Synthetic surfactant food additives can cause intestinal barrier dysfunction

[Guest guest]

This is important and it should be acknowledged as being right up there with

the inherent toxicities of detergents and quaternary ammonium compounds.

These compounds damage the integrity of the lipid cell membrane.

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Medical Hypotheses

Volume 76 <http://www.medical-hypotheses.com/issues?Vol=76> , Issue

<http://www.medical-hypotheses.com/issues/contents?issue_key=S0306-9877%2811

%29X0004-X> 5, Pages 676-681 (May 2011)

Synthetic surfactant food additives can cause intestinal barrier dysfunction

Kataliin F. Csaki

Abstract

In addition to genetic factors and antigen exposure, intestinal barrier

dysfunction plays a key role in the pathogenesis of numerous allergic and

autoimmune diseases. The hypothesis of this article is that synthetic

surfactant food additives (also called emulsifiers) - which are applied in

relatively high concentrations in even the most frequently consumed foods -

cause increased intestinal permeability, hence they can play a significant

role in the increasing incidence of numerous allergic and autoimmune

diseases. In many cases the surfactants added to foods are exactly the same

as the ones used in pharmaceutics as absorption enhancers. Numerous

synthetic surfactant food additives have been shown to increase the

intestinal permeability through paracellular and/or transcellular mechanisms

and some of them were also shown to inhibit P-glycoprotein. Additionally,

based on the general characteristics of surfactants it can be predicted that

they decrease the hydrophobicity of the mucus layer, which has also been

shown to associate with increased intestinal permeability.