Do you often suffer from heartburn, diarrhea, flatulence, constipation, stomach pain, or a bloated stomach? The stomach and intestines are part of our digestive tract, and these can all be symptoms of stomach or intestinal issues.
Nearly 1 in 4 Dutch people walk around with stomach, intestinal, or liver problems. This concerns over 3.7 million people. We see that over 60% of them are women and 40% are men.[1]
What is digestion?
Digestion is the process by which the body breaks down nutrients from your food and drink, absorbs them, and converts them into usable energy and building blocks. This total process from mouth to anus takes about 24 to 48 hours, and numerous organs are involved. Think of your mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, large intestine, rectum, and microbiome.
In practice, human digestion does not always go without problems. That is not surprising, because so many organs with different functions are involved. A minor hitch can have consequences. The most common causes of poor digestion are chronic stress and an unhealthy diet with many processed, sugary, and low-fiber foods.
If you want to get started with improving your digestion, you can already apply these tips at home:
- Chew well: digestion begins in the mouth. When we do not chew properly, this can cause digestive complaints in the digestive tract.
- Reduce sugar intake: sugars have a major influence on our body, but especially on our intestines.
- Eat whole and fiber-rich foods: fiber gives you a full and satiated feeling but is also important for a healthy gut microbiome.
- Reduce stress: digestion only functions properly when we are at rest. When stressed, we are still in fight-or-flight mode. When we eat while stressed, digestion cannot function optimally.
- Digestive enzymes: Digestive enzymes are proteins that are released into the digestive system when you eat. The pancreas and small intestine play an important role in this. It is the task of digestive enzymes to break down food into usable nutrients for the body. The unusable nutrients leave your body via stool. When this process stagnates, your body can no longer properly absorb important nutrients, resulting in a nutrient deficiency. Stomach and intestinal complaints can also arise.
For example, if your body does not produce enough lactase, it has trouble digesting lactose. This can lead to complaints such as a bloated stomach and flatulence. It can then be pleasant to use a lactase enzyme with every lactose-containing meal.
If you have been walking around with stomach and/or intestinal complaints for a long time, it is important to look at the cause of this. This can be done through a gut consultation with microbiome testing.
[1] https://www.rivm.nl/nieuws/bijna-kwart-nederlanders-kampt-met-klacht-of-aandoening-van-spijsverteringsstelsel)C
