Dr. Oz’s Leaky Gut Protocol: What Works and What’s Missing!

Daytime talk show host and medical doctor Mehmet Oz recently did a show on leaky gut and the health disorders associated with it.

Among alternative and integrative medical practitioners, leaky gut syndrome is well-understood and associated with a long list of diseases—both as the possible cause and as the dominant symptom.

Unfortunately, leaky gut is not a diagnosis, and conventional medical doctors often do not acknowledge the full range of health disorders associated with a permeable gut lining. This is bad news for those who are sick and unwilling to step outside the conventional medical paradigm.

However, the good news is that more and more unsatisfied patients are looking beyond their general medical practitioner and supporting safe, alternative forms of healthcare like acupuncture and Ayurveda, as well as integrated models of medicine.

On his television show, Dr. Oz interviewed Dr. Robynne Chutkan, a gastroenterologist practicing out of Washington DC and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital.

Dr. Chutkan explains that leaky gut is less of a disease and more of a mechanism. “A leaky gut is the pathway for how toxins enter the body through the GI tract and create all kinds of mayhem once they’re in, sort of like party crashers who slip through security and proceed to make a mess of the venue.” (1)

According to Dr. Chutkan, leaky gut does not only mean digestive discomfort. Often, there are other signs of a problem, such as:

Leaky gut not only causes digestive discomfort but can trigger food allergies, sinus infections, swollen joints, and skin rashes. Healing leaky gut hinges on restoring health to the inner ecosystem with beneficial gut bacteria.

• Multiple food allergies or food sensitivities
• Chronic sinus infections
• Swollen, painful joints
• Fatigue
• Brain fog
• Skin eruptions and rashes

The people that end up in Dr. Chutkan’s office are often those that have been to see every specialist and whose lab tests all come back as normal and within range. Often, these patients know that something is wrong, but they have no idea how to explain this to their doctor, who looks only at lab tests.

Patients end up leaving the doctor’s office feeling unheard and hopeless. This is when they turn toward less conventional forms of medicine—like the integrative clinic run by Dr. Chutkan—and find some relief.

Dr. Oz’s Leaky Gut Protocol

As Dr. Oz and Dr. Chutkan point out, there is no miracle cure for leaky gut.

In fact, leaky gut is often a sign of hidden inflammation, like small intestine bacterial overgrowth or a yeast infection within or outside the gut.

When addressing a permeable gut lining, it is essential to first remove the triggers that may contribute to an inflamed gut wall, like:

• A diet high in refined sugars
• Milk casein
• Wheat gluten
• Alcohol
• NSAIDs
• Poor blood sugar regulation
• Infection
• Stress (mental, emotional, or physical)

Simply removing these triggers can take an enormous amount of effort. Once these trigger foods and situations are removed, the signs of leaky gut may disappear.

It is important to understand that leaky gut damages the tissue lining the wall of the intestine. Removing trigger foods and trigger situations only helps to partially control leaky gut. It does not repair the damage to the intestinal wall.

Dr. Oz recommends glutamine.

Glutamine is unique in that the cells of small intestine use it for fuel. Studies have found that glutamine supports the regeneration and repair of cells lining the intestinal wall. (2)(3)

Body Ecology recommends Vitality SuperGreen because it is equipped with a special form of glutamine called GlutImmune. GlutImmune is the most bioavailable and stable form of glutamine available. It delivers up to 10 times more glutamine into the bloodstream than standard glutamine.

What Dr. Oz’s Leaky Gut Protocol Is Missing

When restoring the lining of gut, we must also create a buffer, or system that protects us against sudden stress or change. This is where our inner ecosystem comes into the picture.

The inner ecosystem of the gut is made up of all the bacteria and yeast that we acquire from infancy. Most of these bacteria and yeast are friendly and benefit the immune system.

However, because of antibiotic overuse and a poor diet, many of us do not have a hearty inner ecosystem. In fact, more often than not our inner ecosystem is toxic and diseased. While this creates stress on the intestinal lining, it also sets the body up for imbalances in the immune system (like autoimmune disease) and severe forms of degeneration.

Any gut healing protocol must emphasize the importance of this inner ecosystem.

Bringing the inner ecosystem back to a state of harmony and balance is not as simple as taking a probiotic capsule.

In order to restore balance in the inner ecosystem, we must make sure that we are:

• Digesting all food completely. Large particles of undigested food rot and ferment, feeding unhealthy bacteria and yeast in the gut.
• Able to naturally cleanse. Dental amalgams, pesticides, and chemicals in our food and water supply all weigh heavily on the liver and the gut—one main route that toxins take as they exit the body.
• Choosing foods that nourish a healthy inner ecosystem. This means eating fermented foods with every meal or at least once a day. It also means eating a diet that is rich in non-starchy vegetables and that feeds the friendly bacteria in the gut.

Body Ecology’s Digestive Care Multi is an easy 4-capsule pack that gives you the essentials you need to rebuild your inner ecosystem.

It contains:

• Probiotic Power Blend: Certain strains of bacteria are essential for improving elimination; detoxing pathogens, toxins, and heavy metals; and rebuilding thriving colonies of beneficial bacteria. However, many of these bacteria are so fragile that they do not ferment well and can actually be destroyed by the process—thus, Donna recommends taking these special strains of bacteria in capsule form and the more common forms of probiotics via fermented foods and probiotic liquids.

• Digestive Enzyme Power Blend: Get the most out of your food and make sure that it doesn’t stay in one place for too long. Taken on an empty stomach, digestive enzymes can work systemically through the body to clean up Candida yeast overgrowth.

• Mineral Power Blend: Support your cellular energy with major minerals and trace minerals from land biomass. Blended with the mineral-rich seaweed Laminaria, Mineral Power Blend naturally chelates toxins, heavy metals, and radiation from the body. This blend also helps to repair the lining of the intestines.

• Liver Power Cleanse: Control inflammation and support cellular repair. In today’s toxic world, the liver needs all the help it can get. Liver Power Cleanse opens up cellular detoxification pathways and increases bile flow, lifting the stress of toxicity by aiding the liver in its cleansing duties and supporting increased daily elimination.