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Digestion
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Digestion
What a wonderful and complex conversion.
I, Dr. Steve Clark ND, am a firm believer that a person is unable to be healthy and happy with impaired digestion. I want to help anyone, of any age, digest better, in order to be stronger, more comfortable and more resilient. I think treating digestion is the best way to empower people. It's utterly amazing digestion works at all...and of the vast array of issues that I see patients for, it's my favorite thing to treat.
I feel that digestion is poorly treated in standard health care. Generally, in Western medicine (which I call MD-LAND), digestion is disabled to reduce symptoms...but the long-term consequences of those treatments can be quite depleting.
We need to digest, absorb and assimilate nutrients to be strong, health and resilient. Supporting your digestion can be a difficult process and it may take a lot of input on your part including:Understanding digestionLearning the toolsPotentially changing and controlling your diet if needed
If you are able to follow those steps, I assure you, there is A LOT of room for improvement. Below I will go over what digestion is, so that you have an understanding of the process and an opportunity to fix it:
Once you understand the components of your digestion you can begin treatment:
The Steps of Digestion
I) Parasympathetic dominant enteric nerve function and Stress Response
A confusing start, I know. Just hang in there. Parasympathetic is a nerve state in which we are “RESTED AND RELAXED.” You have to be resting and relaxed to digest properly.
Enteric nerves are the nerves that drive your digestion. These nerves use the same neurotransmitters our brain uses, like dopamine and serotonin. You won't believe where most of that serotonin comes from! Read on and find out.
It's hard to digest properly when you are anxious or stressed. Digestion is opposite of burning the candle on both ends.
Our stress response is run predominantly by our adrenal gland and is controlled by:Cortisol: a hormone that can last 7 hours. Adrenaline: 2 neurotransmitters that should come and go quickly, but in some people can linger.
Tips and Treatments for parasympathetic dominant enteric nerve function:Eat with your feet on the ground. Be thankful for you food.Stimulate your digestion with bitters or apple cider vinegar (see instructions below)Love your food. Be thankful. Be focused on eating. Smell your food. Appreciate the colors. Cook with love, Eat with thanks!Meditation and yoga to learn to be in a relaxed state.
Too stressed to digest? Feeling anxious? Eating on the run? Too distracted?Relaxing adrenal treatments. Bitters. Take 10 deep breath. Meditate for a few mintues. Maybe SAMe if you don't break down adrenaline well, and feel stuck in fight or flight.
Enteric nerves are the nerves that drive your digestion. These nerves use the same neurotransmitters our brain uses, like dopamine and serotonin. You won't believe where most of that serotonin comes from! Read on and find out.
It's hard to digest properly when you are anxious or stressed. Digestion is opposite of burning the candle on both ends.
Our stress response is run predominantly by our adrenal gland and is controlled by:Cortisol: a hormone that can last 7 hours. Adrenaline: 2 neurotransmitters that should come and go quickly, but in some people can linger.
Tips and Treatments for parasympathetic dominant enteric nerve function:Eat with your feet on the ground. Be thankful for you food.Stimulate your digestion with bitters or apple cider vinegar (see instructions below)Love your food. Be thankful. Be focused on eating. Smell your food. Appreciate the colors. Cook with love, Eat with thanks!Meditation and yoga to learn to be in a relaxed state.
Too stressed to digest? Feeling anxious? Eating on the run? Too distracted?Relaxing adrenal treatments. Bitters. Take 10 deep breath. Meditate for a few mintues. Maybe SAMe if you don't break down adrenaline well, and feel stuck in fight or flight.
II Chewing your food
The next step in digestion is chewing your food.Chew your food!Imagine a 10 pound block of ice and another 10 pound block of ice smashed into powderThe powered ice melts faster because it has more surface areaChewed food digests quicker because it has more surface area
Treatments for chewing:Make sure your teeth are healthy and your gums are in good shape. Brush, floss and see a dentist regularity. Blend the food in a good blender. Cook the food for a long time so it's broken down better like soups and stews.
Treatments for chewing:Make sure your teeth are healthy and your gums are in good shape. Brush, floss and see a dentist regularity. Blend the food in a good blender. Cook the food for a long time so it's broken down better like soups and stews.
III) The Acid in your stomach is important! (not optional)
The next step in digestion is stomach acid
The acidity in your stomach helps you absorb...Minerals: esp Calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium (the “+” positive ones)Proteins: By making them more digestibleB vitaminsAND the acidity of the environment triggers steps further down in digestion.
The acid in your stomach is millions of times more concentrated than the acid in your blood. This is achieved by pumps that move ions around called proton pumps. These pumps use a LOT of energy to move acid into your stomach, and require enough energy and minerals to work correctly. It is true...if you don't digest well, that acid can burn you! That can be a problem.My preference is to fix digestion, so the acid works correctly. I discourage people from blocking acid unless there is no other option.
The main symptom for low stomach acid is a sensation of Feeling like food just sits there. Meat especially bothers that symptom.
Treatments for stomach acid issues like reflux, and heartburn:One example of issues with stomach acid is reflux. Reflux is when acid leaves your stomach and goes up into your esophagus and burns the lining. This may even can cause cancer, if left untreated for years.By far, the most common cause of reflux is a hiatal hernia, and that can usually be fixed by a physical medicine adjustment that takes a few seconds!Yes, a physical medicine manipulation that can cure reflux instead of being on acid blockers for years. I do this in the office, and VERY often can cure reflux, and I teach you how to keep it fixed.
Sometimes acid that is too low can give you heart burn. Acid that is too low can cause digestive problems. It's very uncommon to have acid that is too high. It's FAR more common to have acid that is too low...which causes indigestion.The reason there is a belief in modern medicine that there is such as a thing as 'too much acid' is because of commercials for an acid blockers. They are selling “Acid Blocker Deficiencies”...that you need to be on an acid blocker to be healthy. I disagree. You need to digest correctly to be healthy.
You can increase stomach acid with apple cider vinegar1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar 15-30 minutes before eating. Make sure you rinse your mouth after so it doesn't bother your teeth. You can mix it in water to dilute the flavor, or you can add honey for sweetness if you don't have a blood sugar problem.The taste of the vinegar stimulates your digestion (parasympathetic enteric stimulation!) and the acid in the vinegar “primes” your proton pumps to turn your acid up.Obviously apple cider vinegar isn't for everyone. It can burn people with poor acid protection, but then we know to work on that if it's a problem.
There are other treatments for increasing acid and to form protection from acid. Sometimes people don't make enough of a mucus layer and that means the acid burns more easily.Sometimes bacteria like H. pylori can live at the stomach lining and deactivate acid. Then we have to treat the H pylori infection.
The acidity in your stomach helps you absorb...Minerals: esp Calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium (the “+” positive ones)Proteins: By making them more digestibleB vitaminsAND the acidity of the environment triggers steps further down in digestion.
The acid in your stomach is millions of times more concentrated than the acid in your blood. This is achieved by pumps that move ions around called proton pumps. These pumps use a LOT of energy to move acid into your stomach, and require enough energy and minerals to work correctly. It is true...if you don't digest well, that acid can burn you! That can be a problem.My preference is to fix digestion, so the acid works correctly. I discourage people from blocking acid unless there is no other option.
The main symptom for low stomach acid is a sensation of Feeling like food just sits there. Meat especially bothers that symptom.
Treatments for stomach acid issues like reflux, and heartburn:One example of issues with stomach acid is reflux. Reflux is when acid leaves your stomach and goes up into your esophagus and burns the lining. This may even can cause cancer, if left untreated for years.By far, the most common cause of reflux is a hiatal hernia, and that can usually be fixed by a physical medicine adjustment that takes a few seconds!Yes, a physical medicine manipulation that can cure reflux instead of being on acid blockers for years. I do this in the office, and VERY often can cure reflux, and I teach you how to keep it fixed.
Sometimes acid that is too low can give you heart burn. Acid that is too low can cause digestive problems. It's very uncommon to have acid that is too high. It's FAR more common to have acid that is too low...which causes indigestion.The reason there is a belief in modern medicine that there is such as a thing as 'too much acid' is because of commercials for an acid blockers. They are selling “Acid Blocker Deficiencies”...that you need to be on an acid blocker to be healthy. I disagree. You need to digest correctly to be healthy.
You can increase stomach acid with apple cider vinegar1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar 15-30 minutes before eating. Make sure you rinse your mouth after so it doesn't bother your teeth. You can mix it in water to dilute the flavor, or you can add honey for sweetness if you don't have a blood sugar problem.The taste of the vinegar stimulates your digestion (parasympathetic enteric stimulation!) and the acid in the vinegar “primes” your proton pumps to turn your acid up.Obviously apple cider vinegar isn't for everyone. It can burn people with poor acid protection, but then we know to work on that if it's a problem.
There are other treatments for increasing acid and to form protection from acid. Sometimes people don't make enough of a mucus layer and that means the acid burns more easily.Sometimes bacteria like H. pylori can live at the stomach lining and deactivate acid. Then we have to treat the H pylori infection.
IV) Pancreatic enzymes
The next step in digestion is Pancreatic enzymesThe acid/food mix coming from our stomach triggers a release of buffer and enzymes from our pancreas. Pancreatic enzymes come from our pancreas and partially digest food. Pancreatic enzymes make our large complex food molecules smaller, but not quite small enough to absorb.
Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency is when your pancreas doesn't make enough enzymes. Your pancreas makes a lot of juice, about 1 to 4 liters of enzyme rich juice a day to help digest.That's a gallon! We only make .5-1.5 liters of saliva, so 3X as much...if you can imagine that! Treatment for pancreatic enzymes: You can test pancreatic output with a stool test. You can treat pancreatic exocrine insufficiency with pancreatic enzymes. Sometimes you can increase pancreatic output with bitters or increasing stomach acid.
Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency is when your pancreas doesn't make enough enzymes. Your pancreas makes a lot of juice, about 1 to 4 liters of enzyme rich juice a day to help digest.That's a gallon! We only make .5-1.5 liters of saliva, so 3X as much...if you can imagine that! Treatment for pancreatic enzymes: You can test pancreatic output with a stool test. You can treat pancreatic exocrine insufficiency with pancreatic enzymes. Sometimes you can increase pancreatic output with bitters or increasing stomach acid.
V) Bile
The next step in digestion is bile
Bile comes form your liver and is made of cholesterol (one of the reasons why cholesterol is essential). Bile is stored in your gall bladder and dumped onto fat in the digestive system. Bile helps emulsify fat so that it can be digested better. Emulsify means to break into small water soluble particles. For example: Imagine Italian Dressing. The oil (fat particles) are emulsified and mixed into the water of the dressing when you shake it up. Same with fat in your digestion. Bile emulsifies the fat into the watery digestive fluids.
Bile is actually quite complex.
Bile allows the fat-soluble chemicals that your liver has detoxified to be eliminated from your body. Bile can act as a signaling molecule. Bile is recycled and altered by gut bacteria.
People without a gall bladder still make and dump bile. It's just not timed to food anymore.Bile can burn your lining if it isn't made correctly (Conjugated with taurine or glycine, for those scientists out there)
Problem with bile include:Greasy stools, which means Bowel movements that are hard to wipe. Wipe and wipe and wipe and it's just so hard to clean. That's fat in your stools and it's a bile problem.People can have gall bladder pain, bile stones or bile sludge.Sometimes bile problems can make stools green or light colored.
Tips and Treatments for bile:You can “thin” bile with lecithin.You can treat bile flow from your gall bladder with certain herbs.If you don't emulsify fat well you can take bile or supplements that help you make bile correctly.Avoiding fats helps when you don't have enough bile.
Bile comes form your liver and is made of cholesterol (one of the reasons why cholesterol is essential). Bile is stored in your gall bladder and dumped onto fat in the digestive system. Bile helps emulsify fat so that it can be digested better. Emulsify means to break into small water soluble particles. For example: Imagine Italian Dressing. The oil (fat particles) are emulsified and mixed into the water of the dressing when you shake it up. Same with fat in your digestion. Bile emulsifies the fat into the watery digestive fluids.
Bile is actually quite complex.
Bile allows the fat-soluble chemicals that your liver has detoxified to be eliminated from your body. Bile can act as a signaling molecule. Bile is recycled and altered by gut bacteria.
People without a gall bladder still make and dump bile. It's just not timed to food anymore.Bile can burn your lining if it isn't made correctly (Conjugated with taurine or glycine, for those scientists out there)
Problem with bile include:Greasy stools, which means Bowel movements that are hard to wipe. Wipe and wipe and wipe and it's just so hard to clean. That's fat in your stools and it's a bile problem.People can have gall bladder pain, bile stones or bile sludge.Sometimes bile problems can make stools green or light colored.
Tips and Treatments for bile:You can “thin” bile with lecithin.You can treat bile flow from your gall bladder with certain herbs.If you don't emulsify fat well you can take bile or supplements that help you make bile correctly.Avoiding fats helps when you don't have enough bile.
VI) Your Gut Lining
The next step in digestion your gut lining
Oh, I do so love gut linings! So complicated and delicate. Your gut lining is 1 cell thick,made up of cells called enterocytes. These cells are where it all happens!At the surface of your gut lining, you have another set of enzymes called the brush boarder enzymes. This is where you complete digestion. You digest the FODMAPS at your gut lining. Your gut lining digests lactose, gluten, starches and small proteins. Your gut lining helps to manage your beneficial gastrointestinal bacteria (which I call gut bugs).Your gut lining decides what to absorb. Your gut lining keeps your immune system and your partially digested food away from each other.Your gut lining helps to regulate inflammation.Your gut lining, depending on where, is swimming in bacteria, acid, bile, partially digested food, enzymes, mucus, neurotransmitters and inflammatory chemicals. It's pure art!Your gut lining eats mainly L-glutamine, and in your large intestines it eats short chain fats too
Your gut lining can get damaged and leak...AND/OR it can leak on purpose using a hormone called ZONULINWhen your gut lining leaks, aka 'leaky gut' your partially digested food and gut bacteria meet your immune system and all hell breaks loose!Symptoms of a leaky gut lining...BM changes, nutrient malabsorption, autoimmunity, food intolerance, anxiety/depression (blood brain barrier breach!), system inflammation, joint pain, fatigue, confusion...
Testing for gut lining issues:You can test the health of your gut lining with leaky gut testing, zonulin testing and inflammatory chemicals like Calprotectin and Eosinophil Activation ProteinFood allergies and food reactions tend to happen from damage to your gut lining... and then cause further damage to your gut lining. You can test food reactions. There are a bunch of types of food reactions like IgE allergies, IgG & IgA antibody reactions and cell medicated immunity reactions. You can have food symptoms not related to inflammation like Lactose intolerance, and that also happens at your gut lining.
Treatments for your gut lining: Your gut lining eats glutamine. If there is any gut lining damage, the place to start is glutamine. Get L-glutamine powder. Mix 3 grams into water and sip it. 1X/day when your gut is happy and up to 3X/day or more when your gut lining is upset. Your large intestines eat short chain fats like butryic acid. This can be helpful for large intestine irritation.
There are herbs and supplements that are soothing to your gut lining:Chamomile, Marshmallow, Slippery elm, Licorice, Zinc carnosine
Anti-inflammatories that are helpful to those cells: Prickly ash, Turmeric, Sarsaparilla and Ginger
It's hard to find an anti-inflammatories that don't cause gut lining damage. NSAIDS like Ibuprofen, aspirin and Naproxen damage your gut lining because gut lining enterocytes cells HEAL with inflammation. There are prescription anti-inflammatories that can be used for your gut lining. I prefer to start with herbal options and increase force into prescription options if necessary.
Irritable bowel disease happens at your gut lining. That's an inflammatory reaction, which may even be an over reaction to your gut bugs. Irritable bowel disease (IBD) can be tested with a stool test and a treatment must include gut lining support.
Oh, I do so love gut linings! So complicated and delicate. Your gut lining is 1 cell thick,made up of cells called enterocytes. These cells are where it all happens!At the surface of your gut lining, you have another set of enzymes called the brush boarder enzymes. This is where you complete digestion. You digest the FODMAPS at your gut lining. Your gut lining digests lactose, gluten, starches and small proteins. Your gut lining helps to manage your beneficial gastrointestinal bacteria (which I call gut bugs).Your gut lining decides what to absorb. Your gut lining keeps your immune system and your partially digested food away from each other.Your gut lining helps to regulate inflammation.Your gut lining, depending on where, is swimming in bacteria, acid, bile, partially digested food, enzymes, mucus, neurotransmitters and inflammatory chemicals. It's pure art!Your gut lining eats mainly L-glutamine, and in your large intestines it eats short chain fats too
Your gut lining can get damaged and leak...AND/OR it can leak on purpose using a hormone called ZONULINWhen your gut lining leaks, aka 'leaky gut' your partially digested food and gut bacteria meet your immune system and all hell breaks loose!Symptoms of a leaky gut lining...BM changes, nutrient malabsorption, autoimmunity, food intolerance, anxiety/depression (blood brain barrier breach!), system inflammation, joint pain, fatigue, confusion...
Testing for gut lining issues:You can test the health of your gut lining with leaky gut testing, zonulin testing and inflammatory chemicals like Calprotectin and Eosinophil Activation ProteinFood allergies and food reactions tend to happen from damage to your gut lining... and then cause further damage to your gut lining. You can test food reactions. There are a bunch of types of food reactions like IgE allergies, IgG & IgA antibody reactions and cell medicated immunity reactions. You can have food symptoms not related to inflammation like Lactose intolerance, and that also happens at your gut lining.
Treatments for your gut lining: Your gut lining eats glutamine. If there is any gut lining damage, the place to start is glutamine. Get L-glutamine powder. Mix 3 grams into water and sip it. 1X/day when your gut is happy and up to 3X/day or more when your gut lining is upset. Your large intestines eat short chain fats like butryic acid. This can be helpful for large intestine irritation.
There are herbs and supplements that are soothing to your gut lining:Chamomile, Marshmallow, Slippery elm, Licorice, Zinc carnosine
Anti-inflammatories that are helpful to those cells: Prickly ash, Turmeric, Sarsaparilla and Ginger
It's hard to find an anti-inflammatories that don't cause gut lining damage. NSAIDS like Ibuprofen, aspirin and Naproxen damage your gut lining because gut lining enterocytes cells HEAL with inflammation. There are prescription anti-inflammatories that can be used for your gut lining. I prefer to start with herbal options and increase force into prescription options if necessary.
Irritable bowel disease happens at your gut lining. That's an inflammatory reaction, which may even be an over reaction to your gut bugs. Irritable bowel disease (IBD) can be tested with a stool test and a treatment must include gut lining support.
VI) Your Intestinal Flora (aka: your gut bugs)
The next step in digestion is your intestinal flora
There are a 100 trillion bacteria in your intestines. There are way more individual bacteria in your intestines than cells in your body. The bacteria are utterly critical to life! Understanding the interplay between our gut bacteria and our body is the key to understanding so many illness includingInfectionsAutoimmune diseaseMental health problems: anxiety/depressionADD/ADHD/AutismAlzheimersDigestive problems: constipation, diarrhea, IBS/IBDAllergiesand on and on and on
Research is figuring out new things about gut bugs all the time. Gut bugs are in the news all the time!
Gut bugs do a lot of important thingsThey make our brain chemistry. Example: 90% of the serotonin in our body is made by the bacteria in our intestines. Serotonin is the 'happy' neurotransmitter. Our gut bacteria are responsible for our happiness! Funny. Remember from earlier in the article, Digestion is parasympathetic dominant= rest and relaxed. Our gut bugs HELP us to be rest and relaxed by making those neurotransmitters for us. The circle of life, no?Gut bugs help us digestGut bugs help regulate our immune system including reducing allergies, fighting infection and balancing our immune response. Gut bugs make the food our large intestine's lining eats...short chain fats. Gut bugs can help us with detox and bile utilization
Gut bugs are absurdly important. The population of gut bugs can be damaged with drugs, chemicals, hormonesChemicals in our environment including pesticides and herbicides are likely changing gut bugs directly and indirectly through our foods.Gut bugs can get more damaged through generations. A balanced or imbalanced population of gut bugs can be passed on from mother to child in a normal vaginal birth (and consequently not passed on with a C-section or antibiotic use during birth). A digestive problem that seems hereditary or genetic may actually be from the gut bugs getting passed on!
The wrong organisms can colonize in our intestines and cause diseases or problemsincluding FungusBacterial imbalanceBacterial infectionsParasitesand even sometimes viruses.
You can test gut bugs with fine detail.MD-LAND tends not to test for gut bugs. When they test for gut infections they are testing for the things you see on the news. E Coli infection. SalmonellaShigella, etc
Depending on what we want to test for, there are testing options that can test for every aspect of digestion (except chewing. Chew your food people)We have stool test options that can test good bacteria, imbalance bacteria, harmful bacteria, fungus, parasites with a much higher accuracy than standard testingas well asDigestioninflammationImmunity
Treating gut bugs: I like to draw an analogy of treating gut bugs like growing a garden. You can't walk into the woods and throw seeds and expect to get a garden. You have to clean up the woods, make the soil nice, plant the seeds, weed, water, encourage growth.
Gut bugs are the same. You can't just take probiotics and hope to get the right population. They don't even sell all the Probiotics bacteria strains that we have in our intestines!In order to improve gut bugs:Find the infections in your intestines and kill them Make the environment nice for the right organismsFeed the right organismsWeed out the wrong ones. Keep the lining and immune system healthy
There are a 100 trillion bacteria in your intestines. There are way more individual bacteria in your intestines than cells in your body. The bacteria are utterly critical to life! Understanding the interplay between our gut bacteria and our body is the key to understanding so many illness includingInfectionsAutoimmune diseaseMental health problems: anxiety/depressionADD/ADHD/AutismAlzheimersDigestive problems: constipation, diarrhea, IBS/IBDAllergiesand on and on and on
Research is figuring out new things about gut bugs all the time. Gut bugs are in the news all the time!
Gut bugs do a lot of important thingsThey make our brain chemistry. Example: 90% of the serotonin in our body is made by the bacteria in our intestines. Serotonin is the 'happy' neurotransmitter. Our gut bacteria are responsible for our happiness! Funny. Remember from earlier in the article, Digestion is parasympathetic dominant= rest and relaxed. Our gut bugs HELP us to be rest and relaxed by making those neurotransmitters for us. The circle of life, no?Gut bugs help us digestGut bugs help regulate our immune system including reducing allergies, fighting infection and balancing our immune response. Gut bugs make the food our large intestine's lining eats...short chain fats. Gut bugs can help us with detox and bile utilization
Gut bugs are absurdly important. The population of gut bugs can be damaged with drugs, chemicals, hormonesChemicals in our environment including pesticides and herbicides are likely changing gut bugs directly and indirectly through our foods.Gut bugs can get more damaged through generations. A balanced or imbalanced population of gut bugs can be passed on from mother to child in a normal vaginal birth (and consequently not passed on with a C-section or antibiotic use during birth). A digestive problem that seems hereditary or genetic may actually be from the gut bugs getting passed on!
The wrong organisms can colonize in our intestines and cause diseases or problemsincluding FungusBacterial imbalanceBacterial infectionsParasitesand even sometimes viruses.
You can test gut bugs with fine detail.MD-LAND tends not to test for gut bugs. When they test for gut infections they are testing for the things you see on the news. E Coli infection. SalmonellaShigella, etc
Depending on what we want to test for, there are testing options that can test for every aspect of digestion (except chewing. Chew your food people)We have stool test options that can test good bacteria, imbalance bacteria, harmful bacteria, fungus, parasites with a much higher accuracy than standard testingas well asDigestioninflammationImmunity
Treating gut bugs: I like to draw an analogy of treating gut bugs like growing a garden. You can't walk into the woods and throw seeds and expect to get a garden. You have to clean up the woods, make the soil nice, plant the seeds, weed, water, encourage growth.
Gut bugs are the same. You can't just take probiotics and hope to get the right population. They don't even sell all the Probiotics bacteria strains that we have in our intestines!In order to improve gut bugs:Find the infections in your intestines and kill them Make the environment nice for the right organismsFeed the right organismsWeed out the wrong ones. Keep the lining and immune system healthy
Summary
I'm sure if you got this far, you're realizing that digestion is complex. That's why I started out with the statement...”digestion is wonderful and complex.“
The reason I have problems with MD-LAND gastroenterology is that they generally ignore the many aspects of digestion. Gastroenterologist are excellent for using cameras and finding structural pathology like polyps, cancers, etcBut on the other hand, for treating and supporting functional digestion...not so excellent.They ignore your state of mind (parasympathetic dominant enteric)They ignore chewingThey ignore or block stomach acidThey ignore pancreatic enzymesThey ignore bile or remove your gall bladderThey ignore your gut lining (except in the case of cancer, polyps, Chron's Disease or Ulcerative colitis) and they ignore gut bugs They ignore most infections and GI bacterial balanceThey ignore all the parts of digestion...and they are the professionals of digestion.
If you find yourself with a digestive problem and you've haven't been educated how to use tools to manage and improve your digestion, or if you haven't had success seeing a GI, please do yourself a favor and seek out a doctor like me that can treat your digestion and help you.
Sadly, the standard of care of many many, oh so many, digestive problems is acid blockers like proton pump inhibitors, histamine blockers or buffers.
I'd like to change that trend to to better Digest, Absorb and Assimilate Life!
The reason I have problems with MD-LAND gastroenterology is that they generally ignore the many aspects of digestion. Gastroenterologist are excellent for using cameras and finding structural pathology like polyps, cancers, etcBut on the other hand, for treating and supporting functional digestion...not so excellent.They ignore your state of mind (parasympathetic dominant enteric)They ignore chewingThey ignore or block stomach acidThey ignore pancreatic enzymesThey ignore bile or remove your gall bladderThey ignore your gut lining (except in the case of cancer, polyps, Chron's Disease or Ulcerative colitis) and they ignore gut bugs They ignore most infections and GI bacterial balanceThey ignore all the parts of digestion...and they are the professionals of digestion.
If you find yourself with a digestive problem and you've haven't been educated how to use tools to manage and improve your digestion, or if you haven't had success seeing a GI, please do yourself a favor and seek out a doctor like me that can treat your digestion and help you.
Sadly, the standard of care of many many, oh so many, digestive problems is acid blockers like proton pump inhibitors, histamine blockers or buffers.
I'd like to change that trend to to better Digest, Absorb and Assimilate Life!