Waverunner
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,079
Who could have guessed that. What really concerns me however is the fact, that there are still great hurdles in this field. As soon as scientists look at intestinal permeability or leaky gut they are very likely to get labeled as quacks. It seems the whole medical field, including doctors and many patients, seem to prefer taking pills and sticking to dogma, rather than to treat causes. If you want to know a reason, why our health care systems spiral out of control, here is one.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...eal-may-be-the-cause-of-several-diseases.html
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The thing is that autoimmune diseases—like diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis—are on the rise. It’s not an exaggeration to say they comprise most of the people who seek medical care. Maybe that’s why all the alternative practitioners are talking about leaky gut. But you don’t have to dig too far in PubMed to find some serious establishment researchers talking about it, too. In fact, a German researcher wrote a recent review that makes a good case that gut health should be our main objective in medicine.
So why isn’t it?
Admittedly, part of the problem is the name. “Leaky gut” has a deeply unserious ring to it. Dr. Fasano also believes there’s another reason the medical establishment remains skeptical about leaky gut. “Some alternative medicine practitioners have made claims that are simply ridiculous,” he offered. When I asked what he meant by ridiculous, he was clear: “That all diseases of human kind are due to leaky gut.”
“Leaky gut” may not be the unified field theory of medicine, but so far the evidence is good that its effects go way beyond the intestine. And that’s not a novel idea. As far back as the 1860s “auto-intoxication” by nasty gut microbes was thought to cause systemic disease and mental illness—and for decades well-respected scientists agreed. This idea fell out of favor in the last century—and was looked on with scorn as “unscientific.” These days when patients suggest leaky gut, doctors usually dismiss them with a hand wave and some partially informed statement about a lack of evidence.
But that’s a deeply unscientific stance. Evidence does not only come in the form of pharmaceutically-funded drug trials; it also comes from basic science and through careful observation. And those observations should not be dismissed because they do not conform to our current medical dogma. We are simply missing too many opportunities to help people get well.
Consider the asthma epidemic. Public health officials point to pollution in the air, never pointing out the pollution in the gut. Yet, Dr. Fasano’s group has found preliminarily that 40% of asthmatics have leaky gut22. Asthma is a problem in the inner cities—could it be related to the fact that they are also “food deserts?” Could the emulsifiers and other chemicals in the processed foods be causing leaky gut? And could that be causing asthma? Unfortunately, these are the kinds of questions we stopped asking in medicine—and most of us are impugned as quacks for even inquiring.
On the other hand, the fact that 7 out of 10 Americans are now taking prescription drugs should not be taken lightly. If much of our disease burden is caused by leaky gut, prescription medicines can’t do anything to get to the root of the problem. This goes a long way to explain why having access to primary care does not improve outcomes.This situation is a disaster for both our economy and our health: pills and procedures are costly, but simple, inexpensivedietary changes can frequently fix a leaky gut."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...eal-may-be-the-cause-of-several-diseases.html
"
...
The thing is that autoimmune diseases—like diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis—are on the rise. It’s not an exaggeration to say they comprise most of the people who seek medical care. Maybe that’s why all the alternative practitioners are talking about leaky gut. But you don’t have to dig too far in PubMed to find some serious establishment researchers talking about it, too. In fact, a German researcher wrote a recent review that makes a good case that gut health should be our main objective in medicine.
So why isn’t it?
Admittedly, part of the problem is the name. “Leaky gut” has a deeply unserious ring to it. Dr. Fasano also believes there’s another reason the medical establishment remains skeptical about leaky gut. “Some alternative medicine practitioners have made claims that are simply ridiculous,” he offered. When I asked what he meant by ridiculous, he was clear: “That all diseases of human kind are due to leaky gut.”
“Leaky gut” may not be the unified field theory of medicine, but so far the evidence is good that its effects go way beyond the intestine. And that’s not a novel idea. As far back as the 1860s “auto-intoxication” by nasty gut microbes was thought to cause systemic disease and mental illness—and for decades well-respected scientists agreed. This idea fell out of favor in the last century—and was looked on with scorn as “unscientific.” These days when patients suggest leaky gut, doctors usually dismiss them with a hand wave and some partially informed statement about a lack of evidence.
But that’s a deeply unscientific stance. Evidence does not only come in the form of pharmaceutically-funded drug trials; it also comes from basic science and through careful observation. And those observations should not be dismissed because they do not conform to our current medical dogma. We are simply missing too many opportunities to help people get well.
Consider the asthma epidemic. Public health officials point to pollution in the air, never pointing out the pollution in the gut. Yet, Dr. Fasano’s group has found preliminarily that 40% of asthmatics have leaky gut22. Asthma is a problem in the inner cities—could it be related to the fact that they are also “food deserts?” Could the emulsifiers and other chemicals in the processed foods be causing leaky gut? And could that be causing asthma? Unfortunately, these are the kinds of questions we stopped asking in medicine—and most of us are impugned as quacks for even inquiring.
On the other hand, the fact that 7 out of 10 Americans are now taking prescription drugs should not be taken lightly. If much of our disease burden is caused by leaky gut, prescription medicines can’t do anything to get to the root of the problem. This goes a long way to explain why having access to primary care does not improve outcomes.This situation is a disaster for both our economy and our health: pills and procedures are costly, but simple, inexpensivedietary changes can frequently fix a leaky gut."
