How well is your digestion working for you?
How much do you pay attention to your digestion? Are you someone that just takes it for granted? Or are you constantly working to find the right way to make your stomach feel or function better?
I often talk with clients about how our digestion works and the cascade of events that are important at the beginning stages of digestion that can impact everything downstream. I’d also like to share this with you so you too can have this insight into your own health.
The Digestion Cascade
Our Senses:
Digestion truly begins with the smell of the food, the sight of the dish we are about to eat, and sometimes even the sound of the food sizzling on the stove or the grill. All of these senses are sending messages to our stomach to say “get ready, food is coming!” This starts the digestive juices flowing in preparation for food. Then as we chew our food, this is the only time mechanical breakdown of food happens. So help out your gut and chew your food well!
Stomach Acid:
Have you heard of the phrase “churn and burn?” This is the important process happening in the stomach of mixing hydrochloric acid with your food. Much of the information coming from the pharmaceutical industry is that hydrochloric acid is the enemy. Proton pump inhibitors like Nexium, Prilosec, or Prevacid work to decrease the production of hydrochloric acid. When hydrochloric acid production is reduced, the total pH of stomach acid does not remain low enough when mixed with food.
So why is hydrochloric acid important?
In the stomach, hydrochloric acid (HCl) and pepsin’s main job is to break down proteins into smaller amino acid chains and also to destroy the bacteria and microbes we ingest through our mouth via food and saliva. It is important that the pH of the hydrochloric acid is low enough (pH 1.5 - 3) to effectively do this job. If the microbes are able to survive the stomach acid, because the pH is not low enough, there is an increased chance that these microbes can progress through the stomach and colonize in the small intestine. HCl is also needed to activate the enzymes that work to break apart the amino acid bonds so our body can absorb the proteins we just ate. Amino acids are the building blocks for all cells throughout our body. And, without enough stomach acid, we also have a hard time absorbing nutrients such as B vitamins, iron, zinc, and magnesium.
I often explain the process of breaking down proteins like a string of pearls. You start with a long string of pearls, all folded in on themselves when you first eat your food (thus the importance of chewing your food). The HCl works to break apart each of the pearls in that strand. If the pH is not low enough, then the strand of pearls can’t be broken down into individual pearls, making it harder for our body to recognize, process, and absorb the nutrients.
Once the stomach is done “churning and burning” or mixing the food with the stomach acid, it is time to pass from the stomach to the small intestine through the pyloric sphincter. If the pH is not low enough, below 3, then the signal to open the pyloric sphincter doesn’t get sent. Food then has a tendency to sit in the stomach and starts to ferment, allowing gasses from fermentation to begin applying pressure to the stomach and esophagus. Some people then experience reflux type symptoms from the pressure of these gasses.
Small Intestine:
Once food leaves the stomach, the low pH of 1.5 to 3 is essential to begin the cascade of signals to the gall bladder and the pancreas for the next phases of digestion. Bile from the gall bladder neutralizes the pH of the stomach acids and aids in the digestion of fats and further destruction of microbes from the stomach. The pancreas releases pancreatic enzymes to break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
If the pH is higher coming from the stomach (above pH 3), there may be mixed messages being sent to the gall bladder and the pancreas or the response is not strong enough to effectively digest the food that has been eaten. This is where some people may notice undigested food particles in their stool, floating stool, or an oily sheen on top of the toilet water after a bowel movement. All signs that your digestion is not functioning optimally.
Your immune system is also an important part of your intestinal tract. It is always sampling the food that is moving through the small intestine. This is where the string of pearls that we talked about earlier becomes important. If you were able to break down your food into single amino acids in the stomach, then the immune system easily recognizes this and does not react. But when the amino acid chains (strings of pearls) are left in much larger chains, your immune system begins to not recognize these pieces because there is too much stacked together. The immune system alerts and starts sending messages to the rest of the body that starts a new cascade of inflammation. This is a piece of the puzzle contributing to food sensitivities and inflammation in the digestive system and across your body.
Things you can do to support your stomach acid:
Seeing that stomach acid is so important to the digestive cascade, there are several things you can do to support your stomach acid and in turn your digestion and absorption of the wonderful food you are eating.
Add bitter foods to your diet. Endive, radicchio, and dandelion greens are all wonderful bitter foods to add to your salad. Eating these bitters before your main meal will help stimulate the release of HCl and bile acids to aid in the digestion of your food.
Bitter Herbs - there are many different bitter herbs that stimulate the digestive cascade including dandelion root, artichoke leaf, gentian, oregon grape root, and schisandra berry. Adding a bitter tincture blend 20-30 before meals can be really supportive.
Other supportive herbs for digestion:
In addition to adding in bitters, other supportive herbs may be needed to aid in digestion. Warming herbs can help increase blood flow to the stomach and intestinal tract to decrease symptoms of bloating and gas. Other herbs are supportive of the liver and gall bladder which also help with the release of bile acids that further aid in digestion.
Warming herbs for digestion: Orange peel, fennel, ginger, turmeric
Liver/Gall bladder supportive herbs: Burdock root, milk thistle, artichoke leaf
Soothing herbs: Marshmallow root, Slippery elm, Licorice, Aloe
If you would like to chat about your digestive health concerns, how to incorporate herbs into your wellness routine, or ways you can improve your health, I always have free consults available.
Do you have other questions you would like me to address in future newsletters? Shoot me a note about the questions you have and I’ll work to get them answered in future newsletters.
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