Leaky gut syndrome (LGS) is a poorly recognised but extremely common problem. It is rarely tested for. Essentially, it represents a hyper-permeable intestinal lining. In other words, spaces develop between the cells of the gut wall, and bacteria, toxins and food leak through. The official definition is an increase in permeability of the intestinal mucosa to luminal macromolecules, antigens and toxins associated with inflammatory degenerative and/or atrophic mucosal damage.
Symptoms of leaky gut can include: fatigue, arthralgia, myalgia, fever, abdominal discomfort, diarrhoea, skin rashes, toxic feelings, memory deficit, and shortness of breath, among others
Leaky gut can often start when levels of toxicity become too much for the body. Various toxins can make their way through the barrier of the intestinal lining when it is permeable. Those toxins travel to the liver where they are detoxified. The liver has phases of detoxification to deal with eliminating foreign substances (phase I and II), but when the detoxification processes of the liver are impeded, it results in manifestation of disease, depending on where the toxins exert their effect. If the liver is overloaded and can't remove the toxins, they can re-circulate or deposit in the body. Either way, they will upset the apple cart of balance. The toxins can re-circulate to the intestinal area where they increase the permeability of the intestinal lining even more. The relation to toxic overload on the liver and leaky gut is cyclical: A leaky gut will allow more toxins to enter the system, and, conversely, toxic overload of the liver increases leaky gut.