Erin O'Hara: Naturopath and wellness expert on the risks of leaky gut syndrome

New research shows our modern diets can harm microbes in the gut - sparking concerns about leaky gut syndrome.

Symptoms include abdominal pain, food sensitivity, bloating, and constipation.

Wellness expert Erin O'Hara unpacks this condition - and unveils solutions to treat the condition.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talk SEDB. It's time to.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Talk well on this eron o'havan Natural bathtoy.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's be good morning, Good morning. You're talking about leaky
gut this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ah, this is a real thing, isn't it. Yes's interesting.
It's been a real controversial thing that people doctors have
gone is it such a thing? And then also I
think it's been over talked about as well. A lot
of people are like, Oh, I've got digestive problems, it's
leaky gut, And it's like, is it really leaky gut?
Like it's just been hard to diagnose. Yes, And I
think that's really what it comes down to, is like

(00:42):
what are the symptoms of it? And how do you
know if you've got it or not? Or are you
just making it up that you think you've got leaky
gut because you feel fatigued and that's not really a
good enough reason to consider it to be leaky gut.
What are some of the symptoms. So some of the
symptoms can be abdominal pain, food sensitivity, bloating, diarrhea, constipation,

(01:02):
sort of ibs kind of gut, but doesn't necessarily mean
that if you've got IBS you've got leaky gut either,
And I think that's where there's that misconception within the
community as people go, i've got digestive problems, it's probably
leaky gut. But actually without doing a test, you really
don't know, and to do testing is actually a little
bit complicated. You kind of need to do a still

(01:23):
sample and to measure what things like Zuleian. Zuleian is
one of the biggest things that you would check out
for for leaky gut, so you usually you would have
high Zulian levels if you have leaky gut, along with
a low scredatory immuneglopiin A, which is an immune response. Now,
if you don't know what leaky gut is, it's literally

(01:44):
meaning that the gut is usually semi permeables. Everyone needs
a semi permable layer than the gut to uptake nutrients
across the gut membrane. However, if you had leaky gut,
you would have a lot more gaps basically between the cells,
and it's kind of like I always call it free
for all for things to cross across the gut membrane
and into the bloodstream, so you're getting a lot more

(02:05):
circulation of things that can create more inflammation within the body.
So to really get your gut working properly, you want
to make sure you've got good type junctions, and that's
whe're doing the right testing first, because there's no point
in taking you know, supplements for leaky gut. If you
don't have leaky gut, what a waste to test for it? Yeah,
you can test for it, So usually doing a steel

(02:26):
sample and check out the particularly zolulin marker to see
how you're regulating your type junctions. Also, I would always
look out for things like seeliact disease because seliac disease
has one bag reason that would also cause a leaky gut,
and you could do a endoscope to see what's going
on and maybe biopsies, but that's quite extreme. Like if

(02:47):
you're going to go to that level, I would just
start with a steel sample it's less invasive, and then
picking up if you did have a leaky gut, looking
at sort of how are you going to treat that.
Some of my favorites is using glutamine, and glutamine is
amino acid, so it comes from all your protein molecules.
But if you did heavily you gut, you'd probably want
to higher amount, so you could dose it with a powder.

(03:09):
Now usually in tablets that are too lower dose, you'd
have to take ridiculous amounts of tablets. So powder usually
looking at between two and five grams twice a day.
You can pick it up at most health food chops
and that's gonna help with knitting the gut membrane together.
So it is amino acid and it will knit the
gut memebrane together, usually alongside some other amino acids. You

(03:29):
may want to do it through food, so things like
bone broth is really good for building the gut lining
or it helps with knitting up the gut membrane. And
also looking at other nutrients like zinc is important for
gut membrane. Also, probiotics are really important for that gut function.
And also looking at your diet, so making sure you've
got a good balanced diet. If you are seliac, obviously

(03:51):
you need gluten free diet. If you're not celiac, then
being on a gluten free diet necessarily it's not gonna
cure a leaky gut either. Oh Aaron, Thank you so
much for all that appreciate it. Catch up next

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Week for more from the Sunday Session, where Francesca Rudkin
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