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  4. Can you clarify the difference between gut permeability, leaky gut, and intestinal permeability?

Can you clarify the difference between gut permeability, leaky gut, and intestinal permeability?

Dr. Amy Nett:  These are actually all the same. These terms are interchangeable. Intestinal permeability is, I think, the more scientific term and the term we tend to see in the literature. Leaky gut is a much more common term that you’re going to hear when we’re looking at things that are advertised, marketed or aimed a little bit more towards the layperson, so leaky gut is basically just saying intestinal permeability. And again, gut is really just another way of saying intestine to most people. Gut standing for gastrointestinal or urinary tract is what I learned in medical school or how I tend to think of it. But yeah, all of those are basically saying intestinal permeability, and again that’s basically sort of faulty tight junctions where you have almost an opening of the of the tight junctions you can think of where you have an increase in intestinal permeability and things that are passing through the GI tract into systemic circulation that shouldn’t be.

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