By Matt Stone
Leaky Gut Syndrome is a silent cause of a wide range of maladies. But when the symptoms are so diverse and varying, overlapping with so many other conditions, it’s hard to know if you really have a leaky gut or not. After years of reading articles all over the internet, participating?in various forums, consulting with many alternative health practitioners, and engulfing a slew of books by knowledgeable?underground health gurus?with a keen focus on digestion, I’ve been led to believe that it’s actually fairly easy and straightforward to properly diagnose yourself with leaky gut syndrome. Recently, I put together a helpful flowchart that simplifies the diagnosis.
Leaky Gut Dietary Guidelines
Avoid all starch, sugar, protein,’salt, and fat. Take lots of probiotics. Do lots of coffee enemas. Drink two gallons of water per day.
Gut Dysbiosis?Dietary Guidelines
Avoid all starch, sugar, protein, salt, and fat. Take lots of probiotics. Do lots of coffee enemas. Drink two gallons of water per day.
This flowchart can also be used to properly diagnose oneself with Lyme Disease, candida overgrowth,?MTHFR deficiency, SIBO, 36 different autoimmune diseases, adrenal fatigue,?gluten sensitivity, and Histamine allergy. The dietary guidelines are useful against all of those conditions as well.
First suckas.
Ha! They recommend the GAPS diet for histamine intolerance! That diet is LOADED with high histamine foods! Love this post Matt..totally spot on!
Oh man, why didn’t I see this before?! It’s all so clear now.
This just about sums it up.
…and adrenal fatigue. Don’t forget adrenal fatigue!
I didn’t forget adrenal fatigue. Your inability to read this post properly may be a sign of leaky gut syndrome.
LMAOOOOO
Hey Matt,
I have definitely farted prior to 1992, but I do not believe I have farted since 1992, so does this mean I have both Leaky Gut AND Gut Dysbiosis?? LOL!
No, you have SIBO and candida.
LMAO!!! Thanks Matt for your “diagnosis”.
This made my day, I used to believe all of that, I even did the GAPS diet for a year with no health improvement at all. I did learn how to ferment foods so that was nice. Thanks for opening my eyes and my mouth, I was close to starving before I found your information.
Yes, becoming a breathatarian is the answer to all my problems
It’s called a “breatharian.” Your inability to spell may be a sign of leaky gut syndrome. Breatharianism is indeed the solution to many problems. But pastafarianism is the solution to all problems.
OMG…I am dying over here. bwahahahahahaha.
Best post yet!
Haha I love this! So tired of hearing about these quack diagnoses that have no basis in medicine. I was laughing the other reading about how many people think they have ‘candida.’ They clearly are unaware that systemic candida is rare unless you have a severely compromised immune system (advanced AIDS).
As soon as I read the email about this, my joke radar went off.
Can’t fool an old pro like you Rick :)
I appreciate your overall point, but I’m conflicted (yes, I know that’s a sign of leaky gut syndrome). I am pretty good friends with a holistic health practitioner (nutritional, herbal, homeopathic, etc.) who has helped a lot of people over the last 20 years with, essentially, WAPF-type nutritional recommendations and other remedies. She also helped me with a couple of problems that the MD’s had no clue what to do with other than prescribe palliative drugs. There is obviously some need for these “alternative” dietary and other treatments… do you just think they are being over-applied, and that too many of us are essentially nutritional hypochondriacs?
Outperforming MD’s is not something to brag about. Telling someone to do nothing or juggle limes usually has a better outcome than drugging yourself up. It depends entirely on the practitioner, but the alternative health world jumps on bandwagons the same as any other industry. Mysterious diseases with a lot of symptoms are always latched upon by the alternative health world because you can convince anyone that they have the disease and start making money treating it. Who doesn’t have some of the “symptoms” of Lyme Disease, candida, leaky gut syndrome, and other trendy diseases?
Hey Matt,
I liked the article BUT I’m pretty sure- as I think you are(?) – that Leaky Gut is a real problem for some and unfortunately a lot of people claiming to have it have caused the real suffers to be overlooked. Have you come across any good solid info / protocols for treating Leaky Gut?
The most progress I made in getting help from a mainstream doc was getting some basic allergy tests done and seeing an IgE response to everything… I then got referred to an immunologist who said it was probably a false positive! If you ask me it makes perfect sense that whole proteins etc. were constantly entering my blood and making me woozy everytime I ate certain things especially the liquidy things…even OJ and milk also explains why I’ve got crappy allergenic type skin. I would really love to hear from you on this.
Sam
Pretty funny. I took it seriously at first (it’s time for my nap) and I thought… so what can you eat? Made me smile and laugh at myself. I like the breathatarian comment. There have been days when I wished I could have lived on air alone.
I believe in leaky gut syndrome. I was able to heal mine significantly and see great improvements in digestion for a time by consuming only 24 hour whole milk yogurt, boiled goats (3 of them), carrot juice, ghee, a few almonds, coconut, eggs and honey. I saw vast improvements in everything except libido, mental clarity, energy, desire to eat, orthorexia and will to live. I also lost weight and you would have been able to see my muscles if I had many left. I know, I know, it’s a small price to pay right? So why did I stop! I simply lacked the will power to hack it through the GAPs diet.
Leaky gut syndrome, or intestinal permeability is absolutely a real thing. But you know how the alternative health world works. Somebody finds that they have it, fixes it, experiences miraculous health improvements, and now everyone wants believe that leaky gut is their problem and that they can experience the same miracle when they “fix” it. There are probably 30 people trying to fix their leaky guts for every one that actually has a leaky gut. And the fixes are not as foolproof or devoid of collateral damage as the gurus make it seem.
GAPS was actually the last stepping stone on my journey to improved digestion before I stumbled on 180D. I didn’t actually go through with the diet- I only made it through one meal and still felt crappy. Pun completely intended.
My digestion is pretty bad still. I think GAPS did help a little, but it was mostly that I didn’t have some of the stuff that is probably related to poor handling of cabohydrates. But, yes, lots of collateral damage for that little bit of improvement and it didn’t hold. My digestion may have worsened some after ETF, but not a lot, and not any worse than pre-gaps levels. What has improved is the incidence of what I would call malaise, or a sort of toxic feeling, like whatever I was eating was poisoning me. I’ve definitely wondered if that is not due to a reduction in gut leak. I still have lots of other issues, but not frequently felling like my blood stream is polluted with some kind of poison is a great improvement. I remember that quote in the Minnesota study about suspicion of intestinal permeability in the starvation state. Love the flow chart humor.
“There are probably 30 people trying to fix their leaky guts for every one that actually has a leaky gut.”
Where are the numbers or research that show this? I would be interested to see how many times a diagnosis misses the mark.
You really think that has been researched?
So that figure was pulled out of where? Just a hunch or something? Or was it yet another tongue-in-cheek joke?
An estimate based on observation.
So what would you recommend for someone who likely DOES have intestinal permeability? period of gastric bleeding after a particularly stressful period/huge party where a lot of cheap cider was consumed (finishing my masters thesis) ,after being given a course of proton pump inhibitors and fat restricted diet the initial pain/bleeding symptoms improved but once i was put back on normal diet after 4 months and taken off PPIs i still have a lot of lingering stomach/general symptoms, including new allergies and temporarily low thyroid problems (low T4). no doctor has given me any suggestions other than to go on drugs for IBS… I’ve tried some form of reefeeding for 6 months now, and it helped to begin with but past a certain point it has not helped and i’m just getting fat and unfit… but i still can’t touch alcohol or anything high fibre without serious stomach pain. i know there are a lot of issues with GAPS but I am seriously tempted right now…
I think people can get very dogmatic around here, but there are of course some situations where GAPS might be helpful. I think it’s a personal call. You may also want to look into l-glutamine and triphala, which can help heal the gut.
Also, thanks Amy – I keep meaning to buy some l-glutamine but never getting around to it
No, no, no, no, if you actually have a low t4 on a thyroid test you are absolutely hypo, and I think most people who have hypothyroidism will tell you that they don’t feel good and that their body doesn’t work until they have have numbers significantly above the lower limit on the test ranges. Let’s be clear, overeating and increasing carb intake will increase turnover of t4 into its active metabolite t3, and over-training and under-eating will definitely inhibit this turnover but its my understating that t4 remains in normal ranges, this effect is sometimes called low t3 syndrome or female athlete syndrome, it is not true hypothyroidism it is an adaptive response that can be reversed by a change in lifestyle. Now I will allow that some cases of thyroid dysfunction as defined by low t4 could be the result of nutritional deficiencies, there are studies showing Zinc, magnesium and vitamin A can improve thyroid function in cases of where they are found to be low. Low iron , which given your story definitely merits an iron panel,can also be a problem. But other than that, well hashimoto’s could be destroying your thyroid, but you’d still need take thyroid replacement, in fact I believe there are studies showing that early intervention (ie. thyroid replacement) slows this destruction, but honestly they’s so much unsubstantiated crap on the interwebs about how to holistically treat hashi’s, well I’m not going there today. If I where you I would avoid alcohol and fiber, maybe look into supplements, ppi’s do cause nutritional deficiencies and consider hormone replacement pretty seriously. Also, I will be honest, I have been immersed in the alternative thyroid world for the past 3 years, and I can tell you that most of what is being promoted; adrenal fatigue, t3 only regimes, no carb, diets, endless allergy testing, the worship of armor thyroid above all other treatments, is a lot of dangerous hokum that fucks people the hell up (I mean me) also the alternative thyroid world recommends insane ramp ups in dosage over very short intervals and this is very damaging if you are using a t3 medication. If you are interested in thyroid replacement, the only website that I can recommend is http://tiredthyroid.com/, although I personally found that her recommended iron levels to be far too high( she’s recommending a ferriten of 70) mine’s like 40 and I feel fine, but everyone’s different, and the only book I can recommend is The Functional Approach to Hypothyroidism by Kenneth Blanchard, this is more important than the web site mentioned. Had I read this book before I was seduced by all the other crazy ass thyroid info out there I would have saved myself much pain and misery. Also, if I were you I’d stop overeating, just eat too be satisfied, but don’t pack in more calories then you can burn in your metabolically depressed state.
Of course, by most people, you know, I mean me. And, while re-feeding was sorta fun, well until I stared having panic attacks and heart palpitations, It did not improve my thyroid status one iota, although it did raise my tsh, and my BMI, rather substantially. Oh sure my body temps, went up, but you can expect that to happen with panic attacks (aka, increased adrenaline release).
I didn’t emphasize this enough, in my previous reply…. get an iron panel. Oh yeah, I didn’t start feeling like a human being til I got my t4 up to 9.4 ug/dl so much higher than the bottom of the lab ranges.
Forget whatever I just said, a fecal transplant will solve all your problems.
Hi Christal,
Thanks so much for your insight – I really appreciate it. You’ve said some things back to me that I was thinking myself. I’m wondering if the low T4 was actually a nutritional deficiency because this was 6 months ago, when I first started refeeding and the T4 has been in a normal range since then, though the low T4 test was when I first moved to Norway and started consuming lots of iodised salt/dairy, and added sauerkraut and spirulina into my diet for some unknown reason… but when i removed those food types the t4 seems to have been in normal range when tested… whether the low t4 was due to the sauerkraut/iodine (and maybe hashimotos) or correcting some nutritional deficiencies i really don’t know but i don’t really want to test my body again to see.. when i had the low t4 my tsh was at the lower end of the normal range but antibodies weren’t tested, whereas now it’s higher (still “normal”) but t4 is now also in the the normal range and the antibodies are fine… any further insight anyone? also, what do you mean by iron panel? i have had red blood count tested and it’s been fine..
Also, I don’t know if you were joking about the fecal transplant but they sound great!
Iodine and saukraut can negatively affect thyroid hormones especially if you were unintentionally taking more than you should have done.
I just wanted to say thank you for making me laugh. Thank you for making me laugh.
Wow, it takes a lot of discipline to eat 3 boiled goats. I don’t think I could manage it.
I also made the progression like many others from WAPF to GAPS and actually was on the GAPS diet for about a month for my “gluten intolerance”, like the full blown boiled meat and onions and uuuuugh I was so hungry all the time, it was terrible. And then I found 180D and whew, was off that bandwagon. Loved the post, though. I wonder tho about the people who have seen reductions in Autistic behavior in children who have followed the GAPS diet if there might be some truth to the psychological and mental health side of the GAPS theory.
I think some kids who are autistic really are allergic to the proteins in certain foods and once you eliminate them its like their mind clears and they don’t display the characteristics anymore. Maybe for some it was the gluten which the GAPS diet eliminates.
The problem with posts like these is that you spend lots of space deriding and making fun of things people are doing to try to help themselves when they know they are not feeling well, but you don’t do a thing to offer real help. (Maybe somewhere you do but only in bits and pieces and it seems necessary to puzzle them all together which takes a lot of time and effort.) I am finding your site more and more confusing. All I want is to find what will help me feel better. Because of the confusion and a willingness to take you seriously I have abandoned any restrictions for my eating but as a result I have gained twenty pounds and feel worse, not better. I haven’t put out money for your book yet because you haven’t succeeded in convincing me that you are any better than the rest (“buy my book and learn the secrets!”) and this type of post doesn’t take me any closer.
Yeah, that happens with Matt, sometimes.. But how “worse” are you feeling? Are you feeling tired? Sluggish? Sleepy as hell? Those might be good signs, depending on where you’re coming from.
In order to avoid getting confused, I recommend you not to read posts before mid-2012 (just read the most recent ones). And do read Diet Recovery 2, it’s really not bad, and all the “secrets” are on the blog, not there. You would have to read every single post, but that would take you a lot of time.
All the best
My best advice is tune into your body and try to figure out what is going on. Maybe it’s emotional, maybe you have a food allergy to something you are eating. At the very least, start addressing the root causes of stresses. Lowering stresses will always help, and some run deep.
I don’t think letting go of all food restrictions is necessarily a good idea. If you had an eating disorder, then yes. But in general, eating 3 balanced meals a day of good foods on a regular schedule can be helpful.
You always seem to post those things… which I appreciate. I would love to hear more about your journey. Do you have a blog? Also, when you say balanced meals… meaning whole foods, etc?
I don’t have a blog. I wrote about my ED story in a comment not too long ago: http://180degreehealth.com/2013/08/health-evangelism
When I say balanced meals I mean a square meal: carb, protein and fat. Like what your grandma would have served. I do eat mostly whole foods, with flexibility for cravings and going out and fun. To me, whole foods can include things like pasta and white rice.
(BTW, to avoid confusion, the situation I refer to below is when I came off the pill, years after the ED. That I needed some extra help with for various reasons.)
I have been “tuning in” and listening for years! I’ve read volumes and blogs and articles, listened to many knowledgeable people and tried many things. I have felt better on some of those restrictive diets but recognize now the more subtle negative effects like the tax on my metabolism. The one thing this blog has done is help me recognize that my metabolism is a wreck. (What the heck. Just one more thing to add to the list!) But I think there must be more factors in fixing it then simply eating everything and sleeping. (And regarding stress- life happens. It’s one thing to say we should lower our stresses and another thing to significantly do it while still living a life beyond couch potato tv surfing.) I have always eaten well. We live on a farm and raise our own meat and vegetables and milk and eggs. I am a fabulous cook (so I am told repeatedly) simply because of the ingredients I use for all old-fashioned scratch cooking. But this year my asthma cough is worse, my nose runs or is stuffy all the time, I’m achy, tired and feel much older. To say that it is a healing crisis from eating “right” (as someone commented to me on another post) is amusing since “healing crisis” comes with ALL the restrictive “healing” diets doesn’t it?
My beef about this post and others like it is that it says nothing edifying but it does add to the tone here of superiority. The attitude seems to be that people are (fill in the blank) for blindly following all those stupid trends in their efforts to improve their health and fitness.
P.S. Matt says in the comments “Leaky gut syndrome, or intestinal permeability is absolutely a real thing.” Then what do YOU suggest people do to correctly diagnose and treat it, Mr. Stone?
I dont think Matt will answer, because he does not know the answer.
Personally, I benefited tremendously from homeopathy when I was having a lot of hormonal issues. A lot of people think that’s stupid but I don’t care. Sometimes you need a major intervention in today’s toxic and stressful world. I definitely needed lifestyle changes to back it up, as well, but something more was needed. I don’t doubt that GAPS can help some people. I’m a fan of Chinese medicine/accupuncture, too. I think for all of us there is something that will work, it’s just a matter of finding it.
I would try to find a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner in your area and get the whole assessment. I’d ask how to do the pulse test and other ways of figuring out what you’re allergic to, and never eat anything that gives you an allergic reaction. When you’re more healed, you may be able to add these foods back in. I’d also get the supplements that really help you break down and assimilate food and emulsify fats. When you’re healed, you may not need this extra help, but you pretty likely need them now. There are some of us here that have healed.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I do understand where you are going with your answer and I have definitely gone that route already. For instance- I know that after eating ice cream I will cough for hours. I can’t carry on a conversation right after eating ice cream. I have denied myself ice cream for years, as well as other foods that I know give me a reaction of some kind. But after discovering how wrecked my metabolism is, I began searching for answers on how to correct that issue too…which led me here. I decided to go with it and try the approach. I’ve been eating ice cream (occasionally), and other foods as I embrace the eat and sleep ideas here. Like I said, I gained twenty pounds and feel like I went back several years in that I feel crappy like I did before I began the whole search for better health. I still take fistfuls of minerals, amino acids, EFAs, adrenal and thyroid sups, the list goes on. How does the advice to restrict reaction causing foods mesh with Matt Stone’s ideas? I’m trying to figure that out and he doesn’t seem to have much lately but snarky criticisms of all the other health advice. (The only reason I return here is because I do believe their is some truth to find and nuggets of educational material. Sifting through it all to find it can be frustrating!)
Clayvessel, I think your latest comments on this post are very brave and blunt. I, too, have noticed the same things lately. :(
I would highly recommend a consult with Matt. There were a few things he suggested which really helped which I hadn’t picked up here. He is really lovely to speak with, he comes across quite condescending here but is sympathetic and kind in real time.
Setting off a reaction is going to keep you in a cycle of auto-immune diseases and low energy. Every reaction is going to take massive energy to correct and that truly effects your metabolism. It’s all connected and one of the best places to start is stopping those reactions and getting your digestion and assimilation up and running and stopping the autoimmune process. This doesn’t turn around overnight, but it sure won’t turn around if you eat foods that are causing you harm. And there really is some truth to altered foods causing harm for most of us. You may find in doing the pulse test that you can eat ice cream made with raw cream but can’t eat store-bought ice cream. They’re two different things. Take into consideration that you have your own bioindividuality and that you are not currently healthy. If Matt can get away with it, good for him. Matt has some great points about eating for heat, but there are lots of foods you’ll need to cut out and many that you can keep eating for heat. It’s your body and it knows what it needs and doesn’t want in any given moment. Just google coco’s pulse test and you’ll find lots of sites. Oh, and actually, we’re talking sensitivities as much or more than allergies. Real allergies are protein related and are usually things like shrimp or peanuts– the well knowns. Most of what we currently talk about as allergies are actually sensitivities and you may well recover your ability to eat currently unedible healthy foods when you are better. Besides the pulse test, pay attention to any digestive stress or throat/sinus reactions and simply don’t eat the foods that cause them. You can get signs from anywhere in your body, some immediate, some later. I’d also check out NTPtalk. You won’t find people making fun of you there. Anyway, the truth will come to you from many sources. Just keep asking your questions and the pieces of the puzzle will continue to fall into place.
There also is no reason someone cannot heal on a somewhat restricted diet. Even if you can’t eat dairy and gluten right now, for example, there is a whole range of other items that are very edible. Instead of ice cream, you could have coconut ice cream or gluten-free cake or something. I don’t think Ann Marie over at Cheeseslave is necessarily a shining example of how to live, but 15 years ago she healed herself from auto-immune disease with an elimination diet and was gluten-free for a couple of years, and then could add it all back in. She was then very healthy until she gave birth after some years of high-stress and followed that up with a low-carb lifestyle. You may want to check out her story about that time, but actually you could also google elimination diet and get the same thing.
I think it’s only when people get inadequate calories and nutrients from a restricted diet that there’s a real issue.
You can also test your supplements and hygiene products. You’re probably already fully aware that you need to remove chemicals from your environment and skin.
Thank you. I agree that my issues are sensitivities and not allergies. I’m aware of the pulse test also (and as an aside, my daughter makes her own raw goat milk ice cream which is fabulously delicious and does not make me cough. I need to get me an ice cream maker!) The best way that I was able to discover what it felt like to not have any food reactions (my sinuses dried up, my cough went away and I had boundless energy) was when I did a cleansing/detox fast for a month. I did this once a year and it was during my last attempt (when I was gaining a huge belly while eating mostly veggies and fish) that I heard Matt’s interview with Ann Marie and put the brakes on the fasting. Now I’m afraid to eliminate so many foods (I think I react to quite a wide range as well as environmental) because I know that there are other negative reactions particularly to my metabolism (I can’t seem to get a temp above 96.8). Thank you for your thoughtful comments, Zusa.
When I work with people one-on-one, dietary restriction is always a last resort, and never a first line of defense. People pull foods out too easily these days. The problem is rarely the food and is usually how a person’s body is functioning. Fix the person, food issues disappear. I try to encourage people to exhaust “eating the food” before they banish themselves to years or a lifetime of food restriction. But no one can determine what is most appropriate than the individual tinkering with his or her own diet. You’ve been with your body for decades and have learned a great deal about it in that time. That knowledge is useful and shouldn’t be denigrated by any guru’s writings, advice, etc. etc. etc.
Okay, here is where it gets confusing and difficult. You say, “fix the person, food issues disappear.” So the questions is “how” to “fix the person while they have food issues?” (I’ll understand if you roll your eyes and bang your head here if you feel you’re repeating yourself.) I have been tracking my food issues for ten years. Eliminating certain things (I was gluten free for awhile, dairy free for awhile, banana and ice cream free for while) helps “fix” some problems but causes others. Is it possible to fix the sensitivities while eating without restrictions? Does eating the foods that give me reactions continue to aggravate the problems that need fixing? How do I prioritize what to fix? Ten years of careful eating have not eliminated my sensitivities.
Another question I’ve had about the method is whether age matters. I am 51 and perimenopausal. Does that severely affect how the metabolism heals or doesn’t? Does it complicate matters? I get the impression that someone in their 20’s or 30’s can apply the eat for heat ideas and get better results than someone older.
Clayvessel, I had gained lots too with my last stint of eating high calories and I only felt worse symptoms than before. I had finally gotten to the point where I had exhausted all efforts so I finally gave up. At one point I was up to 24 supplements on the RBTI program and peeing on a stick every time I went to the bathroom so I understand where your coming from. Perhaps we have passed each other in supplemental hell. LOL
I know this sounds counter productive, but have you ever tried not doing anything? No supplements, no extreme eating, no forceful resting ect? For me, I got to the point where I was taking all these stupid supplements and eating based on someone else’s theory of what a healthy diet consists of only to feel worse. I was pretty much forcing my body to comply with my view of health. By forcing all these dietary modalities, supplements and emotion/stress suppression techniques on my body, it only resisted. They were all foreign to my body because they didn’t come natural to me. Honestly, if I ever read another book about how to find my joy…well, you probably understand. :)
Your body hasn’t let you down and you are not permanently messed up, not even close. You are perfect as you are even though you probably don’t feel like it at times. But your body knows exactly what it needs to heal and it’s most likely not what you think and the answer won’t come from someone outside yourself. The answer may be as simple as letting go and just trusting YOU. Be your own guru and know that your healing will take time.
I don’t know if this advice will help you. This is just what worked for me and I’ve already lost ten pounds of the many extra I’ve gained and I still always eat to appetite and sometimes more, but now I eat exactly what and how much my body is craving and I never force anything on it. I let it guide me now instead of me guiding it. I no longer hold any judgements towards what it chooses or how it feels. If it wants a chocolate bar for lunch, that’s what I eat. If I feel lousy after eating it, I know that it doesn’t serve me well for lunch. Simply that. There are many days when I feel like poo and that’s okay too. I keep in faith that at some point all will work out because my body has my best interest at heart. It wants to see me healthy just as much as I do. :)
I send you love and blessings and hope your road to healing is as smooth and short as possible! Oh, and you sound like a wonderful cook. You should open your own restaurant when your all healed and full of energy. :)
Thank you Jennifer. I tell people to do exactly this all the time. It’s another reason why my latest writings are about eating what you want but not forcing anything down at all. And also trying to steer people away from diet fixation.
This is exactly what I meant by “tuning into your body.”
Sometimes it means not eating something because you realize that food makes you feel bad.
Thank you, Jennifer, for the positive encouragement. I have been trying to do those things these last few months. But- I had to go out last week and buy $200 worth of clothes in a size bigger than I wore even while pregnant. It was very depressing. I hate what has happened to my body while I try to positively embrace the food it wants to eat.
I have a great relationship with food. No problems there. This week I have lots of family visiting and am making lots of fabulous food. Last night my adult kids were laughing how we are “cultured country folk” as we drank our apertifs and devoured my pumpkin cheesecake with caramel. I actually do have a food related business that is so successful it has become a source of stress. In fact I should be making cinnamon rolls for a customer right now instead of doing this! I also have two boxes of garden tomatoes waiting for roasting. I’m trying to live my life and stop thinking about diets and how to heal but it always comes back around.
I feel for you and I know what you mean — it always comes back around. If we’re really connected with the messages of our bodies, what we want to eat and do will be in line with those messages. If I eat wheat, I get psorasis in my ears. Why would I want to go against my body and keep eating wheat when it’s clearly telling me it’s an issue. Many people talk like restrictions are awful but if you love your body, the restrictions become a non-issue. Not only that, but there’s so much we can still eat that it doesn’t feel like deprivation. I’m plenty satiated and not at all deprived. I do eat a lot more pinto beans and sardines than I used to and my temp is a lot higher. I don’t see why people find these two ways so conflicting. They’re not for me.
Last post for me as I have to travel for a funeral. Best of luck to you, Clayvessel.
I am little late as usual but wanted to share that i am finally, almost 100% able to consume any goat dairy without getting MS symptoms.
After lots of thinking and searching, i found about enzymes that digest casein and gluten….the ones we are supposed to be producing. I am taking AFP peptyzide or something like that…from Houston enzymes.
Initially, i had to take one capsule for about two cups of milk, and now i don’t seem to need any. Believe me, this is a huge blessing for me as i craved dairy insanely.
Also, when i can afford it i will start taking some strong general protease enzymes such as Purezyme.
Regarding your immune reactions to foods, read about enzyme therapy.
I hope this helps someone.
Diet Recovery 2 is only $9.99 – seems more than reasonable
For asthma cough and runny nose you may take a look into the work of Patrick McKeown (Buteyko Breathing): e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVCxF84oc47JJ2RUxwcproclMDiJvnp-c
Sylvia
Exactly Clayvessel.
I know Matt’s a nice guy, but as always, he spends the majority of his time making childish, glib remarks about serious issues, and not until a post about 1/3rd down the page does he ADMIT that leaky gut is a real problem for some people.
Matt, your book sales, etc., would be doing so much better if you’d reel in the mocking attitude somewhat. A little of your humor goes a LONG way, especially for those of us who are struggling to survive.
I am most interested in your reply to Clayvessel
Hahaha. :D This is terrific.
For the benefit of anyone who has been convinced they have candida, and need to do whichever diet to get rid of it, here is my Anti-Candida Diet Testimonial.
I went on my first anti-candida diet when I was ten years old. A Naturopath had prescribed it, and it really wasn’t all that extreme, compared to the diets I would later use. But even so, it made me dangerously skinny (and admired by certain peers, who I thought were very odd to do so, because my weight meant I was very weak, and I could see that this was affecting my life negatively), but my mother kept me on it the full three months.
Fast-forward a few diets to age sixteen, when I attempted the Guts & Glory Program (Jordan Rubin’s cure for Crohn’s Disease, and candida, and depression, and IBS, and practically every other gut-related illness you can think of, with the exception of MTHFR deficiency :P). I had a checkup four-days into it (I’d been drinking kefir and broth exclusively), which revealed my blood pressure was low. My M.D. looked concerned, and asked me if I was on a diet. He said he generally frowned upon dieting, as he felt they were dangerous, encouraged me to eat more, and then prescribed me an antidepressant.
ANYWAYZ, to even with like practically 2.5 years on the anti-candida diet over my lifetime, and five consecutive years of strict sugar avoidance, I NEVER CURED ANY OF MY CANDIDA OVERGROWTH SYMPTOMS. So yeah, don’t bother with this garbage. You’d probably be better off asking your doctor about Wellbutrin.
:P
*consuming kefir and broth exclusively
You have a point. It is the most confused and most spammed condition on the web. I guess that is the reason for the post.
Matt, I knew when I saw the title of your post that you were going to skewer the “leaky gut syndrome”. I appreciate the frustration that inspires your mockery – these conditions are difficult to cure. Nevertheless, I think LGS is a legitimate, unifying theory for what causes the plethora of chronic inflammatory disease that we see in society. There are so many young people nowadays afflicted with health problems we didn’t see a generation ago except in the elderly. LGS makes sense as a root cause more so than conventional views of these diseases – which nonsensically sorts diseases according to symptoms. Almost like: Left-foot disease, right-foot disease, lower buttock disease, etc. Tell me all the auto-immune diseases should not be viewed as related conditions rather than separate and distinct.
My daughter healed from RA using a WAPF diet but it took a LONG, LONG time. She went from being bedridden for a year with razor-like pains in her feet to being able to go dancing with her friends – but it took 3 years on the diet to get there. And, she had herxheimer reactions the entire time. (Maybe you can mock the Herx in a future post.). Honestly, it seemed as if she healed one cell division at a time. The ‘ole adage about watching grass grow pretty much describes her journey to health.
I believe he does mock the herx elsewhere. I don’t know exactly though.
Matt, don’t you know that Candida can subvert your thoughts? You cynicism is probably a symptom of it.
I shouldn’t poke fun, though. I was once convinced I had mucoidal plaque that I needed to cleanse out.
I have been feeling lousy this week. I have had headaches, diahorrea, feel tired and “hungover” For the first time, I have not felt hot and my rising temps have averaged 97.6 F. I have a mark on my body and I suspect that I have been bitten by a spider.
The majority of people who have leaky gut or whatever other illnesses, I think just are suffering from living a modern, westernized, stressful lifestyle. There is a small minority that suffer things such as serious gut issues, autism, autoimmune malfunctions, etc., to the point that their guts don’t process hardly anything they eat, and are practically starving as a result. For these people, extreme measures of GAPS diet or other prescriptions can prove to be very helpful. For most, however, these are unnecessary and do more harm than good. With all illness, use common sense, please!
I’m not going to specifically define or label them, but I had “gut issues” since childhood after several rounds of…guess what?…antibiotics. I realized that they were doing me more harm than good, and decided to stop taking them. Forever. Well, almost. I did take one more round of them after having my wisdom teeth pulled when I was 18.
Basically, I suffered from “caged gerbil syndrome” otherwise known as the western lifestyle. Crap food from the grocery store, stresses of city life, crappy jobs, commuting, caffeine, alcohol, lack of sleep, no exposure to nature, etc all contributed.
I “cured” those problems through good foods (mostly organic, but I don’t stress over it), eating whatever I want, consuming lots of calories when the body asks for them, adding raw milk kefir to a smoothie in the mornings, smart supplementation, doing work that I enjoy (from home) and living in a rural area.
I also recently added acupuncture and chinese herbs for energy issues, which has made a world of difference.
But I did fart a couple of days ago, so I guess I’ll have to stop eating everything and drink nothing but my own urine for a month. That’s supposed to cure everything!!
So how do you know it was the antibiotics that did it? Everyone on this site seems to hate on modern medicine and it’s getting old. Yes, it’s obviously not perfect…neither are natural remedies (acupuncture has never shown to have any sort of benefit). The Western world is so far removed from the suckiness of life without modern conveniences that we take them for granted. Go to a third world country and tell the people there to live a ‘healthier’ lifestyle instead of taking an antibiotic to cure an infection…they would think you are crazy (which it is). I had a UTI recently and tried all the ‘natural’ remedies- they did absolutely nothing and developed a kidney infection (very bad during pregnancy), which a few doses of Macrobid cleared right up.
Doctors do recognize that antibiotics are overused. I get frequent UTIs and my doctor referred me to a specialist to fix the root of the problem instead of continuing to prescribe antibiotics, which causes resistance.
I directly experienced a decline in my health while taking anti-biotics. That’s how I knew they were a problem…I figured it out on my own since my brainwashed doctor couldn’t think beyond his indoctrination.
Within a few months of the antibiotics, I began to develop other problems. Looking back, I can connect the dots. Fortunately, I am able to think for myself and draw conclusions from my experiences instead of listening to what “authorities and experts” tell me I should believe.
Your absurd statement that acupuncture has “NEVER shown to have ANY sort of benefit” tells me that you are content to believe what “authorities and experts” tell you instead of thinking for yourself.
The fact that you are getting FREQUENT UTIs instead of actually healing tells me that you are relying on western medicine to do something it is fully incapable of doing: Curing the root of an ailment.
Western medical doctors are one of the most heavily brainwashed, misinformed segments of the population, right behind the military and police. Boot camp for doctors warps their minds into believing that each system in the body works in isolation to the others, and that a single compound can treat an isolated problem.
If you were to actually broaden your mind and explore the valid areas of “alternative” (let’s say traditional) medicine, you might be surprised at what you find.
I sought acupuncture because I was experiencing transient nerve pain and a drop in energy levels. Within a month the nerve pain was gone and my energy was back to how it used to be in my 20s. My acupuncturist is also a master herbalist, and it is the combination of the herbs with acupuncture that yields incredible results.
if you were to ask a doctor about acupuncture, the response you get would be more of the same kind of dismissal that you already wrote.
So now you have a choice: continue to trust in brainwashed ?experts? who are wholly lacking in experience and will simply give you some other drug to treat/mask symptoms, or broaden your horizons to incorporate truly effective traditional medicine into your life.
The worst that can happen is that you choose an acupuncturist who isn’t very skilled or experienced, and you don’t heal the underlying cause of your UTI. You won’t end up with a series of side-effects from drugs, and you will then be able to say from actual experience that acupuncture wasn’t effective for you.
Yes, the worst I’ve ever had happen from alternative medicine is nothing. Prescription meds have caused all sorts of issues for me, and I’ve seen worse in other people I know. I think a lot of people have learned the hard way that medicine can do harm, so you see that come out in the comments here. They can be very effective and even lifesaving in short-term emergencies, however.
I think there is a balance. If you have a life-threatening infection, antibiotics can be miraculous and you would be happy to have them at your disposal. But then it is good to be aware of lasting effects, so you can counteract them with probiotics, for example, and also to be aware that it’s not a good idea to take them when there is a less harmful alternative.
Western medicine is terrific for treating acute issues. Gunshot wounds, broken bones, car accidents, dog bites, and acute infections. In one of those situations, I would indeed be grateful for a short-term antibiotic to save my life. Then I would go hard-core on probiotics afterwards.
Aside from the above, western medicine is an abject failure. Their “medicine” can’t even be called that in any real sense. I will take a master herbalist over a pill-pusher 8 days a week.
I just got back from my 5th ever acupuncture treatment, and it went DEEEEEEEEP. Real deep. There is an intelligence at work in this practice that is unparalleled. It helps that I fully embrace the treatment, but I am also not projecting anything that would generate a placebo effect. I simply allow the process to unfold as it needs to, and the results are profound.
Well said Cameron Day !!!!!!!!!!
Decades ago, I had UTI’s all the time, One day when my doc was unavailable, I saw the P.A. He said I needed to take vitamin C to get some good acid going to kill the bacteria. I haven’t had an infection since. If I feel one coming on, I get out the vit C and stop it in its tracks. May not work for everyone, but it’s work a try.
Good video with Bill Maher http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXXTCc-IVg
Haha! Leaky gut can soooo easily be oversold as just more alt med woo.
Now…. do you wanna know what your real problem is? All your symptoms (no matter what they be) are obviously indicative of you being hypo metabolic.
Haha! Low metabolism can also be oversold as just more alt med woo.
Just keeping it real at the 180.
LOL!!!
OMG – First I thought this was real….then I realized that in my attempts (all futile) to get the blubber off my body and or get healthy, I had tried nearly every one of these! You just shot a major hole in about 80% of internet marketing schemes. Matt, I’m an old lady compared to you youngsters out there, but I have failed in my low cal attempts to get thin for over 50 years now (my mother started me dieting in utero). Your posts and your understanding that dieting actually makes your metabolism hyper-efficient at the cost of say…everything else, is spot on. After a lifetime of shame, embarrassment, social isolation (no drinking – too many calories!) and wondering if I was really getting up at night and heading out to a local buffet, I realize that I was lied to big time. Dieting and exercising were sold to me as the solution and I bought it. Now, 35 years later, I am fatter than ever, but a regular dieter and exerciser. So freaking depressing! My fear of food does not let me go for the aggressive refeading thing, but I have increased the size of my breakfast a bit (by eating a cooking or biscotti before it) and tweaked the contents to add carbs (cereal) which I have always avoided while getting considerably fatter all the time – feel warmer……We will see how this works out, but my body temperature was 98 the other day (has been 97.4 for years). I’ve been diagnosed with candida, cfs, hypo thyroid and menopause has been hellacious – still I keep tally of my calories (1300-1500 day) and exercise most days for about 1 hour. How you get so smart young man????
You might want to look into fructose malabsoprtion. It’s surprisingly common and probably causing a lot of weight issues for many.
Cute.
Unfortunately some of us have real food allergies (unless the tests are all rigged), candida overgrowth, insufficient HCl and “leaky gut syndrome”. It would be cool though if it was all psychosomatic. If your body doesn’t digest food properly, ETF can make you feel more ill. Of course that must be the Herx! ;P
People are probably more exposed to an increasing amount of toxins than ever before. There is undoubtedly a point that not even eating the food can fix the effects, which may include leaky gut.
Hey Matt, this post cracks me up, wanting to show it to a friend or two. Do you think heavy metal poisoning could be lumped in there or not??? Also I was recently diagnosed with two MTHFR mutations via a blood test. Wondering why you include that here????????? The diagnosis has been a revelation and fits with a lot of my symptoms.
I include MTHFR because it appears to be the next big thing in alternative medicine. I totally should have included heavy metal poisoning! Oops!
You have likely been diagnosed with any of the normal wild-type MTHFR alleles. All this tells you is that you are a human being. Some people may benefit from the interventions, but it has nothing to do with MTHFR and could be tested much cheaper and more conclusively just by trial and comparison.
It’s the same scam as all the other popular online diagnoses. A grain of truth buried under a boatload of overhyped guano.
I always thought leaky gut was a joke, until I found out my sIgA levels were zero from protein deficiency (I was vegan for 6 yrs). So that’s how those little bastards Blasto and H. Pylori got in! still trying to eradicate them. It’s no joke, ya gotta ‘heal and seal’ the gut Matt.
Eliminate H. Pylori, lol. Good luck with that. I predict you will never eradicate them. “Heal and seal” the gut? Is that really how you look at the human body? It’s that easy huh? Sweet. Have you thought about becoming a doctor?
It’s amazing how often these diagnoses are made by people on a low carb diet. Low metabolism looks a hell of a lot like leaky gut too.
I am taking a dump every day … I guess I have the rare condition of INTERMITTENT leaky gut … ah wait, I hear it is very common …
Claire… I think it’s very interesting what you’re saying. I was a raw vegan for almost 2 years
and then my SigA levels were almost zero too. Are you sure it’s from protein deficiency?
How do you know? Have you cured yourself now? How? I’m still looking for answers. Tried
the Gaps diet but I can’t digest proteins anymore. To digest an little bit of Roquefort cheese, I
have to take 8 capsules of betain hcl+pepsin. These days I’m on a limited WAPF diet, at least
.. that’s how you can call it.
You asked: “Do I have leaky gut syndrome?”
I respond: “How am I able to diagnose you from a distance; do it yourself, then tell me.”
Sl?inte
If you have candida you just have to sing the candida song and it will go away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WROdwlk9_h8
Matt, you know I love you! But, I TOTALLY get where Clayvessel is coming from.
You forgot bone broth … drink lots and lots of bone broth. Throw in some supplemental gelatin, too.
OK haha you’re a funny guy. But I’m in agony every day with chronic pain and anxiety and other health issues that have developed over the last 3 years. I have no idea what to eat. Yes, I have tried different diets in the past, but I’ve also tried eating whatever, not restricting. Recently I stopped eating gluten and felt wonderful for a few days, but now the terrible anxiety is back. I never had health problems until I moved, and my house has mold issues. Have you made fun of mold yet?
I haven’t. Do you have any good mold jokes?
Sounds like you know what the real problem is. Some people are sensitive to mold, some aren’t, but if I were you I would try to fix it by moving or cleaning the mold.
Loved it. Thanks for the laugh, Matt.
I healed my “leaky gut” and “candida” and “food paranoia” by just EATING FOOD. Lots and lots of food, mostly sugar, salt and starch. And Jello. Oh God, I love Jello.
The Question: Poor Health.
The Answer: Raw LIVER shots. (I do grassfed beef.)
1 ounce, 3 – 4 times per week. No more than 4 oz. per week. Mix with a little tart cherry juice or grape juice to get it down. Or lemon. Whatever it takes.
Try it for a week and see how you feel. AMAZING!
Fecal Transplant for everyone!