If you've been feeling a bit off, bloated after meals, moody for no clear reason, or struggling with breakouts or brain fog, you’re not alone. An increasing number of people are discovering that these seemingly unrelated issues might have a common source: the gut.

Gut health is foundational to almost every system in the body. As our understanding deepens, more attention is being paid to a condition known as leaky gut, or intestinal permeability. Although it’s not yet part of standard medical diagnosis, it’s gaining traction in functional health as a potential root cause of a wide range of chronic symptoms, including what many now refer to as leaky gut symptoms.

This article will help you understand what leaky gut is, how it shows up in the body, and what you can do to support your gut lining and feel better.

What is Leaky Gut?

Your gut lining acts as a protective barrier between the contents of your digestive system and the rest of your body. It selectively allows digested nutrients through while blocking pathogens, toxins, and large food particles.

But when the gut lining becomes compromised, often through stress, poor diet, environmental toxins or medication use, tiny gaps form between the cells. These gaps allow substances that shouldn’t be there to pass through into the bloodstream, which can activate the immune system and lead to chronic, low-grade inflammation.

This process is referred to as intestinal permeability. It doesn’t just affect digestion. It can influence your energy levels, mood, skin, and immune function too. People with underlying autoimmune diseases or inflammatory conditions may be particularly vulnerable to its effects.

Triggers for leaky gut can include high sugar intake, frequent alcohol use, long-term antibiotic or NSAID use, dysbiosis (an imbalance in gut bacteria), and ongoing emotional or physical stress. Over time, these factors can wear down the gut’s natural defences and open the door to systemic symptoms.

What are the Symptoms of Leaky Gut?

One of the reasons leaky gut is so often overlooked is that the symptoms don’t always look like gut problems. While digestive discomfort is common, many people experience symptoms in areas like the skin, brain, and joints.

Digestive Symptoms

Digestive signs are often the most obvious. Many people with leaky gut experience persistent bloating, particularly after meals, or develop new food allergies or sensitivities that never used to be an issue. Changes in bowel habits, whether frequent diarrhoea, constipation, or an unpredictable mix, can also indicate that something isn’t functioning properly in the digestive tract. If meals regularly leave you feeling heavy, gassy, or uncomfortable, your gut lining may be trying to tell you something.

Skin Problems

It’s easy to forget that the skin and gut are closely connected, but growing research highlights how imbalances in the gut microbiome can directly influence skin conditions. When the gut lining is impaired, commonly referred to as increased intestinal permeability or leaky gut, toxins, bacteria, and partially digested food particles can escape into the bloodstream. This triggers systemic inflammation, which often manifests externally through the skin.

One of the most common skin complaints linked to gut health is acne, especially persistent or cystic acne that doesn't respond to topical treatments. A disrupted gut microbiome can increase levels of inflammatory compounds and alter hormone regulation, both of which are key drivers in acne formation. Additionally, dysbiosis (an imbalance in gut bacteria) may impair the body’s ability to absorb nutrients like zinc, vitamin A, and omega-3 fatty acids, nutrients that are essential for healthy skin.

These skin flare-ups, including eczema, rashes, or general redness, often ebb and flow with changes in diet, stress levels, or the state of the gut microbiota.

Cognitive and Mood Changes

Have you ever had days when your brain feels foggy, your focus is off, or your mood is low for no clear reason? It might surprise you to know that your gut could be playing a big role in how you're feeling mentally and emotionally. The connection between the gut and brain is known as the gut-brain axis, and it allows your digestive system and nervous system to communicate constantly through nerves, hormones and immune signals.

When your gut is inflamed or out of balance, this communication can break down. One of the main pathways in this system is the vagus nerve, which connects your gut and brain directly. If the gut is under stress, it can affect how your brain functions, which may lead to anxiety, low mood, poor concentration or that heavy, foggy feeling.

The gut also produces many important brain chemicals. In fact, about 90 per cent of your serotonin is made in the gut. This is the neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, sleep and emotional stability. If your gut is not in a healthy state, serotonin levels can drop, making you feel flat, unsettled or unmotivated. Other chemicals like GABA, which helps with calmness, and dopamine, which supports motivation and pleasure, are also influenced by gut microbes.

If your mental and emotional well-being has felt out of sync, it may be a sign that your gut needs support.

Immune and Inflammatory Responses

Because much of the immune system resides in the gut, any breach in gut barrier function can lead to an overactive immune response. People with leaky gut often report joint stiffness, muscle aches, or recurring infections. In more advanced cases, this immune dysregulation may even contribute to autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or rheumatoid arthritis. These are clear signs that the body’s immune system may be reacting to what it perceives as constant internal threats.

Leaky gut may also be a hidden driver behind certain medical conditions, especially when symptoms appear across multiple systems and don’t respond to conventional treatment.

How is Leaky Gut Diagnosed?

Although leaky gut isn't widely recognised in conventional settings, several tools used in functional medicine can help detect signs of intestinal permeability and related dysfunction.

Functional Gut Testing

Laboratory testing can provide objective insights into your gut health. Tests might look at markers like zonulin (a protein that regulates tight junctions in the gut lining), inflammatory compounds, immune reactivity, and microbial balance. Stool analysis can also reveal overgrowth of bacteria, yeast, or parasites, which often coexist with or contribute to a leaky gut.

In some cases, conditions like celiac disease may present with similar symptoms or even coexist with leaky gut, making accurate testing and a comprehensive history even more important.

Elimination Diets

If testing isn’t accessible or you want to start exploring on your own, a structured elimination diet can offer useful clues. By removing common gut irritants like gluten, dairy, refined sugar, alcohol, and ultra-processed foods for a few weeks, then slowly reintroducing them one at a time, you can observe how your body responds. Many people notice a clear improvement in symptoms when potential triggers are removed.

Symptom and Lifestyle Tracking

Keeping a health journal is another simple and empowering way to connect with your body. Logging your meals, digestion, energy levels, sleep, and stress each day can help you identify patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed. You might discover that your symptoms flare after certain foods, or during periods of emotional stress or poor sleep.

What Can You Do About It?

The gut lining is one of the most rapidly renewing tissues in the body. This means that with the right care, healing is not only possible, it is expected. Supporting your gut doesn’t require perfection, but it does require consistency. The approach should be gentle, sustainable, and focused on nourishment.

Support the Gut Lining with Targeted Nutrients

Certain nutrients are particularly effective in rebuilding and strengthening the intestinal wall. For example, L-glutamine is an amino acid that directly fuels the cells of the gut lining, helping to repair damage and improve barrier function. Zinc carnosine is known for its protective effects on mucosal tissues and can help promote tissue regeneration. Colostrum contains immunoglobulins and growth factors that support immune resilience and mucosal healing.

Other nutrients that may play a supportive role include vitamin A, which is essential for maintaining epithelial tissues, and omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce inflammation and support cell membrane integrity.

Before starting any new supplement protocol, it’s a good idea to consult with a healthcare practitioner to ensure the approach is tailored to your specific needs.

Focus on a Gut-Friendly Diet

A diverse, anti-inflammatory diet is a key foundation for gut repair. Whole foods rich in fibre, antioxidants, and prebiotics can help feed beneficial bacteria and soothe inflammation. Vegetables, leafy greens, berries, nuts, seeds, legumes, and properly prepared whole grains provide important building blocks.

Fermented foods like kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, and yoghurt introduce beneficial microbes that support microbial diversity. If you’re new to fermented foods, start slowly and observe how your body responds.

On the other hand, limiting processed foods, added sugars, refined vegetable oils, alcohol, and artificial additives can significantly reduce stress on the gut and immune system.

Restore Microbial Balance

A healthy microbiome plays a critical role in maintaining gut barrier function. When the gut is populated with beneficial bacteria, they help regulate inflammation, produce short-chain fatty acids, and crowd out harmful microbes. You can encourage a balanced microbiome by eating a variety of plant foods, rotating food choices regularly, and incorporating prebiotic fibres.

In some cases, practitioners may recommend specific strains of probiotics or antimicrobial herbs to help shift the microbiome toward balance, particularly if there’s evidence of bacterial overgrowth or fungal imbalance.

Manage Stress Through the Gut-Brain Axis

Stress is one of the most significant, yet often underestimated, drivers of gut dysfunction. When you're under chronic stress, cortisol levels rise, which can weaken the gut lining, alter digestion, and shift microbial balance.

Creating space for regular relaxation can have a measurable impact. Practices like deep breathing, meditation, restorative yoga, or even quiet time in nature activate the parasympathetic nervous system—the part responsible for rest and repair. Prioritising rest is not indulgent; it’s essential.

Get Quality Sleep and Movement

Both sleep and movement play vital roles in gut health. Sleep is when the body does much of its repair work, including regeneration of the gut lining. Aim for seven to nine hours of quality sleep each night, with consistent bedtimes and minimal screen time before bed.

Movement, especially gentle forms like walking, swimming, and stretching, helps stimulate digestion and reduce inflammation. Overexercising, on the other hand, can increase stress hormones and exacerbate symptoms, so it’s important to find a balanced rhythm.

Seek Guidance When Needed

Healing from leaky gut can be done independently to a point, but if you find yourself stuck or overwhelmed, working with a qualified nutritionist, naturopath, or integrative doctor can make a significant difference. They can help personalise your approach, recommend testing, and offer guidance to ensure you're moving in the right direction.

Listen to Your Gut

Our bodies are always sending signals. Whether it’s through discomfort, fatigue, breakouts, or shifts in mood, symptoms are a message, not something to be ignored or numbed. Leaky gut is not the cause of every health issue, but when symptoms show up in clusters across systems, it’s a clue that your gut may need support.

The good news is that the gut is incredibly responsive to care. With the right nutrition, rest, and mindful lifestyle shifts, the gut lining can regenerate, inflammation can reduce, and the body can start to rebalance.

Healing isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about taking one step at a time, listening to your body, and making choices that support your long-term wellbeing.

Explore Supportive Tools

If you're ready to take the next step, Nourishme Organics offers a carefully curated selection of science-backed tools to support your gut healing journey. Whether you're just starting out or looking to fine-tune your routine, these gut health supplements and products are designed to help repair the gut lining, restore microbial balance and promote lasting digestive wellness.

Pure Colostrum Powder 200g: Packed with immunoglobulins, growth factors and nutrients that support immune health, mucosal repair and gut barrier integrity.
Organic Milk Kefir Grains: Cultivate your own fermented drinks at home. Kefir is naturally rich in probiotics, enzymes and nutrients that help promote a diverse, healthy microbiome.
Organic Water Kefir Grains: For those who prefer a dairy-free option, water kefir grains allow you to brew a refreshing, probiotic-rich beverage at home.
Cobiome MetaXplore GI Plus & Personalised Microbiome Consultation : A comprehensive at-home microbiome test that offers personalised insights into your gut health, including inflammation markers, diversity scores and dietary recommendations.

Wherever you are on your wellness path, know that you're not alone. At Nourishme Organics, we’re here to guide and support you with trusted tools, expert knowledge and a community that truly cares.