An autoimmune disease is a condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissue causing damage. Having a leaky gut may make you prone to having an autoimmune disease. Without going into too much detail, I will try to explain the above statement in bold.
Okay, our immune system has within it a multilayer subsystem with a series of checks and balances built in to prevent self-attack. This process eliminates auto-reactive immune cells (immune cells that attack the body’s own tissue). Immunologists call this subsystem “Tolerance”. Unfortunately this system like any other system in our body is not perfect.
So, at any given time an unknown amount of auto-reactive immune cells (a.k.a. self-reactive cells), can slip through the checkpoints of Tolerance and end up floating around our body via the bloodstream. The programming of these self-reactive cells floating around our body is flawed. Without a well-designed seek and neutralize plan to follow – self-reactive cells will attack any foreign substance and provoke a misguided immune response.
Properly programmed immune cells are designed to identify one particular type of foreign substance and attack it. Our immune system sees all foreign substances as antigens. Part of and located on the surface of an antigen are epitopes, also known as antigenic determinants.
These antigenic determinants allow our properly programmed immune cells to recognize friend from foe. If identified to be an antigen, our immune cells will bind with it. In order to provoke an immune response our immune cells must bind with the antigen.
Now, if the self-reactive cells bind with the epitopes on the foreign substance (antigen), before the correctly programmed immune cells does. And the antigen happens to carry epitopes (antigenic determinants), that closely resemble those on the cells of an organ in our body. Then, our self-reactive cells will provoke a misguided immune response that will stimulate the production of immune cells to attack that particular organ.
A Situation immunologists call “molecular mimicry” which may trigger a new autoimmune disease. The good news! Self-reactive cells have a short life span, less than 12 hours.
At this point you’re probably asking yourself. How can unintentional faults on the part of my immune system have anything to do with a leaky gut? Well, directly it doesn’t but indirectly it may.
Normally the spaces between the cells that line our intestines are sealed tight. But when we have an immune reaction to gluten, the lining of our small intestine becomes inflamed and that tight junction between cells begins to loosen. The damage can be enough to allow large foreign substances (antigens) to pass between cells and into our bloodstream.
What happens when a leaky gut is allowed to continue unchecked (unintentionally or stubbornly) for yet an unknown number of years? Answer – antigens and self-reactive cells, like partners in crime, will eventually link up. So, it shouldn’t be hard to see, the indirect role a leaky gut plays in making you prone to having an autoimmune disease.