Can my medications cause leaky gut? The answer is: YES.
Pharmaceutical products impact a very broad array of systems in your body— which is intricately and complexly woven together and connected — and honestly not completely understood. Our body systems all talk to each other and do not operate in silos. When you take a medication -- you must realize that while you may solve, or "solve" one problem (or perhaps put a bandaid on it), you may be generating another problem. This means when you take a drug — it’s effects will be *many*. Many known effects and likely many unknown or to-be-announced in the future (see my Insta Post titled "We the people, are the long-term clinical trials).
SO if you want to dial in your GUT HEALTH— which is critical to health (see part 1)— understanding the medications you are on or might be recommended to you is pivotal.
Medications are a commonly overlooked cause of leaky gut.
Here are a roundup of the TOP FIVE meds linked to leaky gut:
1️. ANTIBIOTICS: (See my prior posts on this.) They kill the good + the bad bacteria — causing a major disruption to the normal, healthy, critical balance.
2️. NSAIDS (ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin, etc): can cause gastritis and intestinal bleeding — even short term use can lead to inflammation of the gut and disruption of intestinal integrity.
3️. BIRTH CONTROL: Extra estrogen doubles risk of candida overgrowth — large cause of leaky gut. The pill also increases risk for inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s. Birth control causes hyper-permeability in the intestine. Hormonal birth control causes an imbalance in your gut bugs, which leads to yeast overgrowth. Research shows increases in vaginal, oral and gut yeast infections among women on the pill.
4. STEROIDS: These drugs suppress your immune system, leaving it prone to infection — as well as perpetuate auto immunity. They raise cortisol levels which in high doses break down the gut lining. Many people take these medication for a long time, and the longer you take these the longer they will disrupt adrenal function.
5️. ACID REDUCERS: These suppress gastric acid which we *need*! These are drugs like nexium, Prilosec, etc. Given out like CANDY. These drugs essentially wipe out the gut symbiosis as they do their “job”.
More to come on all of this.
I will update this blog post with more information and references later. Since this blog is not my job -- I have to keep it as a work in progress.
This post gets back to my heart of all this -- where can we AVOID pills and PREVENT the symptoms when possible?
How can we get to the root cause of what we are experiencing. We don't just have a diagnosis (and symptoms) -- we have a root cause to address every.single.time.
When can lifestyle and food (and supplements when needed) allow us to treat and even to heal? Stay tuned.
I will likely do a separate post on EACH of these in the future to get really into the details. More to come! *As always this is not personalized medical advice.
References: