Hanna Kroeger Blog

Spearmint is used in Healthy Gut for cooling, soothing and keeping the digestive sysytem healthy and addresses leaky gut.

Did you know that you have space inside your body that is not “inside” your body? That’s right, your entire digestive tract is a sealed “pipe” running right through the middle of you. As strange as this idea may sound, this process is a very important feature of the human body and essential to proper digestion. Everything you eat and drink is broken down in this system, scrutinized by your immune system and then filtered through your liver and kidneys before it is allowed “inside.” This process is designed to screen out viruses, bacteria, parasites and numerous other components of food that the body cannot use or sees as harmful, as well as pulling out nutrients for the body to use.

So what happens if your “pipe” has holes in it? There’s a medical term for this issue called “leaky gut syndrome.” The most common cause in western society is overuse of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen. These drugs are also called NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and they effect the production of something in your body called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are chemicals that are responsible for inflammation, but also happen to regulate the process of repairing many tissues. When the body doesn’t have enough of these chemicals, the lining of the intestines has tissues that are not always repaired properly. This lining consists of a layer of tightly packed cells called “villi.” They are very robust, but never the less are constantly dying due to the harsh environment caused by digestion. Under normal circumstances the tiny holes they create as they die are filled in and repaired almost instantly by the surrounding live villi. However, things such as NSAIDs, some other over the counter drugs and some medical conditions can cause this process to be impaired. This contributes to a more permeable intestinal lining, creating the opportunity for foreign organisms and rogue proteins to escape your digestive tract.

It’s needless to say you don’t want any creepy crawlies getting out of there, but why care about the proteins? Undigested proteins floating around in your body can be bad news. Your body will recognize them as an invader and launch an immune response to attack them. The problem with this is that once the attack has started, your body may not be able to distinguish between your own tissue and its original target. This can be a contributing factor in many auto-immune disorders.

So what to do about all this? First, try to limit your anti-inflammatory use. An ibuprofen here and there is fine, but for those of you who take a “vitamin-I” every day, you may want to reconsider. To repair your digestive system, nutritive teas of calendula, plantain, licorice, gentian and angelica can be wonderful. L-Glutamine, an amino acid, is known to have many gut-healing properties. We here at Kroeger make a fantastic Licorice Root Tincture, our STM (Stomach) tea can be soothing and we’re about to reintroduce Healthy Gut, a Hanna Kroeger original formula! Our FML and FRD teas, while used for other things, also contain ingredients that can be beneficial for stomach health.

Be cautious of what you put in your body, and choose products that will address leaky gut and help to soothe and calm the symptoms! Healthy Gut can do just that!

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