Gastrointestinal Problems 

Gastrointestinal Problems

Gastrointestinal dysfunctions are the most overlooked and mismanaged disorders in healthcare today.

• Traditional healthcare providers are not trained to diagnose and manage functional GI patterns or provide adequate lifestyle and dietary support

• Alternative healthcare providers recognize GI dysfunction but focus on the colon where absorption occurs and ignore the upper portion of the digestive tract where the physical and chemical digestion occur.

 How Gastrointestinal Problems Occur?

Digestion begins in the mouth

• Improper chewing inhibits proper digestion

  • Diet tends to be soft

    • Carbohydrate predominate diet
    • Acid producing foods
    • Foods are swallowed before broken down into small pieces
    • Amylase not mixed with food.
    • Vagal nerve stimulation inadequate to stimulate gastric secretions (stomach acid)
• Food enters Small Intestine.
  • Improperly chewed food.
    • Food is inadequately mixed with salivary juices.
      • Inadequate chemical breakdown of food
    • Large food particles.
      • Digestive chemistry can only access exterior of food particle.
      • Large food particle begins putrefy.
      • Stimulates Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue (GALT) response to food particles creating food sensitivities
  • Deficient stomach acid & gastric juices leads to:
    • Inadequate chemical breakdown of food
    • Inadequate release of pancreatic enzymes.

 Incomplete Digestion for this stage of the digestive process.

Dysbiosis Begins

Pancreas Exocrine Insufficiency

• Inadequate delivery of pancreatic lipases and proteases to small intestine.
  • Inadequate breakdown of fats & proteins
  • Failure to obtain nourishment.
  • Undigested food remains in area longer.
    • Carbohydrates ferment
    • Protein putrefy
  • Bacteria, Candida, Yeast, Fungus attracted to area to breakdown large food particles.
    • Results in Bacterial, Candida, Yeast, Fungal overgrowth.
• Food stays in Small Intestine longer.
  • Carbohydrates begin to ferment.
  • Proteins begin to putrefy.
  • By product of fermentation and putrefaction.
    • Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Methane & Carbon Dioxide
  • Gas distends Small Intestine
  • Shifts bowel pH Acidic
    • Zeta Potential lowers.
    • Alters tissue tension and nerve conduction velocity.
      • causes alteration of autonomic nerve influence - sympathetic/parasympathetic
• Putrefaction
• Incomplete protein breakdown
• Increases concentrations of Bacteriodes sp.
• Induces bacterial urease & beta-glucuronidase activity.
• These enzymes metabolize bile acids to tumor promoters & deconjugate excreted estrogens.
• Raising plasma estrogen levels.
• Fecal pH increased from increased ammonia production.
• Related to increased incidence of colon and breast cancer.
• Fermentation Excess
• Impaired Carbohydrate digestion
  • Abdominal distention, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation & feeling of malaise
• Bacterial overgrowth
• Degradation of intestinal brush-border
  • Blunting of micro-villi
  • Leaky Gut Syndrome
• Fecal short chain fatty acids elevated
  •  Undigested food in the small intestine attracts bacteria to their food source.
  • Fermentation/Putrefaction begins occurring in the stomach, small intestine & large intestine
• Fermentation occurs normally in the large intestine.
  • Not the stomach or small intestine.
• The most productive source of gas is fermentation by colonic bacteria.
• Fermentable substrates that escape digestion or absorption in the small intestine are often prime substrates for bacteria.

Gas first distends the intestines and is then absorbed into blood stream.

• Distention of stomach, small & large intestine
• Distention of the intestinal walls stimulates contraction of the gut
  • Gas formation causes unsynchronized contractions
  • Depletes serotonin reserves altering moods
  • Serotonin is required to stimulate intestinal contraction
    • Causes bowel cramps
• If gas is formed faster than it can be absorbed and eliminated:
  • Smooth muscle becomes hypremic (increased blood in a part due to local or general relaxation of the arterioles.).
  • Causes alteration in smooth muscle tissue.
  • Abdomen expands putting pressure on heart
  •  Increases Blood Pressure

Would you like to eliminate this problem from your life?

Call Wellness Alternatives 636-227-4949

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