Your mesentery is a set of continuous membranes that attach your intestines to your abdominal wall. During development, all of your abdominal digestive organs grow in them and remain connected to them once mature.
This connective tissue helps to hold your intestines in place so that they do not collapse into the pelvis. If the mesentery does not develop properly during fetal development, the intestines can collapse into the pelvis or twist, causing emergent issues.
Emerging science also shows that the mesentery is an active organ, influencing hormones, metabolism, and inflammation in the rest of the abdomen and beyond. This expanding role of the mesentery in health is becoming increasingly understood.
Functional medicine offers many ways to maintain mesentery health through lifestyle and dietary choices. Since the importance of mesentery health is wide-reaching, focusing on taking care of your mesentery can benefit your overall health.
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What is the Mesentery?
The connective tissue known as the mesentery was first described in 1508 by Leonardo DaVinci. The long-standing understanding of the mesentery was as a primarily anatomical support structure to hold the intestines in place and convey blood vessels, lymphatics, and nerves. Modern science is demonstrating that the mesentery plays even more wide-reaching roles in health and disease.
While composed of several sections, the mesentery has been found to be one contiguous membranous structure that fans out to span from your duodenum to the rectum. It arises from the back of the abdominal wall near where the superior mesenteric artery attaches to the aorta.
The mesentery sits within the peritoneal cavity atop the underlying fascia in a compactly folded manner that unfolds out like a fan into a spiral conformation. This allows the mesentery to hold the intestines in place with varying degrees of movement depending on the section of the intestines.
Given these important impacts and roles, emerging scientific findings on the mesentery are now showing that this organ is important in the pathobiology of health conditions that impact the bowels and beyond. The mesenteric tissues are involved in immune, hormone, circulatory, and metabolic processes that allow them to contribute to the development of chronic conditions including aging, colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticular disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.
The Mesentery and Digestive Health
The mesentery also provides a route and protection for vascular, nerve, and connective tissues. These roles and their close confluence with the digestive tract make the health of the mesentery and digestion closely linked.
Significantly, the mesentery is also a major site of lymphatic vessels that play key roles in immune function and the absorption of dietary fats. 70-80% of the body’s immune cells are found in the gastrointestinal tract, largely with the gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT). This gastrointestinal immune system interacts with microbiota in your gastrointestinal microbiome and the intestinal epithelial barrier layer. Therefore, a healthy GALT and mesentery is necessary for maintaining a balanced microbiome and maintaining the integrity of the intestinal lining which helps keep harmful substances out of your bloodstream while selectively allowing for absorption of nutrients.
Diet and nutrient status play key roles in regulating the gastrointestinal environment, impacting the stability of the mucosal barrier and taking part in cross-talk with the immune system, microbiota, and mesentery tissues. Maintaining balance in the mesentery and these interacting factors is crucial for the maintenance of gastrointestinal tract homeostasis and absorption of nutrients.
The mesentery is the largest depositing place for abdominal fat that contributes to visceral adiposity. Various amounts of fat can accumulate in the mesentery as the result of metabolic, inflammatory, and weight imbalances. Increased fat stores in the abdomen are associated with dysregulated blood glucose control, issues with clotting and bleeding, and metabolic dysfunction. These problems contribute to the development of metabolic diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemias, and hypertension.
These systemic dysfunctions seem to result in part due to inflammatory proteins produced by the mesenteric fat. Under certain circumstances, fat in the mesentery produces much of the C-reactive protein (CRP) found in the systemic circulation. Production of CRP is triggered by local inflammation and bacteria moving into the mesenteric fat. Once released into the systemic circulation, CRP influences the metabolism of glucose and lipids and impacts inflammatory conditions. For example, excessive growth or hyperplasia of mesenteric fat seems to contribute to the inflammatory response seen in the gastrointestinal tract in people with Crohn's disease.
Functional Medicine Labs for Assessing Mesentery Health
Given these wide-reaching impacts that the mesentery has on digestion and overall health, mesentery health assessments can be an important part of comprehensively evaluating health. Functional medicine labs for mesentery health evaluation include tests for inflammation markers, gut microbiome assessments, and nutrient absorption evaluations.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is an inflammatory marker that is produced by the liver and by fat stores, including mesenteric fat especially when it becomes excessive, inflamed, and/or infected. CRP can be measured in the blood and may signify increased inflammation or infection in the mesentery or elsewhere in the body.
A comprehensive stool analysis such as the GI-MAP + Zonulin test by Diagnostic Solutions provides an evaluation of factors that interact with the health of mesentery. This test provides a microbiome analysis that gives a view of the microbes populating the gastrointestinal tract as well as any infections in the gut. It also measures zonulin, a marker of leaky gut and markers of digestion and absorption and intestinal inflammation. Together this information can help provide an assessment of overall gastrointestinal health and levels of inflammation in the abdominal cavity that can impact and be impacted by the mesentery.
Since inflammation in the abdomen and gut can disrupt nutrient absorption, tests for nutrient deficiencies related to impaired gut absorption can help assess overall nutrient status. The Micronutrient Test from SpectraCell Laboratories provides a look at the levels of various nutrients to identify any deficiencies. This can help guide personalized targeted nutrition and supplement recommendations aimed at the restoration of nutrient status.
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Dietary Choices for a Healthy Mesentery
You can make dietary choices that support mesentery health as well as the health of the rest of your gastrointestinal tract. A balanced diet for mesentery health incorporates anti-inflammatory foods, plant-based fibers, and adequate hydration.
An anti-inflammatory diet that is individualized based on any identified specific nutrient deficiencies, gut health issues, and other health needs can support mesentery health. This way of eating focuses on a variety of colorful vegetables and fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices to provide plenty of fiber, antioxidants like polyphenols, and a variety of nutrients. Heavily processed foods, added simple sugars and chemical preservatives are minimized or excluded. Eating in this way supports a healthy mesentery and a diverse microbiome and reduces excess inflammation.
Plant-based anti-inflammatory foods such as leafy greens, berries, and omega-3-rich fatty fish like salmon provide nutrients that support a balanced inflammatory response and can help to heal the mesentery, microbiome, and gut lining.
These phytonutrients also contain bioactive compounds that can modulate immunomodulatory and inflammatory processes. This helps to support a healthy microbiome when consumed along with fiber-rich foods like whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.
A healthy mesentery also requires adequate hydration. Water that you drink is absorbed in the jejunum of your small intestine and transported through mesenteric lymph vessels. Staying adequately hydrated by drinking plenty of filtered clean water helps to keep lymph flowing in the mesentery and maintains and impacts immune and inflammatory cytokines in the mesentery that promote innate immunity throughout the body.
While hydration needs vary based on many individual factors, a general guideline is to drink between 0.5-1 ounce of water for each pound you weigh every day. This should result in rarely feeling thirsty and having colorless or light yellow urine.
Lifestyle Modifications to Support Mesentery Health
Lifestyle for mesentery health can have a significant impact on your digestion and overall well-being. Diet, physical activity, stress management, and adequate sleep are all important for optimal digestive health.
In addition to consuming a nutrient-rich anti-inflammatory diet as discussed above, regularly moving your body helps to optimize digestion and mesentery health. Exercise and mesentery health are related through the impacts of movement on the microbiome, digestion, immunity, and inflammation. Regular moderate physical activity helps you maintain healthy body weight and keeps metabolic factors like blood sugar and inflammation more balanced.
Regular balanced exercise of a moderate amount and intensity of exercise (at least 3 hours per week) has many benefits for gut and mesentery health. Exercise benefits the microbiome, improves circulation, supports the immune system, improves digestive function, and reduces stress to benefit the health of your mesentery.
Exercise is also a great way to manage stress to support a healthy mesentery and digestion. Keeping chronic stress under check with meaningful stress management practices like yoga, meditation, tai chi, and breath work helps to shift you into a parasympathetic state where repair and digestion can take place. The health of your mesentery and digestion are impacted by chronic unmanaged stress that can lead to dysbiosis, inflammation, and a weakened intestinal mucosal barrier.
To keep your mesentery healthy, it is also important to get adequate regular restorative sleep. Aim for at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep each night to support your mesentery, microbiome, and overall health.
Understanding and Reducing Risk Factors
Protecting mesentery health requires paying attention to your diet and lifestyle habits. You can take proactive steps to identify and address risk factors that can negatively affect mesentery health. These risk factors for mesentery health include an inflammation-promoting diet, lack of adequate nutrients, a sedentary lifestyle, and chronic stress.
When your body carries out metabolic processes, oxidation occurs which produces free radicals that can damage your cells and DNA. Oxidative stress contributes to inflammation and can cause damage to the lymph vessels that flow through the mesentery, impairing their ability to transport lymph fluid and wastes properly.
You can help reduce oxidative stress and damage to your mesentery by increasing your intake of antioxidants like polyphenols in colorful plant-based foods like fruits and vegetables. These types of whole foods reduce inflammation by combating oxidative stress created by many metabolic processes in your body. This helps to balance inflammation and prevent damage to tissues like the mesentery.
Avoiding exposure to unnecessary oxidation can also help prevent damage and improve the health of your mesentery. One of the body’s most powerful antioxidants is glutathione which is made up of amino acids including glycine, glutamate, and cysteine, and needs sulfur to function. Eating a diet incorporating foods that support your body in making glutathione like asparagus, walnuts, spinach, garlic, and cruciferous vegetables can help maintain a healthy mesentery. Choose organically grown produce and avoid ultra-processed foods filled with chemical additives and processed sugars.
Oxidation also increases when you are chronically stressed or with excessive physical demands. Build a meaningful stress management plan that incorporates gentle to moderate exercise and avoid over-training.
When to Seek Medical Advice
Since the mesentery carries out many important roles in health, it is important to pay attention to mesentery health symptoms. Paying attention to your body and discussing any symptoms you experience with a knowledgeable provider at regular check-ups can help lead to early detection of potential mesentery-related issues.
In addition, several acute issues can impact the mesentery and require seeking medical advice for mesentery health.
Mesenteric lymphadenitis when the lymph nodes in the mystery become swollen and inflamed, often causes the mesentery itself to have increased inflammation. This usually occurs due to a viral infection in the gastrointestinal tract. While it usually resolves on its own, mesenteric lymphadenitis can mimic other emergency conditions like appendicitis or intussusception (when part of the intestine slides into another part of the intestine), so it is important to seek medical care if you experience symptoms like abdominal pain and tenderness, fever, and diarrhea or nausea and vomiting.
If blood flow in the arteries running through the mesentery is compromised, it can permanently damage the small intestine. Mesenteric ischemia can happen acutely from a blood clot that requires emergency removal. It can also occur more slowly over time due to fatty deposits that build up in the arteries (atherosclerosis) and can be treated with angioplasty. If not treated, chronic mesenteric ischemia can lead to severe weight loss and malnutrition.
If the mesenteric fat becomes inflamed, mesenteric panniculitis or sclerosing mesenteritis can result. This rare chronic inflammatory condition can occur due to infection, surgery, certain medications, injury, or some cancers. The inflammation that occurs with this condition can lead to abdominal pain, fever, and swelling that can impact the digestive tract. Mesenteric panniculitis should be evaluated and treated by a medical professional to avoid complications like bowel obstruction and assess for associated conditions like cancer.
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The Mesentary and Your Health: Key Takeaways
Your mesentery is an important fan of connective tissue that connects your intestines to the posterior abdominal wall. It carries blood and lymphatic vessels throughout the abdomen and has wide-reaching metabolic and other impacts.
Maintaining mesentery health is crucial for a well-functioning digestive system, balanced inflammation throughout the body, and overall health. Your diet and lifestyle choices can have a significant impact on this organ.
You can personalize and incorporate the dietary and lifestyle modifications discussed in this article with the guidance of your healthcare provider for better mesentery and overall health. Keeping inflammation balanced with a nutrient-rich whole foods-focused diet, regular moderate exercise, and meaningful stress management are key parts of a holistic plan for mesentery health.
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