Are You Suffering from Leaky Heart Syndrome?

Chances are you have heard of Leaky Gut syndrome. But have you heard about Leaky Heart Syndrome? Probably not, because I coined the term. Read on to learn about how a leaky gut can lead to a leaky heart and how to prevent it.

Leaky Gut Syndrome

When I met Dr. Heather, she brought up the concept of the leaky gut as a disease condition. I just laughed and said, “I went through 4 years of medical school, 3 years of internal medicine, and 3 years of cardiology training. I have never heard of leaky gut. She said, “That is your problem. Go read about it.” At the time, there was not much in the literature about leaky gut, but the concept made sense. Well, in the last 10 years, the medical literature has exploded with information on leaky gut and there are several companies that test for it.

In short, the gut, also known as the small intestine, should allow things into the body that belong, while keeping things that don’t belong inside the body flowing out of the bottom of the tube (anus). When the gut “leaks”, unwanted particles like undigested food, bacteria, and environmental toxins get into the body. The immune system reacts to what is considered a foreign invader. Inflammation and oxidative stress are hallmarks of immune cell activity. All this is clearly linked to cardiovascular disease, brain disorders, and cancer. Learn more in my video on Leaky Gut, Leaky Heart.

Disease occurs because the immune system starts to recognize its own proteins as foreign. Thus, most disease appears to be “auto-immune”. Our immune system is attacking our body.

Leaky gut can be diagnosed by tests such as zonulin, anti-zonulin antibodies (ABY), anti-actin ABY, and anti-LPS ABY. Here is the link to get the Leaky Gut test from us.

Blood Vessel Basics

There are 3 layers of an artery that surround blood flow in the form of a tube: intima, media and adventitia. The intima is the closest to blood flow and the innermost layer of the intima is called the endothelium. The outer layer that supports the vessel is called the adventitia. In the middle is a muscular layer called the media.

Leaky Heart Syndrome

I created the term, Leaky Heart Syndrome, because the lining of blood vessels, called the endothelium, leaks. What I mean by the vessel leaks is that the endothelium becomes dysfunctional, allowing proteins, immune cells and other material into the inner lining of the vessel such as the intima and media.

The immune system chaos leads to inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which are highly correlated with heart attack, stroke, cardiomyopathy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, deep venous thrombosis and atrial fibrillation.

Immune cell invasion through the endothelium has been documented for decades. A recent 2018 article highlights the massive amount of T cells and B cells found in all the layers of the coronary artery in a person with blockages. It is well known that macrophages, part of the innate arm of the immune system, migrate to the intima and media of a vessel, engulf cholesterol and lipid particles, and evolving into foam cells. As these foam cells die, the area of the vessel is necrotic, and at risk of subsequent rupture.

Factors Leading to Leaky Heart Syndrome

A recent article summarizes the known causes of endothelial dysfunction and ultimately, Leaky Heart Syndrome.

  • Hypercholesterolemia (e.g., oxidatively modified lipoproteins)
  • Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome (e.g., advanced glycation end products, reactive oxygen species, adipokines)
  • Hypertension (e.g., angiotensin-II, reactive oxygen species)
  • Aging (e.g., advanced glycation end products, cell senescence)
  • Oxidative Stress (multi-factorial)
  • Proinflammatory Cytokines (e.g., Interleukin-1, Tumor Necrosis Factor)
  • Infectious Agents (e.g., bacterial endotoxins, viruses)
  • Environmental Toxins (e.g., cigarette smoke, air pollution, heavy metals)
  • Hemodynamic Forces (e.g., disturbed blood flow)
  • EMF? Vaccines? Gluten and other lectins?

Prevention of Leaky Heart Syndrome

  1. 1. Organic, Paleo foods

    Eating the foods of our ancestors has the science and “common sense” support. Organic Paleo supplies the nutrients the body need to keep the gut lining intact and the heart endothelium strong, especially seafood. Learn how to follow the Paleo diet by reading my Paleo Pyramid.

  2. 2. Smart sun

    The energy from the sun penetrates the chest and directly supports the endothelium. The sun makes blood vessels slick. Awake before the sunrise. Watch the sunrise. Get noontime sun. Later afternoon sun. Start off with short exposure…5 minutes. Increase over time. Be naked.

  3. 3. Nature sleep

    Sun goes down, time to go to sleep. Just like the animals in the wild. Anytime in the artificial light is a death sentence. Avoid artificial light whenever possible. Get a red light flashlight. Artificial light leads to inflammation, oxidative stress and immune system dysfunction. That is the triumvirate of heart disease.

  4. 4. Heal your environment

    Pollution, chemicals, pesticides, and toxic metals destroy our blood vessels and lead to disease. Ban these toxins from your life (as much as possible) and heal your Leaky Heart.

  5. 5. Say goodbye to stress

    Stress leads to inflammation. Chronic stress is bad. The answer is not Prozac. The answer is to remove the stress before the stress removes you (from planet Earth). The link between stress and heart attacks is staggering.

  6. 6. Evidence-based supplements

    If I could pick one supplement to heal the Leaky Gut and the Leaky Heart, it would be our Daily Defense protein shake mix functional food. This delicious shake contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, anti-oxidants, liver detoxifiers, gut binders, digestive enzymes, protein, probiotics and MORE. Did I mention it tastes GREAT? Come on. A cardiologist is given you a prescription for a milk shake.

Conclusion

If you want to discover if you have Leaky Gut, Leaky Heart, make an appointment with the doctor who gets proven results. Don’t leave your health to the pill pushers. Let’s get to the cause.

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