Digestion run amuck

You have read about what should happen to food particles in your small intestine in the description to your digestion process, but let’s discuss in more detail what happens when digestion goes awry.

When digestion is working properly, proteins are broken down into single amino acids or very short chains of amino acids before passing through the lining of your small intestine into your bloodstream. These amino acids are then available for uptake into the rest of your body for use in bodily functions and rebuilding tissues. This normal series of events does not trigger an immune system alarm.

When you consume foods that your body is not able to properly digest and assimilate—either because your body isn’t functioning properly or because the foods themselves initiate the damage—food particles that are too large “slip” intact through the weakened and compromised lining of the small intestine and are seen by your body as invaders.

When these “invaders” enter your body, they interact with the immune layer on the other side of the brush border lining of your small intestine, which is known as gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). It is at this immune layer that inflammatory molecules called cytokines respond to these intact food particle proteins (amino acid chains) and tell your white blood cells to launch an attack. The by-products of the action of your white blood cells are called oxidants. (I’m sure you’ve heard about the importance of antioxidants to your health. This is why. They are needed to combat these oxidants that are created in part when you eat foods that your body interprets as harmful.) This is the same type of response that happens in your immune system when any other allergen or invader like a bacteria or virus enters your body. In an effort to fix the problem, your body reads this scenario as disease and reacts with an inflammatory response.

As you can see, your small intestine is an active part of your immune system, not just your digestive system. It’s a barrier and a gatekeeper. As Alessio Fasano, M.D., gastroenterologist and leading researcher in the field of Celiac Disease, autoimmunity, and intestinal permeability, put it: “Increased permeability... can cause inflammation in a district distant from where the breach in intestinal barrier occurs.”*This is where systemic inflammation comes into the picture.

what is systemic inflammation?

I have mentioned inflammation several times, but let’s get clear on what it means inside your body. Inflammation is the biological response of your vascular tissues to infection, damaged cells, or other irritants. These irritants signal your white blood cells to launch an immune response to fix the problem. As your white blood cells do their work, they release free radicals, which are what lead to damage inside your body, and inflammation results.

The inflammatory process in and of itself is not harmful. In fact, inflammation is necessary for survival, especially when it does its job of healing cuts and helping you recover from injuries. The problem occurs when, rather than being left to handle acute issues, your immune system is overworked by chronic irritation. Then, the inflammation becomes chronic as well.

Acute inflammation, by contrast, is the type of healing process that occurs when your body has a skin lesion like a cut, scrape, burn, or bruise, or when you have a trauma like a golf ball hitting you in the head. It may also be a response to soreness after a tough workout or a minor sinus infection or cold. Our bodies are well-equipped to deal with this type of inflammation, and it’s the type of damage that the immune system can remain armed to handle intermittently.

When undigested food particles get into your bloodstream on a regular basis, however, the attention of your immune system is drawn to your digestive process, leaving minimal immune response available to handle other problems as they arise. Since anywhere from 60-80% of your immune system is located in your gut as GALT, if your system is constantly bombarded with foods you don’t tolerate or digest well, your ability to fight infections, allergies, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and more will be impaired. This means that when a cold is going around the office or the pollen count skyrockets, your body may only have the ability to use about 20-40% of your potential immune response to fight it off. The rest of your immune capabilities are busy responding to the irritation from food particles in your digestive system.

*source: Fasano, Alessio, M.D. “Zonulin and Its Regulation of Intestinal Barrier Function: The Biological Door to Inflammation, Autoimmunity, and Cancer.” Physiol Rev., January 1, 2011 vol. 91 no. 1 151-175.

That leads us to chronic inflammation in the body’s systems (systemic inflammation), which is like being in a constant state of low-grade infection. Your immune system never gets downtime between healing one problem and gearing up to solve another one. With no period of recovery after its period of work, your immune system is on alert 24/7. Obviously, this takes a toll on your body, diminishing its ability to heal life-threatening issues.

Remember, inflammation is the body’s response to a perceived problem. When your body thinks there’s a constant problem, it lives in a constant state of inflammation. This chronic, constant inflammatory state underlies all chronic disease and suppressed immunity. Essentially, it’s at the root of just about every disease imaginable.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14