An intact gut barrier is key for tolerance.
Unfortunately the gut barrier faces continuous ongoing aggressions like:
Drugs of all kinds
Colonisation by Candida albicans or parasites
Psychological stress etc.
When the integrity of the intestinal wall is compromised by these common lifestyle factors, the intestine becomes increasingly permeable (known as “leaky gut syndrome”) and food proteins can slip between the cells, triggering the adaptive immune system to produce specific IgG antibodies against them.
These antibodies and the food antigens form immune complexes which can adhere to organs and tissues. When the immune complexes are destroyed by phagocytic cells and the complement system, the surrounding tissues can be damaged. This leads to low-grade inflammatory conditions which can become chronic. Symptoms can occur up to 3 days after consumption of the trigger food, making the culprits extremely difficult to identify.
Inflammation is a protective response intended to fight infections and to initiate the process of repair under one condition: if it takes place occasionally and for a limited time. If the inflammatory reaction becomes chronic because the inducer of the inflammation is food that is consumed regularly, then the protective effect of inflammation turns into a threat to our health. This is why identifying your IgG reactive foods is crucial to reducing and eventually stopping inflammatory processes.