Although we don’t know all the things that stimulate the release of Zonulin, we do know that certain bacteria and gluten can do it. Along with genetic factors, that may be enough to create a perfect storm to trigger disease. “I firmly believe that without loss of intestinal barrier,” Dr. Fasano wrote me, “it is difficult…to understand how autoimmune diseases would develop.”
The thing is that autoimmune diseases—like diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis—are on the rise. It’s not an exaggeration to say they comprise most of the people who seek medical care. Maybe that’s why all the alternative practitioners are talking about leaky gut. But you don’t have to dig too far in PubMed to find some serious establishment researchers talking about it, too. In fact, a German researcher wrote a recent review that makes a good case that gut health should be our main objective in medicine.