LEAKY GUTTHE MYERS WAY ® GUIDE TO

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TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction ......................................................................................................................... 3

What Makes Up the Gut? ..................................................................................................... 4

What is Leaky Gut? .............................................................................................................. 8

How Might You Feel with a Leaky Gut? ............................................................................. 10

Other Factors that Impact Gut Health .............................................................................. 11

The Long-Term Impact of Leaky Gut ................................................................................ 14

Healing Your Gut The Myers Way® .................................................................................... 18

Mistakes to Avoid .............................................................................................................. 28

Measuring Success ........................................................................................................... 31

My Top Gut-Healing Supplements .................................................................................... 33

APPENDIX 1: The Elimination Diet ................................................................................... 40

APPENDIX 2: Bonus Gut-Repairing Recipes ..................................................................... 48

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I f you’ve read my books or my blog, participated in a webinar, watched a live event, or listened to one of my podcasts, you’re probably familiar with these

words: Conventional medicine failed me and it is my mis-sion to not have it fail you tooSM. It truly is my mission to help you avoid the pitfalls of conventional medicine and help you take control of your health. I have a vision of creating a clear path to optimal health and wellness, something that is better than what we all know through conventional physicians and medications.

In my second year of medical school, I started to experi-ence weight loss, anxiety, and insomnia. I was eventually diagnosed with Grave’s disease, an autoimmune condi-tion of the thyroid. Conventional medicine’s solution was to ablate, or kill, my thyroid with radioactive iodine. It’s the biggest regret of my life. I sought out a better way so that I could prevent others from going through what I did.

I went to a conference in New York and heard a physician speak for the first time about functional medicine. Func-tional medicine looks to find the root causes of disease to reverse the disease, rather than treating symptoms with pills. I had finally found a better way.

I took all the courses that The Institute for Functional Medicine had to offer and in 2010, I left my job working

as an emergency room doctor to open my own func-tional medicine clinic, Austin UltraHealth. There, I devel-oped The Myers Way®; a functional medicine approach that focuses on the individual, finding the root cause for their illness, and treating more than just the symptoms. I worked with patients all over the world to help give them their lives back.

I saw time and time again in my patients that gut health plays an integral role in their overall health. Gut health is something that we heavily emphasize in the functional medicine community, as imbalances in gut health have been shown to create a whole host of symptoms. These symptoms include common gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, constipation, stomach pain, and more. They also can manifest in other ways such as joint pain, skin issues, brain fog, or autoimmunity.

My hope is that through this guide, you are able to find the answers you have been looking for on your health journey. Remember, conventional medicine failed me and it is my mission to not have it fail you tooSM. You can take control of your health and your life!

INTRODUCTION

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T he gut is a complex system that nourishes and protects our body from head to toe. It consists of every digestive organ from your mouth to your

anus, and it involves your intestinal flora, nervous sys-tem, and immune system. The gut is your body’s most important gateway to the outside world; however, it is vul-nerable to everything we put in it, including food, drinks, chemicals, toxins, and medications. Before we dive into the gut’s role in our health, let’s start by discussing the overall structure and function of our gut, including the role of our microbiome.

THE ANATOMY OF THE GUTDigestion begins before food even crosses your lips. The sight and smell of food triggers your salivary glands to produce saliva. Saliva contains enzymes that begin to chemically break down your food. At a microscopic level, your saliva begins to break down simple carbohydrates. In addition to saliva, chewing your food mechanically breaks it down into smaller pieces.

WHAT MAKES UP THE GUT?After the food has begun to be broken down in the mouth, it then moves down the esophagus to the stomach where we find a very important digestive fluid called gastric acid, more commonly known as hydrochloric acid or HCL. One of the ways HCL works is by protecting us against bacteria, yeast, and parasites that are hitching a ride on the food we just ingested. The acidic nature of HCL helps to sterilize the stomach so when these pathogens enter, they are killed upon entrance. Another important way HCL works is by helping to digest protein and assisting in the absorption of some specific vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B12, calcium, iron, and more.

Once the food is finished in the stomach, it moves into the small intestine. The small intestine is where the majority of your digestive enzymes continue to break down your food. Most of the digestive process is completed in your small intestine, which is over 20 feet long with a sur-face area of a tennis court! Nutrients that are released by the broken-down food in your intestines are absorbed through the cells in your intestines and used by the body for all of its day-to-day functions.

In addition, food entering the small intestine stimulates the secretion of mucus as well as hormones that signal organs such as your pancreas, liver, and gallbladder to initiate their role in digestion. The remaining food such as insoluble fiber and water, moves to the large intestine for final absorption. Anything that cannot be used by your body is then eliminated through the anus as stool.

As mentioned a moment ago, the digestive system con-sists of every digestive organ from your mouth to your anus. An oversimplified way to think of this is one long tube through your body. This tube is very important for all of the digestive processes we just mentioned; however, it also plays a big role in creating a barrier from the outside world to your body. Just like your skin protects you from injury or infection, the same thing is done by the lining of your gut! This will be very important to remember when we talk later about what all can go wrong in the gut.

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THE GUT MICROBIOMEWhile structure and function are very important to our gut working properly and making us feel good, we defi-nitely can’t discuss a healthy gut without talking about our gut microbiome. Did you know that the number of bacteria living inside us and on the surface of our skin outweighs the number of cells we have in our own body? Microbiomes are mainly clusters of bacteria as well as a few other organisms, which are found in our mouths, skin, nose, genitals, urinary tract, and our gut.

In recent years, scientists have discovered that the gut microbiome contains tens of trillions of microorganisms, including up to 1,000 different species of bacteria with over 3 million genes — that’s 150 times more genes than human genes! Those bacteria don’t just help us digest, they also impact our immune system. Because 80% of our immune system is in our gut, we must support and nur-ture our microbiome. All of those good bacteria influence our immune system and determine if it will be healthy or if symptoms will develop. Your gut also produces 95% of the hormone serotonin, which has a dramatic effect on mood.Therefore, just like your gut microbiome affects your immune system, it also plays a role in the function-ing of your brain and neurotransmitter production.

I like to think of the gut as a rainforest, home to a vast and diverse range of living organisms living in a delicate balance known collectively as your microbiome. Trillions of microflora work together to ensure proper digestive function. They also aid in the production of essential vita-mins such as B vitamins and vitamin K and act as a pro-tective barrier for the immune system. All the while, the good bacteria discourage bad bacteria and keep yeasts such as Candida from getting out of control. Each per-son’s gut microbiome — their gut bacteria — is as unique as they are, impacted by both inherited microorganisms and the environment.

So how do all of these beneficial bacteria get inside of us to form our microbiomes? Your microbiome actually starts developing before you are even born. We used to think the womb was sterile, but recent studies show that women who had a bladder infection during their first or second trimester had “microbial fingerprints” of this infection in their placenta. This means that if a mother

gets antibiotics while she’s pregnant, it can have a per-manent impact on the gut microbiome of the fetus. In a sense, you inherit your mom’s microbiome, and if hers is not healthy, yours will not be either. This is why I asked all of my patients if their mother got antibiotics while she was pregnant with them.

Another question I asked my patients is how they were born: vaginally or by C-section. Babies born vaginally swallow a big dose of their mother’s microbiome as they pass through the birth canal. Babies born via c-section miss being inoculated with those beneficial bacteria and their first exposure to bacteria tends to be to other envi-ronments that may actually contain bad bacteria, such as from the skin or mouth (from being held and kissed by adults).

The latest research shows that babies born by C-section are more likely to have allergies and altered gut microbi-omes. However, a recent study that involved “swabbing” the newborn with mom’s microbiome from the birth canal immediately after birth shows that these babies’ microbi-omes are as diverse and healthy as those who were born vaginally. Breastfeeding is another wonderful way to help ensure a healthy gut microbiome because breast milk contains naturally-occurring probiotics and anti-inflam-matory compounds to help the good bacteria flourish.

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While working with patients in my practice, I saw many patients who went through a pattern that is all too common:

Missing out on friendly bacteria from the birth canal and breast milk puts you at a greater risk for ear infec-tions and other recurring childhood infections. With every infection comes another round of antibiotics that wipes out even more of the good bacteria which can lead to Candida overgrowth, as I will explain later on in this guide. I’ll also address SIBO (small intestinal bac-terial overgrowth), which too can occur when your gut microbiome is out of balance. All of these factors that start before you are even born or in infancy can be linked to problems in your gut health, and possibly even further inflammatory symptoms that can impact you decades later.

Each and every one of us has a unique microbiome that is specific to us. This unique microbiome changes on a day-to-day basis. As we age, we end up with diverse flora that help us in digesting our food, managing our weight, supporting our immune system, controlling the function of our brain, and so much more!

THE GUT BARRIERThe gut lining plays a very important role in your overall health and is a major barrier between you and the world around you. Just like the skin that you can see on the

outside of your body, your gut lining is made of epithelial tissue that protects you from foreign invaders.

As food makes its way through your small intestine, the nutrients that are released by this broken-down food are caught on finger-like projections known as villi and microvilli. These projections increase the surface area of your intestines. This portion of the small intestine, known as the “brush border,” is where nutrients are drawn in and absorbed into the bloodstream.

The tissues that make up your intestines and villi are made from cells that are held together by tight junctions. Tight junctions are special channels that open and close to allow small nutrients to be absorbed directly into the bloodstream.

In addition to the cells that make up our gut barrier, we also have a coating of mucus on top of the cells. You know the mucus that is located in our mouth and nose? This same mucus is produced by the cells in your gut and coats our intestines to help trap toxins and pathogens and from entering our bloodstream.

THE GUT BARRIER

Small Intestine

Healthy Villi

MOM GETTING ANTIBIOTICS FOR AN INFECTION SUCH AS GROUP B STREP

WHILE PREGNANTLEAKY GUT

BABY BORN VIA C-SECTION

BABY FED FORMULA RATHER THAN BREAST MILK AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

BABY GETS EAR INFECTIONS AND REQUIRES ANTIBIOTICS

ALTERED MICROBIOME

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Within this mucus, we also have special proteins called secretory IgA. Secretory IgA are immunoglobulins, or antibodies, that are manufactured by your immune sys-tem to fight off viruses, bacteria, and other infections. They are the first line of defense in your gut to protect you from the trapped toxins and pathogens that get caught in the mucus in order for the mucus to physically remove it from our gut. When the secretory IgA recognize a pathogen traveling through the small intestine, they are able to tag the pathogen to signal the immune system to clear them out as well as trap them within the mucus in order for the mucus to physically remove it from our gut through our stool.

HOW IS THE GUT SUPPOSED TO WORK?If you watch TV, you’ve probably noticed that many com-mercials focus around medications that treat the symp-toms of improper digestion. It seems to have become the new normal to have acid reflux, heartburn, loose stools, constipation, bloating, and indigestion. Most likely, you or someone you know, is currently taking a medication to treat their digestive issues. However, these are not

normal symptoms and the medications are often made to treat the symptoms not the underlying problem.

There are some quick and easy ways to know if your gut is functioning properly:

• You feel good after eating.• You have 1-3 bowel movements per day that are

solid and formed.• You do not experience gas, bloating, cramps, or pain

excessively and regularly after eating.• You do not notice undigested food in your stool.• You have no need for medications.• You do not experience GERD or acid reflux

symptoms.• You do not experience even occasional bouts of

constipation or diarrhea.

Issues with any of the things listed above could indicate problems within your gut and possibly indicate the devel-opment of a leaky gut.

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UndigestedGluten Fragments

Pathogens

Nutrients

L eaky gut happens when the tight junctions that hold your intestinal wall together open up and remain open. You can think of your gut lining and the tight

junctions between your cells as a drawbridge. Teeny tiny boats (micronutrients in food) that are meant to get through can go under the bridge without a problem. This is an important system that allows vital nutrients from the food you eat to be absorbed into your bloodstream.

However, certain aspects of our modern life will cause that drawbridge to go up and when it does, this allows partially digested food, microbes, bacteria, viruses, and toxins to make their way through to the bloodstream, causing inflammation and a host of symptoms. Over time, if the issue is not addressed, it can lead to autoim-munity, a condition in which your immune system attacks your own body systems and tissues.

WHAT IS LEAKY GUT?

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HOW LEAKY GUT CAUSES INFLAMMATION THROUGHOUT THE BODYWhen these tiny openings in your intestinal wall break open, the foreign microbes, toxins and undigested food particles that should have been passed out of your body are allowed to enter your bloodstream. When these for-eign objects enter your bloodstream, the immune system responds by attacking them as foreign invaders. However, when the immune system attacks these foreign objects, it not only creates an overall inflammatory response in the body, it also can cause the immune system to acci-dentally attack the wrong thing, such as healthy tissues in your body. One main way inflammation occurs is that many of these food particles (especially gluten, found in wheat, barley and rye; and casein, a protein found in dairy), toxins and infections look very similar to our own body’s cells and our immune system gets confused caus-ing it to accidentally attack our tissues. This process is called molecular mimicry. Molecular mimicry is a phe-nomenon in which your immune system might actually confuse a part of your own body with a foreign invader. It’s a cycle that works like this:

Though altered gut microbiome and dysbiosis are men-tioned in the cycle above, there are many factors that can lead to leaky gut, and the biggest culprit is gluten. That is because every time you eat gluten, it triggers the produc-tion of zonulin. Zonulin is a protein in your small intes-tine that regulates the opening and closing of the tight junctions between the cells in the intestinal wall. When zonulin is elevated it opens up the junctions and when it

lowers, the junctions are closed. This protein is activated by gluten, which elevates the zonulin and causes the tight junctions in your gut to open up. While negative reactions to gluten are normally associated with the diagnosis of celiac disease, more and more people are beginning to also have negative symptoms associated with gluten. This is because our bodies do not digest modern day glu-ten in the same way that our ancestors may have been able to digest gluten back in the day. This poorly digested or even undigested gluten can cause even those without celiac disease to have elevated levels of zonulin, thereby increasing leaky gut.

Zonulin can also be activated and elevated by the pres-ence of infections such as Candida overgrowth, SIBO, and parasites in order to flush these infections out of the body. In addition, exposure to toxins and stress are other common causes found to cause leaky gut. We will talk more about these causes and how to address them later on in this guide.

It is important to note that you can be without symptoms — and may not even have gut-related symptoms — and still have a leaky gut. When we think of leaky gut, we typ-ically think that the symptoms also have to be gut-re-lated. However, leaky gut can contribute to symptoms far beyond just the gut. Because your bloodstream reaches all parts of your body, inflammation and immune system activation caused by toxins that have escaped from your gut into your bloodstream can cause symptoms that don’t appear to be gut-related.

ALTERED GUT MICROBIOME OR DYSBIOSIS

LEAKY GUT

FOOD, TOXINS, AND INFECTIONS INTO BLOODSTREAM

IMMUNE SYSTEM ATTACKS BODY DUE TO MOLECULAR MIMICRY

AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

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Some common symptoms that people experience with leaky gut include:

• Digestive issues such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

• Food allergies or food intolerances• Brain fog, difficulty concentrating, attention defi-

cit disorder (ADD), or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

• Mood imbalances such as depression and anxiety• Skin issues such as acne, rosacea, or eczema• Seasonal allergies or asthma• Hormonal imbalances such as irregular periods,

premenstrual syndrome (PMS), or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

• Diagnosis of an autoimmune disease such as rheu-matoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, pso-riasis, or celiac disease

• Diagnosis of chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia

Each person manifests their symptoms differently. This is due to the system-wide effect that leaky gut can have on your body. While one person may have severe diges-tive issues, another person may be dealing with an auto-immune condition that affects their joints, their skin, or their overall energy levels.

HOW MIGHT YOU FEEL WITH A LEAKY GUT?

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L eaky gut is just one source of inflammation that can cause digestive issues and other symptoms in the gut. There are a few other issues that are

worth mentioning that can impact digestion and be det-rimental to your gut health as a whole. This includes decreased digestive enzyme production, high stress lev-els, and medication usage.

POOR DIGESTIONAs I mentioned previously, digestion occurs in multi-ple places along your gastrointestinal tract, and while a little digestion occurs in your mouth with the mechan-ical breakdown of your food, the primary places diges-tion begins in the stomach. Symptoms such as reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) have been associated with imbalances in the digestive enzymes of the stomach. Specifically, hydrochloric acid (HCL) can become a problem both by being too high or too low in the stomach. Things that can cause the acid to be high include highly acidic foods that can irritate the gut lin-ing such as coffee, alcohol, spicy foods, and citrus fruits. In addition to too much acid in the stomach, foods like fried foods, chocolate, and peppermint can loosen the

closures at the top of your stomach, known as the esoph-ageal sphincter, which allows the acidic contents of your stomach to come back up as reflux.

More commonly though, your level of stomach acid is actually too low. However, the symptoms are often the same! Therefore, many doctors will prescribe an antacid or medication to lower your stomach acid even further. With too little acid, you may not be able to fully digest food, and pathogens that should be destroyed by acid may make their way through the stomach. And if you have a leaky gut, these undigested food proteins and pathogens can create further symptoms.

Beyond the stomach, problems can occur in the small intestine. While symptoms such as gas, bloating, indi-gestion, or constipation can occur due to a leaky gut, another cause may be a decrease in the amount of diges-tive enzymes being produced by your body. When you eat, your body breaks the food down into micro- and macro-nutrients that can then be absorbed and used by your body. Digestive enzymes are small proteins that act on specific molecules within foods to break them down.

OTHER FACTORS THAT IMPACT GUT HEALTH

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For example, the enzyme lactase is responsible for breaking down the milk sugar called lactose. People who are missing this enzyme are not able to digest milk. This is known as “lactose intolerance.” Similarly, there are many other enzymes that each work on a specific type of molecule. If you are deficient in any of these enzymes, your body may not be breaking down food as well as it should, meaning that you will not be able to absorb and use all the nutrients that were in that food.

As you eat and food makes its way through your stom-ach and into the intestines, your pancreas receives a hor-monal signal to release pancreatic juices into the small intestine. The majority of digestive enzymes are made by the pancreas. Pancreatic juice contains several diges-tive enzymes, as well as bicarbonate to neutralize the acid from your stomach. The enzymes work in the small intestine to break down the food so it can be absorbed. Enzymes produced in the pancreas include:

• Amylases: break down starches• Lipases: break down fats• Proteases and peptidases: break down proteins

There are also a number of enzymes located near the lining of the small intestine, most of which break down disaccharides into simple sugars, which can then be absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream.

If your food is not properly digested and absorbed in your small intestine, it can lead to malnourishment, because not enough nutrients are being absorbed by your body. In addition, as the undigested food travels through the digestive tract, it provides food for the “bad” bacteria causing gas and bloating, and leading to dysbiosis as the bad bacteria begin to outnumber the good bacteria. The amount and type of undigested food that reaches the large intestine may have an important impact on the bal-ance of good and bad bacteria in the colon.

Conventional medicine recognizes few causes of diges-tive enzyme deficiency, and they are only extreme cases including acute or chronic pancreatitis, cystic fibrosis, cancer of the pancreas, gallbladder removal, and dis-eases of the small intestine affecting the brush border such as Crohn’s or celiac disease.

Functional medicine recognizes many underlying health issues that can contribute to enzyme deficiency. One we mentioned previously is leaky gut because it destroys the brush border of your small intestines. However, others include inflammation from food sensitivities and toxins as well as chronic stress, genetics, and aging. Low stom-ach acid can also play a role because an acidic environ-ment is necessary to activate enzymes responsible for protein digestion.

Functional medicine also differs from conventional medicine in that conventional medicine views enzyme deficiency as a black-and-white issue. You either have “normal” levels or you are deficient. In functional medi-cine, we see wellness as a spectrum and recognize that just because you’re not to the point of severe deficiency doesn’t mean that your levels are optimal or that your health won’t improve by increasing them. In my experi-ence as a physician, I have found that increasing digestive enzymes eases the burden of many of the most common causes of chronic gut issues.

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SLOWED MOTILITYAlong with a lack of enzymes to digest the food moving through your body, the ability to move the food through your digestive tract and the speed at which you do so can cause GI symptoms. We call this motility. IF your gut motility is slowed down for any reason, this can create a host of issues in the gut including symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, or constipation as well as the devel-opment of gut infections such as small intestinal bacte-rial overgrowth, or SIBO.

The muscles in your digestive tract have a way of sweep-ing residual undigested food and other matter through your GI tract between meals, a type of peristalsis known as the migrating motor complex. However, when stress hormones are released into your bloodstream, these muscles simply stop doing their work, or do that work less efficiently, allowing food to stagnate and build up. This causes food such as simple sugars and indigestible fibers to ferment and further feed bacteria in your gut. The result of these fed bacteria is the release of gas that is either absorbed into the body or released out of the body in the form of flatulence.

Another cause of slowed motility can be imbalances with your thyroid. The thyroid is a butterfly shaped organ that sits right at the front of your neck. It is responsible for producing hormones that control your metabolism. In addition, thyroid hormones are responsible for signal-ing the enteric nervous system (ENS) which controls the nerve signaling of your gastrointestinal tract. Hypothy-roidism, an underactive thyroid, slows down many of the body’s systems, including elimination. This is because there is decreased amounts of thyroid hormone to signal your ENS. For your body to eliminate waste, your colon must contract, and slow or weak colon contractions can be a symptom of hypothyroidism.

It’s estimated that 27 million Americans have an under-active thyroid, and most have no idea that they do. Along with an underactive thyroid, autoimmune diseases can be a cause of slowed motility. We will talk more about auto-immunity in the following pages, but for now, know that autoimmune diseases can affect many different systems in your body that interact with gut motility. Neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s dis-ease, thyroid conditions such as Hashimoto’s, and mul-tiple-system conditions such as lupus are all diseases that can cause decreased motility.

Lastly, there are also a variety of medications that can decrease the motility of your gut. Many medications have their risk of side effects, and slowed motility is one of those possible side effects. Because of this, it is import-ant to discuss medications you are on with your physi-cian to know if decreased motility or constipation is a side effect as this can create further issues for your digestive health.

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I mentioned earlier the problems that imbalances in gut health can cause. One problem that I specifically mentioned was autoimmunity. There are between

50 and 75 million people in the US with autoimmunity. It affects women much more than men (75% of people with autoimmunity are women) and is the third leading cause of illness and mortality. It takes an average of six to ten doctors and five years of searching for answers before most people get diagnosed with one of the more than 100 officially recognized autoimmune diseases.

So what is autoimmunity? Autoimmune diseases are born when your body is working hard to defend itself against something potentially dangerous, such as an allergen, a toxin, an infection, or even a food, and it fails

to differentiate between the intruder and parts of your own body. This leads to your immune system attacking your own tissues by creating antibodies against those specific tissues.

We know that these antibodies can be developing at least five years before symptoms even start. This means your body can be under attack silently for a long time before you even show any signs. It may seem to you that some-thing new is happening, when actually the root cause of the symptoms is something that’s been going on for years. Once you do have symptoms, they are often vague. They come and go, or don’t stay around for a long time, and can be a lot of seemingly unrelated issues.

THE LONG-TERM IMPACT OF LEAKY GUT

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In reality, autoimmunity falls on a spectrum. I like to refer to the autoimmune spectrum for two reasons. The first is that in the vast majority of cases, autoim-munity doesn’t just spring up overnight. It is the result of long-term inflammation. The second is that we can range anywhere from having no inflammation (and I hon-estly don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t have some) to moving farther and farther up the scale of inflamma-tion until we have moved all the way up to autoimmune disease. This doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone with inflammation is going to get autoimmunity, however inflammation really is the root of all chronic diseases.

On my own health journey, as I worked through the func-tional medicine model, I was able to move back down to the left of the autoimmune spectrum. However, as things happen in life, you may be exposed to something — whether it is an infection, stressor, or toxin — that moves you back up the spectrum.

An imbalanced gut microbiome, poor diet, stress, infec-tions, and toxins can be contributors to the development of autoimmunity. One of the key reasons is because of their ability to increase your risk for leaky gut.

As stated previously, when your gut is leaky, things like tox-ins, microbes, and undigested food particles can escape from your intestines and travel throughout your body via

your bloodstream. Your immune system marks these “foreign invaders” as pathogens and attacks them. The constant onslaught of inflammation from your immune system causes a widespread immune response through your body and can lead to the body accidentally labeling its own organs as “foreign invaders” as well. Once that occurs, your immune system continues to target the par-ticular organ associated with your autoimmune diagnosis and long as the label is still there, damage and inflam-mation will also still be there. By getting rid of the patho-gens, we can decrease the attack by our immune system and decrease the level of damage and inflammation inflicted on our bodies.

As mentioned at the beginning of this guide, the gut microbiome plays an important role within your diges-tive health. I like to think of the gut microbiome as a rainforest. In a rainforest, many types of organisms live together in a symbiotic ecosystem. But if the balance gets disrupted, the good or beneficial organisms begin to die and the bad ones start to take over. This also happens in your gut.

Even just one dose of antibiotics can throw off the bal-ance of the good bacteria that keeps your immune sys-tem functioning optimally. The good gets killed or greatly reduced, and the bad bacteria and yeast that used to be kept in check can now take over and grow out of control.

DIAGNOSIS OFAUTOIMMUNE

DISEASE

THE AUTOIMMUNE SPECTRUM

SEVERE>3 symptoms*

every day2-3 symptoms*

most days1-2 symptoms*1-2 times per

week

1 symptom*1-2 times per

month

Noinflammation

MODERATEMILDSOMENONE

*Symptoms defined on The Myers Way® Symptom Tracker

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This is what happens in the cases of SIBO and Candida overgrowth, for example. Additionally, if you’re eating a diet high in refined carbohydrates, sugar, and alcohol, then you will be feeding the SIBO and yeast (Candida) — both of which thrive on those foods — enabling them to grow even more out of control. This is called dysbiosis.

Certain medications such as antibiotics, acid-blocking drugs, birth control pills, non-steroidal anti-inflamma-tory drugs (NSAIDs), and steroids can also cause dysbio-sis. As the dysbiosis gets more out of control, it can cause a suppression of your immune system — remember, 80% of your immune system is in the gut — which can lead to other infections, which may require more antibiotics, and the cycle keeps going. Over time, having this dysbiosis in your gut microbiome will eventually lead to leaky gut.

One main way inflammation occurs is that many of these food particles (especially gluten and casein, a protein found in dairy), toxins and infections look very similar to

our own body’s cells and our immune system gets con-fused and accidentally attacks our tissues. As you may recall, this leads to autoimmunity. This phenomenon is called molecular mimicry and is a dangerous case of mistaken identity. It’s a cycle that works like this:

ALTERED GUT MICROBIOME OR DYSBIOSIS

LEAKY GUT

FOOD, TOXINS, AND INFECTIONS INTO BLOODSTREAM

IMMUNE SYSTEM ATTACKS BODY DUE TO MOLECULAR MIMICRY

AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

↓ ↓ ↓

↓ ↓ ↓

↓ ↓ ↓

↓ ↓ ↓

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Every time your body is exposed to an invader, your immune system memorizes its structure so that it can develop the perfect defense to that pathogen and recog-nize it in the future. Unfortunately, the immune system’s recognition system isn’t perfect; as long as a molecule’s structure is similar enough, the immune system regis-ters it as an invader and attacks.

Gluten, which is a particularly large protein, happens to be structurally similar to a number of your body’s tis-sues. Most of us know that gluten can create damage in the intestines of those with celiac disease, but it also is

structurally similar to your thyroid as well. In regards to infections, organs involved in conditions such as lupus and multiple sclerosis (MS) have been recognized as having structural similarities to the Epstein-barr virus (commonly referred to as the mono virus). Klebsiella pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection, has struc-tural similarities to your joints and can increase your risk of developing Rheumatoid arthritis. These are sim-ply a few examples of how leaky gut and the exposure of your body to inflammatory foods, toxins, and infec-tions can increase your risk for autoimmunity through molecular mimicry.

Antibodies bind to the specific protein sequencesof antigens. While gluten, casein, and your owntissues may all be different, they share some ofthe same protein sequences. A cross reactionoccurs when your immune system cannot distinguish between these molecules.

Antigen binding site

Antibody

Casein Thyroid TissueGluten

Protein Sequence

Antigen

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Y our gut is the foundation of your whole body’s health because, as mentioned previously, 80% of your immune system is located there. Without

a healthy gut, you can’t have a healthy immune system. Without a healthy immune system, you’re open to infec-tions, inflammation, and autoimmune disease. That’s why I created The Myers Way®! It is the foundation that I have used time and time again with my patients to help them recover. In order to restore gut health, The Myers Way® focuses on four key pillars that must be addressed. Let’s jump in!

PILLAR I: HEAL YOUR GUT The first step in reversing inflammation is functional medicine’s 4 R approach to healing a leaky gut. This process involves removing what’s bad, replacing what’s missing, reinoculating with healthy bacteria, and repair-ing the damage.

1. Remove the BadYour goal is to get rid of anything that’s harmful to your gut. I can’t stress enough that a gluten-free diet is

critical to your gut health. In addition to avoiding gluten, you’ll also want to ditch dairy, as most adults are lactose intolerant or sensitive to the casein proteins in dairy products. Other gut-destroying and inflamma-tory foods including alcohol, corn, soy, refined sugar, GMOs, and highly processed foods which all need to be removed from your diet. Additionally, you may wish to follow an elimination diet to uncover any food sensitiv-ities that are particular to you. I outline how to do that in Appendix 1.

You’ll also need to clear any gut infections you have, whether caused by Candida overgrowth, Small Intesti-nal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), or parasites. Regard-ing medications, I recommend discussing this with your healthcare professional before reducing or remov-ing medications that could be negatively impacting your gut health. Finally, learning to manage stress andavoid-ing toxins are pieces of the puzzle you’ll need to address. We’ll go into detail on this in the next three pillars. For now, let’s focus on eliminating infections and parasites.

HEALING YOUR GUT THE MYERS WAY®

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CandidaEffectively treating Candida overgrowth involves starv-ing the yeast, killing the yeast with a one-two punch, and restoring the good bacteria.

To do this, you first need to starve the Candida overgrowth by removing foods that feed it from your diet. This means cutting all sugar and alcohol and limiting carbohydrates such as fruit, starchy vegetables, grains, and legumes.

Next, you’ll want to kill Candida by taking supplements that destroy Candida’s cell walls. I use Candifense® as well as Caprylic Acid. Candifense® supports microbe bal-ance in the GI tract and discourages the growth of yeast. Caprylic Acid creates an inhospitable environment for yeast, and it’s able to penetrate intestinal mucosal cells to exert its effects.

Finally, you will restore your gut with good bacteria using a high-potency probiotic to keep Candida overgrowth under control. While battling Candida overgrowth, I rec-ommend a probiotic supplement containing 100 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) to restore your gut’s healthy microbial balance.

For a more comprehensive review of Candida, includ-ing meal plans and supplemental protocols for treat-ment, I recommend checking out my 30-day Candida Breakthrough® Program.

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SIBOAlthough the treatment protocol for SIBO is very sim-ilar to that of Candida, the two issues are quite differ-ent. We want to focus on starving the bacteria, attacking the bacteria, and restoring your good bacteria. Similar to Candida, I recommend first removing foods such as sugar, alcohol, and carbohydrates that feed bacteria in the small intestine.

To prune back the bacteria in my clinic, I typically used the antibiotics Xifaxan and Neomycin depending on which gas produced by the bacteria (hydrogen or meth-ane) is dominant. This can be determined through a SIBO breath test. Xifaxan is more effective with hydrogen-dom-inant SIBO and Neomycin tends to be more successful with methane-dominant SIBO. These antibiotics kill the pathogenic bacteria with the least amount of disruption to the good bacteria in your microbiome.

If you are treating SIBO at home, as thousands have done successfully, I recommend using Microb-Clear®. It is a blend of herbs that work to kill off the bacteria naturally.

The final step is to restore the good bacteria in your gut. However, when it comes to SIBO, you want to be partic-ularly careful. Certain probiotics can add fuel to the fire.

Soil-based probiotics such as my Primal Earth Probiotic will not exacerbate your symptoms because they don’t colonize the small intestines or feed the bacteria already growing there. They don’t contain lactobacillus or bifido-bacterium strains, yet they still provide all the benefits of a probiotic.

For a more comprehensive review of SIBO, including meal plans and supplemental protocols for treatment, I rec-ommend checking out my 30-day SIBO Breakthrough™ Program.

When treating both SIBO and Candida overgrowth , the killing off of yeast or bacteria can cause you to feel unwell at first. This is because when these yeast or bacteria are killed, they can release toxins into the body which are naturally cleared. However, it can be supportive to add in Coconut Charcoal to further support the binding of these toxins and help move them out of the body.

ParasitesWhile Microb-Clear® is my go-to herbal treatment of SIBO, it can also be effective for treating parasites. If I am able to identify the parasite by stool testing, I use prescription medications that target that species of par-asite by attacking its central nervous system. However, if it can’t be identified or you’re treating your parasite at home, I recommend Microb-Clear® along with the 100 Billion Probiotic.

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2. Restore What’s MissingRestore what’s missing from your gut. Follow a nutri-ent-dense diet with plenty of organic greens, vegeta-bles, fruits, healthy fats, and quality proteins. Adding digestive enzymes and HCL to your regimen will help support optimal digestion and nutrient absorption, as well as assist your body’s intestinal repair and inflam-mation responses.

Low stomach acid can lead to a whole host of digestive issues as we have discussed previously. It can cause inflammation, swelling, and fluid retention in the stom-ach and digestive tract. It also can allow pathogens into the body due to a lack of sterilization in the stomach. Because of this, I also recommend supplementing with HCL, which can help support a balanced pH in your gut.

3. Reinoculate With Beneficial BacteriaIn the reinoculate state, we want to restore a healthy bal-ance of good bacteria by reintroducing beneficial bacte-ria. To do this, I recommend incorporating a high-quality, multi-strain, high potency probiotic supplement.

I recommend probiotics to everyone. In fact, probiotics are one of the four essential supplements that I recom-mend my patients take every day. We have more bacteria in and on our bodies than we have actual human cells in our bodies. We live symbiotically with them, and when they are in balance, they promote optimal digestion and immunity, both of which are crucial to every aspect of your health and well being. Probiotics support a variety of functions in your body including digestive symptoms

such as gas, bloating, and regularity of bowel movements as well as supporting your immune system (Remember, 60-80% of your immune system is located in the gut!).

While working to effectively treat your gut, I recommend taking a higher amount of colony-forming units such as my Probiotic 100 Billion to restore the damage that might have occurred in the gut over time due to the insults that have occurred in our gut such as antibiotics, improper diets, and gut infections.

A NOTE ON SIBOIf you are currently dealing with SIBO, I don’t recom-mend taking a probiotic containing lactobacillus or bifidobacterium strains until you’ve eliminated your bacterial overgrowth and repaired your gut, as these can actually worsen your SIBO. In fact, one clue that you may have SIBO is that when you take a probiotic containing lactobacillus or bifidobacterium you have an exacerbation of your symptoms such as more gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea or other diges-tive symptoms. Instead, using a soil-based probiotic, such as my Primal Earth Probiotic, will not exacerbate symptoms of SIBO in the way other types of probiot-ics can. Soil-based probiotics will not exacerbate your symptoms because they don’t colonize the small intes-tine or feed the bacteria already growing there. They don’t contain lactobacillus or bifidobacterium strains, yet they still provide all the benefits of a probiotic.

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4. Repair the GutLastly, in the repair stage, we want to provide the body with the nutrients necessary to help restore the gut lin-ing. This includes supplements such as collagen, L-glu-tamine, and mucosal lining supporters such as aloe, licorice, marshmallow root, and more.

My most comprehensive weapon against leaky gut is Leaky Gut Revive®, which contains powerful gut-repair-ing ingredients L-glutamine, aloe, licorice, arabinoga-lactan, slippery elm, and marshmallow root. With these ingredients, Leaky Gut Revive® nourishes and soothes your gut cells, restores your gut’s natural mucosal lining, and maximizes gut-mending fatty acid production.

Another one of my favorite supplements is collagen which is rich in amino acids that quite literally,“seal the leaks” or perforations in your gut by repairing damaged cells and building new tissue. Collagen is advertised as a secret weapon that’s essential for youthful skin, volu-minous hair, and strong nails. Yet it’s important for far more than your appearance. Your entire body is held together by this vital protein. It impacts bone and joint health, optimizes your gut lining, and thus supports your

immune system. Rather than one specific protein, it is a group of proteins made up of amino acids: glycine, pro-line, hydroxyproline, and arginine.

Sadly, your collagen production not only decreases nat-urally with age, it can also be diminished through diet and lifestyle choices. That’s why supplementing with a high-quality Collagen Protein is ideal for optimal health no matter what your age.

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PILLAR II: GET RID OF GLUTEN, GRAINS, AND LEGUMESOnce you have done the work to heal your gut, it’s time to make some changes that will further get your gut back to a state of health. One of the biggest ways you can do that is to stop eating foods that are causing further inflamma-tion and damage to your intestinal tract.

Inflammatory FoodsCertain inflammatory foods including gluten, grains, and legumes can be a key source of inflammation in the body for many people. Gluten promotes your immune system to attack your own tissues, is not easily digested, and can contribute to gut imbalances like Candida overgrowth and SIBO. But even more damaging is its ability to trigger the body to produce zonulin which, as we discussed before, can signal tight junctions between the cells in your intes-tines to open up and stay open.

Other grains, pseudograins, and legumes contain similar proteins that contribute to leaky gut by damaging intes-tinal cells, opening the tight junctions of the gut lining, and by feeding unfriendly bacteria to create gut dysbio-sis. These foods are not completely digested in your gut because of the chemicals within them called lectins.

Two of these lectins are agglutinins, natural insecticides, and prolamins, proteins necessary for plant growth. Our digestive system cannot break these down. Your body works harder to produce more enzymes in an attempt to digest them, which wears down the gut lining and con-tributes to leaky gut. The undigested particles are also able to pass through the weakened gut barrier, provoking an inflammatory response in your body.

Dairy also can be a problem because it contains proteins such as lactose and casein that look very similar to our own body’s cells. If we are suffering from a leaky gut, our immune system can get confused by these proteins and accidentally attack our own tissues. This can lead to inflammation and autoimmunity.

Toxic FoodsThere are also toxic foods that are unhealthy for every-one. They lead to aches and pains, inflammation, and leaky gut, among other issues. I advise everyone to remove them from their diet permanently if they can, or at the very least, to minimize their consumption as much as possible while allowing their body to heal. These foods include:

• Sugar• Alcohol• Caffeine• GMOs• Artificial sweeteners• Additives, preservatives, and dyes• High fructose corn syrup• Trans or hydrogenated fats• All processed food, junk food, and fast foods packed

with chemicals• Packaged gluten-free or dairy-free foods that may

have added sugars

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PILLAR III: TAME THE TOXINS A toxin is a poison — any substance that is dangerous to the human body. That includes things we all know are a problem such as heavy metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium; industrial chemicals and pollutants; and pes-ticides. But it can also include common products you may not think of as being toxic such as home cleaning products, body products, cookware, and even makeup. You might be thinking you aren’t exposed to many toxins because you live a very “clean” lifestyle. In reality, you are exposed to thousands of toxins every day, even if you don’t live in a polluted area or work in an industrial job.

They’re found in the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the food you eat. In many cases, our government has approved them and said they are safe. As of now, about 80,000 chemicals are registered for use in the US, and every year about 1,700 more are quickly approved in less than a month and with little to no testing. Our govern-ment leaves it up to the company itself to do the testing and tell us it’s safe. And if a product is made up of five ingredients, each one is tested separately for safety — not all five together. And yes, these chemicals do wind up inside your body.

It may seem like a little exposure here or there. But each exposure adds to your body’s toxic burden. Think of your body like a cup, and the toxins like drops of water: if your cup is already full because you have a leaky gut, a poor diet, infections, and stress, those small, cumulative toxic exposures can cause that cup to overflow. When it does, you’re pushed further and further down the inflammation spectrum.

The best thing you can do to lighten your toxic burden is to prevent toxins from getting into your system in the first place. You may not have control over everything, but you have control over your own home. I myself focus my efforts on keeping my own home environment as clean as possible. I only eat organic food and I use nontoxic cookware. If your home is toxin-free, you’ll have a little bit more leeway when you go out into the environment. Here are four ways to make your home as toxin-free as possible:

• Clean your air. You may not be able to clean the air outside, but you can keep the air inside your home as toxin-free as possible. I recommend getting a HEPA filter for your home and office.

• Clean your water. You absorb toxins in the water you drink, and you also absorb them through your skin when you bathe. I recommend installing water filters in your sinks and shower taps. I myself have a full-house filtration system. Avoid drinking out of plastic bottles (yes, even BPA-free plastics!).

• Buy organic food. Eat organic whenever possible. It can be expensive, so when you can only buy some things organic, buy organic meats. Animals are at the top of the food chain, and if they’re consuming pesticides in their feed, you are too, but in a magni-fied dose.

• Buy clean body products. You’ve heard the saying’ you are what you eat.” I like to add to that and say, “you are what you apply.” Many personal care prod-ucts are made with hormone-mimicking chemicals that can be absorbed through your skin. If you find it overwhelming to replace your body products with cleaner options all at once, try replacing one item at a time over the next few months. Every replacement you make takes away from your toxic burden.

Some people face additional toxic burdens. When someone isn’t getting any better after going through The Myers Way®, I suspect that significant heavy metal exposure or mycotoxin (toxic mold) exposure could be to blame. Treatment for heavy metal or toxic mold exposure may require prescription medications and should be done under the care of a functional medicine practitioner.

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PILLAR IV: HEAL YOUR INFECTIONS AND RELIEVE YOUR STRESS Any doctor can test you for EBV or other viral infections that you’ve likely been exposed to at some point. Con-ventional medical testing includes both a complete EBV acute panel and a chronic infection panel to ensure reli-able results. It is also possible to check for the presence of the virus, however, the emphasis is generally on acute and chronic infections to understand whether or not the virus is actively replicating.

Conventional treatment for viral infections include anti-viral drugs, steroids, and immunosuppressive drugs. Unfortunately, antivirals and other conventional treat-ments are not very effective for chronic viral infections. These harsh medications also cause harmful side effects, leaky gut, and other complications. The true solution to overcoming autoimmunity is to support rather than sup-press your immune system so that it can regain optimal function and stop attacking your body’s own tissues.

Fortunately, it is absolutely possible to send viral infec-tions into dormancy, remain symptom-free, and reverse your autoimmune condition in the process. You can sup-port your body with supplements to protect your immune system and discourage the development or exacerba-tion of autoimmune conditions. These supplements are

the ones I recommend to keep EBV in check and address other underlying infections.

• Lysine: Lysine is an essential amino acid that is necessary for growth, tissue repair, and the normal production of hormones, antibodies, and digestive enzymes. Take 1 capsule (750 mg) once a day to pre-vent an outbreak and 3 capsules (3 x 750 mg) during an outbreak.

• Lauricidin: Lauricidin is used to treat infections including the cold, the flu, herpes, and EBV. It helps to boost your immune system and combat chronic fatigue syndrome. Start with ¼ teaspoon 2 – 3 times a day working up to 1 teaspoon 2 – 3 times a day.

• Humic Acid: Humic acid can fuel your body with an abundance of minerals and fight viruses effectively. Start with 1 capsule (750 mg) twice a day working up to 2 capsules (1500 mg) twice a day.

If you suspect you may have Lyme disease, it’s import-ant to get tested correctly. I use a test called iSpot Lyme, which is more accurate than conventional testing (con-ventional testing for Lyme is only accurate about 50% of the time). Any conventional or functional medicine prac-titioner should be able to order this test for you.

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Managing stress levels is another important factor in healing infections. There are many ways that stress can manifest. Stress can be emotional or physical; it can come from family strife, an intense workload, physical injury, sleep deprivation, exposure to toxins, leaky gut, or eating a diet full of inflammatory foods, as well as many other factors. The relationship between stress and infec-tions is complex. However, I want to highlight a few points to help you understand the effect of stress on the body.

Stress isn’t just a feeling. It’s an actual release of hor-mones that your body produces when it’s met with a chal-lenge. The number one stress hormone is cortisol. Think of cortisol like a chemical messenger. When you’re in a stressful situation, cortisol tells your immune system to gear up for a challenge. Your immune system responds by producing inflammation, and then cortisol signals your immune system to calm down when the danger has passed. This system works really well when you encoun-ter acute stress that happens suddenly and then passes.

However, too many of us are dealing with chronic stress: constant sleep deprivation, poor diets, long hours at work, problems in our relationships, the list goes on and on. When you have constant stressors in your life, your immune system never really gets to turn off. Your inflam-matory immune response is activated for too long and

eventually goes rogue, attacking your own bodily tissues, leaving you with a weakened immune system.

Simultaneously, your body is inflamed and you are vul-nerable to infections, including latent infections like Epstein-Barr virus or herpes simplex virus. Almost all adults have been exposed to these viruses, which can become dormant but never actually leave your body.

Addressing your stress is just as big a part of your recov-ery from autoimmune disease as the first three pil-lars. For many, it’s the missing piece of the puzzle when they’ve done everything else right, but still aren’t seeing full resolution of their symptoms. A few of my favorite ways to relieve your stress include:

• Breathing: When you find yourself overwhelmed with stress, take a moment to connect with your breath. Concentrate on breathing in and out until your anxiety has calmed.

• Dance: Just moving your body can help you literally “shake off” your stress.

• Music: Amazingly, half an hour of listening to music can reduce your cortisol levels.

• Gentle exercise: Try yoga, or a long walk in a nat-ural setting. Changing your environment can also help you get away from your stress.

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MISTAKES TO AVOID

R epairing a leaky gut can take time depending on how long you’ve been dealing with chronic health issues, and there are many factors that contrib-

ute to leaky gut that can complicate matters. In fact, it’s quite possible that you’re simply overlooking a few key steps in repairing your gut, which could be delaying your progress. Once you’ve made the necessary tweaks to your gut-repairing protocol, it should be smooth sailing from there on out. Here are the most common mistakes I’ve seen in those healing a leaky gut.

EATING TOO MANY RAW VEGETABLESWhile it’s true that vegetables are good for your gut, too many raw vegetables could be slowing your progress when you’re dealing with a leaky gut. That’s because digesting raw vegetables takes a lot of work, and if you’re short on digestive enzymes (as many people with gut issues are), raw veggies can contribute to bloating, gas, and other GI discomforts. Instead, focus mostly on cooked vegetables while getting your gut back into shape. Over time, you can slowly increase the amount of raw veggies in your diet.

NOT DOING AN ELIMINATION DIETIf you’re working to repair your gut, you’ve presumably cut out foods that trigger leaky gut such as gluten, dairy, and processed foods that we have mentioned earlier in this guide. However, if you’re still struggling with leaky gut symptoms despite all your efforts, you could be deal-ing with an undiagnosed food sensitivity. An elimination diet will help you identify which food is causing issues.

CHEATING ON YOUR GUT-REPAIRING PROTOCOLLet’s face it—nobody’s perfect! That being said, if you want to get serious about repairing your gut, this is one step you absolutely cannot skip. Each time you figure “a little pizza can’t hurt” or “I’ll just have one glass of wine,” your gut takes a hit, as does all the progress you’ve made.

Another pitfall to watch out for is once you’ve “finished” repairing your leaky gut, it can be tempting to go back to the way you were eating before. However, this is exactly what made your gut leaky in the first place! You don’t want to be trapped in a vicious cycle of breaking down and building back up the integrity of your intestinal wall. The key is to make The Myers Way® a way of life by learn-ing to enjoy the plethora of delicious, nutritious foods you CAN eat rather than focusing on the inflammatory and toxic foods that compromise your gut health and have no place in a healthy lifestyle.

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EATING WHEN STRESSEDWe all know stress is bad news for our health and is one of the main causes of leaky gut. That’s why eating while stressed can significantly derail your progress. The rea-son for this is evolutionary. If you’re running from a pred-ator, you need blood flow concentrated in your limbs for fleeing and your brain for problem-solving, not in your gut for digesting your lunch. So when your stress response kicks in, your digestive process slows down to a crawl. Instead of trying to force down your lunch when your stomach is in knots, try going for a walk, meditating, or doing some deep breathing exercises before digging in. Your gut will thank you.

MISSING ONE OR MORE OF THE 4RSYou might be tempted to cut corners or skip steps in an eagerness to return to “normal” as fast as possible. You figure, “I’ve removed the gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs, and sugar from my diet, so do I really need all those gut-re-pairing supplements too? Although removing inflamma-tory foods is an important and necessary step in stopping the damage being done to your gut, repairing the damage that’s already been done likely requires an extra boost.

TAKING MEDICATIONS THAT DAMAGE YOUR GUTMedications are truly the double-edged sword of our modern world. Some are life-saving and non-negotiable. For others, you’ll want to seriously weigh the risks and benefits before taking them. These are the gut-damag-ing medications such as antibiotics, oral contraceptives, and NSAIDs that can do more harm than good.

• Antibiotics are one of the most over-prescribed medications, with nearly half of all outpatient anti-biotic prescriptions being unnecessary, according to the CDC. They wreak havoc on your natural micro-bial balance and set you up for gut infections includ-ing Candida overgrowth and SIBO, which in turn contribute to leaky gut.

• Oral contraceptives are also widely overused and often prescribed to women who have issues with acne, mood swings, or other hormonal imbalances, rather than looking to treat the root cause of these symptoms. Excess estrogen in birth control pills doubles your risk of developing Candida overgrowth, and women who are genetically predisposed to chronic GI troubles may be three times more likely to develop Crohn’s disease after using the pill for at least five years. As a safer alternative to birth con-trol pills, I recommend a non-hormonal copper IUD, which is approved for 10 years of use and may be effective for up to 20 years.

• NSAIDs such as Advil and Motrin can cause intestinal bleeding even in very small doses, making them one of the biggest hurdles to recovery for those dealing with leaky gut. Studies have shown that curcumin supplements are a much safer option for your gut.

PIC OF STRESSS EATING >

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EATING “HEALTH” FOODS THAT AREN’T REALLY HEALTHYMany of us grew up being told that foods such as dairy, grains, and legumes are “health” foods. As it turns out, these foods might be what’s keeping you from successfully repairing your gut. Dairy is one of the two most inflamma-tory foods (second only to gluten). Much of the population stops producing the lactase enzyme needed to properly digest dairy after they finish breastfeeding, which is why so many people have a dairy intolerance. Plus, dairy prod-ucts are often full of gut-damaging hormones and antibi-otics. Meanwhile, grains and legumes contain chemicals such as lectins and phytates that can aggravate your gut lining and even lead to autoimmune disease.

TAKING THE WRONG SUPPLEMENTSIf your leaky gut is due to SIBO and you can’t seem to make it past step three of the 4R approach, your probiot-ics could be to blame. Bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine can be an overgrowth of good bacteria as well as bad, and typically involves lactobacillus or bifidobac-terium species. So when you take lactic acid-based pro-biotics (which most on the market are) you are actually throwing fuel onto the fire by feeding those “good” bacte-ria that have grown out of control and mistakenly inhab-ited your small intestine. Until your gut is repaired, you should use a soil-based probiotic such as Primal Earth Probiotic that contains spore-forming bacteria, which are able to bypass your small intestine and colonize your colon and large intestine instead.

EATING TOO MANY FERMENTED FOODSYou’ve probably heard from countless sources that fer-mented foods are a gut’s best friend. The truth is, your gut contains a delicate balance of microflora, and when you introduce fermented foods into your diet, you don’t really know exactly what kind of bacteria or yeast they contain. So as with probiotic supplements, if you have SIBO or Candida overgrowth, you should wait until after you’ve repaired your gut to use fermented foods as they could potentially be feeding your bad bacteria and yeast, thereby worsening the overgrowth and derailing your gut-repairing progress.

NOT ADDRESSING ALL 4 PILLARS OF THE MYERS WAY®

Repairing your gut is only one of the pillars of The Myers Way®, and while I’ve seen thousands of people make huge strides and some even eliminated all of their symp-toms through the 4Rs alone, it’s key to address all of the underlying environmental causes of your condition. Don’t skip any of the pillars!

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MEASURING SUCCESSH ow do you know when your gut is healed?. While

there are some lab tests available, I typically don’t use them to diagnose leaky gut or to con-

firm healing. This is because once you’ve followed my protocol to repair your gut, your symptoms (or a lack of them!) are the strongest indication of whether or not your gut is healthy. You should see:

DIGESTIVE ISSUES DISAPPEARFor many people, gas, bloating, heartburn or acid reflux, and constipation are some of the first signs of leaky gut. When those symptoms start to dissipate and then go away completely, this is a good sign your hard work is producing results.

FOOD SENSITIVITIES GO AWAYIf you have leaky gut, you likely also have multiple food sensitivities because partially digested food particles are escaping via your bloodstream and your immune system is attacking them. Another sign your gut is repairing is that you’ll be able to eat foods that once caused digestive problems, fatigue, headaches, brain fog, mood issues, and other symptoms.

SKIN ISSUES CLEAR UPMost skin issues are an outward manifestation of an internal problem in the gut. That’s why, once your gut begins to repair, you will likely see your skin issues begin to subside as well.

INFLAMMATORY LABS IMPROVEBecause gut health plays such a critical role in your immune system, repairing your gut also often leads to improvement in your inflammatory lab markers. Many people see their lab results improve dramatically!

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YOU RETURN TO YOUR OPTIMAL SELFIf you are dealing with a leaky gut, you are probably liv-ing with symptoms that affect the quality of your life in some way. These symptoms are the best barometer for the health of your gut. A good indication that your gut is healing is when your energy and vitality have returned, you’ve regained mental clarity, your mood is improved, you’re back to your ideal weight, and you feel like your best self.

It is important to remember that your gut did not become leaky overnight. Chances are this is the result of years of exposure to inflammatory foods, toxins, and other stress-ors. There are some easy tips and lifestyle changes to prevent leaky gut from recurring and developing as it had in the past. These lifestyle changes include:

Eating a nutrient-dense dietIt’s easy to fall off track as time goes on and we encoun-ter birthdays, celebrations, and holidays. And if you have fallen off track, it is possible that your gut has felt the consequences! To prevent leaky gut from reoccurring, it is best to immediately get back on track by choosing organic, nutrient-dense, whole foods diet over-processed or refined junk food. This includes ditching toxic and inflammatory foods including gluten and dairy as well as reducing your intake of sugar, alcohol, and caffeine.

Taking probioticsWe have talked about the importance of your gut micro-biome on your gut health. Taking a probiotic supplement can help replace your good bacteria and keep bad bacte-ria in check, restoring balance to your gut and keeping it functioning properly. While I recommend the 100 Billion Probiotic during the process of treating your gut, the 30 Billion Probiotic is a great option for an everyday probi-otic to take once your gut is healed.

Getting plenty of sleepSleep is your body’s way of rejuvenating itself at the end of each day. It is when your body has a chance for repair and recovery. The relationship between your sleep and your gut health is a two-way street. While an unhealthy gut flora can lead to difficulty sleeping, your sleep and circadian rhythms can also impact the diversity and health of your microbiome.

Relieving your stressResearch shows that extremely stressful events can affect your gut health months or years later. Chronic stress damages your gut more seriously than acute stress. Ongoing stress from work, sickness or death of a loved one, lack of sleep, a poor diet, and other daily stressors creates dysbiosis in your gut. An imbalanced gut can leave you open to more serious complications, such as inflam-mation, frequent illness, fatigue, autoimmune conditions, and other chronic diseases. That’s why it’s so crucial to make time to de-stress and practice self-care!

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MY TOP GUT-HEALING SUPPLEMENTS

Collagen ProteinCollagen is the most important and abundant structural protein in your body. Think of collagen as the ‘glue’ that holds your body together. Your skin, bones, connective tissue, cartilage, and joints all depend on ample collagen to be healthy, strong and flexible. It is rich in amino acids that, quite literally, seals the leaks or perforations in your gut by repairing damaged cells and building new tissue.

Most of us cannot get enough collagen from our diets alone. Even those of us eating a clean, healthy, paleo-in-spired diet have trouble getting as much collagen as our distant ancestors did, let alone enough for optimal health because we don’t tend to eat the skin, connective tissues, and organ meats that provide the most of this form of protein.

Collagen is fantastic for those concerned with Leaky Gut. There are different types of collagen out there. Types I & III are the most important to supplement. These types lend all the great benefits to your skin, bones, hair, nails, and connective tissue. In addition to gut health, colla-gen supports healthy weight management by optimizing lean muscle mass. It even helps curb sugar cravings by assisting with healthy insulin production and pancreatic function. Collagen is also rich in amino acids that many of us are lacking in, such as glycine, which supports a healthy mood and restful sleep.

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Leaky Gut Revive®

Your gut cells have the ability to turn over and regener-ate every 48 hours… IF you have what they need to do so. This is extremely good news if you’re suffering from nagging digestive issues. This means that by nourish-ing your gut cells and avoiding inflammatory triggers, you can quite literally renew your intestinal lining. As old cells die and make way for new cells, we have the abil-ity to provide these new cells with everything they need so that they can function at optimum efficiency. Leaky Gut Revive® powder contains the powerful gut-repairing ingredients l-glutamine, aloe, licorice, arabinogalactan, slippery elm, and marshmallow root. With these ingre-dients, Leaky Gut Revive® nourishes and soothes your gut cells, restores your gut’s natural mucosal lining, and maximizes gut-mending fatty acid production.

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ProbioticsProbiotics are live, beneficial bacteria that help keep your gut in balance. They are one of the four essential supple-ments that I recommend everyone takes daily. We have more bacteria in and on our bodies than we have actual cells in our body. We live symbiotically with them, and when they are in balance, they promote optimal digestion and immunity, both of which are crucial to every aspect of your health and well-being. Eating a diet high in inflam-matory foods, exposure to environmental toxins, and chronic stress all feed the bad bacteria in your gut. And, taking even a single round of antibiotics wipes out your good bacteria along with the bad.

Probiotics support optimal digestive health and can help you “beat the bloat”. While it’s true that probiotics live in your sinuses, your nostrils, on your skin, and in your mouth, most of the probiotics in your body reside in your digestive tract, specifically your large intestine and colon. When stress, illness, antibiotic use, or a poor diet com-promise the beneficial bacteria population in these areas of the body, digestive systems are imminent. Gas, bloat-ing, and a disruption of normal bowel habits are often the first signs that something has gone awry. Supplementa-tion with a top-quality probiotic can help repopulate these areas with beneficial bacteria, often helping to restore normal digestion, and helping you “beat the bloat”.

A Note about PrebioticsDespite their similar names, prebiotics are different from probiotics. In fact, prebiotics are non-digestible fibers that are fermented in your gut by probiotics. Prebiotics

feed your probiotics, and they work together to improve your gut health. Without prebiotics, probiotics can’t do their job effectively, and vice-versa.

Prebiotics are found in many common foods and are essential for your gut health. Since your body cannot completely break them down, they reach your gastroin-testinal tract undigested and end up being fermented in your gut by friendly bacteria. In this way, prebiotics “feed” your good gut bacteria, helping them to produce import-ant nutrients for your colon cells, which in turn leads to a healthier digestive system. Eating plenty of prebiotics can improve your digestion, reduce your risk of GI infec-tion and inflammation, and boost your metabolism.

Examples of prebiotic-rich foods include:

• Asparagus• Dandelion greens• Bananas• Garlic• Apples• Onions• Leeks• Jicama root• Jerusalem artichokes

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Complete EnzymesI talked about early how decreased production of diges-tive enzymes can create symptoms of digestive distress. This decrease in production can naturally happen as we age. As you grow older, your pancreas’ enzyme produc-tion gradually slows down. This impacts the health of your entire digestive tract, and becomes a limiting factor with regard to the nutrients you are able to absorb and utilize. Employing a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme and HCL can not only help ensure you are properly digesting the food you take in throughout life, but also help ensure you are able to absorb and utilize the valuable vitamins, min-erals, and micronutrients these foods contain. In addi-tion, they break down inflammatory antigens, such as lectins that are found in grains and legumes. They also help support healthy levels of inflammation, as well as have a beneficial effect on undesirable microorganism levels that opportunistically inhabit the digestive tract. If you’re dealing with dysbiosis, parasites, or fungal over-growth, the correct blend and potency of enzymes can go a long way.

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Organic GreensOrganic Greens are rich in the superfoods and phyto-nutrients that are missing in our modern diets. It con-tains spirulina and chlorella which are among the richest nutrient sources on the planet. The alkaline greens sup-port detoxification and deliver a boost of antioxidants. The Peruvian maca root provides optimal mental clarity and vitality while the ashwagandha promotes ideal immune function and encourages stress relief.

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The Myers Way® Paleo ProteinThe Myers Way® Paleo Protein is one of the only clean, AIP protein powders on the market. It is gluten, dairy, and sugar-free, and sourced from non-GMO, hormone- and antibiotic-free, grass-fed beef. You also won’t find other ingredients on your “avoid” list including grains, corn, or legumes in my Paleo Protein. It’s truly perfect for every-one, especially those following an AIP/autoimmune pro-tocol or simply avoiding inflammatory foods!

Depending on the flavor, every serving contains between 21 and 26 grams of pure protein. It is perfect for those concerned about leaky gut. It’s extremely rich in colla-gen-specific amino acids that help support endothelial cell health and optimal gut barrier function. In fact, the cells in your stomach and digestive tract absolutely love this stuff. It contains plenty of gut-loving glutamine, gly-cine, and proline.

It’s also fantastic for those concerned about getting enough protein in their diet. It supports healthy lean muscle mass and weight loss. Whether your goal is to maintain and promote optimal muscle mass, or to help lose those last few stubborn pounds, Paleo Protein can help you to reach your goal.

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ORDER YOURS TODAY

Repair Leaky Gut and Restore Your Health with The Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Program

Enroll in The Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Program and:

• Discover the real truth about your gut and how conventional doctors are getting it all wrong!

• Overcome mood imbalances naturally.• Banish the digestive drama. No more

planning your day around the bathroom, no more bellybloat, abdominal cramping, or embarrassing gas.

• Overcome food sensitivities that seem to come out of nowhere!

• Help prevent or reverse chronic illness, especially Autoimmune conditions, and get back on the path to lifelong, optimal health.

I am so happy to be eating good healthy food, that is keeping my body in balance, and rid of

toxins. The information is well researched and easy to understand. For The first time it

all makes sense."- Kay B, customer

An Absolute Breakthrough!At first I was skeptical about the diagnosis of leaky gut. But I learned a lot from Amy! Her

online Assessment was precise and accurate about my symptoms. The program took care of

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THE MYERS WAY® LEAKY GUT ELIMINATION DIET

APPENDIX 1:

A n elimination diet is a short-term eating plan with the goal of pinpointing exactly which foods are causing the uncomfortable, painful, or mys-

terious reactions you are experiencing. An elimination diet involves removing specific foods from your diet for a relatively short period of time. You then reintroduce these foods one by one while monitoring your body’s reactions and symptoms to help identify which foods are causing problems. By doing an elimination diet, you are combin-ing scientific methodology with your body’s wisdom to help you determine your personal food sensitivities.

Getting an IgG Food Sensitivity Blood Test may seem easier than doing an elimination diet, however, these blood tests are almost never 100% accurate. Your body knows best, so I always recommend people do an elimi-nation diet first and foremost. As a stand-alone measure, an elimination diet can offer you numerous long-term health benefits. However, you may benefit from doing an elimination diet in conjunction with a blood test. More knowledge is more power. Regardless of what the IgG test says if you feel better eliminating a certain food, lis-ten to your body, and do it.

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FOODS TO AVOID DURING ELIMINATION PHASE

APPENDIX 1:

D uring the elimination phase, you will be remov-ing all toxic and inflammatory foods, common culprits of food sensitivities, and any foods you

suspect your body may not be tolerating well. When in doubt, take it out and see if you feel better.

The elimination phase has two parts: permanently removing toxic foods from your diet and temporarily removing foods you may be sensitive to. Toxic foods are unhealthy for all bodies. They lead to aches and pains, inflammation, digestive troubles, Candida overgrowth, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases, and other health prob-lems. Therefore, you will be eliminating toxic foods from your diet for good. You will not be reintroducing them.

Toxic foods are not part of The Myers Way®, nor do they have a place in any kind of healthy lifestyle.

However, there are other foods that you still stop eating for just 30 days, and you will add these back in one by one. During the complete elimination phase, you will stop eating these foods completely. It is absolutely crucial that you stick to this strict regimen and don’t consume any of these foods. Even a tiny bit of bread with gluten or yeast, a small sip of milk, or a thin slice of tomato can set off a potential immune response creating symptoms of food intolerance. An elimination diet only works if you stay away from these foods 100%.

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FOODS TO ENJOYAPPENDIX 1:

These are the dietary guidelines you will follow while on the program.

All of the meals in the meal plan comply with these guide-lines, and you can use these lists to build your own meals and snacks, during and after the program.

If a food is not listed on our “Foods To Enjoy,” refer below to our “Foods To Toss” List. If it is not listed, that food is allowed.

This list is also approved if doing the Autoimmune Protocol.

NON-STARCHY VEGETABLES• Alfalfa sprouts (also broccoli, radish, and

sunflower sprouts)

• Artichokes

• Arugula

• Asparagus

• Avocados

• Bamboo shoots

• Bean sprouts

• Bok choy

• Broccoli

• Broccolini (or rapini, or broccoli raab)

• Brussels sprouts

• Cabbage

• Cauliflower

• Celery

• Cucumbers

• Fennel

• Garlic

• Green onions

• Greens (beet, collard, dandelion, kale, mustard, turnip)

• Hearts of palm

• Herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil, rosemary, thyme, dill, lemongrass, etc.)

• Kohlrabi

• Leeks

• Lettuce (endive, escarole, baby lettuces, bibb, butter, romaine, iceberg)

• Okra

• Olives

• Onions

• Purslane

• Radishes

• Rhubarb

• Sauerkraut

• Scallions

• Shallots

• Spinach

• Summer squash

• Swiss chard

• Watercress

• Zucchini

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PROTEINS• Bone broth

• Organic, grass-fed beef

• Organic, grass-fed lamb

• Organic pork or bacon

• Organic, pasture-raised poultry (chicken, duck, turkey)

• Organ meats (heart, liver, marrow, kidney, sweetbreads)

• Sardines

• The Myers Way® Paleo Protein

• The Myers Way® Collagen Protein

• The Myers Way® Gelatin

• Wild-caught fresh fish (cod, halibut, haddock, salmon, pollock, snapper, sole, trout)

• Wild-caught shrimp

• Wild game

DAIRY ALTERNATIVES• Camel’s milk

• Coconut milk, yogurt, cream

• Tigernut milk

BEVERAGES• Bone broth

• Coconut milk

• Fruit and vegetable juices, unsweetened

• Smoothies

• Mocktails

• Tea, herbal, caffeine-free

• Tigernut milk

• Water, filtered or sparkling

OILS AND FATS• Avocado, avocado oil

• Coconut, coconut oil, coconut flour, coconut butter/manna/milk/yogurt/cream

• Ghee (if you tolerate it)

• Grapeseed oil

• Olives, olive oil

• Flaxseed oil

• Animal fat (lard, beef tallow)

• Palm oil

FLOURS• Arrowroot starch

• Cassava flour

• Coconut flour

• Plantain flour

• Sweet potato flour

• Tapioca flour

• Tigernut flour

HERBS, SPICES, CONDIMENTS• Anise

• Apple cider vinegar

• Basil

• Bay leaf

• Cacao

• Cilantro/coriander

• Cinnamon

• Cloves

• Cumin

• Dill

• Garlic

• Ginger

• Ground black pepper

• Mint

• Nutmeg

• Oregano

• Parsley

• Rosemary

• Sea salt

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HERBS, SPICES, CONDIMENTS (Continued from previous page)• Stevia

• Tarragon

• Thyme

• Turmeric

• Vanilla

STARCHY VEGETABLES• Beets

• Carrots

• Cassava

• Chestnuts

• Jerusalem artichokes

• Jicama

• Parsnips

• Plantains

• Pumpkins

• Rutabagas

• Sweet potatoes

• Taro

• Tigernuts

• Turnips

• Water chestnuts

• Yams

• Yucca

FRUITS• Apples

• Apricots

• Bananas

• Bilberries

• Blackberries

• Blueberries

• Boysenberries

• Cherries

• Cranberries

• Currants

• Dates

• Dragonfruit

• Elderberries

• Figs

• Gooseberries

• Grapefruit

• Grapes

• Guavas

• Huckleberries

• Kiwis

• Kumquats

• Lemons

• Limes

• Loquats

• Lychees

• Mangos

• Melons (cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, etc.)

• Mulberries

• Nectarines

• Papayas

• Passionfruit

• Peaches

• Pears

• Persimmons

• Pineapples

• Plums

• Pomegranates

• Quince

• Raisins (limit during the thirty-day protocol and avoid if treating Candida overgrowth or SIBO)

• Raspberries

• Star fruit

• Strawberries

• Tamarillos

• Tamarind fruit

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FOODS TO AVOIDAPPENDIX 1:

TOXIC FOODS• Alcohol

• Fast foods, junk foods, processed foods

• Food additives: any foods that contain artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives

• Genetically modified foods (GMOs), including canola oil and beet sugar

• Processed meats: canned meats (such as SPAM; canned fish is okay), cold cuts, hot dogs

• Processed and refined oils: mayonnaise, salad dressings, shortening, spreads

• Refined oils, hydrogenated fats, trans fats, including margarine

• Stimulants and caffeine: coffee, yerba mate

• Sweeteners: sugar, sugar alcohols, sweetened juices, high-fructose corn syrup

• Trans fats and hydrogenated oils (frequently found in packaged and processed foods)

INFLAMMATORY FOODS• Corn and anything made from corn or containing

high-fructose corn syrup

• Gluten: anything that contains spelt, barley, rye, or wheat

• Dairy: including cow, sheep and goat milk milk cheese, cottage cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, ice cream, frozen yogurt, and non-dairy creamers, whey protein, casein

• Soy: miso, tofu, tempeh, soy moil, soy creamer, soy yogurt, soy cheese, kimchi

• Yeast and/or fermented foods

A NOTE FOR VEGETARIANSYou may be reading this and wondering what in the world you’re going to eat if your diet has been one that relies on rice and beans. I became a vegetarian at 14, and it was very hard for me to see that my seemingly healthy diet was causing more problems for me. The good news is, there are plenty of vegetables that you can continue to enjoy while going through The Myers Way®. If you are looking for a more specific meal plan, my nutritionist and I put together pages and pages of recipes as well as a seafood meal plan in my book, The Autoimmune Solution, to help you make the transition away from gluten, grains, and legumes toward a diet that heals you.

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FOOD REINTRODUCTIONAPPENDIX 1:

A fter the elimination phase, you are ready to rein-troduce each food you’ve removed (with the exception of toxic foods!). You won’t be adding

them back all at once, however. The reintroduction phase is a very specific process where you will be introducing foods one at a time while paying attention to your symp-toms in order to identify your personal food triggers.

You will choose your first food to reintroduce and eat it three times a day for three days. This way, you are bom-barding your system to see if there is a noticeable and definitive immune response resulting in symptoms. If the food is causing inflammation, it will result in some form of reaction or symptom that suggests a food sensitivity. Once you know the result for this food, remove the food back out from your diet for three days before introduc-ing a new food. After three days, you can move on to the next food item following the same process. Just be sure to go one by one. Here is the exact process:

• Introduce one food at a time.• Eat each reintroduction food three times a day for

three days.• Keep a food journal and record whether or not you

experience any symptoms (I’ve provided an example of a food journal below!).

• Go back to the elimination phase for three days between each reintroduction food.

• If you have a reaction, take out the food until the end of the reintroduction phase.

• Add all the safe foods back in after you’ve completed the reintroduction phase.

As you reintroduce foods, it is important to pay close attention to your body’s signals to see which foods trig-ger a reaction. Keeping a food journal, eating slowly, and staying in tune with your body is very helpful during this phase. A sample of a food journal can be seen below. You can print this one out and use it yourself or if there is another way you like to document and journal, feel free to use that method!

I don’t recommend adding gluten or dairy back into your diet, even if you didn’t notice any symptoms. These foods are inflammatory for the majority of people and can con-tinue to perpetuate the leaky gut that you worked so hard to heal in the first place during this diet.

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FOOD SENSITIVITY TRACKERTrack your meals each day and share comments about energy level, digestion, emotional wellbeing, or any other comments.

Feel free to print out this page or use this as a template to guide you in making your own food journal.

MORNING

Date:

Food/Meals: Time:

Snacks: Time:

Emotions/Mood:

Bowel Movement: Y / N Color: Form:

MID-DAY

Date:

Food/Meals: Time:

Snacks: Time:

Emotions/Mood:

Bowel Movement: Y / N Color: Form:

EVENING

Date:

Food/Meals: Time:

Snacks: Time:

Emotions/Mood:

Bowel Movement: Y / N Color: Form:

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ADDITIONAL RECIPESAPPENDIX 2:

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Pan-Seared Salmon with Spinach Parsley PestoIngredients2 wild-caught salmon filletsSalt and pepper, to taste4 + 1 Tbsp olive oil, divided1 cup baby spinach leaves1 cup parsley leaves1 garlic clove, finely minced1 Tbsp lemon juice (from ½ lemon)

InstructionsStep One: Season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, and pan-sear the salmon over medium heat for 2-3 minutes per side, or until fully cooked.Step Two: While the salmon is cooking, prepare the pesto: Finely dice the baby spinach and parsley leaves. In a small bowl, combine the diced spinach, parsley, remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt (about ¼ teaspoon to start), and ground black pepper. Mix well.Step Three: Serve the salmon with pesto on top.

SERVES: 2

ADDITIONAL RECIPES

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Creamy Chicken ThighsIngredients1 lb chicken thighs (4 small pieces)Salt and pepper, to taste½ Tbsp coconut oil2 garlic cloves, minced1 cup coconut milk1 cup chicken bone broth1 Tbsp Dijon mustard1 Tbsp lemon juice (from ½ lemon)2 Tbsp fresh herbs (such as oregano and/or parsley), finely minced

InstructionsStep One: Pay the chicken thighs dry with a clean kitchen towel or a paper towel. Season generously with salt and pepper on all sides.Step Two: Heat the coconut oil in a pan and seat the chicken thighs over high heat for 2-3 minutes on both sides. Step Three: Add the minced garlic to the pan with the chicken and saute for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk, bone broth, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and fresh herbs, and mix well. Bring the mixture to a light boil, then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the chicken thighs are fully cooked. Serve hot, spooning the sauce over spiralized zucchini or other side dish of your choice.

SERVES: 4

ADDITIONAL RECIPES

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Mashed Sweet Potato Patties with Bacon Ingredients2 cups cooked mashed potatoes (from about 2 medium sweet potatoes)4 pieces cooked bacon, crumbled1 scallion, chopped¼ - ½ c coconut flour½ teaspoon sea salt, or to tasteGround black pepper, to taste2 Tbsp coconut oil, for cooking

InstructionsStep One: In a large bowl, combine the cooked mashed potatoes, crumbed bacon, chopped scallion, ¼ cup coconut flour, sea salt, and black pepper. Mix well. Scoop about ¼ cup of the mixture into your hands and form small 2-3 inch patties. Add up to ¼ cup more coconut flour if the patties fall apart.Step Two: Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet. Carefully place the mashed potato patties into the skillet and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes per side, or until browned. Serve warm.

SERVES: 2

ADDITIONAL RECIPES

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Taco Flavored Kale ChipsIngredients½ lb kale (1 medium bunch)1 Tbsp avocado oil1 tsp sea salt½ tsp garlic powder½ tsp onion powder½ tsp ground cumin½ tsp ground coriander½ tsp ground black pepper, or to taste

InstructionsStep One: Preheat oven to 250F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.Step Two: Wash and dry the kale thoroughly. The kale has to be dry to ensure crispy kale chips. Tear the kale leaves into 1-2 inch pieces and discard the stems.Step Three: In a large bowl, combine the kale leaves with the rest of the ingredients, and rub the oil and the spices into the kale.Step Four: Arrange the kale on the baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 25-30 minutes, tossing halfways, or until the kale chips are crispy. Enjoy immediately.

SERVES: 2

ADDITIONAL RECIPES

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Apples with Toasted Coconut SpreadIngredients2 organic granny smith apples, sliced into ¼ inch slices and cored2 cups organic unsweetened coconut flakes¼ cup coconut oil¼ - ½ cup water1 tsp organic ground cinnamon2 Tbsp organic local honey, or to taste, plus extra for drizzle

InstructionsStep One: Toast the coconut flakes in a large dry skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent them from burning. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of toasted coconut flakes for garnish.Step Two: Add the rest of the toasted coconut flakes, coconut oil, ¼ cup water, cinnamon, and honey to a blender or small food processor. Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides. Add up to ¼ cup additional water if you prefer a thinner texture.Step Three: Spread the toasted coconut spread over the apple slices, drizzle with additional honey, and garnish with reserved toasted coconut flakes.

SERVES: 2

ADDITIONAL RECIPES

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GET YOUR KIT NOW!

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YOUR NEXT STEPS

N ow that you’re armed with all of the knowledge on how to tackle leaky gut, it’s time to finally take back your health! Here are two of the next steps

that I recommend for you:

THE MYERS WAY® LEAKY GUT BREAKTHROUGH® KITIf you feel like with this information you have all the tools you need to manage leaky gut on your own, make sure to order The Myers Way® Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Kit to support you on your journey.

THE MYERS WAY® LEAKY GUT BREAKTHROUGH® PROGRAMFor more guidance on ways to support leaky gut and over-all gut health, check out my Leaky Gut Breakthrough® Program. I provide you with information, supplement tips, meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists in a 30-day program that will help to support you in healing your gut and improving your health. Be sure to grab the upgraded program for even more gut-supporting supplements.

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