Eat Dirt

Why Leaky Gut May Be the Root Cause of Your Health Problems and 5 Surprising Steps to Cure It

Dr. Josh Axe

• Publisher: Harper
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780062433664
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Nutrition, Dietics & Bariatrics

Doctor of Natural Medicine and wellness authority Dr. Josh Axe delivers a groundbreaking, indispensable guide for understanding, diagnosing, and treating one of the most discussed yet little-understood health conditions: leaky gut syndrome.

Do you have a leaky gut? For 80% of the population the answer is "yes"—and most people don't even realize it. Leaky gut syndrome is the root cause of a litany of ailments, including: chronic inflammation, allergies, autoimmune diseases, hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, diabetes, and even arthritis.

To keep us in good health, our gut relies on maintaining a symbiotic relationship with trillions of microorganisms that live in our digestive tract. When our digestive system is out of whack, serious health problems can manifest and our intestinal walls can develop microscopic holes, allowing undigested food particles, bacteria, and toxins to seep into the bloodstream. This condition is known as leaky gut syndrome.

In Eat Dirt, Dr. Josh Axe explains that what we regard as modern "improvements" to our food supply—including refrigeration, sanitation, and modified grains—have damaged our intestinal health. In fact, the same organisms in soil that allow plants and animals to flourish are the ones we need for gut health. In Eat Dirt, Dr. Axe explains that it's essential to get a little "dirty" in our daily lives in order to support our gut bacteria and prevent leaky gut syndrome. Dr. Axe offers simple ways to get these needed microbes, from incorporating local honey and bee pollen into your diet to forgoing hand sanitizers and even ingesting a little probiotic-rich soil.

Because leaky gut manifests differently in every individual, Dr. Axe also identifies the five main "gut types" and offers customizable plans—including diet, supplement, and lifestyle recommendations—to dramatically improve gut health in just thirty days. With a simple diet plan, recipes, and practical advice, Eat Dirt will help readers restore gut health and eliminate leaky gut for good.

 

part one

 

WHY WE’RE
SUFFERING

1

The Hidden Epidemic

All disease begins in the gut.

—HIPPOCRATES, THE FATHER OF MEDICINE

Miriam walked into my office almost out of hope. She’d run the gamut from conventional family doctors to holistic physicians and, despite following her doctors’ varied directions, had experienced minimal improvement. I was the tenth health professional she’d consulted in her quest to turn her health around.

At thirty-three years old with two young children, Miriam was twenty pounds overweight—and 100 percent stressed out. She’d been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, a disease in which the immune system attacks the thyroid, and was prescribed the medication Synthroid by her endocrinologist. She’d also taken antianxiety medications and antidepressants, but they hadn’t helped. Her mental and emotional stress had caused a naturopathic physician to diagnose adrenal fatigue, and blood tests revealed a deficiency in vitamin B₁₂. She’d tried to change her diet and had even been receiving vitamin B₁₂ shots once a week for the last two years—but nothing was working. She wanted to exercise, but she could barely summon the energy to get out of bed in the morning. And like many young mothers, once the kids were awake, she had very little time for fitness classes or working out.

Miriam was sick of feeling tired all the time—something had to change.

When I reviewed her three-day food diary, I could see that Miriam was eating a surprisingly good diet. She ate quite a few salads, slices of sprouted grain bread, plenty of fruits and vegetables—but the nutrient content of her food just didn’t seem to be helping.

I ordered a blood test so I could double-check her previous results. When I got them back, it was clear that, indeed, nothing had changed. Her descriptions of thyroid problems, adrenal fatigue, autoimmune disease, and food sensitivities were all reflected in the numbers.

Miriam came in the next week so we could review the report together. With each set of numbers, she looked more and more dejected. Wanting to reassure her, I set down the lab results and reached for two of my favorite props that I kept handy in my examination room: a small fishing net and a handful of brightly colored plastic balls.

“Ready?” She nodded. “Check this out.” I dropped the plastic balls into the fishing net. Miriam, expecting them to be caught by the net, gasped and looked startled as they fell through the bottom and bounced all over the wooden floor.

“Didn’t expect that, huh?” I said. She shook her head.

“Miriam,” I said, “I’m afraid that net is your gut.”

I showed her how the strings at the bottom of the net had been severed, to illustrate what happens in leaky gut syndrome. When our guts are healthy, I explained, the intestines are only slightly permeable, like the thin mesh of an intact net, to allow minute quantities of water and nutrients through the gut’s thin barrier and into the bloodstream—a normal, necessary part of digestion, and an essential step in nourishing the body.

“However, when the holes in the intestinal wall get too big, larger molecules, such as gluten and casein, and other foreign microbes can pass through and start wandering all over the body,” I explained, gesturing to the balls still rolling around the examining room floor. These larger items were never meant to hit the bloodstream, I said, and the body reacts to them as foreign bodies, causing systemic inflammation throughout the body.

Any organ in the body can be affected when this happens. “In your case, it’s your thyroid, brain, and adrenal glands,” I said.

I told Miriam that no matter how many vitamin B shots she received or how many supplements she took, if she didn’t fix the root cause of the problem—her leaky gut—she would continue to face all the same, ever-mounting challenges. But now that we knew about the problem, I felt confident she could see significant improvements in a short time. All she needed to do was follow my recommendations and make just a few changes to her diet and daily habits.

I gave Miriam a healing protocol that started with foods high in probiotics—good bacteria that could tame her digestive problems—and prebiotics—foods with compatible nutrients that would feed those good bacteria. I asked her to make a smoothie using kefir and flaxseeds as the main ingredients to start off the morning, and to drink multiple cups of bone broth throughout the day, to help seal the lining of her gut. To help reduce her stress hormones, I urged her to find time for two or three fifteen-minute walks through the neighborhood and to take a healing bath with Epsom salts and lavender essential oil every night.

After two weeks, Miriam came back for a follow-up. In that brief time, she’d lost five pounds and noticed that she had considerably more energy. Encouraged, she pledged to follow her health plan for ninety days, at which point we would redo her blood work.

Three months later, the res...

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• part one | WHY WE’RE SUFFERING
• 1 The Hidden Epidemic
• 2 Ground Zero for Leaky Gut
• 3 The Immunity Connection
• 4 Eat Dirt
• part two | THE FIVE FACTORS OF GUT HEALTH
• 5 You Are What You Eat
• 6 A Sanitized Society
• 7 The Price of Convenience
• 8 Our Stressful Lives
• 9 Medication Nation
• 10 The Eat Dirt Program
• part three | HEAL FOR YOUR GUT TYPE
• 11 Healing the Whole Body
• 12 Healing Candida Gut
• 13 Healing Stressed Gut
• 14 Healing Immune Gut
• 15 Healing Gastric Gut
• 16 Healing Toxic Gut
• part four | RECIPES
• 17 Recipes
• Resource Guide
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher