As a coach I see so many people who suffer with constipation, IBS, diarrhea, bloating, acid reflux.
Another thing that led me to really look at this is the fact that I have suffered with pretty much all of the above.
I am always questioning WHY, what is it, I need answers.
So this led me to do some research, which is ongoing and I am going to share some stuff with you.
First we need to understand how how the gut works, this is important because it can help us understand possible causes as to why we may be suffering.
Our digestive tract is the barrier between our body and the environment, this means that food doesn't really get into our body until long after we've eaten it and it has passed through our gut lining's defence barrier and into our bloodstream.
Our gut is equipped with 70% of our immune cells so this is how important digestion is to keep disease at bay!
The Above diagram helps us visualize the key features of our digestive system, which include the:
1. Mouth and esophagus
2. Stomach
3. Small intestine
4. Liver, gallbladder, and pancreas
5. Rectum
The Digestive Process
So let's look at goes on:
Once we consume food, digestion start in our mouth, food is not only broken down in our mouth into smaller bits by chewing, it is also broken chemically broken down, this is due to proteins in our saliva known as enzymes.
Once we chew and swallow the food, it slides down your food pipe (aka oesophagus). To stop the going down the windpipe, which is right next to the food pipe, when we swallow we have a special door known as the epiglottis, the is splinter that shuts over our windpipe.
Once food goes down the pipe, before it reaches the stomach it needs to pass another door, what is known as the lower esophageal sphincter. As food moves into the next stages of digestion, it passes through such sphincters at each stage where a sphincter is required. These sphincters are really important.as they keep the different sections separate from each other.
If you have ever had acid reflux, this is the case where the sphincter is not doing its job properly.
Anyway, once food arrives in the stomach the stomach enzymes break down the food, the stomach acid kills off microbes trying to invade our body and the stomach muscles contract to get things moving which also let is know when we are full or hungry.
It's in the stomach that once a solid meal will be transformed to have a more smoothie like consistency. This is known as chyme. The smoothie type mixture then makes its way from the stomach into the next section of our digestive tract: The small intestine.
In out nest post we will talk more about the small and large intestine.
Coach HB
The above information is taken from Eat Yourself Healthy by Dr Megan Rossi
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