The gut lining is just a single cell thick. If a microbe, toxin, or bit of partially digested food in our gut breaks through this delicate lining, it can set off a chain reaction of chronic inflammation.

This inflammation can burn through the body, triggering everything from bloating to breakouts to joint pain, autoimmunity, and worse.

Unfortunately, things like food additives, overprescribed medications, and even stress can weaken our gut lining, poke holes in it, and cause ‘leaky gut’. 

Let’s look at a little known condition to some, but which has a massive effect – leaky gut. At first glance, it might sound like a casual term but in the medical world it’s very well known – meet intestinal hyperpermeability.

What Is Leaky Gut?

To better understand leaky gut, imagine the wall lining of the intestines as a tightly knit net which only allows certain substances to pass through into the bloodstream. With leaky gut, the net becomes damaged, creating gaps where unwanted toxic substances can now leak through.

So many horses are silently suffering with this, yet their carers aren’t aware of what’s going on – this is the main enquiry we get to hear about. Their horse may be sluggish, grappling with pain and autoimmune allergies and other syndromes, while behind the scenes a health saboteur is at play.

So why does this happen, and how do we fix it? Lets look at the current game-changing insights on leaky gut.

The impact of chronic inflammation

Chronic low grade inflammation is the biggest driver of chronic disease. A 2015 published human-health paper in The Frontiers of Immunology, concluded that a permeable intestinal wall leads to translocation of bacterial toxins into the blood circulation, and the resulting chronic low-grade inflammation is the biggest morbidity and mortality worldwide. And it all starts with the gut bacteria. In other words, a leaky gut due to a dysfunctional microbiome, and the resulting chronic low-grade inflammation, kills and disables more people worldwide more than anything else.

So, a dysfunctional biome produces overt levels of toxins in the GI tract that then leak into the bloodstream. And once there, cue that low grade inflammation which becomes the very foundation of the vast majority of chronic illnesses. It’s one of the causative agents of virtually all disease, and the more research that’s done, the more correlation there is that initiates, and then progresses, the disease.

Leaky gut is where the enterocytes – the cells that line the gut – have microscopic openings to them. And when we look at these cells under a microscope, it’s fascinating – it looks like they’re held together by zippers. However, when there’s irritation in the GI tract, or not enough prebiotic fibre in the diet, those tight junctions become loose, aka permeable. And again, if we look at these under a microscope, this now looks like the zipper’s being pulled apart. We see teeny openings on either side – it’s not a hole as such; these holes are microscopic, but they’re enough to let undigested food from the GI tract leak into the bloodstream.

This is then circulated through the entire body, causing a systemic reaction. For starters, it creates an inflammatory state, increasing the risk of an allergic response, because these undigested proteins, starches, and bacteria aren’t meant to be in the bloodstream, because the GI tract is meant to be intact, impermeable.

Symptoms  of leaky gut in horses

• GI symptoms; digestion issues, gas/bloat, cramping, bowel issues such as loose stools or constipation.
• Joint pain, including swelling/inflammation in the joints.
• Neuro issues, such as brain fog, fatigue, short-term memory loss, and cognitive decline.
• Autoimmune allergy flare-ups.
• Hormone imbalances.

But - leaky gut is not just something going on in the gut – it’s an immune system problem, and the effect is systemic. Inflammation literally appears all over the body making the immune cells stay in a hypervigilant state, and all due to what’s been happening in the microbiome.

Reminder - the gut function is to let certain things through into the body, and keep other things in the gut so they can be excreted. When dysbiosis in the gut biome has caused leaky gut, a constant stream of toxins called lipopolysaccharides – aka endotoxins (toxins from within the gut itself), leak into the bloodstream - we’re talking chemicals, viruses, bacteria. And when the immune cells in the gut (that reside in the GALT – Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue) are assaulted by these endotoxins leaking through, they create a huge inflammatory response because that’s what the immune system is there for – it’s designed to protect. But - this isn’t an acute short-term response; it becomes chronic. We’re talking total-body chronic inflammation.
 
Every toxin in the bloodstream ends up with the liver, and for a while the liver can deal with this, but if there’s an overwhelming influx of toxins leaking in from the gut, the liver is put under enormous strain to biotransform them. More often than not the liver can’t keep up, so the body starts to experience metabolic changes, mood changes, depression and anxiety. These toxins damage the blood:brain barrier, which in humans can lead to neuro-degenerative conditions such as dementia, MS, and Parkinsons. We don’t even know what the blood:brain effect is on our horses as there’s no research to speak of.

Our old friends – antibiotics and medications: hidden contributors

There’s been some fascinating UK research in the last few years connecting antibiotics use with cognitive decline. It found that antibiotic use in children increases the risk of cognitive decline by 18% from the age of 40 onwards. The study also looked at antibiotic use in women in their 50s and then compared their cognitive function 10-years on, finding that in women who had taken antibiotics in their 50, their brains had aged 4-years more than those who hadn’t. And all due to the changes in the gut microbiome that antibiotics cause, due to a flush of antibiotic-resistant gram-negative infectious bacteria, followed by the gut inflammation that allows endotoxins through into the bloodstream as a consequence.

Then there are medications – NSAIDs, steroids, and proton pump inhibitors - our old friend Omeprazole. All have the potential to cause leaky gut.

In human terms, the science now knows that leaky gut is a core underlying feature behind diabetes Type 1 and 2, rheumatoid arthritis, IBS, celiac disease – even depression/anxiety has a connection with enhanced gut leakiness. So what causes this deterioration in the first place, and how can we prevent it?

Certainly a dysbiotic ecosystem – a faulty biome, is certainly a driver. High fructose, the wrong fats, herbicides – there’s so much research already on the damaging effects of glyphosate, pesticides, preservatives, agri-crop byproducts – all these kill off the beneficial gut biome bacteria, just like antibiotics.

Meanwhile we’re letting in unfriendly lactic-acid bacteria via haylage, which due to their preferred starch/sugar diet as opposed to fibre, multiply and outcrowd the beneficial bacteria, creating lactic acid inflammation inside the gut as they go. They also start to consume the protective mucosal layer which is high in carbohydrates, so wonderfully nutrient dense for these pathogen bacteria, and they’re consuming it faster than the body can reproduce it.

Meanwhile, those now exposed tight junctions of the intestinal wall become so porous that toxins and undigested food particles leak through to a part of the body they should never be exposed to. Meanwhile, the immune system goes into a panic, reacting to these food particles. And this is how food intolerances begin.

The science shows that it’s abundantly clear that leaky gut exceeds far beyond the digestive system. It can affect nearly every system in the body, from immune responses to neurological functions. Most medical professionals will have a drug for every symptom, but there’s nothing in their toolkit to cure this fundamental health obstruction.

Supporting leaky gut

Let’s look at solutions that nature offers and science confirms, and there’s some good news: studies show a specific nutrient can help seal leaky gut. Meet L Glutamine.