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Digestive Basics

The digestive tract is a tightly controlled structure spanning from the mouth to the anus. It is inside the body, but is between the outside world and our inner self. It is structured this way to protect us from potentially damaging microbes, and to tightly control what is absorbed.

Since the goal is to utilize good stuff, and to eliminate bad stuff, one of the stomach’s responsibilities is to kill any pathogens in our food. This is why it is so acidic. Many practitioners believe the root of most chronic health issues begins with impaired stomach acidity. If a pathogen does get past the stomach, the body has a second line of defense in the large intestine, called the Microbiome.

The stomach’s acidity also prompts many digestive functions which begins with the sensoral organs. The eyes see food, the nose smells food, and the mouth tastes food, all signals to the brain that food is coming. This cues the secretion of stomach acid and digestive enzymes to kill any potential pathogens and begin the breakdown of protein, fats, and carbohydrates. The stomach contents are moved into the small intestine to continue the breakdown process and begin the absorption of nutrients. The remaining contents continue down into the large intestine to feed the inhabitants of the microbiome, or to be discarded as waste.

“All disease begins in the gut.”

Hippocrates

Common Digestive Issues

  • Low stomach acidity

    When not digesting food, our stomach’s acidity should be a pH of 5-6. When digesting, the pH drops down to 1.8-3.5. When the stomach is not acidity enough, pathogenic microbes are not destroyed and move further into the body.

  • Bacterial overgrowth

    The microbiome is our internal ecosystem (normal inhabitants of the digestive tract). Their food source is sugar. When you eat readily accessible sugars, they are digested, or fermented by these microbes. The byproduct of fermentation is gas which can create pressure in the digestive tract (common cause of reflux). If these microbes are overfed, they will increase in quantity and suppress the stomach’s acidity, impairing the normal cascade of events cued by the stomach acid in the digestive process.

  • Impaired nutrient absorption

    Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), and Small Intestine Fungal Overgrowth (SIFO) steal your nutrients and create byproducts that impair nutrient absorption.

  • Imbalanced microbiome

    An imbalanced microbiome can mean the presence of a pathogenic species (bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic), an overgrowth of bacterium, or an insufficiency of beneficial species, who harmonize the environment.

Common Digestive Symptoms

  • Heartburn/Reflux
  • Sore throats
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Gastritis
  • Ulcers
  • Remarkable thirst and or thirst for cold water (not associated with weather or exercise); thirst but only want to sip
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Belching or flatulence
  • Abdominal distention and/or pain
  • Irregular bowel habits
  • Constipation
  • Diarrhea
  • Clay-colored or oily stools
  • Acne