You Are What You Eat: Bowel Health (Part 3 of 3)
Filed Under Naturopathy |
I want to discuss bowel health in this last part of the series. It doesn’t matter how well you take care of your body: even if you eat right and exercise, you will (at one point or another)experience problems with your bowels. The elimination system is sensitive and easily upset. However, a few tips will help ensure better balance and comfort in knowing that you can go about your day worrying less about your bathroom habits and more on what counts—living your life.
As I mentioned in Part 2, digestion occurs in the small intestine and the large intestine is responsible for reabsorbing water and producing and expelling waste products. The key to healthy bowels is good hygiene, proper nutrition, replacement of key enzymes, reinoculation of probiotic bacteria, removal of foreign microorganisms, and adequate maintenance/repair of the system. That may sound like a lot of work, but keeping your bowels healthy is actually pretty simple. So let’s get right to it:
Replacement: Digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid (HCl), and fiber are key players in breaking down food into its useable components. Stress and poor diet are two major ways to knock this system to its knees. Signs of poor stomach health are obvious: heartburn, bloating, belching, and gas are not normal signs of a healthy system. If you experience these problems on a regular basis, then seek the advice of a medical professional, as the problem might not be diet-related. However, if you have a clean bill of health and are still experiencing those problems, then look to your diet for the answers.
As we age, our body’s ability to produce key enzymes and HCl diminishes. There are some wonderful products on the market. I would suggest that you start with the simple one first and that is papaya enzyme tablets. Find it in the digestive enzyme aisle and see if that does the trick. In addition:
1. Increase your fiber intake.
2. Slow down your eating. Take 30 minutes to finish your meal. Take small bites and chew thoroughly.
3. Do not lie down after eating, as this can increase the incidence of heartburn and indigestion.
4. Do not overeat—stop eating as soon as you feel full. By over-expanding your stomach you are causing the system to work harder.
5. Do not drink more than 4–6 ounces of liquid with your meal. This small amount can help moisten your food and move it down your esophagus. But more than this can cause over-dilution of digestive enzymes in the stomach.
Reinoculation: The lining of the large intestine houses lots of bacteria whose job is to break down waste products and keep the bad microorganisms at bay. These healthy organisms are in abundant supply in our guts but age, stress, poor diets, and environmental insults such as chemicals, metals, radiation, and antibiotics can reduce their numbers and effectiveness. These bacteria can easily be recultivated by either supplementing your diet with cultured milk products that contain lactobacilli and bifidobacteria or purchasing in it in capsules or tablets.
Removal: There are many environmental insults that attack the colon on a daily basis: pesticides, heavy metals, and food allergens such as cow’s milk, gluten (wheat, rye, barley, and oats), chocolate (sorry, but it is true), peanuts, and eggs. Here are some tips to help you remove the offending culprits:
1. Eat as close to raw and natural as possible: fresh fruits and vegetable, rice and beans, fresh fish (watch for those fish with high mercury content), organically raised poultry and beef.
2. Stay away from over-processed foods, saturated fats, and chemical addictives. If you can’t understand the ingredients on a label, then you should probably stay away from it.
3. Reduce your intake of milk products. Humans are the only mammals who continue to give milk to their young. There are other ways to get calcium and vitamin D than milk. Cow’s milk is a known digestive enemy and for some, the simple remedy is to exclude it from the diet.
4. Try an elimination diet to determine those substances that cause you the most problems. You will feel better, look better, and have more energy.
Repair: Help your colon to repair and maintain itself by providing the right tools. Eat a variety of food from a variety of sources to provide your body with the right nutrients:
1. Amino acids: the building blocks of all cells and are necessary to help heal, repair, and build new cells.
2. Vitamins and minerals: necessary for a variety of important functions from transportation of nutrients into the cells, repair tissue, and strengthen the immune system, just to name a few.
3. Complex carbohydrates: whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables are converted to glucose, the number one fuel source of the body.
4. Fats: a little goes a long way to help insulate vital organs, regulate temperature, store fat-soluble vitamins, provide a secondary source of energy, and contribute to vital chemical reactions throughout the body.
5. Herbs: there are so many that have a positive effect on the colon such as aloe vera, licorice root, papaya, cayenne, and others.
6. Water: I can’t say enough about the healing properties of water. The body is over 70% water, and dehydration is a serious problem in our society. In addition, water performs the following necessary functions:
• Regulates temperature
• Bathes our cells and organs, keeping tissues moist
• Enables chemical reactions throughout the body
• Forms our blood and blood products
• Helps remove toxins via perspiration and urine
Remember that digestion should be a process that you give little thought to. Be health savvy, and with a little bit of an initial investment, your return will be years of healthy and comfortable service.
In health and wellness,
Dr. Linda Mundorff
Comments
2 Comments so far
Can I expand on it a little?
In anatomy, the intestine is the segment of the alimentary canal extending from the stomach to the anus and, in humans and other mammals, consists of two segments, the small intestine and the large intestine. In humans, the small intestine is further subdivided into the duodenum, jejunum and ileum while the large intestine is subdivided into the cecum and colon.
Gross Anatomy:
The intestinal tract can be broadly divided into two different parts, the small and large intestine. Grayish-purple in color and about 35 mm (1.5 inches) in diameter, the small intestine is the first and longest, measuring 6 meters (20 feet) long average in an adult man. Shorter and relatively stockier, the large intestine is a dark reddish color, measuring roughly 1.5 meters (5 feet) long on average.
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