26 Dec Natural Help for Digestion
Improve Digestion Naturally: A Guide to Healthy Living and Healthier Gut
Over 2500 years ago, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, the father of medicine was quoted saying that “all disease begins in the gut”. This could be more true, and science enfolds with growing research to show that digestion is often the root cause of other conditions as well, including autoimmunity, mental health, hormones and more.
Your digestive system is like an assembly line, a hollow tunnel that runs through your body with various organs along the way contributing to digestion functions as the food travels down from the mouth towards the large intestines. The natural sequence of your digestive system is to digest, absorb and eliminate your food selectively, to nourish your body with fuel.
Digestion begins in the mouth, and chewing your food well is the crucial first step where your saliva and enzymes mix with the food, preparing it for the journey through the esophagus and into the stomach. I often ask my patients if any of their symptoms occur in the first half hour after eating, because that’s the common length of time foods are in the stomach, mixing with stomach enzymes and acids for the second step in digestion. Symptoms within 30 minutes of eating could be due to stomach conditions.
The food is then releasing into the small intestines. Your pancreas and your liver drain more enzymes and bile into the small intestine, to further digest the food as it propels along, absorbing water and nutrients into your bloodstream. If your digestive systems start around 30 minutes or longer after you have eaten, it could mean there are issues with these organs. You may notice that certain foods such as fats or carbohydrates trigger your symptoms, or that you have gas or bloating.
The third section of your digestion is your large intestines, which are located along the sides and upper half of your abdomen. The large intestines help digestion by absorbing water and solidifying waste products to prepare for elimination, the natural last step in our digestion process. I ask my patients a lot of questions about their stool. Is it loose, formed, thin, painful, messy, pebbles, high odour, sink, float, or do you see visible foods in the stool? Some patients get shy but it’s a natural part of life, and very useful feedback on the whole digestion process.
It’s not just what you eat. It’s what you digest, absorb and eliminate. At Bronte Natural Health Clinic we have various tests on site or order tests from specialty labs to help you find natural ways to help your digestion. We start with a thorough case history of you, physical exam, and we often do Live Blood Microscopy with a drop of blood from your finger. This affordable in-office test provides a lot of immediate information about digestion and immunity. Some patients need help detecting which foods they are sensitive to, and others may need a stool test for a thorough evaluation of their “microbiome”. The microbiome is the collection of small microbes that live along the lining of the digestive tract. Some are harmful, and others are beneficial (probiotics) In fact, the microbiome is so important that it is now referred to as the new organ in the human body! But that’s another story for another day 😊
If you need help with your digestion, the most natural first step is to notice how your body is functioning. What is the timing of your symptoms? Do you notice if certain foods trigger your symptoms? And how regular, comfortable and normal are your bowel movements? Think about when and how the problem started? Did the problems start after a trip, a flu, a new medication or a diet change?
In natural medicine, we focus on treating the root cause of your digestion problem and we are ready to help you know more about your body and find solutions and the help you need to feel better again.
Bronte Natural Health Clinic is the most experienced clinic of naturopathic medicine in Oakville, Ontario. We have a team of award-winning naturopaths, a nutritionists, homeopaths and live blood microscopists to help you with natural and lasting solutions to your digestion problems. You can reach us at bnhc@rogers.com or www.brontehealth.com
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