Heal Your Gut With The 4R Protocol

Your health greatly depends on the integrity of your intestinal lining, your gut.

Similar to the way in which your skin protects you from the outside world, your intestinal tract is the “skin” that serves as a barrier to protect your internal systems from the outside world. This sensitive barrier is about 9 meters (30 feet) long and only one cell thick – incredibly long and microscopically thin!A simple metaphor to help you understand your gut lining is to picture it as cheesecloth, with small holes perfectly sized to allow only the desired nutrients from food, such as vitamins and minerals, to pass through to enter into your bloodstream.

These little openings are held together by structures called junctions, and it is important that they remain the correct size. Any disturbance to the lining can loosen the junctions and create holes that are too big. This is like stretching the cheesecloth and transforming it into a fish net.

With loosened junctions, harmful substances such as toxins, pathogens, allergens, parasites and undigested food particles (including poop!) can enter the bloodstream to cause systemic inflammation and cause a wide array of health problems.

This condition is called intestinal hyper-permeability, or more commonly, “leaky gut.”

A properly functioning digestive system (gut) is critical to good health. In fact, 60 -80% of our immune system is located in your gut and 90% of our neurotransmitters, chemicals responsible for regulating mood such as serotonin, are made in our gut.

So if you’re always sick and in living in a cloud of gloom, this could be a clear sign that your gut needs healing.

So how do you know if you have a leaky gut that is affecting your health and well being?

We have designed an simple questionnaire to help you discover if a leaky gut is affecting your life. While this test does not provide a definitive diagnosis, it can help you assess the health of your gut.

Give yourself one point for every symptom you have from the list below. If you have 3 or more symptoms you are at a higher risk of having leaky gut syndrome.

Take The Leaky Gut Quiz

Gut dysbiosis, leaky gut, Candida overgrowth, SIBO— they all share similar symptoms. In fact, these conditions often occur together and contribute to one another. They are often caused by many of the same things such as an unhealthy diet (including processed foods, sugar, refined grains), excessive alcohol, the overuse of antibiotics, birth control, over-the-counter pain killers and stress.

Because the same factors that fuel a Candida overgrowth perpetuate leaky gut, when you work to address one condition you’ll be rehabilitating your gut on all fronts. You can actually make this work to your advantage in the recovery process!

Whenever working to eliminate Candida it’s important to do the work necessary to heal leaky gut to make a full recovery because Candida causes leaky gut.

Partner the 4 R protocol with the CCWS and you’ll sure to make incredible changes to your health!

As you remove the offending foods, you then replace them with healthy, gut nourishing, organic whole foods such as healthy fats and proteins, bone broth, cruciferous vegetables, nuts, seeds, leafy greens and fermented foods. At this time you tweak your diet to what your guts need. The Elimination Diet or GAPS Diet will help you figure that out.

For inspiration on what to eat check out the Candida Cleanser 7 Day Meal Plan Inspiration

During this time you need to make sure that you have the digestive power to actually breakdown these nutritious foods and absorb their nutrients to fill in any deficiencies that you may have developed overtime with a leaky gut.

Supplementing with digestive aids such as enzymes and betaine hydrochloric acid are vital part of the process to ensure you are producing healthy amounts of gastric juices for proper nutrient absorption.Learn more about digestive aids and proper supplementation in the this article.

Once you have made the necessary dietary adjustments, you can support and accelerate the healing in your gut by eating specific herbs and supplements that target the repair of the gut lining and restore balance to your gut microbiome.

Herbs, supplements, and foods to consider are slippery elm, marshmallow root, licorice root, aloe vera, l-glutamine, zinc, vitamin A, C, E, omega 3’s like EPA and DHA, collagen, gelatin, ghee (for the gut-healing butyric acid), and bone broth.

Try our new Leaky Gut Repair Formula, specifically designed to partner with our cleanses to help you heal leaky gut and make a full recovery.