Is the root cause of your Gut Problems from Gut Inflammation?
Understanding Gut Inflammation: How it’s causing your gut, skin & low energy symptoms
Gut inflammation is a complex but common issue that arises when the immune system in your gut reacts to irritants like pathogens, chemicals, or certain foods. This immune response, aimed at protecting you, can lead to inflammation, causing heat, swelling, and damage to gut tissues. Normally, this process ends once the irritant is removed. However, when the irritant persists, your body can enter a cycle of chronic inflammation, which disrupts your gut's function and can lead to a variety of digestive, skin and low energy symptoms.
What is Gut Inflammation?
Gut inflammation occurs when the gut’s immune system encounters something harmful—such as a pathogen, irritating compound, or immune trigger. Initially, this causes an acute inflammatory response, designed to clear the offending substance and repair any tissue damage. But if the irritant remains—whether due to diet, stress, GI infections or other lifestyle factors—this acute response can transform into chronic inflammation.
Chronic gut inflammation breaks down the protective gut environment, leading to dysfunction in digestion, nutrient absorption, and can impact the health of the whole body. The key to eliminating gut inflammation is to identify if it is a root cause and if so, to remove the inflammatory irritant which requires deeper testing and a skilled provider to help guide that discovery process.
How Chronic Gut Inflammation Affects Your Health
One of the main ways gut inflammation impacts your health is by weakening the protective beneficial gut microbiome. These beneficial bacteria play a crucial role in producing anti-inflammatory compounds that help keep inflammation in check. However, when the beneficial bacteria are outnumbered by harmful bacteria (a state known as dysbiosis) or low due to lack of key dietary intake and diversity, inflammation becomes more severe and persistent.
Additionally, chronic inflammation can damage the protective lining of the gut, leading to a condition known as leaky gut. When the gut barrier is compromised, toxins, pathogens, and partially digested food particles can pass into the bloodstream, triggering widespread inflammation that affects not just the gut, but other areas like the skin, joints, and brain. This is how gut inflammation can lead to acne, eczema, fatigue, muscle aches and even autoimmune conditions.
Symptoms of Chronic Gut Inflammation
You may be experiencing gut inflammation if you notice any of the following symptoms:
Urgent, loose stools
Abdominal pain or a burning sensation in the gut
Food sensitivities
Skin issues like acne, eczema, or psoriasis
Fatigue and brain fog
Joint and muscle aches
Fluid retention
Autoimmune conditions such as hypothyroidism
Common Causes of Gut Inflammation
Several factors can contribute to chronic gut inflammation, including:
Low fiber intake: A lack of dietary fiber starves the beneficial gut bacteria, limiting their ability to combat inflammation.
Dysbiosis: An imbalance between beneficial and harmful bacteria in the gut.
Stress and elevated cortisol levels: Stress interferes with the communication between your brain and gut, leading to reduced production of digestive enzymes and impaired gut motility.
Blood sugar imbalances: Fluctuations in blood sugar levels can contribute to chronic inflammation.
Poor sleep hygiene: Not getting enough restorative sleep reduces the bodies recovery and increases inflammation and blood sugar imbalances.
Processed foods: A diet high in processed foods and low in whole, nutrient-dense foods can increase inflammation in the gut.
Environmental toxins: Exposure to pesticides, mold, and chemicals like glyphosate can also damage the gut and increase inflammation.
Medications: Certain medications, like NSAIDs and antibiotics, can harm the gut lining and trigger inflammation.
Is Gut Inflammation the Root Cause of Your Digestive Problems?
Chronic inflammation can be difficult to identify and manage on your own, especially when it stems from multiple sources like diet, stress, or microbial balance in the gut. If you’re tired of dealing with urgent loose stools, fatigue, skin issues, or risk developing another autoimmune condition it’s time to dig deeper and understand not only if chronic inflammation is a root cause for your symptoms but identify exactly what is driving it.
Chronic gut inflammation is a major driver of IBS and digestive symptoms but there are three major drivers of IBS and symptoms can overlap. That is why we have developed a Root Cause Quiz to help you identify your root cause driver and receive a personalized Gut Health Healing Roadmap based on your unique results to help get you started in healing your root cause.
Take control of your gut health today by identifying the root cause of your digestive issues. Take the quiz and discover the root cause behind your poop problems. Plus, receive a personalized Gut Health Healing Roadmap to start your gut healing journey today.
