Digestion
Fixing your digestion is likely to fix a lot of other problems with it. Subtle malnutrition can easily be the cause of everything from skin problems to sleep problems. It can be simple or very complex. It can just be a matter of getting enough water, relaxing when you eat, and eating real food, or all systems related to digestion, including your brain, adrenals, liver,thyroid, intestinal lining and kidneys, have all become dis-regulated due to long involvement in compensation due to digestive stresses. They may all need to be supported until they can function better. However, as a rule, it is best to start with the basics.
Fundamentals;
Hcl in the stomach, probiotics in the guts, not over eating and eating nutritionally rich foods, and staying hydrated, are the basics. Drink water and not much of it while eating. I have articles throughout my site on different approaches and protocols. Below is a short letter I sent to a friend who was trying to help a friend. She wanted a quick basic overview of what to do for digestion.
This was the letter I sent her.
Dear Daniel,
What your friend should do depends on what the problem is with her digestion/absorption/utilization. It also matters, what her present state of health is, and the genetics of her metabolism.
For Digestion: 6 things:
-A good pro-biotic is a first. Food like Applecider vinegar with the mother in it, miso (dont over heat), kombucha, nata, raw sour kraut, kefir and cultured goat dairys, (a lot of people have reactions to cow dairy protein unfortunately). Also eating raw foods give us some probiotics.
The stomach and gall bladder; breaking down food: Relax and sit when you eat, digestion stops with stress. If you eat standing or stressed you might not produce enough Hcl, which is for stomach digestion, never a bad idea to take some when eating, unless one has an ulcer. Acid indigestion means they need more Hcl, except if they have an ulcer! Papaya enzymes are cheap and soothing to the esophageal lining if one has heart burn or more accurately, acid indigestion.
The duodenum still does some digestion as that is when the bile emulsifies the oils and the pancreas sends out hormones and enzymes. sometimes the bile is too thick, slow to leave the gall bladder, so less effective. The food and product that is good for thinning the bile, is the top of beats with the bottom of the greens. It actually thins it in the liver so that is good. the products I use are Beta tcp by Biotics, or Bile Min by Apex. It is relatively cheap, and also helps with constipation because the oils are processed. If you have gall stones, this could be dangerous, so it can’t hurt to find out if you have stones, and don’t get to enthusiastic with how many beet tops you eat, if you are concerned.
The Pancreas. Only one hundredth of your pancreas makes insulin for transporting sugar into cells, so the poor thing is overworked and can need support to improve digestion because it sends out messages to activate upper digestive processes, and makes certain digestive enzymes. Apex has a subligual to support the pancreas. the best things we can do in our life style for our pancreas, is cut way down on dense sugar items, and lower our stress level because stress makes us produce insulin for energy to run from the tiger as it were. Stress comes in the form of allergies, emotions or attachments, toxins….and the occasional tiger.
-EFA’s (Essential fatty acids); all of them.
Eat fresh nuts from their husks, steamed or poached fish cooked with the skin for the fats, use cold pressed oils. If they use supplemental EFA’s, I recommend emulsified EFA’s, because many peoples bile (which is used to emulsify the oils we eat and make them digestible) is too thick from insufficient liver function where the bile is made. Oils are metabolically related to hormones. Since she has gone through menopause, a short half-life sub-lingual progesterone may be good if she has gone through menopause. Gotta ask her doctor about that of course. Apex Energetics has the perfect product. Get 15 minutes of high sun every day for you D.
-A safe detox product; The only way I recommend detoxing is with Apex Energetics glutathione recycler, or Max gxl or Max One. The later is more expensive but you don’t have to go though a practitioner to get it. I have a site for them because until recently they were the only place to get a product that had all the essential components for making your natural glutathione. healthkeystones.Max4u.com. Anything that makes you stress is hard on digestion because digestion turns off when you are stressed. To digest well, you have to detox. Some good detox foods are raw sea weed, gogi berries, raw chocolate, greens greens and more greens, berries and tropical fruit, and the cabbage family if she doesn’t have thyroid problems.
- If her guts are inflamed, there is a drink put out by Apex energetics (I favor Apex, Biotics and Synergy products) that has all kinds of goodies in it that could sooth and help the intestinal lining. Or if she can’t afford that kind of thing, it never hurts to add coconut oil to the diet or eat it straight. This may surprise you but a little organic pork fat also has stuff that helps the intestinal constitution!
Food:
Move toward a nutritionally rich diet. I have articles about this on my web site, but the short of it would be to eat organic fruits vegetables that are as local as possible, Wild fish, Grass fed beef (rare still has enzymes), free range chicken, nuts from their shells, cold pressed oil, raw honey, some raw food every day. and throw out your microwave. It destroys enzymes and makes all carbs for fattening and increases their insulin value.
Don’t: Eat fried foods or over eat. If she has an ulcer, use very little if not no wine, coffee or vinegar until they are gone, and then perhaps still don’t do those things on an empty stomach. Avoid pre-prepared foods and breads that are not sour dough. Canola and margerine and foods with ingredients you don’t recognize. Always relax and sit before eating. If she has crones or inflammatory bowels, raw veggies should be avoided or juiced and in small quantities at first as they are rough on the intestine. If she knows she has crones, she has a medical doctor she can run this by. I recommend the medical doctor be an integrative one or a naturopath as alopathics who are not integrative are less likely to try and actually remedy it; Auto immune diseases are not their forte. Again, throw out the microwave! It will increase the insulin value of your carbs, and destroy enzymes as well as make it more fattening.
So there is a brief overview of the basics. Most people will improve tremendously just getting their digestion in order. We are what we digest!
Good luck to you my friend,
Claudia