What I Found in My Clients' Tests After Long COVID — And Why It Changes Everything — Finding #2: The Silent Gut Collapse

The stool test on the same client showed calprotectin of 20 &#8212; essentially zero gut inflammation by standard interpretation. No pathogenic bacteria. No obvious infection. Most clinicians would close the file. But the ecosystem was gutted. The butyrate-producing bacteria &#8212; the microbes that fuel the cells lining your colon &#8212; were severely depleted. The community structure had been destroyed by repeated infections, antibiotics, and the COVID insult itself. Here&#8217;s why that matters: the cells that line your colon (colonocytes) are almost entirely dependent on a fatty acid called butyrate as their fuel source. Butyrate is produced by specific bacteria in a healthy gut. When those bacteria are gone, colonocytes start to starve. And when colonocytes starve, they cannot maintain the gut lining properly &#8212; and the lining starts to leak. This is not a metaphor. When the gut lining breaks down, bacterial fragments &#8212; specifically a molecule called LPS (lipopolysaccharide) , which is part of the outer wall of certain bacteria &#8212; cross into the bloodstream. LPS is one of the most potent inflammatory triggers the human immune system knows. When it crosses the gut barrier and hits immune receptors (called TLR4 receptors) in the bloodstream, it sets off a systemic inflammatory alarm. And that alarm doesn&#8217;t shut off easily. Because now you have chroni