What to Do about Leaky Gut

The first step in healing leaky gut is to clean up our diet.  We need to eat real, whole food, mostly plants and preferably organic (there are some foods that are low in pesticide residues and safe to eat non-organic).  We need to stop eating gluten, which is a big contributor to leaky gut.  One way to do this is to eliminate grains entirely and eat more vegetables.  We need to drastically reduce our intake of sugar which is pro-inflammatory and replace it with a safe sweetener like stevia or xylitol (non-GMO); artificial sweeteners are toxic so are worse than sugar.  Consider an elimination diet to identify other triggers for leaky gut such as dairy.   Take a probiotic to help get more healthy bacteria into your gut.
 
The next step is to reduce stress and make lifestyle changes to assist with that.  Meditation is very helpful and a great way to start and end your day.  Physical activity burns up some of the stress hormones and also helps you sleep, an important part of stress management.  Plan some fun activities in your day and don’t take on too much work.
 
Last but not least, learn about environmental toxins and how to avoid them.  Throw out cosmetics, personal care products and cleaning products that have toxins and replace them with safer alternatives (or make your own).  Learn about the toxins in mattresses, carpets and other flooring, furniture, paint, etc. so you can make better choices.  Consider using HEPA filters to clean the air in your home (house plants also help with this).  All of these things should improve your health and you may be surprised to find that symptoms that you have not associated with your gut, disappear.
 
Reference:
Black, Janet L. RN, FNP, MSN, MPH, Living in our Toxic World,  Peaceful Heart Press, Candler, NC 2016.