going to test the water for a few more weeks with this probiotic and see how I feel. Thanks!

[R10Barney]

Very likely! While I do eat a few lbs of actual food each day in order to satiate myself, most of the volume that's filled in my stomach comes from liquid (Water), so I'm not sure if that's going to have any substantial effects. Although I would bet that stomach lining/bacteria gets "out of whack" from stomach expansion in general.

Just going to test the water for a few more weeks with this probiotic and see how I feel. Thanks!

Hi Erik
were you able to overcome this leaky gut problem?

[ErikTheElectric]

Hi Erik
were you able to overcome this leaky gut problem?

There's no definite answer to this, all I can say is that taking a probiotic 1x per day has definitely made me feel a lot better.

[Kiop]

redduce sugar
less caffeine
probiotics
coconut oil virgin
b12-folic-b6 (all methyl form)
iodine early morining(1-3 drops)