calorie restriction and leaky gut syndrome

Every time my weight drops into the range I desire I develop leaky gut syndrome. Which means I feel like dog meat until I regularly eat more. This has lead to an endless cycle of dropping weight, feeling bad, regaining weight...

Least you think I'm some anorexic nut case my BMI fluctuates around about 24 +/- 1. I want to get down to about BMI 21 to 22 which still is safely out of the "please hold me down and stuff food into my mouth" anorexic range.

Why does calorie restriction (CR) trash our guts out? Two reasons:

First, CR elevates the so-called anti-inflammatory hormone adiponectin. High adiponectin is a really good thing for our health per many references. Unfortunately, adiponectin is PROinflammatory in our gut (1).

Second, CR lowers insulin. In many ways this is great for our health. Unfortunately, low insulin is associated with INCREASED gut permeability (2).

Surf the net and you can find many ideas for dealing with leaky gut. A treatment I've come up with is the following:

Combine a scoop of Citrucel (methylcellulose) with 1/2 glass of lemonade, 400 mg of magnesium citrate and a tablespoon of coconut oil and drink it just prior to bedtime. The methylcellulose binds most pathological bacteria (via binding to their type 4 fimbriae; PMID: 9811650), the lemonade has anti-inflammatory properties, the magnesium lowers permeability of the intestine (PMID: 16180088) and the coconut oil is great for killing various pathological bacteria (too many references to list).

1. Gastroenterology. 2007 Feb;132(2):601-14
Adiponectin deficiency protects mice from chemically induced colonic inflammation.
...APN deficiency is associated with protection from chemically induced colitis. APN exerts proinflammatory activities in the colon by inducing production of proinflammatory cytokines and inhibiting bioactivity of protective growth factors. Thus, in colitis, APN exerts an opposite role compared with atherosclerosis.
PMID: 17258715

2. Clin Hemorheol Microcirc. 2006;34(1-2):259-63
Permeability response of the rat mesenteric microvasculature to insulin.
...insulin reduces mesenteric venule permeability differently in males and females. Further studies are needed to differentiate the permeability responses with respect to age and gender.
PMID: 16543645

Nerissa