According to 2012 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), digestive problems account for 51 million doctor’s office and emergency room visits annually in the United States. In examining digestive disorders, one must realize that there are few special clinics where research and treatment focus exclusively on these disorders and that there are few particular pioneers in the field of digestion. One reason for this is that digestive disorders are not often clearly diagnosed as such. A determination may be made that a person has cancer, arthritis, or renal failure, for example, but not that the condition is related to a chronic digestive disorder that has gone undetected for a long time. While you may be undergoing extensive, costly, and perhaps toxic treatment for a diagnosed disease, it is possible that only the symptoms of your disease are being treated, not the underlying cause.
Furthermore, many people go through life with a chronic digestive problem and assume that it is a normal state of affairs. Any complications that result again are rarely understood as being connected to an underlying problem with the digestive mechanism. Some disturbances that obviously are related to digestion— diarrhea, constipation, and the like—are handled by taking over-the-counter drugs such as laxatives and antacids. Some people think they have a “weak” stomach or that these problems are just part of getting older, and so end up taking drugs habitually, unaware that they are likely exacerbating the real problem.
If any of the systems involved in digestion are faulty in any way, the efficiency of the absorptive process will diminish and the body will not be receiving the nutrients it needs.
Insufficient or suboptimal production of stomach acid, which is not an illness but a sluggish stomach, is the most common digestive problem, especially in people over forty. In the presence of low stomach acid, food digestion in the stomach is impaired and thus protein and minerals are not digested efficiently. Many people with this problem burp and belch after meals.
The pancreas is a gland that produces enzymes for digesting protein, carbohydrates, and fats. The enzymes neutralize the acidity of partially digested food (chyme). If the enzymes are inefficient, difficulties will result. Very often, when a patient complains of digestive problems two to three hours after eating, the pancreas is the culprit.
The liver produces bile, which is stored in the gallbladder and sent into the small intestine through the bile duct. This alkaline fluid is partly responsible for fat absorption, as it emulsifies or breaks down fats into smaller particles. The liver is a major workhorse of both digestion and the detoxification of the body, and it can be overtaxed by a poor diet or by any inefficiency in the digestive process. If production of stomach acid or pancreatic enzymes is sluggish, this sub-par functioning can be a major stressor on the liver.
The pancreatic enzymes described above come into play when partially digested food moves from the stomach to the duodenum, which is the first part of the small intestine. The digested food then moves farther down the small intestine into the jejunum, where food absorption takes place. The nutrients are then carried through the bloodstream to various parts of the body. A malfunction in this part of the process, or anything leading up to it, can impair nutrient absorption.
The ileocecal valve is located between the small and large intestines. Diarrhea and constipation are often associated with malfunctions of this valve. The valve’s job is to open when the contents of the small intestines are ready to pass through, to let a certain amount through, and then to close. However, if the valve stays open too long, or is too tight or closed, problems can occur.
If the ileocecal valve remains in the open position it can enhance diarrhea, because everything is flushing through too quickly. Food passes through the digestive apparatus so rapidly that the absorptive process is impaired. In addition to the rapid transit due to the open valve, the movement of food may reverse, as the contents of the colon backflush. The colon is the “garbage disposal” area, whereas the small intestine is the “kitchen” area. Therefore, a backflush of waste material puts biochemical stress on the small intestine and irritates the liver as well. In short, the waste material makes a mess in the kitchen. The material may be absorbed into the bloodstream, causing various toxic reactions.
If the ileocecal valve is too tight or too closed, this can cause constipation. The tight valve, by not facilitating the passage of the small intestine contents into the colon, retards the entire digestive flow, which leads to infrequent bowel movements, or constipation.
When the stomach acid and pancreatic enzyme systems do not work properly, undigested particles of food or actual pieces of food may reach the colon, also called the large intestine. This not only irritates the colon but also leads to flatulence because the undigested food will be fermented by the friendly and not-sofriendly bacteria residing in the colon.
Finally, the colon may be irritated throughout its entire length or in any of its anatomical parts: the ascending colon, the transverse colon, or the descending colon. Often, the most common pattern is that all three parts are out of balance. In this case, the patient should consider how she handles stress because the colon may be the organ in which various stress elements are manifesting themselves.
There has been found to be a high correlation between food intolerances or allergies and irritation in the descending colon (see below). It’s always a good idea to keep a careful food diary to identify frequently eaten foods and those you may suspect are culprits in allergic reactions. Foods that commonly prompt allergic reactions include gluten foods (wheat, barley, oats, and rye), sugar, peanuts, citrus fruits, dairy products, soybeans, corn, and caffeine.
Irritation of the ascending colon alone means that its ecology is off balance. For example, there may be an overgrowth of yeast because the ascending colon becomes a fermentation factory of sorts when undigested food particles reach it. The unfriendly bacteria that live in the small and large intestines may be especially likely to overgrow if the production of stomach acid is so low that the digestive system becomes underacidified or excessively alkaline. A highly alkaline environment favors the growth of yeast, which may then exceed the usual niche it maintains within the ecological population of the colon.
Digestive system disorders can be placed into two main categories: those that are clearly and directly related to digestion, and those that are a step or two removed from the digestive process and therefore more difficult to connect with digestion.
Symptoms of disorders in the first category are more easily recognized. The most common include burping, belching, flatulence, a feeling of indigestion, undigested food in the stool, or a feeling of food “just sitting there.” When such symptoms are present, it is relatively easy to connect the problem to some malfunction in the digestive process.
Problems that occur over time and are related to the long-term inefficient absorption of nutrients and/or an insufficiency of nutrients in the food to begin with are often not directly connected to digestive difficulties. Insufficient stomach acid production can result in malabsorption of calcium, leading to osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, for example. Periodontal problems may be caused by a deficiency of calcium and other nutrients. Anemia may be linked to low stomach acid levels, because iron is not absorbed efficiently. Poorly nourished skin is another common result of malabsorption due to digestive problems. The skin may show minor symptoms, such as blemishes, dryness, scaling, or a tendency toward irritation. These are often due to dietary deficiencies and/or poor absorption of calcium, zinc, vitamins A and E, and essential fatty acids.
The differences between traditional and alternative medicine are particularly evident in the treatment of digestive disorders. In the traditional paradigm, a person is generally deemed healthy unless she has a major breakdown in the digestive apparatus or a major disease. In essence, the paradigm says that health is the absence of disease.
Traditional physicians are more used to treating symptoms than correcting causes. For this reason, one of the most common problems in digestion—a “cause” rather than a “symptom”—is one that is rarely considered in traditional medical practice. This is the malabsorption syndrome, or the failure of the body to absorb the nutrients that have been ingested. The problem here is that even though a food is eaten and goes through the digestive system, the nutrients, minerals, and vitamins do not get into the blood and hence do not penetrate the body at the cellular level.
Traditionally trained physicians are skilled at identifying and treating conditions when they have reached a disease state. Their approach to diagnosis and treatment is anatomical in nature. They use sophisticated technologies to evaluate the anatomy of the digestive tract—the stomach, pancreas, small intestine, colon, and liver—and look for evidence of tumors, polyps, ulcers, and other problems. They are less likely to search out or treat conditions such as underactivity, sluggishness, or suboptimal function. Even when such conditions are detected, they are often not considered significant.
The digestive process, like all body systems, produces a wide spectrum of symptoms when it is not functioning properly. Complementary physicians, who combine traditional medicine with alternative practices, consider mild or moderate symptoms to be signs of suboptimal functioning that should be addressed as such. These symptoms include burping, indigestion, and constipation. Complementary physicians often analyze the body biochemistry using sophisticated blood laboratory testing that goes beyond traditional medicine’s use of the standard SMA-24 profile to identify major digestive disorders. They are very interested in the foods a person eats, and whether any specific foods cause irritation or other reactions. Thus they tend to test for food sensitivity as part of a complete analysis of body function.
In terms of treatment, complementary physicians tend to use natural substances such as foods, herbs, and homeopathic preparations. Supplements that contain concentrated forms of vitamins and minerals are fundamental elements of body rebalancing. Complementary physicians tend to be attuned to the concept of even the mildest malabsorption since they frequently see the end product of this condition, namely deficiencies of nutrients.
Dr. Martin Feldman, whose ulcer protocol is described below, is a traditionally trained physician who practices complementary medicine. Over many years of practice, he has found that a surprisingly large number of health disorders are related to suboptimal digestion, which, as mentioned earlier, reduces the body’s ability to absorb the vital nutrients needed for proper functioning. Rather than taking the traditional approach of waiting for symptoms to develop into fullblown disease states, Dr. Feldman strongly believes in treating sluggish conditions before they progress. By identifying and treating digestive system disorders when they first begin, he believes that many degenerative diseases can be avoided.
This approach makes use of standard medical procedures and tests. A complete medical history is taken, and comprehensive blood and laboratory analyses are conducted. Dr. Feldman looks for indicators of suboptimal functioning in the digestive system, such as a slight elevation of SGOT enzymes on an SMA-24 blood test. The SGOT, an enzyme found in liver cells, can double or triple in the presence of hepatitis. Traditional physicians will generally look for such extremely elevated levels and tend to disregard slightly elevated levels. Dr. Feldman, however, considers that even a small increase in the level of this enzyme can indicate that the liver, while not diseased, is off balance and in need of attention. As he explains, “I’m looking for the early evaluation of an imbalanced or a suboptimal liver, not a very diseased liver.”
Lab tests can also disclose other indicators of malabsorption. These include low levels of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, manganese, chromium, and selenium, and deficiencies of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, and E. The water-soluble vitamins, including B complex and C, are generally less affected because they are more easily absorbed. Dr. Feldman also may test for bacteria and parasites.
In addition, Dr. Feldman uses a noninvasive technique, based on acupuncture pressure points, to test the strength of various internal organs and mechanisms. This technique can determine which components of a patient’s digestion are sluggish by testing the level of electrical activity in their specific meridians. If the flow of energy in a given meridian field is deficient, that aspect of digestion is often suboptimal.
Dr. Feldman explains: “Acupuncture theory has taught us that there are many energy flows throughout the body. The energy flow is quite specific along anatomical pathways. A deficient electrical flow often reflects an organ weakness. Traditional acupuncture intervenes by inserting needles into specific acupuncture points to either improve the flow of electrical energy through that flow channel or meridian or to reduce the flow.” Because he uses acupuncture theory only for diagnosis and not for treatment, Dr. Feldman has no need for needles. Instead, he uses meridians to profile the component parts of the digestive apparatus and pinpoint areas that are underactive or suboptimal in strength. In this way he can determine the energy flow or lack of flow and thus assess the body’s function.
Once the areas of weakness are identified, Dr. Feldman may consult with a gastroenterologist to see if additional testing is needed, such as X-rays or colonoscopy.
Dr. Feldman then begins to formulate a plan to soothe, replace, repair, and rebuild faulty mechanisms. Treatment decisions are based on area of dysfunction, whether and where irritation is present, and whether any pathogens are present, such as parasites or unfriendly, harmful bacteria. To correct any of these problems, Dr. Feldman’s treatment relies heavily on natural substances, including vitamins, minerals, herbs, and occasional homeopathic preparations.
The first step in this process is to soothe any parts of the digestive system that are irritated, whether the stomach, the small intestine, or the colon. Various herbal preparations, such as marshmallow, slippery elm, and aloe vera, may be used for this purpose. Aloe vera, in particular, can help soothe the ileocecal valve, the ascending or descending colon, or the entire digestive tract when it is irritated.
Next, it is important to replace whatever is insufficient or suboptimal. When deficiencies of stomach acid are determined, oral acid tablets (such as betaine hydrochloride or glutamic acid) may be prescribed in order to optimize the stomach-acid phase of digestion. Dr. Feldman warns that this therapy must be supervised by a knowledgeable practitioner. Other natural substances, including zinc, folic acid, intrinsic factor, and duodenal substance, can help get the stomach back on track to produce its own acid.
The most crucial step in Dr. Feldman’s treatment is repair. The focus is on (1) eliminating negative influences on the organ in question, including foods that provoke allergic reactions, irritants such as caffeine, and poor food choices (such as fatty and denatured foods) that stress the digestive system; and (2) using natural therapies to rebuild the suboptimal or sluggish components of digestion. For example, the following substances may be used:
STOMACH—Cabbage juice, vitamin D3, black cumin seed oil, vitamin C, licorice, zinc, vitamin A, n-acetyl-glucosamine, marshmallow, ginger, and cayenne. Natural therapies such as goldenseal and a citrate bismuth can help to combat an infection of Helicobacter pylori, although an antibiotic may be needed as well to eliminate the bacteria.
ILEOCECAL VALVE—Lipid-soluble chlorophyll, aloe vera, slippery elm bark, and echinacea. Increased consumption of water can also help in the case of a closed valve.
COLON—For an imbalance of the ascending colon: bifido bacteria (which can help rebalance the ecology of the colon), fructooligosaccharides (FOS), insoluble fiber, and calendula. For a parasitic infection of the descending colon: grapefruit seed extract, black walnut herb, artemesia, and homeopathic antiparasite remedies. For a general irritation of the colon: aloe vera, lipid-soluble chlorophyll, butyric acid, Jerusalem artichoke flour, 1-glutamine, a mix of soluble and insoluble fiber, calcium, and magnesium.
LIVER—Choline, methionine, inositol, milk thistle, combination herbal formulas, and homeopathic solutions.
Foods to which a person is allergic or sensitive are considered invaders by the body’s immune system. Thus, they irritate and weaken the digestive apparatus. It is quite common to find that people consume large amounts of foods to which they are allergic. Reading food labels and choosing food correctly is a critical part of treatment.
Digestive malfunctioning can cause complications when allergens are present. If there is a deficiency of the gastric juices or pancreatic enzymes, for instance, a food will be in the system for a much longer time than it would if there were adequate amounts of acids and enzymes to break it down. If the food is one to which the body is sensitive, that sensitivity will be heightened by the delayed action of the digestive mechanism. Furthermore, if protein molecules are not broken down into small enough particles because of faulty digestive processes, the larger units entering the bloodstream will be treated like foreign invaders by the body’s immune system, and an allergic reaction will ensue.
High-protein diets pose a special problem with respect to food allergies. People who consume a lot of protein usually tend to have it in their systems around the clock. This is because it takes at least four to seven hours for proteins to be digested, and if the protein is fried, deep-fried, or charcoal-broiled, it can take even longer. Consider the person who starts the day with bacon and eggs, has a sandwich of cold cuts and cheese at lunch, eats more meat and drinks milk at dinner, and tops it off with a late-night snack of ice cream. This person will have protein in his or her system all the time.
If any substance—in this case, protein—sits in the digestive system virtually all the time, two things will occur. First, the person will almost certainly develop an allergy to it because of overexposure. Second, the person will probably not be aware of the allergy because her system will never be without the substance long enough for her to notice changes due to its presence or absence. The negative symptoms then become cumulative and chronic, and are manifested as disease states. Digestion is usually strained, and the disorders that appear are generally regarded as signs of poor health, which becomes tolerated as unavoidable or is attributed to genetics or age.
Food rotation is one way to help alleviate this problem. It can be combined with medical care. Don’t eat the same foods day after day, because no matter how healthy and nutritious they are, you will not benefit from them if your body rejects or reacts negatively to them. Wheat, for example, is nutritious, but because it is found in practically every processed food, it is also a very common allergen. Therefore, it must be rotated in the diet with other grains. Eat it no more frequently than every fourth day and in no more than a 4-ounce portion at each meal. Then there is a good chance it can be eaten without causing an allergic reaction.
All foods should be rotated in this manner. Even if your body is not responding negatively in an overt way, you may be having hidden reactions to many different foods. Even if you are not, by overusing a food—eating it too frequently and in oversized portions—you may eventually develop an allergy to it. Try to make a routine of rotating all foods and avoid eating processed foods as much as possible because certain foods, such as corn and wheat, are ingredients in many of them.
Lactose intolerance is a common digestive disorder. Probably two-thirds of the world’s adults cannot tolerate lactose, which is found in milk and all milk products. When lactose-sensitive people continue to eat dairy products, they begin to suffer from a wide range of symptoms, which include abdominal cramping and bloating, chronic nasal discharge or postnasal drip, puffiness under the eyes, gas, and diarrhea.
Lactose intolerance is a malabsorption of lactose caused by a deficiency of lactase, the enzyme responsible for milk digestion. Lactase breaks lactose down into the readily digestible forms glucose and galactose. If it is absent or deficient, lactose remains undigested in the system. Some passes through the blood and is excreted in the urine, but most ends up in the large intestine. The lactose molecules draw water out of the tissues and into the intestinal cavity, while the undigested glucose is fermented by intestinal bacteria. Carbon dioxide is given off during this process, and diarrhea, bloating, flatulence, and belching may result.
The lactase deficiency can be caused by damage to the intestinal mucosa; this damage may be brought on by acute infectious diarrhea in infants. Malnutrition, cystic fibrosis, and colitis also have been known to cause lactase deficiency. Even in the absence of these traumas, lactose deficiency is very common.
The most obvious remedy for lactose intolerance is to stay away from milk and all milk products. Also, keep in mind that lactose is found in many vitamins and most processed foods, so it is best to avoid processed foods and request from vitamin manufacturers a full disclosure of their exact ingredients. It is important to eliminate lactose from the system completely in order to recover from its ravages. Another option may be to purchase a commercially prepared lactase supplement that boosts your supply of lactase and enables you to better digest the lactose. Some lactase-deficient people, however, can still eat a few fermented milk and dairy products without negative consequences. These items—primarily yogurt, buttermilk, and cottage cheese—must be tested on an individual basis to determine one’s reaction to them.
Gastritis, another common digestive disorder, involves an inflammation of the mucosa lining the inner wall of the stomach. The inflammation is accompanied by symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. In the acute form, gastritis can be caused by infections and/or the ingestion of corrosive agents such as alcohol and aspirin. In the chronic form, gastritis is a serious condition that may be the cornerstone of degenerative diseases such as ulcers.
The treatment of gastritis should include the elimination of any substance (an allergen or anything else that is difficult to digest) known to be causing or aggravating the condition. The diet should include lots of liquids. Vegetables should be steamed to maximize their digestibility and reduce their acidity. A blood chemistry test should be performed to determine what, if any, vitamin deficiencies exist, since they often play an important role in this disorder. Vitamin deficiency related to gastritis is responsible for many complications, among which are a prickly sensation in the skin, loss of memory, depression, and general weakness.
Another group of disorders associated with the digestive system have been termed pressure diseases because they are caused by a pressure buildup that results from failure to eliminate waste efficiently. They include diverticulitis, hemorrhoids, hiatus hernia, and appendicitis, among others.
Diverticular disease is the most troublesome and widespread of the pressure conditions. It occurs when the muscle rings encircling the colon, which move along bulk matter, become clogged. Try clenching your fist and then imagine that mud is stuck in the creases of your hand. The creases can be thought of as diverticula, and the mud in them is food being trapped in the digestive organs. When bulk and fiber are lacking in the diet, the colon must deal with a mass of food too dry to be pushed along with ease, and so it becomes overworked, overstressed, and overstrained. Its membranes eventually herniate, or rupture, and it is these ruptures that are called diverticula. When there are many diverticula—and there can be hundreds—they tend to become inflamed and cause more acute symptoms. This condition is known as diverticulitis. Approximately one in four people with diverticular disease develop these acute symptoms.
Diverticulitis barely existed before the twentieth century, but now is said to affect one-third of all adults middle-aged or older, half the population over fifty, and two-thirds of the population over eighty. It is the most common digestive disorder of senior citizens.
Research on the genesis and development of diverticular disease has shown that it results from a gross lack of fiber in the diet. The refining of carbohydrates seems to be the main culprit here, since this condition is almost wholly absent in cultures where whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and such are the mainstays of the diet and where processed foods are not used.
The traditional treatment for diverticular disease has been to give the patient stool softeners to help the stool pass through the system and expanders to force it out. Antibiotics are also used. The patient is placed on a fibrous diet that helps the colon begin processing waste more efficiently and with less strain. Bran is usually prescribed, and patients are often told to avoid milk products and spicy foods, since these tend to produce abdominal pain, pressure, and gas.
Alternative treatments for diverticular disease may include the above suggestions but will add to the patient’s diet other abdominal and intestinal cleansers taken orally. These include cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, and noncarbohydrate lignin. Celery, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and especially beet juice will also help the condition. Bran should be unprocessed because this type has a shorter intestinal transit time and helps increase stool weight. The diverticula pockets may be cleansed with dietary supplements of chlorophyll, chamomile, garlic, vitamin C, aloe vera concentrate, zinc, nondairy acidophilus, pectin, and psyllium. Instead of medicinal antibiotics, natural antibiotics such as garlic may be used.
Constantly straining to push dry, compacted stools out of the system causes the veins in the rectal and anal passages to become distended and engorged with blood. The veins become weakened, lose their elasticity, and can no longer carry blood properly. This causes the blood to pool instead, creating a ballooning effect known as a hemorrhoid.
When the hemorrhoids are internal, they can become obstructive to stool passage. With constant pressure being exerted against them, they may rupture and bleed and, in severe cases, hemorrhage. External hemorrhoids, also called piles, are very sensitive and may grow to the size of golf balls.
It is estimated that half of all Americans over fifty years of age have hemorrhoids and that hemorrhoidal treatment is a $50 million a year industry. Most of the profit comes from sales of suppositories. Suppositories are given to shrink and lubricate hemorrhoids to prevent them from rupturing. Alternative treatments for hemorrhoids center on hygiene, diet, and exercise. Warm tub or sitz baths and ice packs may help. If you increase your intake of water, vitamin C, and fiber, and exercise regularly, the blood trapped in the hemorrhoidal veins will be reabsorbed into the body and the problem will be cleared up. However, it will recur unless you integrate these changes into a new, more healthful lifestyle.
Prevention of the recurrence of hemorrhoids is aimed at changing conditions associated with the pressure and straining of constipation. Doctors will often recommend increasing fiber and fluids in the diet. Eating the right amount of fiber and drinking six to eight glasses of fluid (not alcohol) result in softer, bulkier stools. A softer stool makes emptying the bowels easier and lessens the pressure on hemorrhoids caused by straining.
Eliminating straining also helps prevent the hemorrhoids from protruding. Good sources of fiber are fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. In addition, doctors may suggest a bulk stool softener or a fiber supplement such as psyllium (Metamucil) or methylcellulose (Citrucel).
In some cases, hemorrhoids must be treated surgically. These methods are used to shrink and destroy the hemorrhoidal tissue and are performed under anesthesia. The doctor will perform the surgery during an office or hospital visit.
Hiatus hernia is another condition related to constipation and low-fiber dietary regimens. Like the other pressure diseases, it is essentially a modern-day Western disorder affecting primarily middle-aged and older people. There are no warning symptoms until it causes a sharp pain just below the breastbone. It is a condition in which part of the stomach wall becomes distended and pushes up against the diaphragm and the skeletal system. Obesity may contribute to the condition, which also sometimes develops during pregnancy.
The traditional treatment for hiatus hernia usually includes antacids, a bland diet, and sometimes surgery. These steps are adequate to relieve the pain, and you certainly should follow the suggestions of your physician. The alternative (or even complementary) approach is aimed at going beyond alleviation of the painful symptoms by establishing a dietary regimen that can reverse the condition while ameliorating the source of discomfort. Since constipation due to a low-fiber diet is frequently the cause of this condition, make sure to get plenty of high-fiber bulk foods. Losing weight may also help.
Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix, a small pouch that extends from the first part of the large intestine. The appendix has no known function. It can become diseased as a result of infection or obstructed from contents moving through the intestinal tract.
Appendicitis is caused mainly by troublesome elimination. The most common abdominal emergency in the Western world, it is often brought on by continuous constipation, straining during stool elimination, and anal retention—failing to evacuate solid waste when the body tells you to. By delaying your bowel movements, perhaps because you are too busy to be inconvenienced, you confuse your body. The water from fecal matter begins to be reabsorbed, and the dry, hard stool that is left will pass only with great pain and difficulty. In the meantime, you strain the muscles that must retain this mass and eventually train them to delay normal elimination.
Some people learn to have a bowel movement only once a day or even once every two or three days. You should have two or three bowel movements a day, depending, of course, on what and how often you eat. When there is not enough dietary fiber to move food and waste readily through the digestive system, pressure builds up and blocks the passage of stool. Bacteria accumulate and back up into the threeto sixinch-long appendix, which is attached to the large intestine. The appendix becomes inflamed and infected, and an appendectomy must be performed.
To see how critical the issue of fiber is here, consider the 6,000 appendectomies performed in the United States each week compared with only a handful per year in rural Africa, where processed fiber-depleted food is virtually nonexistent. This again is a pressure disease that can be avoided or even treated with a high-fiber diet consisting of complex carbohydrates.
Ulcers of the digestive tract afflict about one in twenty women. Digestive-system ulcers occur most often in the duodenum, which is the upper portion of the small intestine. The duodenal ulcer is usually found in the first few inches of the duodenum. The second most common type is the peptic or gastric ulcer, which affects the stomach.
Some ulcers are slight abrasions of the internal mucosal lining; others advance to the stage where they totally perforate the stomach or intestinal wall. Their three stages of development are known as perforation, penetration, and obstruction. In acute perforation, the ulcer eats through the wall of the abdomen. This is the most serious state and causes the greatest number of deaths. Surgery to close the perforation is virtually unavoidable.
Penetration is the stage where the patient usually awakens at night with severe pain in adjacent areas of the body—the back, liver, and so forth—not just the stomach. This transfer of effect to other organs makes the ulcer hard to diagnose. Obstruction is the stage in which swelling caused by inflammation affects the stomach and the opening to the small intestine.
The vast majority of ulcers are caused by the Helicobacter pylori bacteria. These bacteria take up residence in the lining of the digestive tract and then contribute to the breakdown of that lining, resulting in a lesion or crater. Doctors used to think that ulcers were caused by stress or the production of too much hydrochloric acid.
Traditional physicians generally limit their treatment to the use of antibiotics to combat the bacteria, and acid-production blockers such as Tagamet and Zantac to prevent the stomach acid from irritating the broken-down tissues in the mucosal lining. The heavy reliance on acid-production blockers is troublesome for two reasons: The drugs do not address the real issue, which is why the bacteria have proliferated in the digestive wall; and since the natural stomach acid opposes the bacteria, the blockers may reduce the body’s ammunition against the infection. In the process, these drugs may also lessen the effectiveness of the overall digestive process. The stomach’s role in digestion is to produce acids that help to digest foods. When that mechanism is suppressed by acid-production blockers, the body may not digest foods efficiently and absorb nutrients. Thus, a patient may suffer from malabsorption.
As a complementary physician, Dr. Martin Feldman advocates a much more comprehensive approach to the treatment of ulcers. In addition to eliminating the bacteria, he says, the treatment should accomplish three goals: helping the stomach to heal the erosion; rebalancing the stomach acid production so that it works properly; and optimizing the immune system so that the body can protect against reinfection.
The mainstream medical community uses endoscopes and upper-GI X-rays to determine if an ulcer actually exists. Dr. Feldman may call on these diagnostic tech-niques as well to obtain as much scientific data as possible on the status of an ulcer. He also uses tests performed by specialty laboratories to identify the presence of Helicobacter pylori. Dr. Feldman also draws on his clinical judgment in the diagnostic process. If the laboratory blood test is negative but his clinical experience suggests the presence of Helicobacter pylori, he may conduct a therapeutic trial by having the patient take some natural substances that combat the bacteria. He can use this technique because the substances are safe and well tolerated, producing very few side effects. Dr. Feldman then monitors the patient to determine if the therapy reduces the symptoms.
Both antibiotics and natural substances can be used to fight the Helicobacter pylori infection. For antibiotic treatments, Dr. Feldman favors the use of amoxicillin because it is usually effective and well tolerated by most patients.
In addition, he may combat the bacteria at a second level with natural therapies. These include goldenseal, an herb that has antibacterial properties, the mineral bismuth in a citrate form, and various combinations of homeopathic solutions. Because homeopathic solutions function primarily as transmitters of energy, Dr. Feldman can test the effect of specific homeopathic products on the body’s acupuncture-meridian energy fields.
In addition to removing the bacteria, it’s important to help the body heal the ulcer irritation or erosion. Dr. Feldman uses a variety of natural treatments to heal the digestive lining. These include cabbage juice, aloe vera, licorice herb, buffered black cumin seed oil, curcumin, vitamin D3, vitamin B-complex, vitamin C, and n-acetyl-glucosamine, a nutrient complex. Other substances that soothe the irritation and thus promote the healing process are marshmallow, ginger, cayenne, and an herbal combination called Robert’s Formula.
Food allergens tend to irritate the stomach, making it harder to heal an ulcer or any other irritation of the stomach or intestines. Therefore, any foods to which a patient is allergic should be eliminated from the diet. To identify such offenders, Dr. Feldman will test a patient’s reaction to various food substances by placing them upon the taste portion of the tongue. The brain-taste mechanism, which is very highly developed, has the ability to ascertain if a given food substance is a danger to the body.
Paradoxically, many patients with ulcers have a low production of stomach acid. As Dr. Feldman notes, the low-acid environment allows the Helicobacter pylori bacteria to get a foothold in the mucosal lining, while a normal acid level would tend to provide some antibacterial protection.
In addition to allowing the bacteria to grow, a low acid production can cause other problems. One is that food will sit in the stomach for a long period of time and ferment abnormally due to the lack of sufficient stomach acid. This fermentation then produces abnormal acids that irritate the stomach and the ulcer. The result: People with low stomach acid experience the symptoms of a high acid production. They may take antacids to suppress the symptoms, but that remedy doesn’t correct the true problem. The stomach must work efficiently so that food does not ferment abnormally.
Dr. Feldman has found that many patients suffer from this problem, so he puts a strong emphasis on reoptimizing the stomach’s acid mechanism. Again, he uses a variety of natural therapies to get the acid-production system back on track. These remedies include zinc, folic acid, intrinsic factor, and duodenal substance. In some cases, he also prescribes oral acid supplements, which may assist the acid mechanism in strengthening itself. This latter treatment requires careful supervision to ensure that a patient takes the proper form of acid in the proper doses.
As a final phase in his treatment of ulcers, Dr. Feldman focuses on rebuilding the immune system. The logic here, of course, is that the immune system must be working at its maximum level to fight the bacteria that cause most ulcers in the first place. This part of the treatment consists of nutrients that serve as the building blocks of the immune system. They include vitamins A, E, D, and C, bioflavonoids, gamma linolenic acid (GLA), essential fatty acids, zinc, and selenium.
As a final note, people who suffer from ulcers should avoid ingesting substances that exacerbate the condition. These include alcohol, nicotine, aspirin, coffee, soft drinks, salt, high-oil nuts, and even raw fruit (except bananas). Foods that are excessively spicy and difficult to digest should be avoided as well.
You don’t want to eat a lot of high-protein foods, especially those that are high in fat. Animal foods require more gastric involvement and should be avoided if possible. If you do eat meat, at least trim off the fat; also avoid overcooking, deep frying, and charcoal broiling since these processes make the molecules bond more tightly so that more digestive effort is required to break them down.
Carbohydrate foods have their own protective buffer in the natural state (brown rice and whole grain and vegetables), but once they are refined (white flour and white rice, cakes and pastries) the buffer is stripped away. Therefore, avoid denatured, processed carbohydrates. Vegetables are usually quite acidic, so avoid those causing gas (turnips, cucumbers, brussels sprouts, broccoli, radishes, and cauliflower), especially in the raw state. Vegetables will be less acidic if you cook them, preferably by steaming since it does not destroy their fibrous structure.
According to a 2015 fact sheet from the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, irritable bowel syndrome affects 10 to 15 percent of all adults in the US, two-thirds of whom are women. Signs and symptoms include bowel irregularity, constipation, diarrhea, alternating constipation and diarrhea, a sense of bloatedness and cramping in the intestinal area, and generalized gastrointestinal discomfort. Most people who consult a traditional medical doctor are given the diagnosis but not much in the way of treatment. Typically, says Dr. Elizabeth Lipski, a certified clinical nutritionist and author of Digestive Wellness, “you’re told to eat more fiber, go home, and not worry about it.”
That advice might be easy for a doctor to give, but not for those affected to take. “A study was done not too long ago comparing people who have different chronic health issues and different health issues and diseases,” Dr. Lipski says. “What they discovered was that people who have irritable bowel syndrome have the quality of life of people who are undergoing chemotherapy for cancer treatment. People who are undergoing chemo, it’s a bad thing, but it’s short. Maybe they have to do that for two months or three months or maybe even a horrible year; but for people with irritable bowel syndrome having constipation, diarrhea, cramping can affect them lifelong. The sad thing is that there is so much that can be done and physicians don’t really know how to help everybody to do that.”
Among the causes of irritable syndrome are food sensitivities and intolerances, infection, and stress.
Dr. Lipski explains how to determine whether food is the culprit. First, eat your regular diet and keep a chart of symptoms, ranking them from one to ten in terms of severity. Then, for two weeks eat only these specific foods: all the rice that you want (any type); all the fruits and vegetables that you want, either cooked or raw; poultry, organic if possible; fish; oil such as olive oil on a salad for a salad dressing to make your food taste good; salt, pepper, herbs and spices. Chart your symptoms after following this regimen, and compare them with the earlier readings.
“What I find,” Dr. Lipski says, “is that probably eight out of ten people with irritable bowel syndrome and many other mystery illnesses are feeling remarkably better within two weeks.”
Food intolerance is another common cause of irritable bowel syndrome. “Seventy percent of the world’s population is lactose intolerant, and for many people just taking dairy out of their diets for a couple of weeks also can give them remarkable results,” Dr. Lipski says.
Stress can cause problems because we have neurotransmitters in our digestive system that cause us to feel our emotions in the gut. “I have one client who every time she had to speak at a meeting would get diarrhea before she went in,” Dr. Lipski says. “It can be very important to learn stress modification techniques,” such as abdominal breathing, positive self-talk, meditation, prayer, hypnotherapy, and biofeedback.
Dr. Lipski has seen good results with probiotic supplements, increased fiber, and herbs that nourish the digestive system.
“Personally,” she says, “I feel like all of us should take a probiotic every single day. What we know about probiotic supplements is that they help balance the immune system. They can help lower and normalize serum cholesterol and triglycerides levels. They make vitamins, most of our B vitamins and vitamin K. They help protect us against food poisoning. They make little bits of antibiotics. They’re very soothing to the digestive system, and they also make little bits of anticancer-causing substances. They’re very important. They also help with bowel regularity: whether we have too many bowel movements in a day and diarrhea or whether we have too few, probiotics can be really useful.
“There is one specific type of probiotic that’s been very well researched for people who have diarrhea type irritable bowel syndrome. It is an unusual probiotic because it’s not a bacterium like most of them are. It’s actually a yeast. It’s a cousin to bread baking yeast, and it’s called Saccharomyces boulardii. A French pharmaceutical company has been doing research on this particular yeast for over fifty years, and finds that it’s very useful for helping with diarrhea from all causes. It’s widely available in health food stores.”
Fiber can best be obtained from food. Dr. Lipski recommends that people eat a lot of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and small amounts of nuts, seeds and legumes. “I prefer that to fiber supplements, but fiber supplements also can be useful if people just for some reason can’t make those changes to their diet,” she says.
Among the herbs that can soothe and nourish the digestive system are basil, rosemary, nutmeg, ginger, aloe vera,turmeric, cumin, and coriander. Dr. Lipski also recommends peppermint tea, valerian tea, and lemon balm, as well as slippery elm and marshmallow root.
Another helpful herb is chamomile. “Think about Little Peter Rabbit when he came in with a bad tummy,” Dr. Lipski says. “What did his mom give him? It was chamomile.”
Celiac disease is an inherited autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and prevents adequate absorption of nutrients from food. The damage is caused by a toxic reaction of the immune system to the ingestion of gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. According to 2015 data from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, the disease affects about 1 percent of the population in the US. Unfortunately, some 83 percent of people with Celiac are undi-agnosed, and therefore not aware of the many successful ways to manage this potentially disabling condition. When left untreated, Celiac disease can cause complications such as other autoimmune disorders, osteoporosis, infertility, and neurological disorders.
Symptoms can arise throughout the lifespan. They may include bloating, gas, or abdominal pain; chronic diarrhea or constipation or both; pale, foul-smelling stool; bone or joint pain; behavior changes, depression, and/or irritability; vitamin K deficiency; skin problems; fatigue; weakness; and delayed growth or onset of puberty. Some people do not experience any symptoms; however, they still may be at risk for future complications.
Naturopathic physician Dr. Christine Doherty says that women with Celiac disease may have osteoporosis, irregular menstruation, miscarriage, and infertility. It can be a cause of heavy periods and anemia. Celiac can cause early menopause, as early as age thirty, or late onset of the first period.
Diagnosis can be difficult because the symptoms are so varied and similar to those of other diseases. Screening for Celiac disease is done with blood tests that measure levels of certain antibodies. The next step would be a small bowel biopsy and possibly testing for specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes.
“Celiac is one of the classic malabsorption diseases,” Dr. Doherty says. “The good news is that once you know what you’re dealing with and you take the gluten out of the diet, the body’s ability to absorb nutrients bounces back.”
Treatment for Celiac disease is always dietary. A gluten-free diet must be followed. People with Celiac should not eat foods that contain wheat, rye, or barley. Gluten is found in breads, pastas, and cookies, and is “hidden” in many other foods. Dr. Doherty says she recommends a version of the Mediterranean diet. “Basically,” she says, “meat is only a condiment maybe once a month. Sweets, eggs, poultry, fish maybe once a week. Of course fruits, legumes, nuts, beans and vegetables.” Fortunately there have been an increasing number of gluten-free products on the market in recent years, and many support groups and websites to help people sort through what they can and cannot eat.
“I make sure people are eating a good quality diet and not just replacing their donuts with gluten-free donuts,” Dr. Doherty says. “You actually want to be focusing on the fruits and the vegetables and the gluten-free whole grains.”
Supplements are often beneficial. Many people with Celiac have vitamin D deficiency, Dr. Doherty says. “It’s very difficult to get enough from foods. So I usually give between 2,000 and 4,000 IUs a day of Vitamin D3. I personally like a drop version. It’s very hard to find a multivitamin that has that level of vitamin D in it.”
Vitamin K, calcium, and magnesium also may be recommended. “I look at how well the gut is functioning,” says Dr. Doherty. “Calcium and magnesium are both fairly difficult for the gut to manage. Calcium tends to be very constipating on its own, and magnesium tends to have a laxative effect. So you have to see what the individual system will tolerate. The standard dose is two times more calcium than magnesium. So if you’re taking 1,000 milligrams of calcium, you’re taking 500 milligrams of magnesium. Food sources are better when it comes to calcium, but sometimes, especially initially, we need supplemental calcium.”
Dr. Doherty says that a broad spectrum B vitamin is important for improving fatigue and mood. Vitamin A is also used, 10,000 to 50,000 IU’s daily. “I use the fat soluble version of vitamin A because people with Celiac often can’t convert betacarotene into vitamin A efficiently. So you’ll see frequent infections, night vision problems, skin problems, acne, and that ‘chicken skin’ on the back of their arms. That can be a sign of vitamin A deficiency.” Vitamin A must be used cautiously because it can be toxic during pregnancy and over the long term, Dr. Doherty says.
One of the symptoms of Celiac also can be elevated liver enzymes, which means something is basically destroying liver cells. “My favorite herb for that is milk thistle, and I like to use about 600 milligrams a day,” Dr. Doherty says. “The liver is the key to metabolism and hormone balance and health. So it’s important to look at what’s going on there.
“I’ve seen a number of kids in my practice who were on the verge of being diagnosed bipolar at seven or eight years of age and it turned out that they were Celiac,” says Dr. Doherty. “And once they got gluten out of their diet and got their B vitamin levels and their essential fatty acid levels up, they were entirely different, happy-go-lucky children. And that’s true for adults, too.”
An increasing body of evidence is showing the benefits of natural modalities to overall health and well-being. Following is a sample of recent peer-reviewed scientific studies relating to digestive disorders.
According to a 2013 report in Life Extension Magazine, research has shown that chewing on tablets composed of marine alginate and bicarbonate can be used to block acid reflux and thereby reduce the risk of accompanying esophageal problems including cancer. As described in a 2011 report in Digestion, colonoscopy performed after one year revealed that a combination of the probiotic Bifidobacterium breve (1 gram three times a day) and the prebiotic galactooligosaccharide (5.5 grams one time a day) improved the clinical status of people with ulcerative colitis. Supplementation with the probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii has also proven effective against acute infectious diarrhea, as evidenced in a study published in 2012 in Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy.