Tight Junctions
Tight junctions are essential cellular structures that play a critical role in maintaining the integrity of the gut lining.
When damaged, you develop leaks that affect your health.
Think of it this way. Your body has thousands of miles of plumbing within. Among them is your digestive tract.
The digestive tract contains tight junctions.
They act as gatekeepers, allowing or preventing things from passing into your body.
If you are wondering why you would need to pass anything at all, it is this tight junction that allows nutrients to “leak” from your digestive system into your blood to be used.
It is therefore useful to allow beneficial nutrients and prevent harmful ones from passing through. Harmful ones include pathogens that came in your food. Or even large undigested molecules.
When functioning correctly, tight junctions help preserve gut health and prevent systemic inflammation.
Our lifestyles contribute to tight junctions being affected. Chronic stress, poor diet, environmental toxins, and specific medications—especially NSAIDs and antibiotics.
Sugar intake, processed foods, and alcohol consumption contribute to gut inflammation, which can deteriorate the tight junctions.
If you are constantly falling ill and taking medications, especially antibiotics, you will develop a condition called dysbiosis, or an imbalance in gut microbiota.
Collectively, you would suffer from a “leaky gut”.
Such a leak causes inflammation. Your body is handling unwanted things aggravating your body. We would call it an irritable bowel syndrome. Over time, left untreated, it can cause a host of diseases.
So what can you do?
Start by consuming whole foods, fiber, and plant-based antioxidants. Fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices.
Fermented foods, which contain probiotics, and prebiotic-rich foods. They bring beneficial bacteria which can support a balanced microbiome. Yoghurt, for example.
Limiting alcohol, avoiding processed foods, and being cautious with medications, painkillers in particular, can help preserve tight junctions.
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