Common drugs, foods, and beverages can disrupt the integrity of our intestinal barrier. Which foods should we avoid to prevent leaky gut? Which foods and food components can boost the integrity of our intestinal barrier?
Friday Favorites: Foods That Heal and Prevent Leaky Gut
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Intestinal permeability can be affected by a number of factors and many people experience on a dialy basis. Watch this video to find out what those factors are and the next video I will show you how to heal a leaky gut.
Intestinal permeability, the leakiness of our gut, may be a new target for disease prevention and therapy. With all the tiny folds, our intestinal barrier covers a surface of more than 4,000 square feet—that’s bigger than a tennis court, and requires approximately 40 percent of our body’s total energy expenditure to maintain.
Mounting evidence implicates the disruption of intestinal barrier integrity in the development of numerous ailments such as inflammatory bowel disease. Here, researchers measured intestinal permeability using blue food coloring. It stays in your gut if you’re healthy, but can be detected in the blood of extremely sick individuals as their gut barrier breaks down. You don’t have to end up in the ICU to develop a leaky gut, though. Simply taking some aspirin or ibuprofen can do the trick.
Indeed, taking two regular aspirin, or two extra-strength aspirin just once, can increase the leakiness of your gut. These results suggest even healthy individuals should be cautious with aspirin use, as it may result in gastrointestinal barrier dysfunction.
What about buffered aspirin? It doesn’t make any difference: both regular aspirin and Bufferin produced multiple erosions in the inner lining of the stomach and intestine. Put a scope down people’s throats, and you can see extensive erosions and redness inside 90 percent of people taking aspirin or Bufferin in their recommended doses. How many hours does it take for the damage to occur? None. It happens within five minutes. Acetaminophen, sold as Tylenol in the U.S., would be a better choice, unless you have problems with your liver. And, rather than making things better, vitamin C supplements appeared to make the aspirin-induced increase in gut leakiness even worse.
Interestingly, this may be why NSAID drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, are involved in up to 25 percent of food-induced anaphylaxis––in other words, increasing the odds of life-threatening food allergy attacks by more than 10-fold, presumably because these drugs increase the leakiness of the intestinal barrier, causing tiny food particles to slip into the bloodstream. Okay, but why can exercise increase risk, too?
Strenuous exercise, like an hour at 70 percent of maximum capacity, can divert so much blood to the muscles away from your internal organs that it can cause transient injury to your intestines, causing mild gut leakiness. But this can be aggravated if athletes take ibuprofen or any of the other NSAID drugs, which is unfortunately all too common.
Alcohol can also be a risk factor for food allergy attacks for the same reason, increasing gut leakiness. But cut out the alcohol and your gut can heal up.
What other dietary components can make a difference? Elevated consumption of saturated fat, which is found in meat, dairy, and junk, can cause the growth of bad bacteria that make the rotten egg gas hydrogen sulfide, which can degrade the protective mucus layer. It is said to be clear that high-fat diets in general negatively impact intestinal health by disrupting the intestinal barrier system through a variety of mechanisms, but most of the vast array of studies cited on the negative effects of a high-fat diet on gut leakiness were done on lab animals or in a petri dish. You don’t know for sure, until you put it to the test.
Rates of obesity and other cardiometabolic disorders have increased rapidly in parallel with a transition from traditional lower-fat diets to higher-fat diets. We know a disturbance in our good gut flora has been shown to be associated with a high risk of many of these same diseases, and studies using rodents suggest that a high-fat diet unbalances the microbiome and impairs the gut barrier, resulting in disease. To connect all the dots, though, we need a human interventional trial, and here we go. A six-month randomized controlled-feeding trial on the effects of dietary fat on gut microbiota. And indeed, higher fat consumption appeared to be associated with unfavorable changes in gut microbiome and proinflammatory factors in the blood, and note this wasn’t meat and dairy. The researchers were just swapped in refined carbs for refined fats, white rice and white flour for oil. These findings suggest countries westernizing their diets should advise against increasing intakes of dietary fat, while countries that have already adopted westernized diets should consider cutting down.
So far, we’ve discussed things to prevent a leaky gut. What about foods to heal a leaky gut? That’s what we’ll cover, next.
Our intestinal tract is the largest barrier between us and the environment. More than what we touch or breathe, what we eat is our largest exposure to the outside world. Normally, our entire gastro-intestinal tract is impervious to what is inside of it, allowing our body to pick and choose what comes in or out. But there are things that may make our gut leaky, and chief among them is our diet.
What happens is the Standard American Diet can cause gut dysbiosis, meaning a disruption in our gut microbiome, which can lead to intestinal inflammation and a leaky intestinal barrier. Then, tiny bits of undigested food, microbes, and toxins can slip uninvited through our gut lining into our bloodstream, and trigger chronic systemic inflammation.
To avoid this dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation, plants should be preferred. Vegetarian diets gut bacteria are associated with intestinal microbiome balance, high bacterial biodiversity, and integrity of the intestinal barrier. They tend to suffer from markedly less uremic toxins, like indole and p-cresol, and because fiber is the primary food for our gut microbiome, the gut bacteria of those eating plant-based diets produce more of the good stuff: short-chain fatty acids that fulfill a protective and nourishing role for the cells lining our gut, ensuring the preservation of the intestinal barrier. Plant fiber is of prime importance to the preservation of the intestinal barrier integrity, but you can’t know for sure, until you put it to the test.
People were given whole grains, beans and lentils, fruits, vegetables, and nuts and seeds, and got a significant reduction in zonulin levels.
Zonulin is a protein responsible for the disassembling of the tight junctions between gut lining cells, and so it’s a biomarker that reflects an impairment of the intestinal barrier. In other words, zonulin is considered to be a useful marker of a leaky gut. But since adding all those plants seemed to lower levels, that may imply that appropriate fiber intake helps to maintain the proper structure and function of the intestinal barrier. But whole healthy plant foods have a lot more than fiber. How do we know it’s the fiber? And the study didn’t even have a control group. That’s why they say gut permeability might be improved by dietary fiber. To prove cause and effect, it’d be nice to have a randomized double-blind crossover study where you compare the effect of the same food with or without fiber––and here we go.
People were randomized to pasta with or without added fiber, and there was a significant drop in zonulin levels in the added-fiber group. So, fiber does indeed appear to improve gut leakiness.
Any plant foods in particular that may help? Curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric, can help prevent the intestinal damage done by ibuprofen-type drugs, but that’s in rats. Similar protection was noted for the broccoli compound sulforaphane, but that was in mice. No human studies on broccoli yet, but there was a study on three days of the equivalent of about two to three teaspoons a day of turmeric, which did reduce the gastrointestinal barrier damage caused by exercise. Less may work, too, but no smaller doses have been put to the test.
If you ask alternative medicine practitioners what treatments they use for a leaky gut, #1 on the list, after reducing alcohol consumption, is zinc.
Zinc doesn’t just protect against aspirin-like drug-induced damage in rats; when put to the test in a randomized trial of humans, the same thing was found. The NSAID drug indomethacin caused a three-fold rise in gut permeability, as one would expect from that class of drugs, but when they were also taking zinc, this prevented the rise in permeability, strongly suggesting a small intestinal protective effect. The dose they used was massive, though: 75mg a day is nearly twice the tolerable upper limit for zinc. What about getting zinc just at regular food doses?
A significant improvement in gut leakiness even with a dose of just three milligrams of zinc, suggesting that even relatively low zinc supplementation may work. You can get three extra mg of zinc in your daily diet eating a cup of cooked lentils.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Bischoff SC, Barbara G, Buurman W, et al. Intestinal permeability—a new target for disease prevention and therapy. BMC Gastroenterol. 2014;14:189.
- Angarita SAK, Duarte S, Russell TA, et al. Quantitative measure of intestinal permeability using blue food coloring. J Surg Res. 2019;233:20-5.
- Lambert GP, Schmidt A, Schwarzkopf K, Lanspa S. Effect of aspirin dose on gastrointestinal permeability. Int J Sports Med. 2012;33(6):421-5.
- Hoftiezer JW, O’Laughlin JC, Ivey KJ. Effects of 24 hours of aspirin, Bufferin, paracetamol and placebo on normal human gastroduodenal mucosa. Gut. 1982;23(8):692-7.
- Bhatt AP, Gunasekara DB, Speer J, et al. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced leaky gut modeled using polarized monolayers of primary human intestinal epithelial cells. ACS Infect Dis. 2018;4(1):46-52.
- Sequeira IR, Kruger MC, Hurst RD, Lentle RG. Ascorbic acid may exacerbate aspirin-induced increase in intestinal permeability. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2015;117(3):195-203.
- Bartra J, Araujo G, Muñoz-Cano R. Interaction between foods and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and exercise in the induction of anaphylaxis. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2018;18(4):310-6.
- van Wijck K, Lenaerts K, van Loon LJC, Peters WHM, Buurman WA, Dejong CHC. Exercise-induced splanchnic hypoperfusion results in gut dysfunction in healthy men. PLoS One. 2011;6(7):e22366.
- van Wijck K, Lenaerts K, van Bijnen AA, et al. Aggravation of exercise-induced intestinal injury by Ibuprofen in athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012;44(12):2257-62.
- Donnadieu-Rigole H, Pansu N, Mura T, et al. Beneficial effect of alcohol withdrawal on gut permeability and microbial translocation in patients with alcohol use disorder. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2018;42(1):32-40.
- Rinninella E, Cintoni M, Raoul P, et al. Food components and dietary habits: keys for a healthy gut microbiota composition. Nutrients. 2019;11(10):2393.
- Rohr MW, Narasimhulu CA, Rudeski-Rohr TA, Parthasarathy S. Negative effects of a high-fat diet on intestinal permeability: a review. Adv Nutr. 2020;11(1):77-91.
- Wan Y, Wang F, Yuan J, et al. Effects of dietary fat on gut microbiota and faecal metabolites, and their relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors: a 6-month randomised controlled-feeding trial. Gut. 2019;68(8):1417-29.
- Riccio P, Rossano R. Undigested food and gut microbiota may cooperate in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammatory diseases: a matter of barriers and a proposal on the origin of organ specificity. Nutrients. 2019;11(11):2714.
- Leech B, McIntyre E, Steel A, Sibbritt D. Risk factors associated with intestinal permeability in an adult population: A systematic review. Int J Clin Pract. 2019;73(10):e13385.
- Wan Y, Wang F, Yuan J, et al. Effects of dietary fat on gut microbiota and faecal metabolites, and their relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors: a 6-month randomised controlled-feeding trial. Gut. 2019;68(8):1417-29.
- Krawczyk M, Maciejewska D, Ryterska K, et al. Gut permeability might be improved by dietary fiber in individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (Nafld) undergoing weight reduction. Nutrients. 2018;10(11):1793.
- Pacifico L, Bonci E, Marandola L, Romaggioli S, Bascetta S, Chiesa C. Increased circulating zonulin in children with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. World J Gastroenterol. 2014;20(45):17107-14.
- Russo F, Linsalata M, Clemente C, et al. Inulin-enriched pasta improves intestinal permeability and modifies the circulating levels of zonulin and glucagon-like peptide 2 in healthy young volunteers. Nutr Res. 2012;32(12):940-6.
- Singh DP, Borse SP, Rana R, Nivsarkar M. Curcumin, a component of turmeric, efficiently prevents diclofenac sodium-induced gastroenteropathic damage in rats: A step towards translational medicine. Food Chem Toxicol. 2017;108(Pt A):43-52.
- Yanaka A, Sato J, Ohmori S. Sulforaphane protects small intestinal mucosa from aspirin/NSAID-induced injury by enhancing host defense systems against oxidative stress and by inhibiting mucosal invasion of anaerobic enterobacteria. Curr Pharm Des. 2013;19(1):157-62.
- Szymanski MC, Gillum TL, Gould LM, Morin DS, Kuennen MR. Short-term dietary curcumin supplementation reduces gastrointestinal barrier damage and physiological strain responses during exertional heat stress. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2018;124(2):330-40.
- Leech B, Schloss J, Steel A. Treatment interventions for the management of intestinal permeability: a cross-sectional survey of complementary and integrative medicine practitioners. J Altern Complement Med. 2019;25(6):623-36.
- Sivalingam N, Pichandi S, Chapla A, Dinakaran A, Jacob M. Zinc protects against indomethacin-induced damage in the rat small intestine. Eur J Pharmacol. 2011;654(1):106-16.
- Mahmood A, FitzGerald AJ, Marchbank T, et al. Zinc carnosine, a health food supplement that stabilises small bowel integrity and stimulates gut repair processes. Gut. 2007;56(2):168-75.
- Institute of Medicine (US) Panel on Micronutrients. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin a, Vitamin k, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. National Academies Press (US); 2001.
- Tran CD, Hawkes J, Graham RD, et al. Zinc-fortified oral rehydration solution improved intestinal permeability and small intestinal mucosal recovery. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2015;54(7):676-82.
Video production by Glass Entertainment
Motion graphics by Avo Media
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Intestinal permeability can be affected by a number of factors and many people experience on a dialy basis. Watch this video to find out what those factors are and the next video I will show you how to heal a leaky gut.
Intestinal permeability, the leakiness of our gut, may be a new target for disease prevention and therapy. With all the tiny folds, our intestinal barrier covers a surface of more than 4,000 square feet—that’s bigger than a tennis court, and requires approximately 40 percent of our body’s total energy expenditure to maintain.
Mounting evidence implicates the disruption of intestinal barrier integrity in the development of numerous ailments such as inflammatory bowel disease. Here, researchers measured intestinal permeability using blue food coloring. It stays in your gut if you’re healthy, but can be detected in the blood of extremely sick individuals as their gut barrier breaks down. You don’t have to end up in the ICU to develop a leaky gut, though. Simply taking some aspirin or ibuprofen can do the trick.
Indeed, taking two regular aspirin, or two extra-strength aspirin just once, can increase the leakiness of your gut. These results suggest even healthy individuals should be cautious with aspirin use, as it may result in gastrointestinal barrier dysfunction.
What about buffered aspirin? It doesn’t make any difference: both regular aspirin and Bufferin produced multiple erosions in the inner lining of the stomach and intestine. Put a scope down people’s throats, and you can see extensive erosions and redness inside 90 percent of people taking aspirin or Bufferin in their recommended doses. How many hours does it take for the damage to occur? None. It happens within five minutes. Acetaminophen, sold as Tylenol in the U.S., would be a better choice, unless you have problems with your liver. And, rather than making things better, vitamin C supplements appeared to make the aspirin-induced increase in gut leakiness even worse.
Interestingly, this may be why NSAID drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, are involved in up to 25 percent of food-induced anaphylaxis––in other words, increasing the odds of life-threatening food allergy attacks by more than 10-fold, presumably because these drugs increase the leakiness of the intestinal barrier, causing tiny food particles to slip into the bloodstream. Okay, but why can exercise increase risk, too?
Strenuous exercise, like an hour at 70 percent of maximum capacity, can divert so much blood to the muscles away from your internal organs that it can cause transient injury to your intestines, causing mild gut leakiness. But this can be aggravated if athletes take ibuprofen or any of the other NSAID drugs, which is unfortunately all too common.
Alcohol can also be a risk factor for food allergy attacks for the same reason, increasing gut leakiness. But cut out the alcohol and your gut can heal up.
What other dietary components can make a difference? Elevated consumption of saturated fat, which is found in meat, dairy, and junk, can cause the growth of bad bacteria that make the rotten egg gas hydrogen sulfide, which can degrade the protective mucus layer. It is said to be clear that high-fat diets in general negatively impact intestinal health by disrupting the intestinal barrier system through a variety of mechanisms, but most of the vast array of studies cited on the negative effects of a high-fat diet on gut leakiness were done on lab animals or in a petri dish. You don’t know for sure, until you put it to the test.
Rates of obesity and other cardiometabolic disorders have increased rapidly in parallel with a transition from traditional lower-fat diets to higher-fat diets. We know a disturbance in our good gut flora has been shown to be associated with a high risk of many of these same diseases, and studies using rodents suggest that a high-fat diet unbalances the microbiome and impairs the gut barrier, resulting in disease. To connect all the dots, though, we need a human interventional trial, and here we go. A six-month randomized controlled-feeding trial on the effects of dietary fat on gut microbiota. And indeed, higher fat consumption appeared to be associated with unfavorable changes in gut microbiome and proinflammatory factors in the blood, and note this wasn’t meat and dairy. The researchers were just swapped in refined carbs for refined fats, white rice and white flour for oil. These findings suggest countries westernizing their diets should advise against increasing intakes of dietary fat, while countries that have already adopted westernized diets should consider cutting down.
So far, we’ve discussed things to prevent a leaky gut. What about foods to heal a leaky gut? That’s what we’ll cover, next.
Our intestinal tract is the largest barrier between us and the environment. More than what we touch or breathe, what we eat is our largest exposure to the outside world. Normally, our entire gastro-intestinal tract is impervious to what is inside of it, allowing our body to pick and choose what comes in or out. But there are things that may make our gut leaky, and chief among them is our diet.
What happens is the Standard American Diet can cause gut dysbiosis, meaning a disruption in our gut microbiome, which can lead to intestinal inflammation and a leaky intestinal barrier. Then, tiny bits of undigested food, microbes, and toxins can slip uninvited through our gut lining into our bloodstream, and trigger chronic systemic inflammation.
To avoid this dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation, plants should be preferred. Vegetarian diets gut bacteria are associated with intestinal microbiome balance, high bacterial biodiversity, and integrity of the intestinal barrier. They tend to suffer from markedly less uremic toxins, like indole and p-cresol, and because fiber is the primary food for our gut microbiome, the gut bacteria of those eating plant-based diets produce more of the good stuff: short-chain fatty acids that fulfill a protective and nourishing role for the cells lining our gut, ensuring the preservation of the intestinal barrier. Plant fiber is of prime importance to the preservation of the intestinal barrier integrity, but you can’t know for sure, until you put it to the test.
People were given whole grains, beans and lentils, fruits, vegetables, and nuts and seeds, and got a significant reduction in zonulin levels.
Zonulin is a protein responsible for the disassembling of the tight junctions between gut lining cells, and so it’s a biomarker that reflects an impairment of the intestinal barrier. In other words, zonulin is considered to be a useful marker of a leaky gut. But since adding all those plants seemed to lower levels, that may imply that appropriate fiber intake helps to maintain the proper structure and function of the intestinal barrier. But whole healthy plant foods have a lot more than fiber. How do we know it’s the fiber? And the study didn’t even have a control group. That’s why they say gut permeability might be improved by dietary fiber. To prove cause and effect, it’d be nice to have a randomized double-blind crossover study where you compare the effect of the same food with or without fiber––and here we go.
People were randomized to pasta with or without added fiber, and there was a significant drop in zonulin levels in the added-fiber group. So, fiber does indeed appear to improve gut leakiness.
Any plant foods in particular that may help? Curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric, can help prevent the intestinal damage done by ibuprofen-type drugs, but that’s in rats. Similar protection was noted for the broccoli compound sulforaphane, but that was in mice. No human studies on broccoli yet, but there was a study on three days of the equivalent of about two to three teaspoons a day of turmeric, which did reduce the gastrointestinal barrier damage caused by exercise. Less may work, too, but no smaller doses have been put to the test.
If you ask alternative medicine practitioners what treatments they use for a leaky gut, #1 on the list, after reducing alcohol consumption, is zinc.
Zinc doesn’t just protect against aspirin-like drug-induced damage in rats; when put to the test in a randomized trial of humans, the same thing was found. The NSAID drug indomethacin caused a three-fold rise in gut permeability, as one would expect from that class of drugs, but when they were also taking zinc, this prevented the rise in permeability, strongly suggesting a small intestinal protective effect. The dose they used was massive, though: 75mg a day is nearly twice the tolerable upper limit for zinc. What about getting zinc just at regular food doses?
A significant improvement in gut leakiness even with a dose of just three milligrams of zinc, suggesting that even relatively low zinc supplementation may work. You can get three extra mg of zinc in your daily diet eating a cup of cooked lentils.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Bischoff SC, Barbara G, Buurman W, et al. Intestinal permeability—a new target for disease prevention and therapy. BMC Gastroenterol. 2014;14:189.
- Angarita SAK, Duarte S, Russell TA, et al. Quantitative measure of intestinal permeability using blue food coloring. J Surg Res. 2019;233:20-5.
- Lambert GP, Schmidt A, Schwarzkopf K, Lanspa S. Effect of aspirin dose on gastrointestinal permeability. Int J Sports Med. 2012;33(6):421-5.
- Hoftiezer JW, O’Laughlin JC, Ivey KJ. Effects of 24 hours of aspirin, Bufferin, paracetamol and placebo on normal human gastroduodenal mucosa. Gut. 1982;23(8):692-7.
- Bhatt AP, Gunasekara DB, Speer J, et al. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced leaky gut modeled using polarized monolayers of primary human intestinal epithelial cells. ACS Infect Dis. 2018;4(1):46-52.
- Sequeira IR, Kruger MC, Hurst RD, Lentle RG. Ascorbic acid may exacerbate aspirin-induced increase in intestinal permeability. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2015;117(3):195-203.
- Bartra J, Araujo G, Muñoz-Cano R. Interaction between foods and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and exercise in the induction of anaphylaxis. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2018;18(4):310-6.
- van Wijck K, Lenaerts K, van Loon LJC, Peters WHM, Buurman WA, Dejong CHC. Exercise-induced splanchnic hypoperfusion results in gut dysfunction in healthy men. PLoS One. 2011;6(7):e22366.
- van Wijck K, Lenaerts K, van Bijnen AA, et al. Aggravation of exercise-induced intestinal injury by Ibuprofen in athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012;44(12):2257-62.
- Donnadieu-Rigole H, Pansu N, Mura T, et al. Beneficial effect of alcohol withdrawal on gut permeability and microbial translocation in patients with alcohol use disorder. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2018;42(1):32-40.
- Rinninella E, Cintoni M, Raoul P, et al. Food components and dietary habits: keys for a healthy gut microbiota composition. Nutrients. 2019;11(10):2393.
- Rohr MW, Narasimhulu CA, Rudeski-Rohr TA, Parthasarathy S. Negative effects of a high-fat diet on intestinal permeability: a review. Adv Nutr. 2020;11(1):77-91.
- Wan Y, Wang F, Yuan J, et al. Effects of dietary fat on gut microbiota and faecal metabolites, and their relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors: a 6-month randomised controlled-feeding trial. Gut. 2019;68(8):1417-29.
- Riccio P, Rossano R. Undigested food and gut microbiota may cooperate in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammatory diseases: a matter of barriers and a proposal on the origin of organ specificity. Nutrients. 2019;11(11):2714.
- Leech B, McIntyre E, Steel A, Sibbritt D. Risk factors associated with intestinal permeability in an adult population: A systematic review. Int J Clin Pract. 2019;73(10):e13385.
- Wan Y, Wang F, Yuan J, et al. Effects of dietary fat on gut microbiota and faecal metabolites, and their relationship with cardiometabolic risk factors: a 6-month randomised controlled-feeding trial. Gut. 2019;68(8):1417-29.
- Krawczyk M, Maciejewska D, Ryterska K, et al. Gut permeability might be improved by dietary fiber in individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (Nafld) undergoing weight reduction. Nutrients. 2018;10(11):1793.
- Pacifico L, Bonci E, Marandola L, Romaggioli S, Bascetta S, Chiesa C. Increased circulating zonulin in children with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. World J Gastroenterol. 2014;20(45):17107-14.
- Russo F, Linsalata M, Clemente C, et al. Inulin-enriched pasta improves intestinal permeability and modifies the circulating levels of zonulin and glucagon-like peptide 2 in healthy young volunteers. Nutr Res. 2012;32(12):940-6.
- Singh DP, Borse SP, Rana R, Nivsarkar M. Curcumin, a component of turmeric, efficiently prevents diclofenac sodium-induced gastroenteropathic damage in rats: A step towards translational medicine. Food Chem Toxicol. 2017;108(Pt A):43-52.
- Yanaka A, Sato J, Ohmori S. Sulforaphane protects small intestinal mucosa from aspirin/NSAID-induced injury by enhancing host defense systems against oxidative stress and by inhibiting mucosal invasion of anaerobic enterobacteria. Curr Pharm Des. 2013;19(1):157-62.
- Szymanski MC, Gillum TL, Gould LM, Morin DS, Kuennen MR. Short-term dietary curcumin supplementation reduces gastrointestinal barrier damage and physiological strain responses during exertional heat stress. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2018;124(2):330-40.
- Leech B, Schloss J, Steel A. Treatment interventions for the management of intestinal permeability: a cross-sectional survey of complementary and integrative medicine practitioners. J Altern Complement Med. 2019;25(6):623-36.
- Sivalingam N, Pichandi S, Chapla A, Dinakaran A, Jacob M. Zinc protects against indomethacin-induced damage in the rat small intestine. Eur J Pharmacol. 2011;654(1):106-16.
- Mahmood A, FitzGerald AJ, Marchbank T, et al. Zinc carnosine, a health food supplement that stabilises small bowel integrity and stimulates gut repair processes. Gut. 2007;56(2):168-75.
- Institute of Medicine (US) Panel on Micronutrients. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin a, Vitamin k, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. National Academies Press (US); 2001.
- Tran CD, Hawkes J, Graham RD, et al. Zinc-fortified oral rehydration solution improved intestinal permeability and small intestinal mucosal recovery. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2015;54(7):676-82.
Video production by Glass Entertainment
Motion graphics by Avo Media
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Friday Favorites: Foods That Heal and Prevent Leaky Gut
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Content URLDoctor's Note
I have one other video devoted to leaky gut. See The Leaky Gut Theory of Why Animal Products Cause Inflammation.
I also talked about gut leakiness in my SIBO series. Check out Are Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) Tests Valid? and Fiber vs. Low FODMAP for SIBO Symptoms.
For more on preventing gut dysbiosis, see Gut Dysbiosis: Starving Our Microbial Self.
The original videos aired on December 15 and 20, 2021
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