Understanding Digestion: Part 1

I have had quite a few people talk to me about digestion problems and how to address them. I think we really need to understand how digestion works and the mechanisms involved, first and foremost. Part II will be included next week.

One of the things I appreciate most about my naturopathic training is the understanding of digestion and gastro-intestinal health issues. Unfortunately, modern medicine is lacking in this area, and often has little to offer many sufferers of gastric issues.

     

As it turns out, the whole digestive system is fairly simple. When you chew your food (one hundred  times per bite, like Mom taught you, right?), amylase mixes with the food and begins to break down simple carbohydrates into smaller molecules. Then you swallow, and the food is propelled to your stomach, where gastric cells secrete hydrochloric acid (HCL), which begins breaking all the food into even smaller bits.

     

Once the food (now called chyme) enters the small intestine, the pancreas releases enzymes that are specific for the type of food that is present: for proteins, the pancreas releases protease, for fats it release lipase, and so on. These enzymes help to break down the rest of the food into small enough bits to cross through the cells of the GI tract and into your bloodstream.

     

If you have eaten fats, the liver is constantly releasing bile into the small intestine to surround the little goblets of fat so they can be absorbed. If you have eaten a very fatty meal, your gall bladder will squeeze out extra bile that has been stored for just such an occasion.

     

The rest of what happens in the small intestine is all about absorption. If you were to spread your entire digestive tract out in a single cell layer, it would cover a tennis court. That's a huge amount of surface area! The meal you just ate gets spread back and forth over this tennis court-sized cellular area, and molecule by molecule, gets absorbed into your bloodstream and goes directly to your liver, to be checked out and released as energy and building material.

     

Once the chyme makes it to the large intestine, it has become a watery sludge. The good flora work their magic, toxins are released, and mostly water is absorbed, leaving you with a nice firm bowel movement at the end of the process. And this all happens without you even having to think about it! 

     

So, why are there so many problems with digestion, like reflux, gall bladder issues, IBS, Crohn's disease, colitis, ulcers, constipation and diarrhea? Over the next few weeks, I will be exploring the causes of each of these, and how to resolve these issues simply and easily, without drugs. (I've never met a patient who had reflux (heartburn) from a Zantac deficiency!)

The GI tract is easily healed with the removal of irritation and the introduction of items that restore proper function. 

     

Let's start this week with the stomach. There are a few basic functions that the stomach has: Firstly, the gastric cells produce hydrochloric acid (HCL), which is responsible for killing bad bugs and parasites, breaking down food particles into smaller bits, and lowering the pH of food to 1-3 on the pH scale of 1-14 (7 is neutral; above that is alkaline and below that is acidic).

     

When someone with heartburn takes an antacid or drugs that are proton pump inhibitors (PPI's), they stop these gastric cells from producing HCL. The problem with this is that only about 3% of the population have an excess of HCL; most people (97%)  are actually deficient.

     

This is something that is very easy and inexpensive to test.  

If you have a warming sensation with 1 capsule, then you are in the 3% that truly have too much HCL production. This is simple to fix, but overextends the perimeters of this email. Come in to see me for personal treatment plan. 

     

Another common problem is with the valves of the stomach. These are one-way doors that let food into and out of the stomach, and they move downward, not up. If the upper valve gets caught above the diaphragm (hiatal hernia), it has to be pulled down below the muscular loop of the diaphragm to function properly. You can easily use gravity to do this. When you first awaken in morning, drink 8 oz of water (which adds weight to stomach), then stand up on tippy toes and gently but firmly drop down on your heels about 10 times. You will usually feel the stomach drop down out of the diaphragmatic loop of muscle. Repeat this same process about one hour before dinner. You can also use castor oil packs to help heal the diaphragm so this is a permanent solution.