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Digestive Diseases

This page last updated 9/27/17

Our digestive system is one of the most important systems to keep healthy to aviod sickness and disease. 80% of our immune functions happen in the gut. A happy, healthy digestive system is the key to great health!
Sadly most Americans trat their digestive system as a garbage disposal. Greasy oily foods, meat and dairy putrifying for days, pharmacuetical drugs that damage the thin linings, alcohol and soda so acidic it can eat metal. It's no wonder so many people have digestive problems.

One of the worst is CDIFF - (Clostridium Difficile) This is a very bad bacterium that takes over in your intestines and falls under the logic that bad bacteria thrives in an acidic environment so the goal is to alkanalize the diet by eating mostly plant foods and replenish the good bacteria with probiotics.
Recommendations:

pH of the Human Body and why its critical is a long 3 page read but worth it if you like to understand the basic science of how the body works. (This is one major reason why a plant based diet makes the body work better). To understand this concept of how acidic foods damage the body is key to understand how to best fuel the body.

ph chart of what foods are acidic and which ones are alkaline - tape it to your fridge so you can stay to the alkaline side and avoid the acidic foods. Strive to eat 80% alkaline foods and limit the acidic foods to things like nuts, legumes, and seeds and small amounts of whole gluten free grains. Avoid the most acidic foods like soda, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, shellfish, sugar and white flour. Don't dwell on trying to eat only alkaline foods, just keep the acidic foods to a minimum.
For CDIFF we would also recommend …

1) Avoid all sources of fructose – even the sweet fruits but especially anything with added sweetener, be it corn syrup, rice syrup, cane sugar, agave, – its all bad – use only stevia to sweeten (This is key to getting your immune system back to 100%)

2) Avoid Carageenan – it is damaging to the epithial layer of the intestines. It’s in nut milks and ice cream as a thickener.

3) Take a good quality probiotic regularly. Best ones locally are in refrigerator case at Whole Foods.

4) Go Gluten Free. Even if you are not Celiac or gluten intolerant, gluten is disruptive and damaging to the intestinal lining which causes lots of problems for the immune system. Minimize even the gluten free breads and products as they are acidic and are low on the nutrition scale.

5) Go Dairy free – dairy is one of the most unhealthy foods you can consume. It damages the digestive tract, causes several digestive diseases and is more strongly linked to cancer progression than any other food. Use the vegan DAIYA cheese as a replacement but sparingly as it’s not a health food either.

BLEEDING in the stomach/intestines

#1 most likely: Erosion of the intestinal/stomach lining due to pharmaceutical drugs – pain medications seem to be the worst. Long term use of even aspirin/nsaids/opiates can be life threatening in this way. If one has chronic pain there are better ways to treat it to avoid long term intestinal damage from pain meds. Answer – stop taking pain pills immediately. Write us for advice for the best alternative and safe treatment for chronic pain.

#2 Use of antihistamines/decongestants. All my life I had chronic stuffy nose that was plugged up and had to breathe through my mouth, especially during allergy seasons but I was allergic to mold, cats, even dust so it didn’t take much to make me congested. I was a regular user of 4 way nasal spray to keep my sinuses open. Turns out the “drying” action of this product also effects the natural mucus producing goblet cells in the intestines so the intestinal walls dry out to the point of cracking and scarring. By age 28 I had blood in my stool and had to undergo several unpleasant exploratory procedures resulting in a diagnosis of “fissures” but no mention of the decongestant connection. I didn’t figure that out till many years later. People always told me the nasal spray was not good for you but none ever said why. Ironically when I gave up dairy 100% almost 14 years ago all my allergies disappeared so I no longer have a need for an antihistamine or decongestant. Just another of the many ways in which dairy damages ones health. Answer – don’t take any antihistamines/decongestants. Remove all dairy to clear up allergies and sinus issues.

#3 Irritants and poor choices in the diet. There are many pitfalls in the foods and ingredients in today’s normal diets that can cause intestinal issues that include severe irritation/bleeding.
This becomes more of an issue with age. Keep in mind that the lining of epithelia cells of the intestinal wall is just one cell layer thick so it doesn’t take much damage for food particles to leak through or blood to hemorrhage out. Dairy is linked to more digestive diseases than any other food. Crohnes & Irritable Bowel Syndrome are the big ones. Wheat gluten has been described as miniature razor blades to represent the damage it does to the villi in the intestinal wall. Non organic wheat is high in glyphosate (Monsanto’s Roundup) which disrupts the delicate balance of good bacteria (flora) critical to digestive health. A diet low in fiber and/or a damaged flora can trigger an immune response that attacks the intestines because the body mistakes the lack of an enzyme produced by the good bacteria digesting fiber as a sign there is a bad infection going on.
Answer – avoid all wheat, rye, barley, or reduce to a minimum and eat only organic grains, especially wheat.
Avoid carrageenan, a thickener found in non dairy milks and ice cream as it is irritating to the intestines.
Avoid sweets and all soda pop – way too acidic, too much sugar.
A diet centered around regular meals containing meat, dairy and bread is constipating and very hard on the digestive tract, especially the older you are.
Answer – Eat a clean, high fiber, vegan diet, take over the counter probiotics – critically important to take probiotics after/during a course of antibiotics or chemo.

Digestive Diseases This page last updated 9/27/17

Digestive Diseases

This page last updated 9/27/17