Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates – who has long been considered the “Father of Medicine” – once said “All disease begins in the gut.”
If you’re struggling with a health challenge, you may find it hard to believe it started in your gut. However, the more scientists learn, the more they discover Hippocrates may have indeed been right.
Your intestinal tract, or gut, does play a crucial role in your health and the link between gut health and overall health cannot be denied.
It all comes down to your gut lining… Your intestinal tract functions as a safety shield, or defensive barrier, that helps prevent potentially harmful substances from crossing the cell membranes and reaching your bloodstream.
Your gut barrier has an inner intelligence. It knows what to let in – nutrients – and what not to let in – toxins and other potentially harmful substances.
However, if your gut’s protective barrier becomes compromised for reasons I’ll soon talk about, it can’t exercise that intelligence. When substances enter that shouldn’t, a cascade of unwanted events can occur.
Gas, bloating and indigestion are just the tip of the iceberg, but they can be important first clues that your gut integrity is compromised.
How Is Your Gut Integrity? These 6 Clues May Hold the Answer
Eight in 10 individuals experience those three occasional signs –gas, bloating and indigestion – but there are other factors to consider if you want to know the true strength and integrity of your gut’s protective barrier.
Let’s find out… How many of these six statements hold true for you?
-
You feel full of energy and vitality on a regular basis.
-
You don’t have any food sensitivities and can eat just about any food you want without experiencing digestive distress, such as gas, heartburn, bloating or reflux.
-
Your stools are consistently well-formed and don’t contain undigested food, mucous or blood.
-
Your elimination is regular with one to three normal bowel movements a day, without any strain or help from medication or supplements.
-
You have little or no belly fat and have an appropriate-sized waist circumference.
-
You feel happy, sleep well and enjoy overall good health.
Were you able to answer “yes” to all of these statements? If so, congratulations – you have the hallmark signs of a healthy gut and strong gut barrier.
Missed one or more? Read on to learn about the one simple step you can take to support the integrity of one of your body’s most crucial barriers…
What Happens When You Have a Leaky Gut?
When most people think of the gastrointestinal tract, they think in terms of digestion, absorption of nutrients and maintaining a healthy balance of electrolytes and water.
However, your gastrointestinal tract plays another very important role in helping you maintain optimal health. Through a unique barrier mechanism, your gut controls the movement of substances between your outer environment and the inside of your body.
Your gut biome is made up of a precise balance of intestinal bacterial strains that inhabit the fingerlike villi of the single layer of intestinal epithelial cells (see diagram below).
The space between these cells is sealed by what’s called “tight junctions” and it’s these junctions that control the permeability, or porousness, of your intestinal barrier.
Individuals with perfect health enjoy the benefits tight junctions offer. Forming a nearly impermeable membrane, tight junctions act like alert gatekeepers and allow only what’s desirable into the cells.
When you have a ‘leaky’ gut, your tight junctions open and allow unwanted substances to slip through your gut lining and into your bloodstream. This can include toxins and other invaders, as well as undigested food particles, gluten and dairy.
Your body views these leaked substances as foreign invaders, so it mounts an immune response. This can lead to an improper inflammatory response that spreads throughout your body, sending signals to your brain and affecting all your organ systems.
Intestinal tight junctions, like the photo on the left, are essential for maintaining the integrity of your gut barrier for proper absorption and transport of nutrients. And they protect the rest of your body from foreign substances and other threats.
What’s Causing Your Gut Issues?
What can threaten the integrity of your gut and harm your tight junctions? Three things:
-
On-going emotional or physical stress
-
Toxic substances like pesticides, herbicides (especially glyphosate – the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup®), certain medications, heavy metals like mercury and harsh chemicals, such as BPA from plastics
-
A diet containing processed foods, gluten, dairy, sugar and alcohol, which can cause inflammation in your body
All of these threats – especially gluten and glyphosate – can turn on the protein zonulin which signals your tight junctions to open. Under normal conditions, zonulin increases the permeability of your intestinal tract, which is beneficial to ensure toxins are flushed out. However, in conditions where we are being exposed to more toxins, the activation of zonulin can lead to a leaky gut.
It’s a toss-up as to whether gluten or glyphosate plays the biggest role in developing a leaky gut. Some say it is gluten, others claim it is glyphosate, as it’s thought to be ten times more potent than gluten at the zonulin pathway, adding to the breakdown of the tight junctions.
What’s more, scientists have discovered that glyphosate increases the harmful impact of other environmental toxins.
So, how can you find out if your gut may be leaky and letting in things that it shouldn’t?
If you currently consume GMO crops like non-organic corn, soy or canola, or non-organic oats, wheat and garbanzo, white and black beans, or eat grains containing gluten, there’s a good chance you are already experiencing the effects of a leaky gut.
Non-organic wheat, in bread, crackers and pasta, can be a double whammy, exposing you to both glyphosate and gluten.
There are two ways to test intestinal permeability. The ELISA test measures the levels of zonulin in your blood. Higher than normal levels of zonulin is an indicator of a leaky gut.
The other way to test for a leaky gut is to determine if you have any food sensitivities. By following an elimination diet that removes specific foods from your diet for short periods of time and then reintroducing them can help you identify which foods you may be sensitive to.
How Impaired Gut Barrier Function May Be Affecting Your Health
Ignoring any food sensitivities you may have – and a leaky gut – can make matters worse. When your gut remains leaky and more and more particles escape into your bloodstream, your immune system can go on high alert and start attacking your body’s tissues.
Therefore, it’s important to maintain the integrity of your gut biome for this and a few other reasons. You need a strong intestinal gut barrier to thrive and maintain optimal health.
You absorb most of your nutrients through your gut. And because it serves as the entry point for most of the toxins that enter your body, it’s also the main site for your body’s normal detox processes to help remove those unwanted substances.
Immune health is another vital component of a healthy gut and barrier. As much as 80% of your immune system resides in your gut, so any degree of gut barrier dysfunction will affect your immune function.
Your body’s immune response to the invaders allowed in through a leaky gut, or increased intestinal permeability, can lead to a number of complaints:
-
Increased belly (visceral) fat and metabolic dysfunction
-
Nutritional deficiencies of micronutrients and minerals
-
Digestive issues such as bloating, gut discomfort and irregularity
-
Seasonal allergies and respiratory distress
-
Joint discomfort and stiffness
-
Food allergies and food sensitivities or intolerances
-
Brain fog and difficulty concentrating
-
Skin issues such as breakouts and itchy, scaly skin and rashes
-
Mood swings and imbalances
-
Hormone imbalances and irregular periods in women
-
Fatigue and overall body discomfort
Many people are surprised to learn about the connection between gut health and waistline circumference, or the presence of belly fat.
However, a recent study of normal and overweight female subjects did indeed show a positive relationship between waist circumference and impaired gut barrier function.
Could These Ancient Humic Substances Help Strengthen Your Gut Integrity?
The result of an 80-million-year-old geological process, humification happens when the right combination of organic matter combines with certain conditions like pressure and temperature.
Humates form as ancient seaweed, plants, vegetation and fruit trees compress over time, leaving a mineral-rich substance called humic acid.
Humic and fulvic acids…
-
Help tighten the cell junctions in your gut lining to promote digestive health and relieve gas, bloating and other signs of indigestion.*
-
Support immune function due to tighter cell junctions, as fewer toxins and invaders can break through and ignite a faulty immune response.*
-
Support cellular health and energy production by increasing the number of mitochondria in your cells and improving cellular respiration.*
-
Help maintain a healthy microbiome by supporting gut bacteria diversity and strengthening your gut lining.*
-
Support brain health, mental clarity and mood by supporting the healthy production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.*
-
Help defend against the damaging effects of gluten by activating the enzyme DPP4 which removes the toxic peptides found in gluten, and allows your body to maintain low levels of zonulin and avoid immune responses to gluten.*
-
Support your body’s normal detoxification processes by helping to remove wastes from your colon and intestine.*
With plants, humic substances help unlock minerals within the soil.
Same with your body… humates, or humic and fulvic acids, stimulate the uptake of minerals and assist with nutrient absorption. Acting as carrier molecules, they help deliver nutrients to your cells for proper nourishment.
Plenty of Valuable Micronutrients and Minerals to Support Your Total Health*
It’s said that when something starts to break down in your body, it can almost always be traced to a mineral deficiency.
I find that often to be true as minerals and micronutrients are essential for your body’s vitamins and enzymes to carry out a wide variety of important biochemical reactions. Everything from your immunity to your cellular energy production to heart and digestive health, to your mental well-being depends on minerals and micronutrients.
In an ideal world, we would get all the minerals and micronutrients we need from the food we eat. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case, even with so-called “health foods.”
Most of our food is produced via large-scale commercial agricultural methods that rely heavily on chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides. These methods negatively affect the soil pH and deplete the soil of valuable nutrients.
Some small-scale farmers today work hard to do the right thing – maintain soil fertility by replenishing it with missing nutrients and rotating their crops to let their fields rest and heal in between harvests. However, these conscientious farmers are not the norm in today’s mega food production.
So, as minerals decline in the food supply, it only makes sense that health problems will increase. It’s well established that heart issues are associated with deficiencies in the mineral’s chromium, copper, magnesium, selenium and potassium.
The good news is supplementing with humic and fulvic acids can help fill in the gaps as their numerous minerals and micronutrients support many aspects of health, including your heart health, eye health, bone development, digestive and immune health, and even your mental well-being.
Clean and Bioactive Humic and Fulvic Acids… From the Offshore Regions of Lake Balaton, Hungary
According to some experts, the finest quality natural humic substance sources come from Hungary.
About 50 miles southwest of Budapest, Hungary, lies a crystal-clear freshwater lake called Lake Balaton. The largest lake in central Europe, Lake Balaton is the home of a natural, protected leonardite organic mineral deposit.
Surrounded by forest and away from any agricultural activity, leonardite is one of the best-known sources of natural humic substances.
Formed millions of years ago when pesticides and other toxic chemicals didn’t exist – and mined 4 to 6 meters under the soil.
Unlike other well-known sources of humic and fulvic acids, this leonardite biomass is a clean alternative, and contains up to 80% of bioactive humic substances, in the optimal ratio of 60% humic acid and 40% fulvic acid.
Compare that to humic substances sourced from peat which contain only about 30% to 60% bioactive humic substances, and Shilajit with 40% to 60% – another popular source of humic and fulvic acids.
This is our source of humic substances for our Humic Fulvic Acid Complex, which contains all the micronutrients in a naturally balanced quantity and in the preferred organic humate and fulvate forms.
The humic and fulvic acids in our formula are organic complex-forming molecules, which your body requires for effective uptake of nutrients. This means they can penetrate your cell walls, ensuring you receive the crucial nutrients you need.
What’s more, this special organo-mineral complex…
-
Enables your cell to produce more energy as fulvic acid takes part in your body’s cellular respiration processes.*
-
Supports the normal function of your immune system due to the extra energy available to the cells.*
-
Helps maintain your body’s natural detoxification processes by helping to bring the “good” elements into your body while helping to remove, or deactivate, the unwanted elements.*
-
Stimulates your body’s enzyme activity, which helps transform nutrients into energy and increases the power of the vitamins and minerals in your body.*
-
Bonds with and helps inactivate free radicals which can damage your cells and tissues and make them age faster.*
Take Control of Your Health With Humic Fulvic Acid Complex
I think you’ll agree… issues with gut permeability have become far too common. And the reduced quality of our food supply isn’t helping. If you are dealing with any of those gut-related issues now, I don’t need to tell you they can affect how you look and feel. You have likely already experienced the effects…
But now, thanks to the discovery of millennium-aged natural humic substances, you can help your body turn things around.*
Humic and fulvic acids can…
-
Help tighten cell junctions in your gut lining to help relieve gas, bloating and other signs of indigestion.*
-
Support your healthy immune function.*
-
Support cellular health and energy production by increasing the number of mitochondria.*
-
Help maintain a healthy microbiome by supporting gut bacteria diversity and strengthening your gut lining.*
-
Support brain health, mental clarity and mood.*
-
Support your body’s normal detoxification processes.*
I realize that’s a tall list, but researchers have validated these claims through hours of tireless studies.*
Why not order Humic Fulvic Acid Complex today and see what it can do for you?