Intestinal Permeability

Testing for intestinal permeability, often referred to as “Leaky Gut,” helps to inform treatment decisions. Many of our patients have increased intestinal permeability caused by food allergens, inflammation, microbial imbalance, nutrient deficiencies and oxidative stress.

Assessing the severity of altered permeability helps your Naturopathic Doctor when they are making treatment recommendations. With treatment, digestive symptoms can improve quite quickly but it is difficult to know when a “leaky gut” has been completely healed. Testing helps to track treatment success and gives valuable input on how long a patient should be treating their gut permeability.

Is intestinal inflammation contributing to you or your child’s health concerns?

One of the most common causes of intestinal inflammation is elevated histamine. Histamine is a chemical produced in our body and stored inside mast cells and basophils, which are white blood cells that are an integral part of our immune system.

Histamine is the key mediator in causing the symptoms of allergy and also acts as a neurotransmitter for the brain.

Our gut flora (microbiota) make histamine via fermentation of histidine, which is an amino acid. Histamine is part of a family of chemicals known as BIOGENIC AMINES.

The main enzyme in the gut that metabolizes histamine is Diamine Oxidase (DAO). Testing the levels of histamine and DAO provides important information about gut inflammation that other tests may not reveal.

Gut inflammation contributes to many aspects of chronic health concerns. Measuring the level of histamine helps your Naturopathic Doctor prescribe supplements to treat this insidious cause of intestinal inflammation.

Causes of elevated histamine include:

  • Bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
  • Leaky gut
  • Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Methylation impairments
  • Nutrient deficiencies
  • Imbalanced gut flora – Dysbiosis

Learn More About Testing Gut Inflammation and Permeability

Sample Test for Intestinal Permeability