Our intestine is the largest receptor of numerous substances mixed in our food, water and other environmental contaminants. Very frequently, our capacity to detoxify our body is overwhelmed by the amount and potency of those contaminants.
When food passes through the small intestine, it is selectively sent to the tissues. This is a complex mechanism that determines which substance will be absorbed to the blood stream and which will be eliminated. This process is done through the cells of the intestinal mucosa. They are a monolayer of cells covering the inner intestine. This essential “carpet” of cells works as a “true brain”. As soon as food gets in contact with those cells, they decide what is good or bad for you. In other words, a healthy intestine will work under a very simple principle: good gets in, bad is rejected.
The general concept is that a healthy intestine is a gate with a selective permeability. Unfortunately, the composition of the food, beverages, prescribed substances and even stress may produce cellular damage. The “selective carpet” may then get some “holes” that impairs the intestinal capacity to select the substances to be incorporated. Among the many daily offenses the intestine receives, we include processed food, sodas, excessive carbohydrates and sugars, antibiotics (present in poultry, meats etc.) and alcohol. To those everyday components, we can add a non-edible, daily and harmful element: stress. Those components will create inflammatory conditions
that will destroy the union between cells and will create “passages” through which the toxins will slip into your blood.
After the intestine loses the capacity to select for you, your blood will receive multiple semi-digested substances which will be read by your immune system as “foreign bodies”. Molecules of semi-digested food, gluten, wastage from bacteria and fungi, heavy metals, among others, will infiltrate the intestinal mucosa and, will reach every organ in your body through the blood stream. Sooner than later, your immune system will detect the presence of those strange particles and will react against them. That reaction is translated into an auto-immune disease.
This sequence of events is called Intestinal hyper-permeability or “Leaky Gut”.