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Two of the largest ever inflammatory bowel disease studies were recently conducted. The good news is that the results are the first to show conclusive evidence that leaky gut is the prime contributing factor of the disease. The bad news is that they are still clueless as to how to correct the problem and heal the gut.

Before we get into the results of the study, first let me give you a little background on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is a blanket disease term that encompasses all autoimmune related inflammatory conditions within the digestive tract. There are two main types of this disease, Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease. But, the prevalence of others, such as Celiac’s Disease, are rapidly rising. Statistics show that IBD affects 1 in 250 people making it a serious condition that deserves some serious attention.

Symptoms include: abdominal pain, bloating and distention, passing mucus, persistent diarrhea, loss of appetite, and rectal bleeding.

Both studies were conducted in the UK and were looking for genetic links to IBD and were published today in the journal Nature Genetics.

Study 1

The first study discovered 3 genes amongst the inflammatory bowel disease study group that lead directly to the development of leaky gut by impairing the ability of intestinal lining to maintain tight gap junctions between cells. These large gap junctions are actually what create the increased intestinal permeability and allow the unwanted toxins, pathogens, and undigested food particles to directly enter the blood stream.

This is huge for the recognition of leaky gut considering that conventional medicine has yet to fully recognize its existence. But unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot more than one study to gain much ground.

Here are some encouraging words from Professor Chris Mathew, from King’s College London who worked on the study:

“This is very significant as most treatments to date are based on damping down immune response.
“In fact, our data suggests there may be mileage in trying to tighten up the mucosal barrier as well.”

It appears that they might be starting to think outside the box and figure out how to correct the root of the problem instead of just masking the symptoms with immune suppressant drugs. Maybe it just makes too much sense to remove the sources of inflammation instead?

But I can already tell you that there is a ton of mileage in gut healing because it has been going on with great success in the alternative health community for years now.

Study 2

The second study was more specifically looking at inflammatory bowel disease found in children. This study discovered 5 genes linked to autoimmune activation within the children. But the important result of this study was that they found similarities in genes associated with adult IBD. This proves that the inflammatory bowel disease found in children is the same as that of adults.

In other words, IBD is IBD no matter how you slice it. That means that if your child has IBD then they can and will benefit from healing leaky gut just the same as any adult.

Hopefully, these studies will promote further studies in the area of leaky gut and exposure will continue to rise. But things move extremely slowly in our upward causal oriented medical community. Unfortunately, we’re stuck having to look at our genes for answers to questions that could be much more easily answered from the opposite perspective. And that is exactly why leaky gut and inflammatory bowel disease have been treated for years in the alternative health community whereas conventional medicine is struggling to even know where to look.

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