Most of the time we don’t really consider where our food goes and what happens to it between plate and err… bowl. But could how we digest our food make or break your day, help us get more work done or help us perform better in our chosen sport? A growing amount of research answers yes to all of these questions.
If you’ve ever had a ‘gut feeling’ or butterflies in your stomach, have you considered why? Recent research indicates that behind these sensations are an extensive network of neurones lining our gut wall. These neurones are so sensitive that some scientists have coined the tern ‘the second brain’. The second brain doesn’t help with the great thought processes…religion, philosophy and poetry is left to the brain in the head,” says Michael Gershon, chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, an expert in the nascent field of neurogastroenterology and author of the 1998 book The Second Brain (HarperCollins).
The enteric nervous system, as it is more accurately described, has been linked by scientists to all sorts of woes both physical and ppsychiatric. Ailments like anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers and Parkinson’s disease manifest symptoms at the brain and the gut level. “The majority of patients with anxiety and depression will also have alterations of their GI function,” said Dr. Emeran Mayer, professor of medicine, physiology and psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“One system’s symptoms – and cures – may affect the other. Antidepressants, for example, cause gastric distress in up to a quarter of the people who take them. Butterflies in the stomach are caused by a surge of stress hormones released by the body in a “fight or flight” situation. Stress can also overstimulate nerves in the esophagus, causing a feeling of choking.”1
Mind
Dr. Mayer even believes that one day psychiatry may improve mental by taking a two-pronged approach. . He’s currently running a brain-imaging study to examine the effect of probiotic supplements, hypothesizing that they will impact mood positively (possibly by improving the digestive system’s function). Conversely, studies have also indicated that people stricken with intestinal diseases, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), benefit from low doses of antidepressants, drugs once thought to work only in the brain.
Body
Poor digestion also affects your body’s uptake of nutrients. For someone trying to eat a healthy diet this can be frustrating. You could be eating and taking plenty of wide variety of vitamins and nutrients but if your digestive system isn’t set to process them properly then your body won’t react correctly. This improper digestion isn’t limited to the food you eat, it could also mean that the expensive supplements you consume could be missing their mark.
Charles Poliquin, outspoken sports guru, coach to multiple Olympic champions and owner of the Poliquin Performance Centre, suggests that there is as littles as 50/50 chance that you are getting all the nutrients from you meals and supplements. Poliquin says the “… problem can often be traced to low levels of stomach acids, a condition known as Hypochlorhydria. Stomach acid breaks down food, chemically altering it so that the body can extract the required nutrients for proper structure and function, including muscle maintenance and growth. The acid begins the digestion of protein in the stomach and then triggers the pancreas to secrete digestive enzymes and the gallbladder to release bile into the small intestine. The acid is also responsible for killing pathogenic bacteria that enters the body via food.”2
Symptoms
Poliquin suggests that the following are just a few symptoms indicative of low levels of nutrients caused by low levels of digestive enzymes: Here are a few of the symptoms of low stomach acid:
- Belching or gas within one hour of a meal
- Bloating and fullness shortly after eating
- Bad breath
- Loss of taste for meat
- Nausea after taking supplements
- Brittle fingernails
- Undigested food in stool
- Foul-smelling stools
- Stomach pain
- Desire to skip meals
- Estrogen buildup
- Acne rosacea
- Depression
Treatment
If you have poor digestion what can you do? Poliquin suggests a protocol to determine your level of HCL deficit, yet others argue this is dangerous. A more moderate approach could be to invest in a digestive enzyme, with or without HCL. Leigh Peele writes in The Fatloss Troubleshooter “Digestive enzymes can be summed up into four main groups:
- Carbohydrase enzymes-digest carbohydrates which might be simple monosaccharides (glucose, fructose and galactose), disaccharides (sucrose, lactose and maltose) or complex polysaccharides (starch and fibers).
- Protease enzymes-digest proteins which are then broken down to proteoses, peptones, polypeptides, dipeptides and finally the end products, amino acids.
- Lipase enzymes-digest fats, which are composed of neutral fat (triglycerides), phospholipids and cholesterols.
- Cellulase enzymes-digest cellulose which is a complex carbohydrate forming the framework of plant structures (fibers).”
Better than self-diagnosis would be to discuss your concern with a trusted healthcare provider. A growing number of GP’s are now prescribing digestive enzymes for their patients, along with chiropractors and naturopaths. This would be especially important if you are on any sort of anti-depressants.
Selecting your own
If choosing your own digestive enzymes some things to consider are the types of food which cause digestive discomfort. Typical digestive enzyme supplements contain protease, lipase, amylase, glucoamylase, invertase, alpha-galactosidase, malt diastase, cellulase, bromelain and papain. Followers of the Blood Type Diet may want to avoid products containing bromelain or papain as these are derived from pineapple and papaya respectively. You may not want papaya in your diet if you’re a blood-type O.
A quick guide to some of the key ingredients:
Amylase aids in the digestion of starches
Protease: protein
Lipase: fat
Cellulase: fibrous vegetables
Invertase: sugars
Lactase: lactose (milk sugars)
Bromelain: protein
Papain: protein (also found in pawpaw ointment)
If you follow the Blood Type Diet, guidelines, my chiropractor/naturopath recommends Phytocare Vegetable Enzyme Matrix. I find this powder especially good for assistance with vegetable digestion. However, if you experience problems with protein digestion you may want to investigate Nature’s Sunshine Digestive Aid or Now Super Enzymes.
Alternatives to enzymes
Other, readily available, digestive aids you may already have in your cupboard or pantry are:
- peppermint tea
- glutamine- to help balance stomach acid
- Vital Greens (or other greens supplement containing probiotics)
- Probiotics, such as Inner Health Plus
Sources:
- http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Health-Fitness/Emotional-Eating-The-Brain-Stomach-Connection
- http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain
- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/health/23gut.html
- http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=27
Photo: iStokphoto.com by Deklofenak
