Digestion

The importance and process of good digestion

Diseases of the digestion/intestinal tract CAUSE nutritional deficiencies even if 2 people are eating the same foods because it’s not what you eat. It’s how you absorb those foods.

The gastro intestinal tract which extends from mouth to anus is like an interstate highway. It starts with passing through the Toll Booth (the mouth). Good nutrition passes through the Toll and on its journey provides power, energy, stamina and strength to enable each person to live their life to the full.

Poor nutrition passes through just the same as good but there will always be a heavy toll to pay later on the highway for the damage those foods cause on their way along the journey till it comes out the other end (anus). That#s IF it finds its way out. Constipation is often the outcome of persistent poor nutrition or lack of good nutrition.

Through their journey in the body, foods and all of their contents will slow down as it passes through various organs like twists and turns in the road or going up hill and will speed up at others, depending on the condition of the vehicle and the state of the roads. Foods will merge with other nutrients produced by the body and will get pulled over by the digestive “cops” for nutritional “violations”. During every trip all foods hit a 3 pronged fork in the road, either they will be broken down by proteins in the blood stream (immune system) and liver OR stored as fat OR processed as waste and directed to nature’s porcelain recycling junkyard.

Service Stations on the Digestive Motorway
There are several “pull over places” (stop off’s) and NOT all foods are absorbed at the same place or at the same rate on the journey.
1. Stomach (the acid it produces)
2. Duodenum (first part of the small intestine) where the nutrients are separated from the waste. It metabolises fat soluble vitamins, calcium, magnesium, iron and others
3. Juedenum (second part of the small intestine) where lactose, glucose and protein is processed
4. Ileum (third part of the small intestine) where folic acid, B12 and water soluble vitamins are processed
5. Finally the colon (large intestine) where potassium sodium and water are processed.
Food in the stomach stimulates the production of CCK which is ejected towards the walls of the stomach which instigates the feeling of fullness.
Colicystikonin (CCK) is a peptide (chemical produced by the endocrine/hormonal system) in the gut which switches on a button when you eat that tells your brain when the stomach is full. It does this via the Vagus Nerve (the main cable that controls part of the Parasympathetic nervous system).
High fat and high sugar diets lead to less sensitivity to CCK. So you don’t get the message that you are full you eat more than your digestion can cope with.

Colicystokonin (CCK) also causes the gall bladder to contract and squeeze bile into the small intestine. So when the body is less sensitive to this measure ie ignores the CCK message – less bile is secreted to break down the fat and sugars and so they are then stored in the body Or the body has to try and deal with it some other way. If food isn’t processed properly at these stages and as more food comes down – a back up of traffic is caused and consequently traffic jams on the digestive highway start to slow down the passage of traffic.

Good fats

It is believed that if you eat a little of the GOOD fats about 20 minutes before a meal, this will stimulate the production of CCK which means that when you sit down to eat your main meal, you will feel disinclined to eat more than your body needs. eg 6 walnuts OR 12 almonds OR 20 unsalted peanuts). Drinking a large glass of water immediately prior to eating will also help to fill you up so that you don’t eat so much. It is not a good idea to drink water during your meal as this dilutes digestive enzymes which could add to any potential digestive problems.
Blood Sugar

Another function which needs to be working effectively is the level of sugar in the blood. There needs to be a good balance at all times. Too much results in highs (sugar rushes) and not enough produces lows (feelings of lethargy).

Low blood sugar stimulates hunger. It’s the body’s way of telling us it needs more fuel on the fire to enable it to continue down the road. It’s running out of petrol! We all know that if we allow the petrol tank on the car to run to it’s lowest before re-filling – all we do is send the sludge which has collected at the bottom of the tank, around the car engine. If we over fill the petrol tank – it overflows and is dangerous because if nothing else, it is a fire hazard. There are also consequences if we don’t keep our blood sugar levels balanced.

Hormones

If the body were an orchestra, the Endocrine System (Hormones) – particularly the Hypothalamus would be the leader of the orchestra. It is responsible metabolism and receiving the signal from the body whether it is hungry or not. This is why it is imperative that the hormonal system is also balanced and functioning properly, in cases of unexplained weight gain or loss and digestive problems of any kind.

The Pancreas (also part of the Endocrine System) is responsible for processing sugar and does so by producing insulin which turns sugar into GlycoGON; The body takes all the energy it needs to function from the food we eat. If we take on board more sugar in those foods than it needs to function, the body will STORE what’s left for another day, as GlycoGEN.

f or when blood sugar falls and we don’t put in more fuel, the pancreas will turn the Glycogen (stored fuel) back into GlycoGON and then back into sugar with which to power the body back up.

Fibre
Fibre acts like speed bumps in the middle of the highway the gastro intestinal tract). It slows everything down, makes you feel fuller for longer – then you don’t eat so much, particularly if you bulk up in the morning with foods like oatmeal, whole grains and fruit. It can be helpful to eat between 1 - 2 grams of fibre before each meal and at bedtime increased to 5 grams.

Another trick is to change your plates to a smaller size, that way your plate visually looks full and this can make a difference to you noticing that you are full.

There is evidence capsicum (red peppers), if eaten early in the day can gradually decrease food intake as the day goes on.
Inflammatory Responses

When “interrogating” nutrients as they pass through the digestive system, the “digestive cops” classify foods by the kind of inflammatory effect they have within them (allergens); enemies contribute to inflammation. Foods seen as “allies” quieten the inflammatory response. Inflammation is caused when free radicals attack innocent bystanders in our bodies.

Inflammation happens on many different levels and turn very different mechanisms on and off. For instance allergic reactions can be as a result of the way the liver responds to fats; through the way the belly responds to stress, toxins from cigarettes, alcohol, medication, metals, chemicals, vaccinations, viruses, pesticides, parasites and other bacteria.

nflammatory responses can also cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin resistance (diabetes) and inflammation of the arteries (arteriosclerosis)

Nervous System

There are 100 million nerve endings in the gastro intestinal track which results in pain and other responses (allergic) being immediate. In relation to tolerance to certain foods, the level of discomfort individuals experience depends on their genetics and their genetic disposition when it comes to dealing with digestive “explosions”.

There are also some foods which will have an anti-inflammatory response which behave like “fire fighters”. When this happens, the digestive tract will contract or dilate. Those who are more sensitive than others may not always recognise these clues.

Gastro Intestinal Highway - Digestive Enzymes

Sometimes problems involving intolerances are the result of enzyme deficiencies. As soon as food enters the mouth (Toll Booth) and hits the tongue - messages are sent through the taste buds to the brain via the hormonal system, which in turn sends messages to the stomach signalling that it should start to produce digestive enzymes to prepare for processing food as it travels through the alimentary canal (the gastro intestinal highway).

The first port of call is the stomach where, in combination with specific enzymes, acid is produced to break down the food into molecules small enough to pass on to the next stage. If foods are not broken down properly at this stage, it does not happen anywhere else. Therefore food molecules continue on their way in a state the body does not recognise and therefore can not properly digest. Undigested foods remain undigested. The body’s way of trying to dealing with it is to produce additional bacteria which produce its own waste which in turn, leads to bloating and wind, IBS, pain, constipation and diarrhoea (which is still classed as constipation). This proliferation of bacteria in the gut is known as candidiasis. If this condition is allowed to continue it may lead to other digestive problems and gut dysbiosis including leaky gut syndrome.

Refrigerator

Think of your body as a refrigerator. If you let meat and vegetables and other foods sit in there for a few days, after a while it will smell very bad because it will start to rot. In your body, sulphur rich foods like eggs, meat, beer, beans and cauliflower becomes decomposed by bacteria which in turn produces hydrogen sulphide which has such a strong smell it would flatten a bear in the woods. That’s why when food is not sent along the “highway” (GI tract) in an efficient manner, the result is wind, gas, constipation, bloating and diarrhoea.

Psychological Response

Just as our bodies may ave different ways of tolerating foods we all have different ways of coping with psychological issues. Many of which we don’t recognise. The small intestine is the brain of the stomach. It constantly gives us warning signs and will tell us what to eat; it is therefore imperative that we listen and pay attention.
What needs to be done?
What would you do if it were your fridge?
1. Probably clear out the old stuff
2. Cleanses and sterilise the fridge
3. Refill it with fresh and healthy foods
4. Maintain that level of cleanliness and freshness

How does that relate to the body?

Guessing at what foods to eliminate is like opening the fridge door, keeping your eyes closed and feeling around and choosing one or two things to throw out when actually, everything needs to go. However, you can not eliminate ALL foods from your diet. You would also check whether the temperature in the fridge was appropriate to keep the food cool and fresh and whether it was working effectively and efficiently?
So in relation to the body, you clear out the old rotting stuff drainage homeopathic and herbal remedies. You then check how all the various processes in the body are functioning effectively and efficiently. Having done all those tests, then you would change the diet and make sure that all the foods that go back into the fridge and fresh and nutritious in the first place. ie no rubbish is going to enter through the toll booth.
Once what goes into the mouth is deemed safe and nutritious and the gastro intestinal highway has been cleansed and cleared of any wreckage, food can continue its way along the road to the end of its journey strengthening the normal functioning of the body and maintaining it in a healthy state in the future.

Self Help
Most people try to self help before seeking professional help. When that doesn’t work, they start to become concerned that something must be seriously wrong and so then go down the orthodox medical route.
After experiencing a variety of medical tests and medication – very often without any support or answers, they then might seek help, advice and support through books and health food stores. I suspect this is because they do not want to pay for treatment from a practitioner because qualifications and training are complex and therefore not understood and there may be a fear that the treatments will not work and they will have spent their money for no benefit.

But there is so much conflicting advice out there especially with allergy testing and mysterious illnesses are concerned. I have seen a great deal of people who has been for an allergy test previously and come out with a list as long as their arm as to what they must eliminate without any information, guidance or support as to how to do it – therefore they do not succeed. It’s not practical. Hence this gives validation and credence to their fears and concerns that complementary and alternative health doesn’t work and is therefore a waste of money. Frankly, practitioners who work in that manner do the rest us a great dis-service.

Regrettably, many times, it is only when people are desperate that they turn to complementary and alternative health practitioners for professional help. When they feel abandoned by the medical profession and have lost all their faith. THEN they want us to create a miracle and expect us to help them get better over night because by that time (a) they are so very ill, they’re practically begging for help and (b) because the situation has got so bad, they were previously concerned how much it would cost, now they know it will cost more because it will take longer to correct. But by this time – they say “I don’t care how much it costs. PLEASE can you help me?”

It’s also interesting to note that whilst there may not have originally been any confidence that CAM practitioners could help in the beginning – now that there is evidence that NO ONE else has been able to help – there’s suddenly an expectation that WE can? That’s a mystery to me. I wonder whether it is because now that they ARE prepared to pay for a service, because there appears to be no other way out, they now feel able to trust or even demand a result.

But CAM treatments are so much more complex. They demand commitment and responsibility from the patient. The work doesn’t involve lying on a couch and having a treatment and being fixed by the practitioner. It doesn’t involve having a test which shows that a person is “allergic” to a specific food and all that has to be done to enable them to have a healthy lifestyle by eliminating that particular food from the diet.

F it were that simple – the GP, the self help books and the health food shops would have resolved the issues. But they didn’t. SO it stands to reason that if the problem persists, there MUST be more to it than that. The job of the CAM professional is to establish where on that digestive highway it all started to go wrong and what carnage was created as a result of it. Then clear away the wreckage and make a clear pathway to continue the journey. And whatever the problem - the digestive system is almost without fail, ALWAYS involved because it has been compromised by SOMETHING. It is the most important function in the body.

It doesn’t matter if it is something that the body has been exposed to externally (viruses, bacteria); something the body has had to deal with that has been ingested which it was not designed to digest (metals, chemicals, vaccinations, parasites, pesticides); or its inability to digest properly because the various organs in the body have become compromised as a result of abuse of some sort (the food chain, alcohol, cigarettes, prescribed or social drugs) and finally it may be recovering from some physical and /or emotional stress.

At an intestinal level, foods cause inflammation of the intestinal walls because of allergies, bacteria, chemicals, pesticides, metals and other toxins. When that happens it’s like a grenade being launched through the digestive system. Then the body tosses in even more grenades to try and fight it. The outcome of which is the more inflammation the body creates, the more toxins enter the blood stream.

During these “fights” the body assigns mast cells to fight the invaders and to eliminate the toxins from the body. This is called an “immune response”. Once that happens it calls on its “friends” within the other major systems which sends a response throughout the whole body to help fight the invaders

The role of sugar in the inflammatory response

Inflammation stops sugar getting into brain cells so if too much sugar is ingested, the body produces more inflammation to cope with it and so the whole process keeps repeating itself. If we want to remain healthy, we must concern ourselves in decreasing inflammatory responses to enable the body to become more efficient.

Smoking

Smokers have more high levels of inflammation than non smokers. The more inflammation there is the less efficiently the body works. The worse a person will feel and the more symptoms they will have.
Because of the psychological link, the worse people feel, the more they are to eat and the more they eat, the more likely they are to eat foods which cause harm, to make themselves feel better.

The more bad foods a person eats the less well their body can respond and the more inflammation they experience. The more inflammation there is, the higher their risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and all other conditions related to inflammatory conditions, including weight gain.

Inflammation ages the body; it makes arteries less elastic; it damages DNA; there is a higher risk of infection and cells becoming cancerous.
If inflammatory responses (mediators) are fighting in the arteries they can’t be responding elsewhere. This is why smoking increases the risk of heart failure and this situation also increases the risk that the body will turn in on itself causing auto immune diseases like Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Thyroid disease to name a few.

Gas

Wind comes from two sources, air we breathe/swallow (20%) and through the digestion of foods by bacteria in the intestines (80%). The result of gas is made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and methane – which are inflammable.

The role of the Liver

The liver is a bit like a country postman. It takes in all the mail (nutrients and toxins) sorts, de-toxifies and then ships everything off to the outlying “villages” (organs) for use as energy OR to be eliminated through the kidneys, bladder, lungs, digestive system and skin.

Fat

Over a period of time, fatty livers can lead to liver dysfunction and serious liver disorders.
Inflammation stresses the body. Inflammation influences fat.

Small Intestine
The small intestine is 20 foot long. The whole of this area is used to absorb foods and the nutrients from food. It is the second brain in the body and as it contains more neurons than the brain and as many as the spinal cord, foods dictate whether the small intestine feels mild annoyance (a little bloating) or anger (gas) or stubbornness (constipation) or all out temper tantrums (explosive diarrhoea)

We all have brains – we all have a small intestine; none of which work exactly the same in each person. Our intestines are as different as our smiles. A certain food can energise one person and weaken another. Hence why the treatment programmes offered at Bromley Health Management are personalised.

Within our brains we react to love, anger, humiliation etc. The small intestine both thinks and feels. It tells us which foods agree and which don’t. The reason we have no energy or feel groggy is because our intestines are trying to tell us we’re eating the wrong foods.

How does it do that? Through absorbing foods along it’s 20ft length. When there is inflammation in the small intestine, due to swelling and poisoning of the functional cells, it cuts back on its absorption rate from 2million square cm to 2000 squared cm. Therefore, if the intestine can’t absorb nutrients, the person will experience an upset stomach and diarrhoea. Hence it’s not what you eat, it’s how your body absorbs what you eat which makes people ill.

Vehicles
Our bodies are the vehicles that carry us through life. The houses we live in. Regrettably, treating our bodies like cars is a grave error. We can not press the accelerator to make ourselves go faster. Suddenly applying the brakes to make ourselves slow down isn’t effective either.
The body creates inflammation when it is trying to heal itself. When we have too much inflammation within our bodies – it is less effective.
When we eat the right foods and metabolise them properly we will have less health risks.

More than a trillion bacteria line our gut. There are 500 species and most are potentially lethal. The body protects itself to keep those bacteria out of the blood stream. It needs to allow nutrients in but act like a fort to keep the lethal bacteria out. Once candidiasis is allowed to thrive in the intestines it creates a leaky gut and the protective fort is damaged. Hence it gets into the blood stream and creates mayhem as it is circulated around the body by the heart.As soon as the body is aware of bacteria in the blood stream, it sets off the alert and creates an inflammation to try and fight it.

Once candidiasis is systemic - inflammation then occurs all around the body, including muscles, joints, nerve endings and the brain. Hence regardless of the symptoms patients present with initially.

Therefore, the function of the digestive system ALWAYS has to be the starting point of any investigation into the cause of all health problems.

Sunday, 30 March 2008

© 2008 Bromley Health Management