Are you suffering from headaches, nausea, belching, bloating, tiredness and muscle aches? Would it surprise you if I told you that it is probably caused by your gut?
Your body needs to process the food you eat, strip it of its essential nutrients and eliminate the waste as soon as possible for you to feel really healthy. If this doesn’t happen and you hold onto your food longer, you end up carrying something similar to a compost heap in your gut all day long, and toxic waste gradually seeps out into the body, slowly poisoning you. The compost heap gives off gases and this makes you bloat up and feel windy, then a whole load more symptoms start to appear.
So what can you do to prevent this happening?
Start by looking at your diet. Do you have a ‘Leaky gut’? Are there foods that you have become intolerant to, that are irritating the gut? Is there enough acid in your stomach to start the digestion of the proteins that you are eating? Is the alkaline medium in your small intestine alkaline enough to allow the digestive enzymes produced by your pancreas to work properly, or are you getting partially digested food going through your intestines and slowing up the workings?
Are you eating enough of the right roughage to create the peristaltic movement of the gut and allow elimination of the waste? It is so important that your bowels work twice a day to stay healthy.
What is a ‘Leaky Gut’?
In a ‘Leaky gut’ situation the lining of the gut becomes rather like a sieve where the holes become large and allow bacteria, toxins and food to leak through into the body. This occurs when the lining becomes inflamed or damaged disrupting the functioning of the system.
Food sensitivities develop because large food antigens which are foreign to the body’s defence system, are attacked, resulting in the production of antibodies against once harmless foods. Also when the intestinal lining is damaged the carrier proteins that take the vitamins and minerals across become damaged resulting in a vulnerability of the person to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
What causes a leaky gut?
There are many factors that can increase the permeability of the intestinal wall such as alcohol and caffeine, drugs especially antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and antacids, food additives, diets high in refined carbohydrates and stress.
Digestive Enzymes
The enzymes in our digestive system are proteins, and they break down our foods into simpler substances that can be more easily absorbed. Nutrients are trapped in the food we eat and our digestive system is designed to set the nutrients free, but not without the help of the enzymes found in raw and fermented foods. The enzymes in these foods are highly active during the first 45 min of digestion but we often lack them due to poor diet or other factors.
The body produces around 22 enzymes that all work on different types of food. If you constantly eat cooked processed food your body is forced to supply all of the enzymes needed to digest that food. However your body will eventually use up its ability to produce enzymes causing symptoms such as fatigue, abdominal bloating and discomfort, indigestion, wind, constipation, headaches, bowel problems and the passing of undigested food in the stool.
How can you help yourself?
So, this is a good start to improving your digestion and preventing some of the symptoms that occur on a daily basis to make you feel a little under par.