In the past we have covered the connection between different disease states and leaky gut.
Leaky gut has been associated with the progression of different autoimmune disease. A quick summary would take into account three specific factors outlined in this paper.
1. The genetic susceptibility to an autoimmune disease. This is where many people stop. You might think that having the genes for a particular autoimmune disease is a sure thing. There are a number of other factors that need to present
2. The trigger. The idea here is that something needs to actually set off the autoimmune progression. This is referred to as an ‘antigen’. Many times it can be bacterial, fungal or viral. Sometimes it may be an undigested food antigen setting off the immune system.
3. Finally the environmental agent (the trigger) needs to be able to interact, and set off, the immune system. I like to think about it like a chemistry reaction. There needs to be contact between the antigen and the immune system for a reaction to happen.
In this theory leaky gut is required.
In a healthy functioning system the gut barrier keeps these antigens inside the gut. When permeability increases the immune system interacts with these antigens setting off an overactive response (5).