Gut Inflammation Spreads Like Wildfire Through Your Body

Here’s the thing – your gut inflammation isn’t staying put in your digestive system. It’s traveling through your bloodstream, setting off alarm bells in your brain, joints, skin, and basically everywhere else¹. 

And if you’re dealing with mysterious symptoms that seem to jump around your body, this “invisible fire” might be the culprit you’ve been searching for.

In this article, you’ll discover exactly how gut inflammation spreads systemically, the specific markers that reveal what’s really happening in your intestines, and most importantly, the testing-based approach that gets to the root cause instead of just chasing symptoms. 

Keep reading – there’s a patient story about halfway through that might sound eerily familiar to your own health journey.

Key Takeaways

• Gut inflammation creates a cascade effect – When your intestinal barrier becomes compromised, inflammatory molecules escape into circulation and trigger systemic inflammation throughout your body¹
• Symptoms often appear unrelated – Brain fog, joint pain, skin issues, and mood problems frequently stem from the same gut inflammation source, making diagnosis challenging²
• Standard blood tests miss the real picture – Inflammatory bowel markers like zonulin and calprotectin reveal intestinal inflammation that regular lab work overlooks³
• Food sensitivities fuel the fire – Food intolerances affect up to 20% of the population, with many people unaware of their trigger foods creating ongoing inflammatory responses⁴
• Testing beats guessing every time – Up to 13.5% of adults report food hypersensitivity symptoms, but most never get proper testing to identify specific triggers⁵
• The gut-brain axis amplifies inflammation – Intestinal inflammation directly communicates with your brain through the vagus nerve, explaining why gut issues often come with anxiety and cognitive symptoms³⁴
• Early intervention prevents escalation – Addressing gut inflammation before it becomes systemic can prevent the development of autoimmune conditions and metabolic disorders⁶

Jennifer’s Story: When Everything Started Making Sense

I was recently reviewing patient cases with my team when Jennifer’s story reminded me why I’m so passionate about this work. 

She’s a 42-year-old marketing executive who came to us absolutely exhausted – not just physically, but emotionally drained from being stuck between caring for her aging mother and her teenage daughter.

“I thought it was just my life,” she told me during our first consultation. “You know, sandwich generation stress. I figured feeling terrible was just part of the territory.”

But Jennifer’s symptoms told a different story. 

She had chronic fatigue that hit around 2 PM every day, brain fog that made simple decisions feel overwhelming, and digestive issues she’d been ignoring for years. 

Her joints ached, her skin was breaking out despite being well past her teenage years, and she found herself snapping at her family over tiny things.

Does this sound familiar?

What Jennifer didn’t realize – and what her previous doctors had missed – was that all these seemingly unrelated symptoms were branches of the same tree. 

Her gut inflammation had been spreading throughout her body for years, creating a cascade of systemic problems that were making everything else in her life feel impossible to manage.

After proper testing revealed significant intestinal inflammation and multiple food sensitivities she never knew she had, Jennifer started following a personalized protocol. 

Within six weeks, her energy stabilized, her brain fog lifted, and she found herself actually enjoying family time again instead of just surviving it.

“I didn’t realize how much my health was affecting my relationships,” she shared recently. “When I got my gut inflammation under control, everything else started falling into place. My mom and daughter both started thriving because I wasn’t the weak link in the chain anymore.”

The Science Behind the Spread: How Gut Inflammation Goes Systemic

Your intestinal lining is designed to be selectively permeable – it should let nutrients through while keeping harmful substances out. 

But when chronic inflammatory response develops in your gut, this carefully controlled barrier starts breaking down.

Here’s what happens: Inflammatory cytokines damage the tight junction proteins that hold your intestinal cells together⁷. 

When zonulin is activated, it leads to “disassembly of the protein ZO-1 from the tight junctional complex⁸.

Through these gaps, lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from gram-negative bacteria leak into your bloodstream⁹. 

Think of LPS as molecular alarms that trigger your immune system wherever they land. Your body treats these bacterial components as invaders, launching inflammatory attacks not just in your gut, but throughout your entire system. 

This LPS-driven process is at the heart of many mysterious chronic symptoms – you can learn more about how LPS triggers chronic inflammation, fatigue, and gut issues in our detailed guide on this mechanism.

This process, which researchers call “metabolic endotoxemia,” creates a state of chronic low-grade inflammation that affects multiple organ systems¹⁰. 

Your liver works overtime trying to detoxify these compounds. Your brain receives inflammatory signals that disrupt neurotransmitter production. Your joints, skin, and cardiovascular system all become battlegrounds in this systemic inflammatory war.

The truly insidious part? This can go on for years before you develop obvious symptoms. 

By the time you’re experiencing gut inflammation symptoms like bloating, irregular bowel movements, or digestive discomfort, the inflammatory cascade has likely already spread far beyond your intestines.

Connecting the Dots: Why Your Symptoms Seem Unrelated

I’ve been working with patients for decades, and one pattern I see repeatedly is people coming in with what seems like a random collection of health issues. 

They’ll list off their problems: “I have brain fog, my joints hurt, my skin is breaking out, I can’t sleep, and oh yeah, I get bloated after meals.”

In conventional medicine, you’d see different specialists for each of these concerns. 

The dermatologist for your skin, the rheumatologist for your joints, the psychiatrist for your mood issues. 

But here’s what I’ve learned: when you have multiple seemingly unrelated symptoms, look to the gut first.

Intestinal inflammation creates what scientists call a “systemic inflammatory phenotype”³⁵. This means your entire body shifts into an inflammatory state, affecting multiple systems simultaneously:

Brain and Nervous System: Inflammatory molecules cross the blood-brain barrier, disrupting neurotransmitter production and causing brain fog, anxiety, and mood changes. 

The gut-brain axis ensures that intestinal inflammation directly communicates with your brain through the vagus nerve¹¹. 

Understanding this connection is crucial – you can read more about how your gut-brain connection controls your mood and cognitive function.

Immune System: Chronic inflammatory response can overwhelm your immune system, causing it to become confused and start attacking your own healthy tissues. 

This happens when inflammatory molecules from your gut look similar enough to your body’s own proteins that your immune system mistakenly targets both, potentially triggering autoimmune reactions¹².

Cardiovascular System: Systemic inflammation causes arterial inflammation, contributing to cardiovascular disease risk¹³.

Skin: Your skin often becomes an elimination pathway when your gut can’t handle the toxic load, leading to acne, eczema, or other inflammatory skin conditions¹⁴.

Joints and Muscles: Inflammatory cytokines circulating through your bloodstream trigger joint pain and muscle aches that seem to have no obvious cause¹⁵.

One of my patients recently described it perfectly: “It was like my whole body was angry, and I couldn’t figure out why.” That’s systemic inflammation in a nutshell.

The Testing That Reveals the Truth

Here’s where conventional medicine often fails people. Standard blood tests – your typical CBC, comprehensive metabolic panel, even basic inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein – can miss gut-specific inflammation entirely.

I see patients all the time who’ve been told their blood work is “normal” while they’re clearly dealing with significant intestinal inflammation. 

That’s because we need to look at specialized inflammatory bowel markers that most doctors never test for.

Zonulin is one of the most revealing markers. This protein regulates intestinal permeability, and elevated levels indicate that your gut barrier is compromised¹⁶. 

Calprotectin is another crucial marker that measures neutrophil activity in your intestines. Levels above 50 mcg/g indicate active intestinal inflammation¹⁷. 

What’s fascinating is that calprotectin levels often correlate directly with symptom severity – the higher the inflammation, the worse people feel.

But here’s what really drives me crazy: I regularly see patients who’ve spent thousands of dollars on supplements, elimination diets, and other gut protocols without ever testing these basic markers. 

It’s like trying to put out a fire without knowing where it’s burning.

Sarah, one of my recent patients, spent over a year following various “gut healing” programs she found online. 

She eliminated gluten, dairy, and basically everything else she enjoyed eating. 

When we finally ran proper testing, her zonulin levels were through the roof, and she had sensitivities to foods she was eating daily in her “healing” diet – including almonds, spinach, and salmon.

“I was literally feeding the fire while thinking I was putting it out,” she told me. Within three months of following a testing-based protocol, her inflammatory bowel markers normalized and her symptoms disappeared.

The reality is that without testing, you’re just throwing darts in the dark. 

Every gut is different, every inflammatory trigger is personal, and generic protocols work for generic people – which none of us actually are.

The Food Sensitivity Connection

Let me share something that might surprise you: the foods causing your gut inflammation are probably not the ones you think they are. 

I’ve seen patients react to foods they considered “healthy” while being completely fine with foods they’d eliminated from their diets.

Research shows that approximately 20% of people have food sensitivities they’re completely unaware of⁴ – these aren’t the dramatic allergic reactions that send you to the emergency room. These are delayed inflammatory responses that can occur hours or even days after eating the trigger food.

Here’s how it works: When you eat a food your immune system has identified as problematic, it creates IgG antibodies that trigger delayed inflammatory responses throughout your body. IgG reactions create inflammation that makes many pathologies worse. The delayed response makes sensitivities difficult to identify without testing and symptoms may manifest anywhere from 3-72 hours after exposure.¹⁹

The tricky part is that chronic inflammatory response from food sensitivities often manifests as symptoms that seem completely unrelated to digestion. 

Headaches, joint pain, skin issues, brain fog, mood changes – all of these can be direct results of immune reactions to foods you eat regularly.

I remember one patient, Michael, who came to me with chronic fatigue and joint pain. He’d been to rheumatologists, neurologists, and even had extensive imaging done. 

Everything came back “normal.” When we ran food sensitivity testing, he showed strong reactions to eggs, tomatoes, and black pepper – foods he was eating daily.

“I had eggs for breakfast every morning for twenty years,” he told me. “How could they suddenly be a problem?” 

But that’s exactly the point – they weren’t suddenly a problem. They’d been creating chronic inflammatory responses for years, and his symptoms were the cumulative result.

Within eight weeks of eliminating his trigger foods and following a gut healing protocol, Michael’s energy returned and his joint pain disappeared. 

“I feel like I got my life back,” he said. “I just wish I’d known about this testing years ago.”

This is why I’m such a strong advocate for testing instead of guessing. Elimination diets can work, but they’re time-consuming, difficult to stick with, and often miss the real culprits while eliminating foods that are actually fine for you.

Beyond the Gut: Where Inflammation Spreads

Once gut inflammation becomes systemic, it doesn’t just randomly affect different parts of your body. 

There are predictable patterns to how this inflammatory cascade spreads, and understanding these patterns can help you connect symptoms you never thought were related.

The Liver Connection: Your liver is the first stop for everything absorbed from your gut. 

When LPS and other inflammatory compounds leak through your compromised gut barrier, your liver goes into overdrive trying to detoxify these substances²⁰. 

This can lead to what we call “fatty liver” or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, even in people who don’t drink alcohol.

I’ve seen this connection missed repeatedly in conventional medicine. Patients get diagnosed with fatty liver and told to lose weight and avoid alcohol, but nobody looks at the gut inflammation that’s overwhelming their liver’s detoxification capacity in the first place.

The Brain-Gut Axis: This connection is so strong that researchers now call gut inflammation a major contributor to neurodegenerative diseases. 

Inflammatory molecules from your gut can cross the blood-brain barrier and trigger microglial activation – essentially inflammation in your brain tissue²¹.

This explains why so many people with gut issues also struggle with anxiety, depression, brain fog, and memory problems. 

It’s not just stress affecting your gut – it’s gut inflammation directly affecting your brain function.

Cardiovascular Impact: Systemic inflammation from the gut contributes to endothelial dysfunction – damage to the lining of your blood vessels. 

This process is now recognized as a major factor in heart disease development²². The inflammation literally damages your blood vessels from the inside out.

Joint and Muscle Involvement: Inflammatory cytokines circulating from gut inflammation can deposit in joint tissues, creating pain and stiffness that seems to have no obvious cause. 

Many cases of “fibromyalgia” and unexplained joint pain actually have their roots in gut inflammation²³.

The key insight here is that addressing gut inflammation often resolves symptoms throughout the body because you’re treating the source rather than just managing the downstream effects.

The Autoimmune Connection Nobody Talks About

Here’s something that keeps me up at night: I’m seeing more and more patients developing autoimmune conditions that I believe could have been prevented if we’d addressed their gut inflammation earlier.

Research shows that increased intestinal permeability – what we call “leaky gut” – precedes the development of several autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease²⁴. 

The theory is that when your gut barrier is compromised, your immune system gets confused about what’s foreign and what’s self.

Molecular mimicry plays a role here too. Some proteins from food or bacteria that leak through your damaged gut barrier look similar to proteins in your own tissues. 

Your immune system creates antibodies against these foreign proteins, but those same antibodies can then attack your own tissues¹².

This is why I get so passionate about early intervention. 

I’d rather help someone address gut inflammation when their only symptoms are bloating and fatigue than wait until they’ve developed an autoimmune condition that requires lifelong management.

Lisa’s story illustrates this perfectly. She came to me with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis that had been gradually worsening over several years. 

Her thyroid antibodies were climbing, and her endocrinologist was talking about increasing her medication again.

When we tested her gut health, she had severe intestinal permeability and multiple food sensitivities. 

After six months of healing her gut barrier and avoiding her trigger foods, her thyroid antibodies dropped to the lowest levels she’d seen in years.

“My endocrinologist couldn’t believe the labs,” she told me. “He said whatever I was doing, I should keep doing it.”

Now, I’m not saying that gut healing cures autoimmune diseases – that would be irresponsible. 

But I am saying that addressing gut inflammation can significantly impact autoimmune progression and symptoms in many people.

The Stress-Inflammation Cycle

One aspect of gut inflammation that doesn’t get enough attention is how stress perpetuates the entire process. 

When you’re dealing with chronic stress – whether it’s work pressure, relationship issues, or just the daily grind of modern life – your body produces cortisol and other stress hormones that directly damage your gut barrier²⁶.

But here’s the cruel irony: gut inflammation also creates stress on your body, triggering the release of more stress hormones. 

So, you end up in this vicious cycle where stress damages your gut, gut inflammation creates more stress on your system, which damages your gut further.

I see this pattern constantly in my practice. High-achieving professionals come to me with gut issues, and when we dig deeper, there’s always a stress component. 

But it’s not as simple as “just reduce stress” – we have to break the inflammatory cycle first so their bodies can actually respond appropriately to stress management techniques.

Remember Jennifer from earlier? Part of her healing involved not just addressing the gut inflammation, but also implementing stress management practices that supported her gut healing. 

Meditation, breathing exercises, and even simple boundary-setting around family responsibilities all played roles in her recovery.

This is why our approach at The Urban Monk isn’t just about gut testing and supplements. We look at the whole person – the stress patterns, sleep quality, movement habits, and relationship dynamics that all contribute to inflammation.

Environmental Toxins: The Hidden Inflammatory Triggers

Here’s something most gut health programs completely miss: environmental toxins can be a major driver of intestinal inflammation, and until you address them, your gut may never fully heal.

We’re exposed to thousands of chemicals daily – in our food, water, air, personal care products, and cleaning supplies. 

Many of these compounds are endocrine disruptors that interfere with hormone function, but they also directly damage intestinal barrier function²⁷.

Glyphosate, the herbicide used on most conventionally grown crops, is particularly problematic. 

Research shows it disrupts gut bacteria balance and damages tight junction proteins in the intestinal lining²⁸. 

So, even if you’re eating “healthy” foods, if they’re conventionally grown, they might be contributing to your gut inflammation.

Heavy metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium also accumulate in gut tissues and create chronic inflammatory responses. 

I’ve seen patients whose gut healing stalled until we addressed their toxic load through targeted detoxification protocols.

You can also learn more about environmental toxin elimination in this podcast episode, Breaking Free from Toxic Overload.

This is why I always ask patients about their environment: 

• What’s your water quality like? 
• Do you live near agricultural areas? 
• What personal care products do you use? 
• Have you had dental work with amalgam fillings? 

All of these factors can contribute to the toxic burden that’s fueling gut inflammation.

The good news is that once you identify and address these environmental triggers, gut healing often accelerates dramatically. 

But it requires looking beyond just food and supplements to the bigger picture of what’s creating inflammation in your system.

Testing vs. Guessing: The Data-Driven Approach

After decades of clinical practice, I can tell you that the biggest mistake people make with gut health is assuming they know what’s wrong and trying to fix it without proper testing. 

I’ve seen people spend years and thousands of dollars on supplements and protocols that were completely wrong for their specific situation.

Here’s what comprehensive gut testing actually reveals:

Intestinal Permeability Status: Zonulin and other permeability markers show exactly how damaged your gut barrier is and whether your healing protocols are working.

Active Inflammation Levels: Calprotectin, lactoferrin, and other inflammatory markers reveal whether you have ongoing intestinal inflammation and how severe it is.

Food Sensitivity Profile: IgG testing identifies the specific foods triggering immune reactions in your system, not just common allergens.

Microbiome Analysis: Comprehensive stool testing shows bacterial imbalances, pathogenic overgrowths, and deficiencies in beneficial bacteria.

Digestive Function: Pancreatic enzyme levels, fat digestion markers, and other functional tests reveal whether you’re actually breaking down and absorbing nutrients properly.

With this data, we can design a personalized protocol that addresses your specific issues rather than following generic gut healing advice that may or may not apply to you.

James, one of my colleagues who works with our testing partner, put it perfectly: 

“We’re not looking to give people bad news about their gut health. We’re looking to give them a pathway forward based on actual data instead of guesswork.”

And that’s exactly what proper testing provides – a roadmap for healing that’s specific to your body’s needs.

The 7 Rs of Healing Gut Inflammation

Once we know what we’re dealing with through proper testing, healing gut inflammation follows a systematic approach. I call it the 7 Rs protocol, and it addresses every aspect of gut dysfunction:

Remove: Eliminate inflammatory triggers including problematic foods, bacterial overgrowths, parasites, and environmental toxins.

Replace: Supplement deficient digestive enzymes, stomach acid, and bile acids that are necessary for proper digestion.

Repair: Use targeted nutrients like L-glutamine, zinc carnosine, and omega-3 fatty acids to heal the intestinal lining.

Restore: Repopulate beneficial bacteria with targeted probiotics and prebiotics based on your specific microbiome needs. 

While probiotics get all the attention, polyphenols for gut health are often more effective at actually restoring a healthy gut ecosystem – and they work in ways that most people don’t understand.

Rebalance: Address lifestyle factors like stress, sleep, and movement that affect gut health.

Retain: Implement long-term strategies to maintain gut health and prevent inflammation from returning.

Retest: Verify that interventions are working through follow-up testing and adjust protocols as needed.

This systematic approach ensures we’re not just throwing supplements at symptoms, but actually addressing the root causes of inflammation in the right order.

Beyond Supplements: The Lifestyle Factors That Matter

Here’s something that might surprise you: some of the most powerful interventions for gut inflammation don’t come in a bottle. 

Yes, targeted supplements play an important role, but lifestyle factors often determine whether your gut healing efforts succeed or fail.

Sleep Quality

Poor sleep directly increases intestinal permeability and inflammatory cytokine production. If you’re not getting quality sleep, your gut healing efforts are swimming upstream²⁹. 

This is why we address sleep optimization as part of every gut healing protocol. 

If you’re struggling with sleep issues that might be sabotaging your gut health, my FREE Restorative Sleep Masterclass provides the foundational strategies you need to get your sleep back on track.

Movement and Exercise

Moderate exercise promotes beneficial bacteria growth and reduces systemic inflammation. 

But excessive high-intensity exercise can actually increase intestinal permeability, so finding the right balance is crucial³⁰.

Stress Management

Chronic stress damages gut barrier function through multiple pathways. Effective stress management isn’t just about feeling better – it’s essential for gut healing³⁴.

Eating Patterns

When you eat matters almost as much as what you eat. Intermittent fasting can reduce inflammation and give your gut time to repair, while late-night eating disrupts the circadian rhythms that govern gut barrier function³². 

This gut-brain timing connection is fascinating – recent research on how your gut-brain axis controls appetite reveals just how sophisticated this internal communication system really is.

Social Connections

This one surprises people, but social isolation and relationship stress directly impact gut microbiome diversity and inflammatory status. 

Healing often involves addressing the relationships and social patterns that contribute to chronic stress³³. 

For couples looking to deepen their connection while supporting each other’s health journey, my approach to Tantric Marriage explores how conscious partnership can actually enhance healing and reduce systemic stress.

The patients who get the best results are those who understand that gut healing is about optimizing their entire lifestyle, not just taking the right supplements.

When to Seek Professional Help

While this article gives you a solid foundation for understanding gut inflammation, I want to be clear about when it’s time to work with a qualified practitioner rather than trying to figure this out on your own.

Seek professional help if you’re experiencing:

• Multiple symptoms affecting different body systems
• Autoimmune conditions or family history of autoimmune disease
• Persistent digestive issues despite dietary changes
• Severe food sensitivities or reactions
• History of antibiotic use, chronic infections, or significant stress
• Unexplained fatigue, brain fog, or mood issues
• Skin conditions that don’t respond to topical treatments

The reality is that gut inflammation can be complex, and what works for one person might not work for another. 

Having a practitioner who understands functional testing and can design personalized protocols often makes the difference between struggling for years and achieving real healing.

At the same time, I don’t want you to think you’re powerless until you can work with someone. There’s a lot you can do on your own, starting with elimination of obvious inflammatory triggers and implementation of basic gut-supporting practices.

Your Next Steps for Healing

Look, I know this can feel overwhelming. Gut inflammation affects so many aspects of health that it’s easy to feel like everything is connected to everything else – which, frankly, it often is.

But here’s what I want you to remember: your body wants to heal. 

Given the right conditions and support, your gut barrier can repair itself, your microbiome can rebalance, and your inflammatory cascade can calm down. I’ve seen it happen thousands of times.

The key is starting with accurate information about what’s actually happening in your system, then addressing the root causes systematically rather than just chasing symptoms.

Remember, you don’t have to accept chronic inflammation as “just part of getting older” or “stress from modern life.” 

Your symptoms are your body’s way of asking for help, and gut inflammation is often the treatable root cause that’s been hiding in plain sight.

The sooner you address gut inflammation, the easier it is to heal and the more you can prevent it from progressing to more serious conditions. 

Your future self will thank you for taking action now rather than waiting until symptoms become impossible to ignore.

As Jennifer discovered, addressing gut inflammation can transform your whole life. When that “invisible fire” finally gets put out, everything else becomes possible again.

Sources

1. Di Vincenzo F., et al. (2024) Gut microbiota, intestinal permeability, and systemic inflammation: a narrative review. Internal and Emergency Medicine. 
2. Mitchell, J., et al. (2022) Chronic Intestinal Inflammation Suppresses Brain Activity by Inducing Neuroinflammation in Mice. The American Journal of Pathology.
3. Szymanska, E., et al. (2023) Biological markers of disease activity in inflammatory bowel diseases. Przegląd Gastroenterologiczny.
4. Teufel, M., et al. (2007) Psychological burden of food allergy. World Journal of Gastroenterology.
5. Lam, H., et al. (2023) Food hypersensitivity: an examination of factors influencing symptoms and temporal changes in the prevalence of sensitization in an adult sample. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
6. Christovich, A., Luo, X. (2022) Gut Microbiota, Leaky Gut, and Autoimmune Diseases. Frontiers in Immunology.
7. Crawford, C., et al. (2022) Inflammatory cytokines directly disrupt the bovine intestinal epithelial barrier. Scientific Reports.
8. Fasano, A. (2020) All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases. F1000 Research.
9. Candelli, M., et al. (2021) Interaction between Lipopolysaccharide and Gut Microbiota in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
10. Mohammad, S., Thiemermann, C. (2021) Role of Metabolic Endotoxemia in Systemic Inflammation and Potential Interventions. Frontiers in Immunology.
11. Carabotti, M., et al. (2015) The gut-brain axis: interactions between enteric microbiota, central and enteric nervous systems. Annals of Gastroenterology. 
12. Li, X., et al. (2022)  T-cell exhaustion in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: New implications for immunotherapy. Frontiers in Immunology.
13. Henein, M., (2022) The Role of Inflammation in Cardiovascular Disease. International Journal of Molecular Science. 
14. Widhiati, S., et al. (2021) The role of gut microbiome in inflammatory skin disorders: A systematic review. Dermatology Reports.
15. Ebersberger, A., Schaible, H. (2025) Do cytokines play a role in the transition from acute to chronic musculoskeletal pain? Pharmacological Research.
16. Sturgeon, C., Fasano, A. (2016) Zonulin, a regulator of epithelial and endothelial barrier functions, and its involvement in chronic inflammatory diseases. Tissue Barriers.
17. Bjarnason, Ingvar (2017) The Use of Fecal Calprotectin in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 
18. Hakansson, A., Molin, G. (2011) Gut Microbiota and Inflammation. Nutrients.
19. Vita, A., et al. (2022) Associations between food-specific IgG antibodies and intestinal permeability biomarkers. Frontiers in Nutrition.
20. Lingxuan, A., et al (2021) The Role of Gut-Derived Lipopolysaccharides and the Intestinal Barrier in Fatty Liver Diseases. Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. 
21. Abdel-Haq., et al. (2019) Microbiome–microglia connections via the gut–brain axis. Journal of Experimental Medicine.
22. Medina-Leyte, D., et al. (2021) Endothelial Dysfunction, Inflammation and Coronary Artery Disease: Potential Biomarkers and Promising Therapeutical Approaches. International Journal of Molecular Science.
23. Liu, L. (2023) Gut microbiota in chronic pain: Novel insights into mechanisms and promising therapeutic strategies. International Immunopharmacology. 
24. Kinashi, Y., Hase, K., et al. (2021) Partners in Leaky Gut Syndrome: Intestinal Dysbiosis and Autoimmunity. Frontiers in Immunology.
25. Mu, Q., et al. (2017) Leaky Gut As a Danger Signal for Autoimmune Diseases. Frontiers in Immunology. 
26. Madison, A., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. (2019) Stress, depression, diet, and the gut microbiota: human–bacteria interactions at the core of psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 
27. HAMPL, R., STÁRKA, L. (2020) Endocrine Disruptors and Gut Microbiome Interactions. Physiological Research.
28. Barnett, J., et al. (2022) Is the Use of Glyphosate in Modern Agriculture Resulting in Increased Neuropsychiatric Conditions Through Modulation of the Gut-brain-microbiome Axis? Frontiers in Nutrition.
29. Khanijow, V., et al. (2015) Sleep Dysfunction and Gastrointestinal Diseases. Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
30. Dmytriv. T., et al. (2024) Intestinal barrier permeability: the influence of gut microbiota, nutrition, and exercise. Frontiers in Psychology.
31. Pugh, J., et al. (2019) Four weeks of probiotic supplementation reduces GI symptoms during a marathon race. European Journal of Applied Physiology.
32. Paukkonen, I., et al. (2024) The impact of intermittent fasting on gut microbiota: a systematic review of human studies. Frontiers in Nutrition.
33. Warren, A., et al. (2024) Dangers of the chronic stress response in the context of the microbiota-gut-immune-brain axis and mental health: a narrative review. Frontiers in Immunology.  
34. Appleton, Jeremy (2018) The Gut-Brain Axis: Influence of Microbiota on Mood and Mental Health. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal. 
35. Wolf, K., Lorenz, R. (2013) Gut Microbiota and Obesity. Current Obesity Reports.