Battle of the Gut: Understanding Digestive Health

We explore the complex relationship between digestive health and overall wellness, revealing how malabsorption issues can cascade into widespread physical and mental health problems.

• Proper chewing (20-30 times per bite) is essential for mechanical breakdown and optimal digestion
• Adequate hydration (64-84 oz daily) is crucial for digestive enzyme function
• Long-term use of medications like PPIs and antibiotics can disrupt gut health
• The gut-brain axis explains why digestive issues often manifest as mental health symptoms
• B vitamins, magnesium and essential fatty acids from the gut directly impact brain function
• Digestive dysfunction disrupts hormonal signaling that regulates hunger and metabolism
• Fatty liver disease and gallbladder issues often stem from poor dietary choices rather than alcohol
• Treating the root cause of malabsorption requires addressing diet, lifestyle, and possibly bacterial/fungal overgrowth

Taking digestive enzymes and magnesium supplements can help improve gut function when used alongside proper eating habits and stress management techniques.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Absorption Issues
• 2:33 Eating Habits and Hydration
• 5:13 Medication Side Effects and Lifestyle
• 7:53 Gut-Brain Connection and Mental Health
• 10:33 The Digestive Cascade Explained
• 15:53 Liver, Gallbladder and Intestinal Health
• 19:03 Solutions for Digestive Dysfunction

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:36

So that's kind of where I'm at right now. I'm just kind of talking about that. I'm also talking about what are the reasons that people things coming in have any absorption issues. We have any questions? Correct me at any time. Pre-absorption system and how it affects the body. So we talked about what foods so specific foods, like allergens cause an inflammatory response malabsorption, excess alcohol, eating habits, so over under chewing. So recommended about 20 to 30 bites per meal on average for mechanical breakdown from starting from the mouth, so that it can give you proper digestion. That's where those enzymes are helpful.

Speaker 1: 1:35

Eating too quickly or in a stressed state can be a factor, things of that nature. Do you know what I mean? So I would always say, hey, let's, what would you? What would be a factor? What would be something that would cause an irritant Things of. Sorry that I'm just looking right up here for a second and I will just add it so you can see my showcase Ready. What I use is the saffron digestive enzymes, and I've used other things too. I love magnesium. It's one of. There are my faves, um, and then a few others. I definitely have a variety that I love.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Um, you know that idea as we're talking about, you know, improving our gut health right, and how do you do that? You do that by putting the good stuff in, and once you understand some of the root causes of it, it becomes a little easier. Do you know what I mean? If, like, once you're you get an idea, you're like, oh okay, I can, I can do that. Um, so it's, you know, it's neat, it's not too too hard. Okay, sorry about that. All right, hope you guys can see me. Just did. Hey, what's up? Thanks for joining in. Actually, I appreciate it all right.

Speaker 1: 2:57

So I'm talking about the eating habits and then we're going into, like, adequate hydration. So you hear me talk about, and everyone will tell you about, what is adequate hydration. Adequate hydration is about 64 ounces for most people, give or take. If you can get to about 72 to 84, that would be nice. Half your body weight. Let's say you're 100 pounds, you do 50, or you're 150 pounds, you do about 75 ounces. You know, ideally about 64 ounces, give or take and have some electrolytes in there too. Ounces give or take and have some electrolytes in there too.

Speaker 1: 3:28

When you overuse of certain medications, that will also decrease the malabsorption and the intestinal permeability of the body. Things of nature like too much proton pump inhibitors. You know someone that has reflux. Usually they'll take a lot of Tums, although it'll be on Pepsi or some sort of medication, and they think that's helping their reflux when in turn it actually has to do. It causes and of the stomach lining and it helps with gut mucosal healing, but it is irritating to a person that already has a dysregulation and may cause ulcer or they may have an h pylori infection there. They may already have had other infections. So having pbis for a long term can be, um, actually a detriment to someone. But you know, when it happens is people take them, they take them, they take them and then they think, oh, it's helping them Long term. It actually is not Long term.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Use of antibiotics, those kind of things, opioids, things of that nature, things of that nature. Then people smoking, not having much physical activity, not having adequate sleep, basic lifestyle stuff, you know those things are pretty important. And how do you, you know, improve yourself with this, improve yourself with this? Think of it like your digestive enzymes are decreased and we need to get it back into regulation. How do we do that? This malabsorption is pretty complex, right? It's not. We are, you know our bodies can heal.

Speaker 1: 5:31

But when they have been placed on a lot of stress, um, like when there's a real bad dysbiosis or an imbalance, like the um, small intestinal bacterial growth or small intestinal fungal overgrowth those are you, that's when the body has too much starchy foods or it has too much fungal, you know, in the intestinal walls and that has to be, then that point will then need medications. So that's something that causes problem for individuals. They have an imbalance of, you know, a diverse amount of the microbiome because of the food intake. You know they're not really eating the right cruciferous vegetables, they're not really eating vegetables at all. Inflammatory and immune dysregulation usually has to do with not digestive quality, amount of proteins. The immune response is caused because the inflammation has to do with certain foods they may even be sensitive to and then in turn that causes a nutritional deficiency because in the small intestines vitamins A, d, c and E and a variety of other essential fatty acids and amino acids are absorbed in the small intestinal and when that mucosal lining is decreased, the immune system is decreased or dysregulated, then we'll have some inflammatory response and due to that that will cause more issues. So until you work on that imbalance it can be, you know, detriment to your body and actually keep cascading and getting worse.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Now you can, okay, melissa, oh, can Melissa, um. And then it says in the nervous system right? So when the nervous system, the gut and the brain, it's like your, your gut is your second system, and why is it you're considered so. They call it a gut brain access and they call it a dysfunction when it's not working and it's off. Why is it not working?

Speaker 1: 7:26

You know, you, that's where you get that gas, the bloating, irritability, um, abdominal pain, um, and it's basically cause you're not digesting things properly, you're not doing what's needed and you're, um, either the stomach lining and the intestines are not moving properly, they're not absorbing properly, they're not doing what it's, you know, made to do, and having those deficiencies will cause many neurological dysfunctions and it will cause, like the B vitamins that you need. You know all the B vitamins are super important B12, b6, b1, magnesiums and irons and the fatty acids. All of these help with the neurotransmitters and the way you feel, and when you have a decrease in them, you're going to get more brain fog, you're going to have anxiety or depression, depending upon which ones are off. You'll have more food fatigue, you'll have more mood swings and mood changes. So a lot of mental health issues actually come from the gut. You know they're I mean they're still obviously a neuroplastic neuroplasticity within the brain but when you fix some of your gut health you can improve a lot of your mental clarity. It doesn't necessarily mean that you may never need medications, but it may mean that some individuals, if they're on the right, they do fix their microbiome, their small intestines and what they've put into their body and you know um taken the right amount of nutrient dense foods and nutrient dense um supplements as needed, they can actually improve their overall mental health. And you know, improving there.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Because what happens is when you have so many deficiencies, it can cause many things. Because what happens is when you have so many deficiencies, it can cause many things. So when the small intestines have they're not absorbing properly, you'll have one big one they call it B12, herniatous anemia, and that's because it's not absorbing the B12 or some of the folate. That can cause a lot of fatigue, cognitive issues and that's you know. It's really important to make sure that's proper. Other disorders that come up are osteopenia, osteoporosis, vitamin D, neurological disorders, impaired immune function really can have a detriment to many things in the body Autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, malabsorption, increased toxin burden, impact on mental health, like the gut, and brain access, like I was talking about.

Speaker 1: 9:54

What would be interventions that we would do to help you? So first let's just talk about what it is. Hi, nice to meet you. Thanks for coming in. I just appreciate you coming in. So what would you do? Let's just say, let's think about just mindful chewing.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Mindful chewing helps with mechanical breakdown You're breaking down in the saliva, the anilase helps with digestion, the carbohydrate digestion and lubrication, emptying or breaking down of foods. Now, if it's the right type of food, you're going to get the right type of enzymes. If it's not the right type of foods, your body will signal it and it will know the difference. The actions there come in. It stores the food and goes into the. If you have the right amount of hydrochloric acid within the body, it will then mix with pepsin and the proteins and initialize the digestion.

Speaker 1: 11:04

The problem is is when we don't have the proper absorption of these nutrients, it will not release the right amount of chyme into the bottom, the duodenum of the stomach to then release into for the small intestine to do its signaling. If that signaling does not happen, then we don't have the right amount of composition and acidity, and that is because that needs to be released into the intestine so that the right amount of hormones are released to help with digestion. When things are not working in the initial segment of the small intestines, this becomes a problem and those in pancreatic juice or bile is not produced properly, and then there's an absorption issue. Hi, nice to meet you. Hi, how's it going? Thanks for coming in, I appreciate you. Thanks so much. Thanks, kine. Try, kine, I appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 12:00

So think of it like there's a cascade of things. I don't want to get too scientific into it because it gets a little bit in-depth, but I do talk about how the intestines have the. It releases many proteins and your body releases many things. So I will go quickly overview that. In the small intestine, the duodenum down into the colus also, the gallbladder releases fat and proteins called chyme. That stimulates the pancreas, which then stimulates the gallbladder, which then stimulates bio-release, which then will help slow gastric emptying to produce, you know. So you're not as hungry Now, and this is in the sphincter of the odot Now in turn, as if your body will produce all these hormones on their own, but when there's a degradation or there's an irregularity or there's a problem, that's when you don't get as I'm talking about malabsorption, glp-1s and the body.

Speaker 1: 13:09

You're not going to get that because these peptides are off. So they're produced gastric inhibiting peptides, glucose inhibiting insulinotropic peptide. Produced gastric inhibiting peptides, glucose inhibiting insulinotropic peptide, gastric like peptides. The K cells, l cells, all of these are being produced, but if they're not being secreted properly, you're not going to get that to trigger, which then causes problems to the pancreas and then the pancreas does not produce the appropriate amount of digestive enzymes and in turn, those enzymes I talked about previously amylase, lipase, protease. If that does not happen, then we're you know it becomes that other cascade. When you start to have this long-term. Now, most of the time this should be working properly in our body, shouldn't even have any issues and you should be able to produce it with no problems. Now, like I said, it takes time, but over time these things happen.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Now the liver and gallbladder, their you know their idea and their one of their many jobs is to produce bile from fat, like if you're eating certain types of food. It's trying to get rid of the fat and break it down and the gallbladder stores it and then concentrates it and then releases it as bile. The problem you have in the liver and the gallbladder and most of the issues when it comes to detoxification and then there's issues is that the liver actually, instead of um alcoholism being most of the problem, fatty liver is more of the problem and gallstones are more of the problem and we just keep um having too much fatty diets and excess that the liver is just becomes layers and layers of fat and it becomes layers and layers of not no changes and it's like such a, it becomes such a mess and the gall, the gallbladder people just end up taking out the gallbladder and in turn that doesn't really fix the problem because you're not root causing it. But it is very painful when you have gallstones. When you have gallstones, those stones go into the bile ducts and cause damage and then becomes a problem and you're in pain and it's usually because the root cause of that is your dietary choices and what you've done to cause those stones, those stones to be formed and not be released from the um in smaller bites and done through the gallbladder out to the body and be released and in turn, those gallstones are very painful and then eventually there's overproduction and now we have you have to take the gallbladder out and now you've kind of bypassed it and you still have a problem, because then you still have to fix the, the fat, the fatty liver, and the fatty liver is now actually going to cause you even more upset stomach and like your mood will feel a little bit more like, um, every foods will feel a little bit more like oily and things of that nature. The idea is that your body's trying to signal and tell you to stop eating those things and if you don't, you're still going to have more detriment to the liver, which then will still could cause long-term ascites or stomach issues and more obesity and other inflammatory issues. And then there's.

Speaker 1: 16:15

So then we go into the small intestines and we're talking about small intestines to talk about the digestion, as I was saying about the brush borders, and in there you know that's all about communication and the GI helping with the nervous system, the brain. They're all connected. If the nervous system and the brain are not connecting properly, we're having, you know, ongoing problems, that communication is not being directed properly. So that's when you'll notice, is when people are more bloated. Those that are very anxious, high anxious, have IBS, diarrhea or IBS-C. Those patients actually are going to the bathroom.

Speaker 1: 16:56

Constipation is usually more depression related and not having the right amount of fiber and hydration, anxiety related or other high inflammatory responses. They will be usually having more diarrhea or other irregular mental, emotional stressors. So high stressors will have more problems with that. Low stressors may have more constipation. They might just be completely depleted. Think of it as like blood flow and your body is just like depleted, has nothing left.

Speaker 1: 17:30

So the malabsorption and your maldigestion is a major, major problem. Long-term, major, major issues of this, um, talking about in the mouth itself can cause, um, inadequate chewing. You know you're not going to break down things properly. Your stomach eventually will not be able to break things in the best ways. How do you change it? You know you got to change your diet. You got to take the right type of enzymes. Um, the scariest things you hear about is just not having the right amount of hydrochloric acid. Nice to meet you, hi, missy and hi Professor. What's up? Nice to meet you? Nice to see you? We're just talking about malabsorption and maldigestion. I'm getting a little extra about it, but I think it can be interesting in its own way.

Speaker 1: 18:19

So when you have these dysfunctions, so dysfunction it's not working properly. When I say dysfunction so when your stomach's not working properly or you don't have enough hydrochloric acid or too much, when they call it gastroparesis, when you have delayed gastric emptying, that's a big thing. When you'll hear about people taking medications why is it delayed? You'll feel full. Now that can be helpful, but can also cause you nausea and still can develop with digestion issues.

Speaker 1: 18:47

When you have a dysfunction in the pancreas, you'll have exocrine insufficiencies and it's not breaking down the right amount Amylase and lympase, usually those main ones. The liver is being broken down. The small intestines are having a deficiency with the amount of peptides and nutrients. The brush border, or the leaky gut as they say. It's degraded over time and will cause many enzymes not to be absorbed. Will also cause when you have excess of it you will have maybe more of a diarrhea issue or just impaired nutritional problems and you'll notice that your body will start to deplete and decrease. If you have any sort of overgrowth, whether it's bacteria or fungal, that will permanently cause you brush border, decrease and then eventually leaky gut and bowel absorption problems.

Speaker 1: 19:42

And then you'll find that there is, you don't understand why it's changing, and things that will help with that is then we have to clear out, you know, bring back the good flora, clear out what was there, then put in the right amount of enzymes and then maybe need antibiotics. So then maybe need antibiotics. So some will need antibiotics or fungal, depending upon if that is in. And there's certain tests that can be done for that um, your breath test to check for SIBO, those are, those are um you know, you know needed um. When I talk about um intestinal dysbiosis, which, which is the um, you know primary thing, for that is like the gut biome. So we're talking about the different um things in the gut biome. So would you believe in the gut biome itself? Hold on one second Um.