Leaky Gut: Normal with Intense Exercise, Worse with Ibuprofen

[MishMash]

Just when I thought that leaky gut was a symptom usually exhibited in hard-to-diagnose illnesses like ME/CFS, mainstream medicine admits it is actually quite common. Intensive exercising, in this case cycling, causes a small degree of intestinal leakage in healthy people. This is explained by the fact that blood is withdrawn from the intestinal wall, weakening its structural integrity.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21811592

So why do doctors keep telling us there is no such thing as "leaky gut"? Or it's a made-up diagnosis by alternative medicine practioners? People with ME/CFS have lower blood volume and in many cases weaker connective tissues. So of course leaky gut is going to be more of an issue for us. Probably explains IBS, digestive issues, low-level toxicity of the blood stream. Not to mention, eventual adrenal stress, fatigue, PEM.

Not only that but the New York Times reported that Ibuprofen made the leaky gut even worse. If you are a patient, and you have leaky gut, then taking Ibuprofen will turn your intestine into swiss cheese (an exaggeration). http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/for-athletes-risks-from-ibuprofen-use/

During the remaining visits, the men briskly rode stationary bicycles for that same hour. Before one of those rides, though, they again took 400 milligrams of ibuprofen the night before and the morning of their workouts.

At the end of each rest or ride, researchers drew blood to check whether the men’s small intestines were leaking. Dr. van Wijck found that blood levels of a protein indicating intestinal leakage were, in fact, much higher when the men combined bike riding with ibuprofen than during the other experimental conditions when they rode or took ibuprofen alone. Notably, the protein levels remained elevated several hours after exercise and ibuprofen.

The health implications of this finding are not yet clear, although they are worrisome, Dr. van Wijck said. It may be that if someone uses ibuprofen before every exercise session for a year or more, she said, “intestinal integrity might be compromised.” In that case, small amounts of bacteria and digestive enzymes could leak regularly into the bloodstream.

 

[xchocoholic]

Hi mishmash,

Great find. I'm not sure if everytime our guts become leaky it's actually a problem tho.
I haven't researched it but I supect there are times when opening up those junctions and allowing other
particles through needs to be happening. If it's happening when we're exercising maybe it's a mechanism
for better food absorption.

There's a drug being developed called zonulin that will close these but there's a lot of caution surrounding
this.

Btw. I see an integrative doc and have been tested and treated for leaky gut. The dx of
leaky gut is becoming
more accepted because integrative doctors are mds who also use holistic methods. Fwiw, I did
all this and still responded to the mast cell protocal.

Tx .. X

 

[Waverunner]

MishMash, thanks for this info. I have the same question as you. Why does the medical field not recognize a problem, although studies point to the fact, that it is there?

 

[Valentijn]

MishMash, thanks for this info. I have the same question as you. Why does the medical field not recognize a problem, although studies point to the fact, that it is there?

Because they think we're psychosomatic nutjobs who aren't really sick. Ergo all symptoms of physical illness must be denied or attributed to our inactivity.

I'd like to see them explain my body swelling up now every time I eat gluten or egg whites. It's progressed to even trace amounts being sufficient to trigger a reaction, but there's no true IgE allergy present.

I think this same thinking is applied to non-ME patients as well: if there's not an easy answer/pill for it, pretend it's not there until the patient goes away.

 

[xchocoholic]

I'm sure there are those who know we're not nutjobs and those who aren't smart enough to figure this
out. I had a doctor once who's sister had fm so she knew what it was via her medical training. And she was dabbling
in the holistic arena because she knew about food intolerances. The last time I saw her she was unaware of the
mast cell connection.. I'm guessing her med school training got in the way of her solving it tho.

Allergies aren't always going to show up on normal traditional testing. You may get better info from stool tests.

Tc .. X

 

[xchocoholic]

Btw. Traditional med calls it intestinal permiability.

I've been discussing why this wasn't being
addressed by traditional docs with others on the web since 2006. The conscensus was that it's because big
Pharma doesn't own a piece of the pie. The tests aren't owned by big pharma and the treatments
are holistic. So there's no money in it for them.

The money (patient + insurance) is currently divided by traditional or holistic
medicine. Most feel the need to pick a side. The easiest path for an md is to plead ignorance and give out drugs like they were candy.

Integrative doctors, who are both mds and holistic use both meds, supplements and diet as well
as tests provided by both sides. These docs are better equipped to help their patients with any
illness.

Tc .. X

 

[Waverunner]

Because they think we're psychosomatic nutjobs who aren't really sick. Ergo all symptoms of physical illness must be denied or attributed to our inactivity.

I'd like to see them explain my body swelling up now every time I eat gluten or egg whites. It's progressed to even trace amounts being sufficient to trigger a reaction, but there's no true IgE allergy present.

If it was only for CFS, I could agree with you. But Leaky Gut is not restricted to PWCs, it seems to be part of many diseases, including HIV, autism, allergies etc.. Why don't they look more into this?

 

[xchocoholic]

Money. Money. Money.

If they looked for root causes of illnesses, they'd find them. Why do you think they're not
looking for heavy metals / mercury poisoning ? The lawsuits that would follow would be enormous.

They can't own up to all the chemicals they're allowing in our food supply either. How about parasites ?

It's not to their advantage to cure us. Healthy patients are ex patients.

I doubt every doctor knows anything about looking for root causes. They've been taught to say the don't know what causes x, y or z. If you read the mayo clinic site or webmd, they're always saying we don't know this or that. And warning
about trusting holistic treatments.

Then there's arrogance. I've had a couple of doctors look at me like there's no way a patient could possibly know more than they do. The mere mention of google makes their eyes bug out. Lol .. Sadly, I get a great amount of pleasure
from watching this reaction. ; )

I understand there are some unknowns but you can't solve a puzzle by leaving the pieces in the box.

Tc .. X

 

[ukxmrv]

I saw a doctor at one of the London hospitals who also treats HIV/AIDS patients. She said that for the last couple of years this area of the study (the gut) had taken off at conferences and was going to be the big area for research next.

 

[alex3619]

One of the issues I suspect is the the original hypothesis of leaky gut had bacteria and candida going from gut to blood stream in quantity. This was clearly implausible, and so was rejected. They remember that, and I am not sure are aware that modern versions of leaky gut are about excessive translocation of inappropriate molecules, and sometimes large molecules. Leaky gut is impossible without death, leaky gut occurs all the time. The problem is that there are different ideas about leaky gut, and too many remember the first unlikely hypothesis. Modern versions are highly substantiated, but who goes looking? Most doctors are not even aware of findings of lipopolysaccharide in ME and CFS patients. If they were aware, where aside from the gut is it coming from?

 

[MishMash]

I saw a doctor at one of the London hospitals who also treats HIV/AIDS patients. She said that for the last couple of years this area of the study (the gut) had taken off at conferences and was going to be the big area for research next.

If the HIV/AIDs researchers are going to be looking at it, then there will probably be serious, well-done studies on gut permeability. Because the AIDS people do not mess around. The advocates do not tolerate imbecile politicans or pompous medical authority figures pontificating about what are and are not absolute medical truths.

I am not gay, but I have to give gays great credit. They do not quit. Their communication and organizational skills are fantastic. All sick people will benefit from the huge amount of effort their community has put into understand of the immune system.

 

[Waverunner]

Alex already pointed out some reasons why research does not focus on intestinal permeability. A doctor told me, that intestinal research always suffers from the fact, that bacteria and feces are not very pleasant things. Moreover the scientists will not get the attention they deserve, compared to scientists for cancer and other diseases. Another reason could be that right now, it is very hard to actually measure the consequences of increased intestinal permeability. What cytokines or products do you measure in blood, in order to show the detrimental effects of a leaky gut? What effects does it have on the brain? These questions can be solved but funding is still a problem.