Help for a friend - is leaky gut real?

[Stavia]

Visting with a dear friend atm
Her issues: hashimotos. Ongoing weight gain despite calorie counting - actually not a bad diet at all but certainly low fat n carbs and too high in protein. Perimenopausal. Sweats, debilitating and severe. Shockingly poor sleep. Asthma. Anxiety. Reactive hypoglycaemia (proven with a 4hr GTT). And then I had a eureka moment when she describes unpredictable episodes of severe abdo pain, nausea, vomiting and probable hypotension (dizzy and has fainted) after eaing at restaurants - couldnt identify the trigger. Probably has IBS as well.
I found her a functional medicine doc in this big world city that Im hoping she will consult, suspect she needs BHRT for the sleep n sweats, but wondered about leaky gut as a possible additional common factor....
In the meatime Ive bought her some glycine cos she eats only lean muscle meat and says she cant face changing. Decent probiotics. Advised no gluten, upping her good fats. Suggested no dairy for a month and then rechallenge.

[Julie G]

How lucky she is to have you for a friend, Stavia. FWIW, I fully agree with your recommendations. If she's eating a low fat diet, I'm guessing she may be eating lots of starchy carbs. I wonder if replacing some of those with non-starchy vegetables would also help. A preponderance of starchy carbs can lead to both metabolic syndrome and dysbiosis/candida.

I googled "leaky gut" on PubMed and got almost 120 hits. Clearly some researchers think it's real. I've heard many functional medical docs theorize that zonulin in wheat causes leaky gut in everyone regardless of sensitivity. Some further surmise that the toxins that are released into the plasma then find their way through the BBB causing further damage. This paper seems to espouse a similar theory.

The role of IgG hypersensitivity in the pathogenesis and therapy of depressive disorders.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25268936

Depressive episodes are associated not only with changes in neurotransmission in the central nervous system, but also may lead to structural changes in the brain through neuroendocrine, inflammatory, and immunological mechanisms. The aim of this article is to present a new hypothesis connecting the inflammatory theory of depression with IgG food hypersensitivity and leaky gut syndrome. This new potential pathway that may mediate the pathogenesis of depression implies the existence of subsequent developmental stages. Overproduction of zonulin triggered, for example, by gliadin through activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor and protease-activated receptor causes loosening of the tight junction barrier and an increase in permeability of the gut wall ('leaky gut'). This results in a process allowing larger molecules that would normally stay in the gut to cross into the bloodstream and in the induction of IgG-dependent food sensitivity. This condition causes an increased immune response and consequently induces the release of proinflammatory cytokines, which in turn may lead to the development of depressive symptoms. It seems advisable to assess the intestinal permeability using as a marker, for example, zonulin and specific IgG concentrations against selected nutritional components in patients with depression. In the case of increased IgG concentrations, the implementation of an elimination-rotation diet may prove to be an effective method of reducing inflammation. This new paradigm in the pathogenesis of depressive disorders linking leaky gut, IgG-dependent food sensitivity, inflammation, and depression is promising, but still needs further studies to confirm this theory.

[Tincup]

Stavia,

What is she willing to do? The list of no-no lectins is inclusive of gluten, so why not suggest excluding Gundry's Matrix lectin list (linked here: https://www.apoe4.info/forums/viewtopic ... trix#p8824 )?

[Stavia]

Julie, no she actually isnt. Imo its too high in protein. Thanks for the links. I'm tending towards thinking its a real entity.
George, shes willing to stop grains but not the rest. I think baby steps.
Thanks for the help guys

[SusanJ]

Stavia, her symptoms after eating out seem to suggest food intolerances of some sort, and hypotension suggests a histamine response. All of them point to the gut not working well. I've been fighting IBS for years, and it's an ongoing process, leaky gut or not.

Do you think she would be open to keeping a log of all the food, drink and supplements, and symptoms?

Sometimes seeing that specific foods seem to cause problems is motivation enough to drop them. Although histamine is harder to track since it definitely ebbs and flows with amount ingested. Good luck to your friend!

[Stavia]

Hmm didnt think of that. Was thinking IgE mediated anaphylaxis. Good thought, thanks!

[Welcomeaboard]

As far as the restaurant eating, several things could be at play, 1. They season their food with herbs and spices that she does not eat at home and is having a reaction. 2. She eats food at restaurants that she does not eat at home and is exposed to a food at restaurant and not at home. 3. They cook something like oranges or orange juice into the food that you know you are allergic to, but they will not tell you because it is their secret ingredient that makes people come back and keeps competitors at bay. 4. The country does not have a health department that inspects restaurants or they do a poor job and she is contaminated from poor sanitization or food preparations practices. 5. Other patrons of the restaurant contaminate the restaurant and she picks up the contaminate(s) on door handles, faucets, tables, chairs, etc. 6. The restaurant employees contaminate the restaurant and you.
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
Have her eat at home. Have her eat at one restaurant and write down the foods and then see if she gets sick and then try another restaurant until she does get sick. Once sick then go try that same meal at home and if you do not get sick, stay the hell away from that restaurant or order something different at that restaurant and see if you get sick, if you are the daring type.
A better plan may be to test for allergies and herbs and spices,etc

[Pulpgirl]

Maybe I've been listening to too many health summits over the past year, but intestinal permeability seems to be a primary cause of hoshimoto's. Can you forward this link to her? It only is free for the rest of the day.
http://digestionsessions.com/encore

She needs to listen to Andrea Nakayama, a nutritionalist who reversed her hoshimoto's.

Intestinal permeability is a huge issue for the APOE4 community as well. Leaky gut, leaky BBB. I was going to write more on this.

[Stavia]

thanks Helen, I was wondering that, that it could be the common link with her Hashimotos and possible food allergy

[Welcomeaboard]

The symptoms you posted abdo pain, dizzy, nausea, vomiting, unconscious are all symptoms of moderate to severe allergic reaction according to meddling plus. Auto correct my ? Not meddling you dumb program medline plus