Intestinal permeability is a term that describes the control of material passing through the gastrointestinal tract to the rest of the body through the cells lining the intestinal wall.
The gut normally exhibits some permeability allowing nutrients to pass through the gut, while maintaining a barrier function to prevent potentially harmful substances (such as antigens) from leaving the gut and migrating more widely into the body.
In a healthy gut, small particles can pass through the tight junction claudin pore pathways, and sufficiently large particles can pass through the paracellular space uptake pathway.
Leaky Gut Causes
One possible cause of leaky gut is increased intestinal permeability or intestinal hyperpermeability. This can happen when the tight junctions in the gut that control what goes through the small intestine don’t work properly. This can cause substances to leak into the bloodstream.
Dysbiosis, or bacterial imbalance, is a leading cause of leaky gut syndrome. It means an imbalance between beneficial and harmful types of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract. Malnutrition includes proteins found in sprouted grains, sugar, genetically modified foods (GMOs), and dairy products.