Quick Anatomy Lesson

The Gastrointestinal Tract or GI Tract is the long tube from our mouth to rectum, it’s the track food takes from the “moment we eat till the moment we deplete”. Food you ingest goes through 4 distinct stages on it’s way through the GI tract

1.) Ingestion: Food in the Mouth/Chewing

2.) Digestion: Smashing food into smaller bits that can be absorbed through the intestinal wall.

3.) Absorption: Letting the good parts through the wall, the stuff we need.

4.) Elimination: Basically trashing the rest, what the body has no need for.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah You knew that right? But, did you know that the GI Tract houses 70-80% of your Immune System?

That’s right, the GI Tract is not just for “Hulk-Style” SMASHING and ELIMINATING, it’s where most of your immune system resides. I bet you also didn’t know that the GUT actually houses 95% of serotonin? Yes thats the neurotransmitter responsible for influencing learning, memory, happiness as well as regulating body temperature, sleep, sexual behavior and hunger. Lack of enough serotonin is thought to play a role in depression, anxiety, mania and other health conditions.

This is why we have prescription SSRI’s (SEROTONIN Reuptake Inhibitors) like Celexa®, Lexapro®, Prozac®, Luvox®, Paxil, Pexeva® and Zoloft®… to increase the Serotonin.

I bet you had no clue that you can influence the neurotransmittor Serotonin with simple Diet changes and lifestyle choices… Did you? Now you know the connection.

Ever wonder why you grab that pint of ice cream after a break up? Well now you know. Diet can affect your “happy hormone”.

So What Happens when the “bad guys” get through “the wall”

I like to the think of the GI Tract like a tube, a massive tube at 33 feet long. The inner lining of the tube is designed to only let in the “good guys” or “what the body needs”. These things are nutrients and fluids from your food. For simplicity sakes, think of the inner lining of the GI Tract as “The Wall” in Game of Thrones. Remember how important it was to keep that wall up and intact? Same concept here. We want that Wall nice and strong and above all SELECTIVE.

When the bad bugs in the gut outnumber the good bugs they excrete compound that breakdown The Wall barrier…effectiively letting in the riff raff. Your body responds to said riff raff by mounting an attack, and BOOM we have body-wide inflammation. This is when we go get blood work and our inflammatory markers are SO HIGH and we have NO IDEA why.

Guess what contributes to all that bad bacteria breaking down the wall? You got it: poor diet, medications, stress, infections, environmental toxins and low stomach acid. Let me introduce you to LEAKY GUT.