Let’s start here: intestinal permeability is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a normal function of your intestines to allow nutrients to pass through the lining of the gut wall and into your bloodstream. Everyone needs some degree of intestinal permeability, or we wouldn’t absorb any nutrients from our food. 

The problem with intestinal permeability occurs when the gaps between the delicate cells in the gut lining get a little too lax, and bigger openings allow bigger molecules of undigested food, toxins, even pathogens like parasites and the natural microbes in our intestines to escape into the bloodstream, forcing our detox and immune systems to work harder.

For many years now, the health community has been abuzz with the term “leaky gut”—the fact that the lining of your gut can be weakened by pathogens, toxins, and stress. When the gut lining is weakened, those toxins and harmful bacteria leak into the bloodstream and wreak havoc on the rest of the body. 

But what’s actually going on when this happens? 

It’s not as though there are giant holes appearing in your gut lining; you wouldn’t be long for the world if that happened. This leakiness is actually occurring on a microscopic, cellular level. You might more accurately refer to it as leaky cells.

Why should you care about phosphatidylcholine? We’ll discuss this and more in our in-depth breakdown of PC.