Digestive problems are issues that every human encounters. In today’s world of fast food and poor eating habits, we find ourselves suffering from digestive upset more and more often.
How Important Is Digestive Health?
Digestive Health is crucial to one's overall well-being. Food and nutrients are brought into the body and fuel every organ. When digestive health is poor people can experience a great number of issues.
Digestion begins in the mouth with saliva, teeth, and the tongue. The teeth chew food and the saliva glands produce acid which begins to break it down. After swallowing, it descends into the esophagus. Saliva enzymes encapsulate the food as it’s contracted into the stomach. It enters the small intestines where nutrients separate and waste deposits into the large intestine. During this process is where people usually experience poor digestive symptoms.
What Are Some Common Digestive Problems?
Whether you are someone who suffers from digestive issues on occasion or after every single meal you know the pain and inconvenience associated with these problems. Digestive problems can occur for a variety of reasons. People experience digestive problems with anything from dehydration and food poisoning to chronic conditions like Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome.
These are some mild digestive issues:
- Flatulence
- Heartburn
- Dehydration
- Constipation
- Food poisoning
- Viruses – gastroenteritis
- Bacterial overgrowth-candida
- Gastrointestinal reflux GERD
- Hemorrhoids
- Ulcers
These are chronic or severe disorders of the digestive system:
- Crohn’s disease
- Diverticulitis
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Ulcerative colitis
- Gastritis
- Inflammatory Bowel disease
- Parasites
- Bowel obstruction
- Stomach cancer
What Are The Symptoms of A Bad Digestive System?
We all know that eating junk food and fast food constantly creates digestive issues among many other health issues. From a young age, most of us learn about the food pyramid. Thinking that a couple bites of veggies and one piece of fruit will sustain the body. Our society lacks education about how foods help nourish and restore the body. Below are symptoms one may experience with a poor digestive system:
- Gas
- Bloating
- Constipation
- Feeling Full Quickly After Eating
- Diarrhea
- Floating Stool or Oily Looking Stool
- Reflux
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Stomach Cramps
- Mood Swings
- Skin Inflammation
- Sugar Cravings
- Nutrient Deficiencies
- Gallbladder Removed
Bad Habits
Over time, so many of us develop poor eating habits. That reason alone can cause moderate digestive symptoms. Many people start out by not chewing their food thoroughly. They follow that up with eating too fast.
The stomach must accommodate by producing more acid and working harder to digest these large pieces of food. The other organs that aid in digestion have to work harder as well. Being more conscious of this issue may help reduce some symptoms.
Battle of The Mind-Overeating
We’ve all heard the saying, “you are what you eat.” Eating junk food makes you feel good the few seconds you are chewing it, however in the long run can result in a number of health complications ranging from mild to severe. Then on top of that your body processes these sugars and highly processed foods. Research shows that this cyclone of eating results in increased anxiety and depression.
Food psychologists help people overcome overeating as well. They use cognitive behavioral therapy to address negative thought patterns to help change behavior. Making healthy food choices is not just a stomach battle but a battle of the mind too. The psychology of food is a real thing and there are professionals out there who can help.
Malabsorption
Issues with absorption can cause nutrient deficiencies as well as digestive problems. In the functional health world, there is a lot of attention surrounding gut permeability. This theory is that the gut lining becomes thin and permeable. Food and other toxins can pass through this permeable gut lining before being disbursed to their proper destinations.
Particles travel throughout the body causing inflammation and harm. There is not enough medical evidence to qualify this as a legit diagnosis. It is clear that our bad eating habits tax the digestive system. Bypassing the body’s main mechanism to eliminate toxins sounds like a dangerous issue.
Nutrient Density
Many people believe America is the world’s capital of tasty foods. Fast food branches are present all over the globe. As a society, we have lost track of what good food really is. We find comfort in food. Food is there for us when we are sad. Most of us use food to treat our bad moods.
Food should be enjoyed though its primary purpose is to nourish our body. Some believe we have desensitized our own taste buds. Creating expectations of flavor high in salt and sugar. This takes us further from what nourishing food is meant to be. Many of us have forgotten that healthy food tastes good.
What Causes Digestive Problems?
There are so many factors involved it's not always easy to pinpoint the cause of certain stomach problems. For some, it’s apparent. You ate spicy food and you know spicy food always causes heartburn and diarrhea for you. We ignore signs from our own body telling us to not eat these kinds of food.
Some of us have issues with dairy. Every time you eat dairy you get bloated and constipated. Paying attention to our body and responding accordingly shouldn’t be hard. For so many of us we push the limits like with alcohol or chocolate cake. Hydration and exercise are vital for detox, health, and stress management.
What Is Gastrointestinal Disease?
Gastrointestinal disease is a general term for a variety of digestive illnesses. All of the symptoms and ailments mentioned earlier are Gastrointestinal diseases. They range from morning sickness in pregnancy to chronic diseases like Crohn’s. They also include viral and bacterial digestive infections as well as constipation.
Most gastrointestinal diseases are results of lifestyle and diet choices but heredity may play a role. Developing in our mother’s womb we are possibly predisposed to encounter certain diseases or ailments. Whether we develop these diseases or illnesses relies on the health and integrity of our detoxification processes.
Our choices in life have the power to turn on or off the expression of certain genes. Some diseases are truly inherited with no regard to lifestyle choices but gastrointestinal diseases does not appear to be one of them.
What Is Gastritis?
Gastritis is a breakdown of the stomach lining, but can gastritis cause mucus in stool? Mucus lines the walls of the intestines as well as the stomach. Some people experience a decrease in mucus causing inflammation of their digestive tract. People with gastritis may suffer from this randomly while others have chronic symptoms. The inflammation can also cause ulcers to form.
Symptoms of gastritis are:
- Heartburn sensation
- Nausea
- Stomach pain
- Hiccups
- Vomiting
- Loss of Appetite
- Dark tar-like stool
Causes of gastritis are similar to other digestive disorders. Bacterial and viral infections may cause this disease. Frequent alcohol consumption, as well as large amounts of aspirin, can create gastritis within the body. Stress and eating a poor diet increases risk of developing Gastritis. If you experience any of these symptoms it’s important to contact your doctor to prevent further damage to the intestines.
What Supplements May Help?
Supplements help support healthy diet and lifestyle choices. Taking a good quality probiotic is a great starting place. Probiotics can also be found in fermented foods and yogurt. Vitamin C, garlic, turmeric, and ginseng are inflammatory supplements to incorporate when healing your Gastrointestinal disease. Many people have also found success in adding zinc, collagen peptides, bone broth, and chondroitin sulfate to their daily supplements. These help support healing.
Spermidine is a naturally occurring element in our bodies. We usually generate this when we fast from food. As we age our body creates less of this. Spermidine triggers our body’s ability to renew its own cells. Wheat germ also produces spermidine. At SpermidineLIFE they source local non-gmo wheat germ and manufacture it into supplement form. Spermidine has shown to decrease inflammation and help with detoxification. This supplement mimics the benefits of fasting to help improve overall health.
