Digestive Health

Digestion is the process of breaking down tightly bound molecules into individual nutrients that can be taken into your body and used to support its functions. Simply defined, digestion is cutting things down to a size in which they can be absorbed into your body.

Proper digestive health is basic to the healthy function of every organ system in the body. If your digestion is bad, nutrients from your food aren’t made available for absorption and malnutrition can ensue.

It’s been said that health begins in the stomach. When the digestive system is not working properly, the whole body suffers.

It is estimated that about 90% of all disease have nutritional links that can be relieved or prevented when optimizing nutrition & digestion.

Skin rash, bad breath, headache, fatigue, overweight, and premature aging can all result from poor digestion.

Speedy digestion therefore, is step one to maintaining optimal health.  If a food is not digested completely or properly, and lingers in the digestive tract longer than necessary, it will produce toxic by products.

When this is the case, many otherwise beneficial food products, in particular, difficult to digest animal protein and other such fiber free foods, instead of being properly utilized by the body are released undigested back into the system in the form of toxins, thereby initiating an inflammatory response from the immune system.

Scientists have discovered that many people have a defect in the way their body processes proteins. One group of these, the toxic metabolites of two crucial amino acids found in animal protein, arginine and ornithine, have been found in the blood of many people who suffer from digestive trouble. Elevated levels of polyamines have been shown to cause and aggravate psoriasis and other inflammatory skin conditions.

Indigestion

A disease in the digestive tract might cause indigestion, but for many people it results from eating too much, eating too quickly, eating high-fat foods, or eating during stressful situations. Smoking, drinking too much alcohol, using medications that irritate the stomach lining, being tired and having ongoing stress can also cause indigestion or make it worse.

Our intestines replace their lining every three days, and react swiftly to expel harmful substances. However, a diet high in refined and processed foods that are nutritionally deficient are a cause of excess mucus formation, which can lead to many gastrointestinal problems that include flatulence, indigestion, and chronic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and peptic ulcers.

Leaky Gut Syndrome

When your digestive system is not operating properly, the unhealthy toxic environment actually destroys the lining of the digestive tract causing a condition called Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Leaky gut refers to an increased permeability of the intestinal wall, resulting in the increased passage of substances from the intestines to the bloodstream. In other words, large spaces develop between the cells of the gut wall and bacteria, toxins, and food leak in. The body does not recognize them and activates the immune system to search and destroy. The result is inflammation.

In relation to food, this is the most common single cause of food allergies and skin conditions. Numerous studies have shown that psoriasis is strongly linked with leaky gut syndrome.

The overuse of antibiotics, steroids (cortisones), birth control pills, antacids, and anti-ulcer medications are also considered a major cause of leaky gut syndrome. Broad- spectrum antibiotics can kill all the friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract. The bad bacteria then actually burrows holes in the lining of the digestive tract, which gives way to undigested food getting through and going straight into our bloodstream, hence the reason for many of the cases of eczema and psoriasis.

Probiotics For Digestive Health

Probiotics like Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacteria bifidum, help restore a balance of friendly bacteria to the body’s digestive tract thus aiding in digestion. The acidophilus repopulates your digestive tract with microorganisms that are beneficial to the digestive tract, helps further break down your food, and competes for space and nutrients with harmful microorganisms that may be present, diminishing their numbers.

I would highly recommend a product called Primal Defense produced by Garden of Life Inc. This product contains seven kinds of beneficial acidophilus, plus 100 naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, and live enzymes.

The main component in Primal Defense is HSOs, which have been used for over 22 years by thousands of health care practitioners. The non-mutated naturally occurring colonies of probiotics are from the original, pristine cultures found in unpolluted soil and plants, now cultivated in U.S. laboratories using proprietary methods. The HSOs are in a substrate of nutrient rich super-foods providing vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes and proteins. The probiotics are then made dormant using the Microflora Delivery System, which protects and delivers them directly to the GI tract where they multiply and flourish.

The following are practical measures that can be taken to smooth your overall digestive function

1. Exercise.  For the digestive system to speedily and smoothly process the incoming food products, it needs proper exercise the same way fire needs fuel. Exercise aids digestion by helping the normal movements the intestines make to push food forward. It is a fact, that people who do not move around much are often constipated.

Tip: Exercising with a full stomach may cause indigestion, so scheduling exercise before a meal or at least an hour afterward might help.

Both exercise and digestion require increased blood flow. When you exercise with a lot of food or fluid in your stomach, the stomach and working muscles battle for extra blood. The result is that food doesn’t leave the stomach as quickly as it should and indigestion may occur.

2. Eat slowly chew your food properly. We often make the mistake of wolfing food down so we can move on to the next activity in our busy lives, but digestion functions better when we take the time to slow down.

It is a scientific fact that more than fifty percent of the digestive process takes place even before you swallow your food, when the food products are mixed with the saliva. If you don’t chew your food properly your stomach will have a much harder time processing your food. Therefore, chew and chew some more!

Digestive Enzymes for proper digestive health

Our pancreas produces digestive enzymes in order to break down the nutrients contained in the foods we eat.

Digestive enzymes are secreted along the gastrointestinal tract and break down the food in the body so that the nutrients can be absorbed.

Enzymes are essential for the digestion and absorption of food, for it’s conversion into body tissue, and for production of energy at the cellular level.

Enzymes are the most important unit in the human body, because every chemical change that takes place to repair tissue, or to assimilate food, involves the activity of enzymes. Without enzyme activity there is no life. No plant or animal can live without the activity of its enzymes.

All raw foods contain natural enzymes that aid in the digestion of the food product that is being ingested. The problem is, that much of the food products consumed today are severely lacking in these vital enzymes. The main culprit of course being the over processing of food products, which strips the food of all nutritional value, including the vital enzymes. In addition, even the most nutritious most vitamin- laden foods that are rich in natural enzymes when they are in their raw state, will loose all their enzyme content when cooked above 118 degrees.

Research has shown that people who regularly eat highly processed foods have enlarged pan­creases compared to those who eat more fresh foods. Pancreas enlargement can indicate this organ is working overtime to produce extra enzymes to digest enzyme-deficient foods.

Consuming foods that are enzyme deficient puts great stress on the digestive system, being, that the body must produce its own enzymes in order to break down the food products. This can lead to various digestive problems such as indigestion, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, arthritis, allergies, and various skin conditions including psoriasis.

Luckily, there is a very simple solution to this problem, which is to consume natural digestive enzymes in tablet or powder form. I personally know of many people who suffered from the effects of severe digestive problems for many years and got almost instantaneous relief by taking digestive enzymes.

I would personally highly recommend the following digestive enzyme product.

Omegazyme produced by Garden of Life.

This digestive enzyme product:

• Contains over 20 different digestive enzymes.
• Is the most powerful vegetarian-based digestive enzyme product currently available.
• Aids in the digestion of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, dairy products, and difficult to digest foods such as broccoli, nuts, seeds and beans.
• Is high in sugar digesting enzymes to handle large quantities of sugars and starches.

Click here to learn more about Omegazyme.

How are digestive enzymes taken?

Enzymes are usually taken together with meals. The amount needed depends on the state of your digestive health, and the amount of processed and cooked food that you are consuming. At the very least, enzymes should be taken when consuming foods that are especially difficult to digest such as meat, poultry and dairy products.

Follow the directions on the bottle for the correct dosage.

Click here to read a very informative and educational two-part article on the topic of digestive enzymes.

Additional Enzyme Sources

1. Fresh squeezed raw fruit and vegetable juices: Raw juices are rich in enzymes essential for digestion, and critical for most of the body’s metabolic activities.

2. Unsweetened apple juice. Apples contain malic and tartaric acids, which neutralize an acidic body, and assist in food digestion. Fresh unpasteurized apple juice is known to reduce the acidity of the stomach and prevent fermentation in the intestines.

3. Fresh Papaya and Papaya Juice. Papaya contains proteolytic enzymes that enhance the digestion of protein. In addition, papaya is the only known food to contain papain-a powerful enzyme that enhances the digestion of protein. Papain enzyme is also available in delicious all natural chewable caplets.

4. Aloe Vera Juice - Aloe Vera is known to aid in the healing of stomach disorders, ulcers, constipation, hemorrhoids, rectal itching, colitis, and all colon problems.

Aloe Vera has soothing, anti-inflammatory effects on the digestive system and is a source of proteolytic digestive enzymes.

Many people with digestive problems drink aloe in a juice form to treat their symptoms.

Aloe naturally alkalizes digestive juices to prevent over acidity – a common cause of indigestion . In addition, it helps cleanse the digestive tract by exerting a soothing, balancing effect.

Aloe effectively heals the lining of the intestines. It fixes the damaged membranes, intestinal swelling decreases, and the cells of the intestinal wall are tightened, which basically corrects intestinal weakness.  The continual flow of protein to the blood is also stopped."  In addition to prescribing aloe to his patients with leaky guy syndrome.

5. Celery and cabbage juices. Fresh cabbage and celery juices are great cleansers and healers of the digestive tract. People with ulcers and many kinds of digestive difficulties have had great results drinking cabbage and celery juice.

6. Pineapple Juice. Raw pineapple juice contains the enzyme bromelain that is known to have powerful anti-inflammatory and protein-digesting properties. Bromelain is an excellent digestive aid, and enhances the absorption of nutrients from food. Bromelain is also available in capsule form.