How is your Digestion?

We always talk about nutrition – what to eat to balance your blood sugar, burn fat and avoid insulin surges but what about digestion and nutrient absorption? Do you ever think about how your hormones are made or where your enzymes come from? We are what we eat but always what we absorb.

Nutritional Therapy looks at the ROOT cause of WHY you are having symptoms, infections or other unexplained health issues. Instead of taking a medication or supplement – we want to dive deeper into the root cause in order to correct the problem and bring the body back to homeostasis so it does its own age. As we age, we often need to supplement with HCL and digestive enzymes to aid in the digestive process in order to get the nutrients needed to make amino acids, enzymes and hormones plus to work in our first line of defense against parasites and other fungal infections.

Digestion is our first priority…well second as the first one is of course eating real nutrient dense foods that balance your blood sugar.

Then we focus on proper digestion as we work NORTH to SOUTH in the digestive process when working on Nutritional Therapy for clients.

The most northern point in our digestive system is actually our brain – so we want to work on eating when we are in the PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (PNS) state as it is the “rest and digest” nervous system as well as where we repair and recover.

When we are eating meals, we should take a moment and pause to take a few deep breathes. Take a long inhale through your nose and a longer exhale through your nose. Repeat 3-5 times until you feel that “reset” relaxed and calm feeling. We are switching from the often dominant (chronic stress) nervous system – the SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (fight or flight) to the PNS so we can be focused, present, enjoy and taste the food in our meal as well as allow for proper digestion processes including saliva in the mouth and stomach acid in the stomach organ. When eating, chew food thoroughly and slowly.

The stomach acid needs to be 1.5-3 pH in order to breakdown food correctly and to kill off invaders that enter the digestive system as well as to stimulate the small intestine to secrete mucous in the duodenum (first part of the small intestine). Proteins needs to be digested and broken down in the stomach properly in the ideal acidic environment to get the amino acids from the protein as well as to enter the small intestine to continue nutrient absorption. The stomach churns the food (bolus) with gastric juices to breakdown into a very acidic chyme paste.

The roles of stomach acid includes:

Baths the stomach
Disinfects the stomach
Kills bacteria and parasites
Activates pepsin so we can digest/breakdown proteins
Stimulates gastrin which stimulates sercretion of enzymes from the pancreas and gallbladder contraction to start fat digestion (bile)
Breaks down proteins

“Proteins that are not digested and broken down adequately in the stomach form the substrate for the bacteria and yeast to proliferate, which produce excess amounts of toxic metabolites. The liver detoxifies toxins produced by the gut. If the liver is not functioning optimally or if the amount of toxin production overwhelms its metabolic capacities, the toxins can enter systemic circulation. ”- source Question by Question Guide to the NAQ.

Low stomach acid – called Hypochlorhydria has a number of root causes to look at including:

Sympathetic dominance
Antacid drug use
Excess sugar and refined foods
Chronic over eating
Constant snacking between meals
Excess carbohydrate and alcohol consumption
Nutrient deficiencies as zinc and thiamin
H-Pylori infection

Antibiotics will wipe out all gut bacteria and in the digestive tract. This imbalance in the gut bacteria can lead to a permeable gut wall lining known as leaky gut and increase susceptibility to allergies (large particles of food sneaks out in to bloodstream and tagged as enemy). Yeast, fungus and other infections can flourish in the gut if we don’t have enough or replace the good bacteria as we get an imbalance in the gut bacteria from improper digestion and anti-biotics. Yeast likes to grow in moist and warm places as well as sugar, starches and alcohol which create a perfect environment for the culture to grow. We want to make sure we improve the digestion starting in the brain (PNS) and then stomach acid (HCL Betaine supplement) plus digestive enzymes as well as avoid all forms of sugar and yeasty food. If the infection returns then we may need to get a stool analysis for candida and parasites and/or heavy metal hair analysis.

Common Supplements but get a NTP to test which ones your body is asking for in our Functional Evaluation and muscle testing.