Without question I look upon the Leaky Gut Syndrome as the underlying culprit behind many of the diseases known to man. These illnesses will remain his legacy until the basic causes are recognized, addressed, and removed. Fortunately there are answers and remedies for such a condition that may astonish you. It is my purpose to reveal those answers as I have experienced and witnessed them, and prove to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, that Intestinal Permeability, or a Leaky Gut, is something to be taken seriously and not brushed aside as an interesting but unimportant theory-and that therapy of certain diseases will not necessarily begin on the end organ affected, but on the origin of the problem, namely, in many cases, the Leaky Gut.
Dr. John O.A. Pagano
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
October 2007
1
The Anatomy of the Disease
What is meant by a “leaky gut” anyway? We’ve heard of a broken leg, a bleeding ulcer, a ruptured appendix, a torn ligament—but a leaky gut? Who ever heard of it? If it has been known in the field of gastroenterology I’d say it is one of their best kept secrets. It is anything but a household word, yet, as this elusive disease (or condition) has slowly come into focus as a possible cause of many other conditions, new light has been shed on health problems that heretofore were considered “unknown” or “incurable” when it came to origins.
Upon hearing the term for the first time, many of us may have visions of blood, lymph, body fluids, etc. seeping through the stomach wall and flooding the entire abdominal cavity. Such is not the case. Clearly, it is the exact opposite. The “leak” we speak of goes from the abdominal cavity into the blood, not from the blood into the abdominal cavity. The reason for this will become clear to you as we proceed.
I suppose it is only natural when you have a persistent headache, you hold your head with the idea that the problem starts in your head. In some cases, that is, of course, true, but more often than not the culprit lies elsewhere. I can’t count the number of times in my practice when a chronic, persistent headache has finally been relieved by a simple home enema, the patient having suffered from a fecal impaction in the colon. In other cases, a long-standing problem with headache dissipated with a change in diet! The patient was allergic to certain foods that he didn’t realize until he avoided them.
In another dramatic case, excruciating pain persisted down a patient’s left arm that seemed to originate from the left side of his cervical spine (neck). He could not sleep or function because of the great discomfort he was experiencing. All my testing indicated that he had a condition known as brachial neuritis originating in the 5th, 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae. I used every means at my disposal—electrotherapy, ultrasound, adjustments—but nothing seemed to work. I was at my wits end when the patient went to see his dentist for a problem he was having with a tooth.
This proved to be a godsend, for the dentist discovered an abscessed molar of long standing on the left side of his jaw. The dentist extracted the infected tooth, and my patient reported that the stench of infection was so pungent that the doctor and his assistant had to leave the room and open windows to air out the office. The area of the extraction was then cleaned and disinfected. Relief of my patient’s arm pain was immediate! No more neck pain, no more arm pain, only blessed relief—“God blessed relief”—is how my patient expressed it.
Of course, there is a scientific explanation of why such results were obtained, but the fact is that the patient didn’t care, the doctor didn’t care—the job was done and nothing else mattered.
The list could go on and on, but the essence of what I am saying is that the origin of many diseases may not be so obvious at first glance—that is why I look upon the leaky gut as an elusive disease. You can’t see it; it is hidden from view, pain may or may not be present, and unless special tests such as gastroscope testing, or even biopsy of the gut wall is medically performed, it may remain unrecognized and continue to evade the diagnostician.
The Leaky Gut Syndrome Defined
“The official definition of the Leaky Gut is an increase in permeability of the intestinal mucosa to luminal macromolecules, antigens and toxins associated with inflammatory degenerative and/or atrophic mucosal damage.” (AIA Newsletter, 1997)
In 1995 Dr. Zoltan Rona, M.D., M.Sc, of Toronto, Canada, author of several health books, wrote a short, concise discourse on the leaky gut that I found to be right to the point in describing this medical phenomenon. I take this quotation from my book Healing Psoriasis: The Natural Alternative:
The Leaky Gut Syndrome is the name given to a very common health disorder in which the basic organic defect [lesion] is an intestinal lining which is more permeable [porous] than normal. The abnormally large spaces present between the cells of the gut wall allow the entry of toxic material into the bloodstream that would, in healthier circumstances, be repelled and eliminated. The gut becomes leaky in the sense that bacteria, fungi, parasites and their toxins, undigested protein, fat and waste normally not absorbed into the bloodstream in the healthy state, pass through a damaged, hyperpermeable, porous, or leaky gut.
I found it fascinating to read a similar description of the mechanism involved by Edgar Cayce, in his discourses made in 1944, about a woman suffering from psoriasis, in reading 3373-1:
There are disturbing conditions which prevent the better physical functioning in this body. These have to do primarily with an intestinal disorder and the lack of proper coordination in the eliminating systems. There are those conditions, then, in the duodenum and through the jejunum where there are the effects as if there were tiny thinned walls, as if the walls of the duodenum had been smoothed—rather than the folds that should exist with the gastric flow which should come through these areas at periods of digestion. The results are a disturbance in the blood supply and an irritation in the superficial circulation, so that those areas in the epidermis show eliminations that should be carried through [the] alimentary canal, for these are being eliminated through [the] perspiratory system.
When one dissects the wording of reading 3373-1 it is obvious that Cayce was describing what is now known as the leaky gut. Although not identified as such at the time of the reading, it most certainly bears all the earmarks of this now recognized disease entity. How he was able to do that is the reason the ever popular television program Unsolved Mysteries as well as the History Channel saw fit to bring it to the screen and feature Cayce’s story around the world. Nevertheless, the foremost question is: Was it true or was it false? And if it is true, how was Edgar Cayce able to tap into this knowledge and bring it into the world? Or could it be that there are, in fact, mysteries in this world that we earthlings are unaware of? (But that would be the subject of another book!)
In The Maker’s Diet, author Jordan Rubin quotes the following statement made by Dr. H.H. Boeker in 1928: “It is now universally conceded that autointoxication is the underlying cause of an exceptionally large group of symptom complexes. Recent research seems to support these earlier conclusions about intestinal toxemia. Yet, many modern medical practitioners and researchers still dismiss intestinal toxemia as a concept that is ‘old and outdated’.” (Rubin, 2004-05, p. 57)
Rubin continues the Dr. Boeker statement “. . . 90 percent of diseases are caused or complicated by toxins created in the intestinal tract by unhealthy foods that are not properly eliminated. Autointoxication