Gastrointestinal

GI Tract Function and Wellness

by Forum Functional Health Center | Jun 24, 2018 | Gastrointestinal

A key factor in achieving optimum wellness and health is a properly functioning gastrointestinal or digestive system. Any program or attempt to maintain or recover optimum health can be completely undermined by a poorly functioning GI tract. Improper digestion leads to poor absorption of nutrients and constant irritation of GI lining. This can result in nutritional deficiencies which may or may not be expressed by outward symptoms for years until significant ills and disease present.

Poor digestion and absorption interfere with a myriad of bodily functions and cause problems such as nutrient deficiencies, inflammation, pain, skin issues, and hormone imbalances. Poor digestion is a constant stress on the body which interferes with proper adrenal function and leads to overall hormone imbalance.

Symptoms of poor digestion and absorption:

There are various symptoms of chronic digestive abnormalities including constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, heartburn, and food cravings. Additionally, anyone who takes a prescription acid reducing medication is going to have digestion and absorption dysfunction.

Dysbiosis

Dysbiosis is the overgrowth of bad bacteria in the intestinal tract. The intestinal tract is full of bacteria, both good and bad strains. The balance should be tipped to the beneficial bacteria side. This helps with waste elimination and proper balance of fluids and solids in the waste from out bodies.

Dysbiosis occurs when the balance moves to the bad basteria’s favor. It can be cause by parasitic infetions, bacterial overgrowth, yeast overgrowth or fungal overgrowth. Parasitic infections are a commonly undiagnosed causes of GI problems. Common sources of parasitic infection are food and water sources. Others include handling money, shaking hands, and using restrooms without properly washing your hands. Good personal hygiene is a basic method reducing such issues.

Hidden GI Tract Problems

Subclinical or mild inflammatory conditions can interfere with proper digestion and GI tract function. Food intolerance is such an issue. A major food intolerance problem is gluten intolerance. Gluten is found in grains including wheat, rye, barley, hops, and oats. Other common foods that can cause sensitivity reactions include dairy, eggs, tomatoes, and corn. Inflammatory reactions from the intake of these foods in someone who is intolerant can be as severe as causing joint pain and arthritic conditions or skin problems such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis. Bloating, swelling, gas, and indigestion can also result.

How to heal, repair, and restore proper GI Tract Function

Digestive Enzymes

The inability to properly digest food is the major underlying cause of GI tract dysfunction and symptoms. Improperly digested food leads to putrefaction (rotting) of undigested food in the stomach and intestines which is known to produce up to 33 proven carcinogens (cancer causing compounds).

Your stomach utilizes two substances for breaking food down: enzymes and acid. With the intake of poor food choices (processed and packaged foods, trans-fats, fried, fast foods, etc.), our ability to produce digestive enzymes decreases. When this occurs, the body will pull from other enzyme sources, such as ones that are critical for immune regulation, inflammation control and other cellular processes. This will cause the immune system and other bodily functions to suffer resulting in ill health.

The stomach will the work harder to produce more acid to digest the food. As many people are taking acid reducing medication, the bodies attempt to properly digest food is thwarted and the acid is inhibited from being released. This results in further malfunction and putrefunction of food in the GI tract, which results in foreign gas and acids to be produced and more symptoms of pain and burning.

Low enzyme and low acid production also provide the opportunity for harmful and unwanted organisms like yeast, parasites, and bad bacteria to proliferate. Poor eating habits result in decreased enzyme production. Depleted enzymes can be replenished by taking supplemental digestive enzymes. You can also build up your enzyme reserves by allowing GI tract to heal and recover.

Probiotics

Probiotics are the beneficial flora of bacteria found in the GI tract and intestines. These include various strains such as Acidophilus and Lactobacilus. These are often found in yogurt. What most people don’t realize is that there are literally dozens of strains of beneficial bacteria in the intestine and often times the depleted ones are not of the types found in yogurt products.

Maintaining the proper balance of good bacteria is essential to good colon health. If detrimental bacteria take over the balance within the GI tract, then issues will arise. Symptoms resulting from improper bacteria balance include constipation, diarrhea, IBS, dumping syndrome, and more. A good probiotic supplement includes multiple strains of beneficial bacteria to cover the entire need of the intestine and GI tract.

Yeast and Parasites

Specialized supplements are available designed to control and eliminate yeast, microbial, and parasitic overgrowth in the GI tract. These are normally much more effective and milder than prescription medications as there are little to no side effects.

Proper Diet and Hydration

It is vitally important to maintain a proper diet with proper diet with proper hydration for your body. You must learn the appropriate way to eat on a daily basis. The key is to understand the right things to eat, the right quantities, and the right combinations unreliable information, it can be very confusing. Our goal is to teach each individual the right way to go about an eating lifestyle that will promote whole body GI tract health and wellness.

Initial GI Tract Supplementation

Initially, the GI tract requires extra supplementation to ensure that detrimental substance and organisms are eliminated and good function is established. Digestive enzymes, yeast reduction methods, parasite cleansers, and restoration of beneficial probiotics is a must. If a patient has or has had ulcers in the past, a product to improved mucosal membrane function is needed. Regular wellness maintenance supplementation would include a probiotic and the regular supplementation of a good digestive enzyme.