Digestive Health, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Celiac Disease

In season 03 of the Travel Gluten Free Podcast, Jenny Finke of Good For You Gluten Free, and I dive into how to heal your gut, especially when you have a leaky gut. While we aren't medical professionals (please see a medical professional for diagnosis), we share our experience with leaky gut and what action steps we have taken to help calm a leaky gut syndrome. While a leaky gut does not have a test on its own, there are several factors that can lead to a leaky gut.

First, you need to have an auto-immune gene that triggers an auto-immune condition or auto-immune disease such as Celiac disease. Secondly, you could have a biome imbalance in your gut. Third, a poor diet or a diet high in gluten can assist in triggering a leaky gut.

In our experience, there are a few different things that can lead to a leaky gut, which in turn can lead to food intolerances.

What Is Leaky Gut?

Leaky gut is the condition of your gut lining that has extensive tiny permeations. These permeations, or holes in your gut lining, allow food to travel from your gut into your bloodstream. Uneaten tiny food particles are seen as invaders in your bloodstream. Your body will attempt to get rid of these tiny pieces of food, thus causing inflammation in your body. Unless healed, your food will continue leaking into your gut, which can cause immune system issues.

The inflammation in your digestive tract caused by a leaky gut can result in food intolerances, and click an auto-immune gene to "on" even if you've never had the disease in your life previously.

Finke also refers to the work of Dr. Tom O'Bryan and his research on the auto-immune disease. He's found that auto-immune diseases will impact you at your weakest link in our chain. Wherever your weakest link, joints, stomach, skin, or bones, you will see symptoms. This is the main reason auto-immune disorders are hard to diagnose, as they show up with different symptoms depending on the individual.

We also chat about resting your gut and why giving your gut a break is extremely important when healing your gut. "Think about Celiac disease as breaking your digestive system. It now needs to rest and recover."

Jenny Finke of Good For You Gluten Free

Jenny has been gluten-free for more than seven years. She is a blogger, certified integrative nutrition coach, and founder of the Denver Bloggers Club, a 500+ member professional development club for bloggers in Colorado.

Her last piece of gluten she ate was a 6" sub from Subway. While eating her sandwich, her doctor called to diagnose her with Celiac disease. She was taken aback by the diagnosis and immediately threw away the remainder of her sub. From this point forward, she led a gluten-free lifestyle.

With the opportunity to spend six weeks last summer living in London and weekend trips to Paris and Amsterdam, she learned a lot about gluten-free traveling. However, she also struggled to eat safely during a trip to Israel, where she was at the whim of a tour guide. This prompted her to write the article The Emotional Burden of Being Gluten-Free.

Discover tips on how to safely travel gluten-free with my complimentary ebook, Ten Tips for Traveling Gluten Free! You can also find out more details about how to travel via cruise, road trip, or camping and learn the freedom you can have when you know how to travel with Celiac disease when you grab my Guide to Traveling Gluten Free.