Leaky gut syndrome is a diagnosis prevalent in various branches of alternative medicine. Its proponents hypothesize that damage to the bowel lining, caused by antibiotics, toxins, poor diet, parasites or infection (e.g. with the yeast Candida albicans) can lead to increased permeability of the gut wall to toxins, microbes, undigested food, waste or larger than normal macromolecules. Some versions posit that these substances affect the body directly, while others postulate an immune reaction to these substances.

 

While many practitioners maintain that leaky gut syndrome is a bona fide medical condition, the area of "gut problems" lies between conventional and alternative medicine, and includes other diagnoses such as small bowel bacterial overgrowth syndrome or small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and yeast syndrome or systemic candidiasis, and remains controversial and scientifically unsettled.

 

Leaky gut syndrome is believed to be a possible starting point or connection with many disorders such as asthma, diabetes, autoimmune diseases like lupus, diseases like scleroderma, internal colitis, long term disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, severe illnesses like multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome and Crohn's disease.

 

Doctors or other health care practitioners who diagnose this syndrome explain that the lining or cell walls of the intestines "expand", allowing larger, incompletely digested particles to be partially absorbed. The intestine walls become inflamed due to the reaction of white blood cells to encapsulate the non-nutritive particles, causing a semi-infectious state. Low grade fever, transient gut pain, and a sense of inability to absorb nutrients are some reported symptoms in otherwise undiagnosed patients.*