Leaky Gut Syndrome & Crohn’s Disease

Considerable evidence supports the presence of increased small intestinal permeability or leaky gut syndrome in Crohn’s disease.

Leaky gut refers to an increased permeability of the intestinal wall, resulting in the increased passage of substances from the intestines to the bloodstream.

Our digestive tract is the largest defensive barrier to outside attack and only one cell thick. It is vulnerable to stress, foreign food proteins and bad bacteria. The lining of the digestive tract is protected by a single layer of epithelial cells. In the small intestine these are called enterocytes and in the colon they are called colonocytes. The small intestine is long enough to wrap around your waist about eight times whereas your colon is about as long as you are tall.

When your digestive system is not operating properly, the unhealthy toxic environment actually destroys the lining of the digestive tract causing a condition called Leaky Gut Syndrome.

When your gut is ‘leaky’ certain bacteria and allergens escape into the bloodstream. This is a direct conduit to every other part of the body – including the brain.

The small intestine lining has projections called villi that dramatically increase the surface area of the intestine. Each villous is lined with a single layer of enterocytes and goblet cells. The enterocytes of the small intestine have projections on their surfaces known as microvilli where digestive enzymes reside.

Tight junctions prevent leaky gut: The cells are joined to each other by tight junctions or zonula occludens that form a barrier to fluid and proteins except when permitted by signals that open up the spaces between the cells, the paracellular space. Abnormal tight junctions result in increased intestinal permeability or what may be called a leaky gut. This altered intestinal permeability or barrier function is implicated in several diseases, especially celiac disease and the inflammatory bowel diseases ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

In other words, large spaces develop between the cells of the gut wall and bacteria, toxins, and food leak in. The body does not recognize them and activates the immune system to search and destroy. The result is inflammation.

In relation to food, this is the most common single cause of food allergies and skin conditions. Numerous studies have shown that Crohn’s disease is strongly linked with leaky gut syndrome.

A just published article in the journal "Gut" reports abnormal claudin protein levels result in patchy loss of barrier function or tight junctions (leaky gut) in Crohn’s disease. This report highlights the growing importance of gut permeability or leaky gut in Crohn’s and colitis as well as celiac disease. In the same issue Dr’s Weber and Turner write a review that is titled "Inflammatory bowel disease: Is it really just another break in the wall?" that "tight junction permeability is the rate limiting step that defines the overall epithelial permeability". They go on to say that "tight junction defects may be an important source of the overall intestinal barrier defects – that is, permeability increases – seen in patients with IBD and Crohn’s".  Finally they add that there is strong evidence that the tight junction barrier function is altered in IBD".

What are the causes of leaky gut syndrome?

1. Antibiotics

The overuse of antibiotics, steroids (cortisones), birth control pills, antacids, and anti-ulcer medications are considered a major cause of leaky gut syndrome. Some studies have shown the development of Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disorders after the use of broad spectrum antibiotics

Broad- spectrum antibiotics can kill all the friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract. The bad bacteria then actually burrows holes in the lining of the digestive tract, which gives way to undigested food getting through and going straight into our bloodstream, hence the reason for many of the cases of IBD and Crohn’s disease.

Many researchers feel there is enough evidence to point to these being a suspicious culprit in the development of Crohn’s disease.

2. Candida

Much of the literature on leaky gut syndrome contends that the main cause of this condition is Candida, a yeast-fungal organism that grows roots through your intestinal tract; roots that go searching for food. These roots compromise the intestinal lining and can cause leaky gut!.

The ever-present Candida, for example, proliferates when not held in check by the gut’s good bacteria. Candida produces colonies of yeast that take up parasitic residence in the lining of the colon. These little bits of yeast not only decrease the functionality of the affected gut and provide for more illness, they are also absorbed into the blood stream to take up residence in the liver, spleen, kidneys or even the vagina.

It is quite obvious then that a healthy gut pre-supposes a healthy individual, and that a healthy gut is the first line of defense in a program of total health and a sure path to healing Crohn’s disease.

We must, therefore, launch a concerted attack on the Candida.

Click here to read part -2 of this article and learn more on the connection between Candida and Crohn’s disease.

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