Digest This . . .

The Holiday rush is over for another year, and I hope all of you enjoyed a peaceful and meaningful holiday season. More and more people I spoke with during this time, beginning in early December, express their wish for a change in the way we are in the world today. 

I agree with that perspective because it goes hand in hand with natural healing and the responsibility each one of us has for our own health. It is like saying lets start at the beginning and make it better.

Starting at the beginning with your health is a giant step forward: Your digestion is a very good beginning.

OTC product blitz, now Rx too 

I'm sure you notice all the ads for digestive products. You most likely have a medicine chest full of these products: something for acid, diarrhea, constipation, and gas. Something you picked up at the store or got from your doctor. Products to take care of the symptoms of digestive disorders are a multimillion dollar industry. And you can understand why, when 85% of the population has a digestive disorder.

What might you notice?

Low energy and fatigue, mood swings, mental fog, and stress can indicate some type of digestive disorder. Health statisticians have listed thirty-seven different digestive disorders and add one category called other.

What might make it better?

Understanding the importance of a highly functional digestive system helps you better prepared to be responsible for your own good health.

Digestion starts in the mouth. When you eat fast, and swallow lumps of food, you can bet you are on your way to trouble. 

Chewing your food thoroughly stimulates saliva. This turn stimulates digestive enzymes from the pancreas and hydrochloric acid from the stomach so when your swallow your food everything is geared up for digestion. Enzymes assist your body with digestion and assimilation of nutrients from your food.

As you age, your body produces less enzymes and acid so you might need to take supplements like Acuzyme or cayenne. Glutamine, an amino acid, is considered the keeper of intestinal health. Spinach and parsley supply glutamine. Glutamine helps with constipation, inflammatory bowel disease, and leaky gut syndrome. 

How about the food

Today, food produced for mass market distribution is nutritionally deficient. According to the journal Nutrition, for one bowl of spinach you ate in 1948, you now have to eat seventy-five bowls to get equal amounts of iron. Nutrition also reports that at least 57 percent of our population is undernourished.

When you cook, are you aware that cooking food for three minutes more than 110 degrees destroys food enzymes and promotes incomplete digestion? Maybe the answer is to trash the microwave.

What might help?

When your digestion gets you down here are some natural remedies that have been used for eons and always seem to work.

• Chamomile Tea works to resolve acid reflux problems, and relaxes you while you eat.

• Drinking more pure water will help when you feel the acid flaring up in between meals. Licorice helps here too. 

• Try chiropractic adjustments. 

• Remember that prescription drugs stop the production of acid in the stomach, which you need for protein digestion.

• Dandelion Tea is a double hitter. It helps your digestion work better overall because of its impact on the liver.

• Fennel helps gas, cramps, and indigestion. 

• Organic apple cider vinegar - raw honey tea helps balance the pH in your blood. This reduces your need for antacids. It also helps your gall bladder to keep functioning properly by reducing and dissolving stones. 

• Peppermint tea helps when you have too much gas, and helps Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

• Ginger Tea warms your digestion and makes things go better. 

• Marshmallow Root helps restore the mucus membrane that lines your digestive tract, and helps in cases of diarrhea. (Note - use in place of Slippery Elm which is endangered)

• Carob powder also aids diarrhea, as does cinnamon or nettle. 

• Cayenne works wonder for ulcers. It will help your pancreas secrete digestive enzymes too. 

• When H. pylori bacteria are a cause, ask us about the good  treatment we use in our clinical work. 

• Oats strengthen your digestion.

• Aloe Vera Gel and Papaya Juice have been used to heal digestion for millennia.

Eat more fiber in your meals to resolve constipation, and drink more pure water (eight glasses daily).  Use foods with flora, like plain yoghurt, tempeh, sauerkraut or kim chee. Healthy bacteria in your gut aids your immune system, helps manufacture vitamins K and B12. These foods are good also for treating systemic yeast disorders and food allergies. 

If you want to really solve the problem, remember that it is best for your digestion to slow down when you eat. Avoid drinking liquids with your meals, which reduces the effectiveness of stomach acid and digestive enzymes. Learn proper food combining. Eat less food!

And most of all, reduce stress in your life.

Start off the New Year by resting your digestion one day a week, and see what a difference a day makes.

CHI©2000

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