WHY HEALTHY DIGESTION IS KEY TO LIVING A HEALTHIER, HAPPIER LIFE.
You’d love to live long, healthy live free from sickness, disease, anxiety and bothersome symptoms, right? We try to do all the things…eat the right foods, exercise, get some sunlight, limit stress, take all the vitamins and supplements. These are great to do, but what if I told you there was an often overlooked foundation of health that affects five major body systems and that if we get it right it would help us reach our biggest health goals? Well, there is something!
HEALTH BEGINS IN THE GUT
Digestion! Digestion is not just about…that’s right, I’ll say it…poop! Digestion hugely impacts our endocrine health, immune health, cardiovascular health, our body’s detoxification processes, and our nervous system! I’d say that Hippocrates was right when he said that all disease begins in the gut! Ultimately, being healthy begins in our gut. Read on to get an inside look at how digestion affects these major body systems and what we can do to support this amazing, foundational system.
DIGESTION & HORMONES
Endocrine equals hormones. Did you know that many organs of your gastrointestinal tract have endocrine functions? Yep! Your stomach, pancreas, and small intestine all produce hormones that help you digest! In fact, the gastrointestinal tract is the largest endocrine organ in the body.
Hormones are molecules that basically travel around the body carrying instructions to glands, organs, and tissues that tell them what to do. They control a variety of biological processes such as heart rate, hunger and muscle growth. Making sure we have a healthy digestive system is the first step in having a healthy endocrine system.
Our bodies produce several different types of hormones and they are made of protein, fat and cholesterol. You can have the best diet in the world, but if you can’t properly break down and absorb the nutrients that you are eating, your body won’t be able to make hormones. When gut health isn’t optimal, hormones can become imbalanced. If you have a compromised gallbladder function, fatty acids won’t be broken down and turned into eicosanoid hormones– which help our body with inflammation. We must be able to inflame and then anti-inflame in order to heal! This is just one example of how important digestion is!
Eating in a rested and relaxed state, as well as chewing our food thoroughly are two small steps that we can take to encourage good digestion. Eating this way will cause our stomach to create enough stomach acid so that foods are properly broken down and nutrients are absorbed. We call this the north to south process.
Good digestion starts in the brain by eating in a rested state. Digestion does not function in a stressed state, so practicing these two habits will greatly strengthen our endocrine health!
DIGESTION & IMMUNE HEALTH
No one enjoys being sick. Over the winter months especially, all we hear about are ways to boost our immune health so that just maybe we can avoid the dreaded cold or flu. Not once have I heard someone mention how important digestion is to the immune system! But as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, healthy digestion is critical to healthy immune function. Supporting the north to south digestive process (remember that from above?) is key to supporting your immune system.
Your stomach uses hydrochloric acid and pepsin (a digestive enzyme) to act as barrier defenses that neutralize many pathogens before entering the intestines. If you don’t have enough stomach acid, or don't eat enough fat and protein to create pepsin, you won’t have a strong defense.
Quick quiz! How do we make sure we have enough stomach acid? We must eat in a relaxed state, chew our food thoroughly, and be sure we’re eating enough protein at each meal.
70-80% of our immune system cells are housed in our gut! The epithelial cells that line the small and large intestines secrete a protective mucous. Healthy gut flora in the large intestines helps stimulate the immune system, feed the epithelial cells, and crowd out bad bacteria. Healthy epithelial cells require a healthy, diverse microbiome. The healthier the cells, the better they are at maintaining an effective physical barrier against colonization or invasion by pathogens. These cells are also on surveillance for invaders and will activate immune cells to attack when needed.
We must also support the liver and gallbladder to break up toxins and get rid of waste. If they aren’t working well then they can’t eliminate immune products. Eating a whole food, nutrient-dense diet and limiting processed foods is a great way to build up a good gut microbiome and ultimately support a huge part of your immune system!
DIGESTION & CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
So, we’ve discussed why you need to eat enough protein at each meal to support the immune system. But good protein digestion is also needed for good cardiovascular health! The heart needs vital nutrients, amino acids, and vitamins to function properly. Good protein digestion is critical in making available the amino acids your heart needs.. Proper stomach pH is needed to absorb calcium and digest B vitamins.
Good liver and gallbladder function enable the digestion of healthy fats and fat-soluble vitamins. Proper bowel flora is needed to produce vitamins B1, B2, B12, and K2, all of which the heart needs to function well!
DIGESTION & DETOXIFICATION
I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of ways to detox your body. While those ways may assist our body's natural detoxification systems, we can’t overlook…you guessed it, digestion! Digestion plays a huge role in detoxification and if we want to focus on detoxing our bodies, a great place to start is at digestion.
There are many roles that the gastrointestinal tract plays in detoxification. Scanning food for invaders, detoxifying poorly digested, fermented toxins, filtering food and intestinal bacteria, and even the simple act of going to the bathroom eliminates toxins from the body!
But it doesn’t stop there! The intestines also provide a physical barrier to stop foreign molecules and chemicals from entering the body. Our intestines also contain probiotic bacteria that assist in the detoxification of many substances. The integrity of the GI membrane and a healthy gut microbiome are vital for the detoxification process.
We can’t forget the liver when talking about detoxification! The liver does over 500 processes within the body and one of its most important functions is detoxification! The liver filters toxins from the blood and neutralizes them in preparation for elimination. The neutralized toxins pass to the gallbladder in bile and are eventually excreted out of the body in feces. Want to be sure your body is detoxing well? Focus on having a healthy digestive system!
DIGESTION & THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
Last, but definitely not least, is our nervous system. You may be familiar with the words sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system, but did you know about the enteric nervous system? It is a subdivision of the autonomic nervous system and directly controls the gastrointestinal tract.
So basically, your gut has its own nervous system! The enteric nervous system has actually been described as the second brain and it regularly communicates with your brain. Ever wonder why we get butterflies in our stomach or need to use the restroom more frequently when we are nervous and/or under stress? Blame your enteric nervous system!
There are more neurons (the cells that send and receive messages between the body and the brain) in your gastrointestinal tract than in your spinal cord. I don’t know about you, but this little tidbit blew my mind.
The enteric nervous system makes use of more than 30 neurotransmitters, most of which are identical to the ones found in the central nervous system. More than 90% of the body’s serotonin is in the gut, as well as about 50% of the body’s dopamine.
Dopamine: the “feel good” hormone. Serotonin: the “happy” hormone. Wait a second. These aren’t just found in your brain? Nope! Yet another reason to pursue healthy digestion! Let's get those happy hormones going!
As we can see, our “gut brain” is super important!
Digestion can only function in a parasympathetic, or rested, state. You must rest to digest. But, what causes us to come out of that state and move into the sympathetic, or fight or flight, state? Stress! When we are in the “fight or flight” state our body is in survival mode and digestion will take a back seat.
In our modern lives, we are exposed to stress that most often is not truly life or death. Our full inbox that needs attention or our big work project isn’t life or death, but our bodies don’t know the difference. The persistent stress of our jobs, families, traffic, deadlines, finances, politics, interpersonal conflict, and numerous other issues can repeatedly activate our stress response. We are constantly living in a sympathetic state. Even when the “threat” has passed, or we’ve answered all of our pressing emails, our body doesn’t realize it and can stay in that sympathetic state.
Chronic stress makes healthy digestion almost impossible, and as we’ve learned, healthy digestion is of utmost importance in the overall health of our bodies.. Researchers are even finding evidence that irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the central nervous system that trigger mood changes, such as depression and anxiety. It makes sense now that we know how much dopamine and serotonin are made in the gastrointestinal tract!
So, what can we do? How can we support our digestion as it supports our brain and central nervous system? We can’t just quit our jobs or run away to a desert island, but creating a few new habits can strengthen our digestion! Before eating, take a few deep breaths. Eat slowly and chew thoroughly. Enjoy what you’re eating. Try not to rush and be sure to sit down. Eating in a rested state and simply chewing well can make all the difference in healthy digestion!
IN CONCLUSION…
So, how do we live lives more free of sickness, disease, anxiety and bothersome symptoms?
We focus on and support our digestion. We can still do all the other things (and probably should!), but taking a minute to focus on achieving good digestion is what will really make all the difference!