What leaky gut is, the way Dr. Martin explains it
You carry three to five pounds of bacteria, he says, trillions of good guys and bad guys. When the bad guys outnumber the good, he calls it a dysbiosis. Your gut lining is one cell layer thick, a tight knit mesh between what you eat and your bloodstream.
Dr. Martin on what that mesh does:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682That little mesh between your gut and your blood keeps garbage out of your blood.
Leaky gut is that mesh losing the fight. With fewer friendly bacteria guarding it, undigested food, unwanted bacteria and yeast get through into the blood. He spent years looking at fasting blood under his office microscope, and says it should look clean.
"Bad guys don't belong in blood. Only micro-sized food goes in blood."
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682Why leaky gut is not mainly a stomach problem
Most symptom lists open with bloating, gas and diarrhea. He opens somewhere else.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682When people think of leaky gut, they think of digestive issues. No, that's not leaky gut. Now, you can have digestive issues with leaky gut, but that's not the thing. It's what gets into your blood.
A viewer had asked how to tell if you have leaky gut without a blood test. The episode is his answer: a list of places to look in the rest of the body.
Sign one: an autoimmune condition, thyroid included
His first sign is any autoimmune condition. He opened the episode with a study he said came out of University College London linking rheumatoid arthritis to leaky gut. Sjogren's and MS are on his list too. For a woman, the one to notice is the thyroid.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682So I mentioned any autoimmune including your thyroid, by the way, because in your gut about 20% of T4 is converted to T3 in your gut.
T4 has to become T3 before your cells can use it. When that step in the gut does not work properly, he says, you can get Hashimoto's, and the gut can be a big factor there.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682Well, you got an autoimmune? You have to be very suspicious.
Sign two: antibiotics, painkillers, antacids and steroids
He calls antibiotics the greatest discovery in medicine, and says they save lives. The problem is they kill all bacteria, good and bad. His clinic questionnaire asked every new patient whether they had ever been on antibiotics, and childhood ear and throat infections counted.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682So let's get back to it, antibiotics are the number one reason people get leaky gut.
Then the rest of the medicine cabinet. Painkillers, over the counter and prescription, including anti-inflammatories like Advil, can disrupt your bacteria, he says. So can an antacid, because with less stomach acid, yeast can get into the gut.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682Another medication, I forgot steroids. Prednisone. It destroys your friendly bacteria, guys.
He remembers women who needed a painkiller almost every day just to function.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682They had headaches almost every day. You know how many women I had that had migraines every day? I felt sorry for them.
His read was that the daily painkillers had disrupted the gut. He is clear about what he is not saying.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682I'm not telling you not to take medication, okay?
Sign three: your skin
The third place he looks is the one you can see.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682Look at your skin, any kind of rash, rosacea, psoriasis, eczema, acne. Look at your skin. You see stuff on your skin? That came from your gut.
Your skin is your largest organ, he says, and what shows up on it is your body reacting. He likes probiotics right on the skin, but the fix is in the gut.
Sign four: a diet of sugar and bread
Sugar, crappy carbs and the polyunsaturated oils in fast food are his fourth sign. Whole wheat gets no pass. Bread, he says, is sugar in five seconds, and that sugar feeds the yeast in your gut.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682Don't feed those bad bacteria. Don't feed yeast. Quit giving them sugar. You're a carboholic, you got leaky gut.
His picture for it is a road sign: don't feed the bears.
Allergies, brain, lungs and joints
The rest of his list moves through the body.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682Any kind of allergies, you got a post-nasal drip? You got leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky sinuses. Allergies start in your gut.
Hay fever too. Why do you have it and your sister does not? Almost always the gut, he says.
Brain and mood come next, memory and thinking and even depression. He says you have more serotonin and dopamine in your gut than in your brain. A cough that never clears is on his list, which he ties to yeast. So are joints, back to rheumatoid arthritis.
Why the list fits so many women over 60
He did not single out age on this episode, and none of this is a diagnosis. Work back from his list, though, and it describes a lot of women over 60:
- Six decades of antibiotics, back to childhood ear and throat infections.
- More years on painkillers, acid reducers or prednisone.
- Thyroid trouble, under his first sign.
- Changed skin, aching joints, a sinus drip that never clears.
If several fit, his word is suspicious. That is a reason to look at your gut and talk to your own practitioner, never a reason to stop something you have been prescribed.
What he would do about it
Put the friendly bacteria back, and stop feeding the bad ones. On the first, he means a probiotic capsule every day. Yogurt does not count.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682You're not taking yogurt for bacteria, please. The amount of bacteria in yogurt is for mice. Not for human beings.
Plain Greek yogurt with no sugar added is fine to eat, he says. It just is not how you replace bacteria. Tony Jr. worked out you would need 16,000 yogurts to match one capsule. On the second, cut the sugar and crappy carbs that feed yeast. Then be patient.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 682You've got to fix the gut and it can take a year to fix leaky gut depending on how bad it is.
More from him: gut health for women over 60, and can coffee cause leaky gut.
Common questions
What are the first signs of leaky gut in women over 60?
Dr. Martin starts outside the stomach: any autoimmune condition, thyroid included, then a history of antibiotics, painkillers, antacids or steroids, then skin trouble such as rosacea, psoriasis, eczema or acne.
Can you have leaky gut without stomach problems?
Yes, in his view. You can have digestive issues with leaky gut, he says, but what matters is what gets into your blood.
What causes leaky gut in older women?
He calls antibiotics the number one reason. Painkillers, antacids, prednisone and a diet of sugar and crappy carbs are on his list too.
How long does it take to heal leaky gut?
He says it can take a year, depending on how bad it is. His plan is a daily probiotic and starving the yeast of sugar.
Is yogurt enough for leaky gut?
No, he says. The amount of bacteria in yogurt is for mice, not people. He wants a probiotic capsule every day.
Put the friendly bacteria back
Probiotic Complex is the broad spectrum formula Dr. Martin built in clinic, with 50 billion CFU and 11 strains in every capsule.
60-day money-back guarantee. Formulated in clinic.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
