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Digestive Disorders
Updated: 06/05/2003
It is estimated that some form of digestive disorder affects more than 100 million people in America. That is more than half of the U.S. population.
For some people, digestive disorders are a source of irritation and discomfort that may cause them to drastically limit their lifestyles and to frequently miss work. For others, the disorders may be extremely crippling and even fatal.
The Gastrointestinal TraCT
The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is a long muscular tube that functions as the food processor for the human body. The digestive system includes the following organs: mouth and salivary glands, stomach, small and large intestines, colon, liver and pancreas, and the gallbladder.
Irritations or inflammation of the various sections of the GIT are identified as gastritis (stomach), colitis (colon), ileitis (ileum or small intestines), hepatitis (liver), and cholecystitis (gallbladder).
The GIT is not a passive system. Rather, it has the capability to sense and react to the materials that are passed through it. For a healthy digestive system, every person requires different food selections that match their GIT capacity.
The Digestive ProceSS
The GIT breaks down foods by first using mechanical means such as chewing and then by the application of a host of complex chemical processes. These chemical processes include everything from saliva to colon microbes. Since the GIT is the point of entry for the human body, everything eaten has an impact on the body. The food eaten and passed through the GIT contains nutrients as well as toxins. Toxins can be anything from food additives and pesticides to specific foods that induce a reaction from the GIT.
The process of digestion is accomplished via the surface of the GIT using secretions from accessory glands. The two glands providing the majority of digestive chemicals utilized by the GIT are the liver and the pancreas. The function of the liver is to control the food supply for the rest of the body by further processing the food molecules absorbed through the intestines. The liver does this by dispensing those food molecules in a controlled manner and by filtering out toxins that may have passed through the GIT wall.
Another very important function of the GIT is as a sensory organ. By rejecting foods through objectionable taste, vomiting, and diarrhea, or any combination of these symptoms, the sensing capacity of the GIT can protect the body. The surface of the GIT has a complex system of nerves and other cells of the immune system. The surface of the GIT, or mucosa, is part of a complex sensing system called the MALT (mucosa-associated lymphatic tissue). The immune sensors in MALT trigger responses such as nausea, vomiting, pain, and swelling. Vomiting and diarrhea are abrupt defensive responses by MALT when it senses foods with a strong allergic or toxic component. This kind of food intolerance is responsible for many digestive problems. The GIT is "hard-wired" to the brain via hormonal, neurotransmitter-mediator chemical communication.
The GIT is a muscular tube that contracts in a controlled rhythm to move food through the different sections (peristalsis). Strength and timing variations in the contractions can cause cramping (very strong contractions) and diarrhea (contractions are very frequent). When the contractions are slow and irregular, constipation may occur. Motility disorder is the general term used to describe problems with peristalsis.
Food allergy is sometimes the primary cause of GIT problems. Chronic diseases can have their origin in food allergies. The dysfunction, discomfort, and disease associated with GIT can be the result of local immune responses to food selections or combinations of foods. Food selections are a result of personal tastes, social fads, ethnic culture, religion, and, to a larger degree, local or seasonal availability. The food selections made in modern affluent society are based on a developed taste for a rich diet centered on meats and dairy products that are loaded with fats, high concentrations of proteins, and fat-soluble toxins. Advertising and misinformation about healthy diets have overshadowed human nutritional needs.
Chewing, swallowing, and peristalsis comprise mechanical digestion, in which food is broken down into tiny particles, mixed with digestive juices, and moved through the digestive tract. Digestive enzymes break down large food molecules into small molecules that can be absorbed into the blood or lymph in the process of chemical digestion. (Anatomical Chart Company® 2002, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.)
Dietary Shifts and Digestive DisordeRS
Human evolutionary history clearly shows that we are primarily herbivores. Human saliva contains alpha-amylase, an enzyme specifically designed to break down complex carbohydrates into sugar compounds. Our teeth are designed to cut vegetable matter and to grind grains. The so-called canine teeth of humans bear no resemblance to the canines of even a domestic house cat. The human digestive system is long, and the food is processed slowly to extract all the nutrients from plant material. Conversely, carnivores have short digestive tracts that digest flesh very quickly. The digestive systems of carnivores are able to eliminate the large amount of cholesterol consumed in their diets, and carnivores do not have alpha-amylase present in their saliva.
The effect of the shift in our diets during the past 100 years has resulted in 44% of Americans and Canadians being afflicted with heartburn, 5% of the population suffering from peptic ulcer disease, and 20-40% of Americans plagued with nonulcer dyspepsia. Over-the-counter medications for these ailments are a multibillion-dollar industry. Nearly every hour on television, there is at least one commercial selling an antacid or similar product.
Gastrointestinal SymptoMS
There are five basic symptoms indicating a GIT problem. These symptoms are generally associated with dietary problems or specific food allergies. It is critical that anyone suffering from serious GIT problems work closely with a physician to test for the more developed and serious GIT diseases. The physician should also be experienced in working with dietary factors and food allergies.
Nausea and Vomiting
Nausea and vomiting can vary from an unsettled feeling in the stomach to the violent action of immediate vomiting. Patients with nausea and vomiting symptoms should assume the ingestion of a reactive food (i.e., food containing toxins) or poisoning with a pathogen such as salmonella. Vomiting immediately after eating is usually proceeded by excessive watery salivation. Some chronic low-intensity nausea can occur for a protracted time due to sustained low-level food allergies or problems with food combinations. Patients with low-level nausea usually have their symptoms disappear with diet revision. Nausea and vomiting are also linked with migraines caused by food allergies (see the Migraine protocol).
Bloating
Bloating can result from excessive gas in the digestive system, failure of the digestive tract to sustain youthful peristaltic contractions, or a lack of sufficient quantities of digestive enzymes and bile acids to rapidly break down food. Intestinal gas results from food fermentation and from swallowing air while eating. The bloating from intestinal gas is different from that which occurs in the colon.
Constipation
Constipation is the decreased frequency, or slowing, of peristalsis, resulting in harder stools. When the GIT is slowed down, feces can accumulate in the colon with attending pain and toxic reactions. A spastic colon results when the colon contracts out of rhythm in painful spasms blocking movement of the stool. Some patients experience painful days of constipation followed by forceful diarrhea and watery stool, often accompanied with abdominal cramps.
Diarrhea
Diarrhea is the increased frequency of bowel movements that is also loose or watery. If diarrhea increases, the possibility of celiac disease is considered. Celiac disease is a serious disease that allows certain macromolecules to pass through the intestinal wall. If blood appears in the stool, ulcerative colitis is likely. Protracted bouts with diarrhea can result in nutritional deficiencies due to the poor absorption of essential nutrients.
Abdominal Pain
Abdominal pain appears in different patterns and with varying intensities. Cramping occurs because of muscle spasms in the abdominal organs. Severe cramping pain, often called colic, usually occurs from problems with strong allergic response to food. Abdominal cramping near the navel is typically from the small intestine, and near the sides, top, and bottom of the lower abdomen, the pain is associated with the colon.
Diseases associated with central GIT disorders and diagnoses include depression, migraine, asthma, sinusitis, and fibromyalgia. These diseases have been identified with specific patterns of food allergy response. All of these diseases also have links to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) (see the IBS protocol). (IBS is more accurately referred to as RBS--reactive bowel syndrome.)
Steps to a Healthier Digestive SystEM
Elimination diets are a good method of determining what foods cause an allergic reaction in the GIT lining in a patient. Planning and following such diets are a safe starting point for anyone desiring to track their GIT response to food. Interview physicians to learn who may be most qualified to assist in planning an elimination diet. A very good indicator of a healthy GIT is a regular transit time for complete food digestion. Patients who are regular are usually in optimum health.
Aging causes many people to experience problems with digestion. It is estimated that after age 40 there is an approximate decrease in the body's ability to produce enzymes by 20-30%. The use of specific enzymes can help to improve the efficiency of digestion. Enzymes can be used to enhance the proper breakdown of foods in order to more properly digest, absorb, and utilize nutrients.
Enzymes Are a Vital Component of the Digestive Process
Enzymes are essential to the body's absorption and full use of food. The capacity of the living organism to make enzymes diminishes with age, and some scientists believe that humans could live longer and be healthier by guarding against the loss of our precious enzymes.
Enzymes are responsible for every activity of life. Even thinking requires enzyme activity. There are two primary classes of enzymes responsible for maintaining life functions: digestive and metabolic. The primary digestive enzymes are proteases (to digest proteins), amylases (to digest carbohydrates), and lipases (to digest fats). These enzymes function as a biological catalyst to help break down food. Raw foods also provide enzymes that naturally break down food for proper absorption. Metabolic enzymes are responsible for the structuring, repairing, and remodeling of every cell, and the body is under a great daily burden to supply sufficient enzymes for optimal health. Metabolic enzymes operate in every cell, every organ, and every tissue, and they need constant replenishment.
Digestion of food takes a high priority and has a high demand for enzymes. When we eat, enzymatic activity begins in the mouth, where salivary amylase, lingual lipase, and ptyalin initiate starch and fat digestion. In the stomach, hydrochloric acid activates pepsinogen to pepsin, which breaks down protein, and gastric lipase begins the hydrolysis of fats. Without proper enzyme production, the body has a difficult time digesting food, often resulting in a variety of chronic disorders.
Poor eating habits, including inadequate chewing and eating on the run, may result in inadequate enzyme production and, hence, malabsorption of food, which is exacerbated by aging because this is a time of decreased hydrochloric acid production, as well as a general decline in digestive enzyme secretion.
Saliva is rich in amylase, while gastric juice contains protease. The pancreas secretes digestive juices containing high concentrations of amylase and protease, as well as a smaller concentration of lipase. It also secretes a small concentration of maltase, which reduces to dextrose. Animals eating raw food often have no enzymes at all in saliva, unlike humans. However, dogs fed a high carbohydrate, heat-treated diet have been found to develop enzymes in their saliva within a week in response to enzyme-depleting foods.
One of America's pioneering biochemists and nutrition researchers, Dr. Edward Howell (1986), cites numerous animal studies showing that animals fed diets that are deficient in enzymes have an enlargement of the pancreas, as huge amounts of pancreatic enzymes are squandered in digesting foods that are devoid of natural enzymes. The result of this wasteful outpouring of pancreatic digestive enzymes is a decrease in the supply of crucial metabolic enzymes and impaired health.
How significant is an enzyme deficiency to overall health? For starters, organs that are overworked will enlarge in order to perform the increased workload. Those with congestive heart failure or aortic valvular disease often suffer from an enlarged heart, an unhealthy condition. When the pancreas enlarges in order to produce more digestive enzymes, there results a deficiency in the production of life-sustaining metabolic enzymes, as available enzyme-producing capacity is used in digesting food instead of supporting cellular enzymatic functions. The tremendous impact that the wastage of pancreatic enzymes can have on health, and even life itself, has been established in animal studies. The critical question is how this applies to human health.
For much of the 20th century, European oncologists have included enzyme therapy as a natural, nontoxic therapy against cancer, and almost all leading alternative cancer specialists treating Americans prescribe both food enzymes and concentrated enzyme supplements as primary or adjuvant cancer therapies. A New York City cancer specialist, Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D., uses very high doses of supplemental pancreatic enzymes as a primary antitumor therapy. His clinical successes have led conventional drug companies to seek to duplicate these natural therapies and offer them as adjuvant drug therapies. If pancreatic enzymes are effective in treating existing cancers, one might assume that maintaining a large pool of these enzymes in the body should help to prevent cancer from developing. Studies have shown that persons who eat fresh fruits and vegetables with high levels of natural enzymes have significantly reduced levels of cancer and other diseases. It has not been proven that the high enzyme content of these foods is partially responsible for their anticancer effect, but the evidence is compelling. |