As you will remember, after the food is broken down by hydrochloric acid in the stomach, it enters the duodenum. There the pancreas releases enzymes that are specific to the food type to break it down into its smallest bits. As long as there has been a sufficient amount of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, the pancreas usually has a pretty easy time of producing the proper enzymes. If there hasn't been enough HCL and the food molecules have not been broken down properly, the enzymes have to work harder to that and more enzymes than usual are needed, which eventually depletes their supply.
On the other hand, if hydrochloric acid production has been too high, the low PH or acidity may irritate the lining of the duodenum and cause other issues with the pancreas being able to release enzymes properly. Other things that can cause this are drug and alcohol use, bacterial or viral infections, probiotic flora imbalance and genetic predispositions.
If the stomach is producing too much hydrochloric acid, this can be remedied by using homeopathic drainage protocols. If the enzymes have become deficient, you can add enzymes as a supplement to not only break down the food but also to give the pancreas a rest and help it to produce more enzymes. Three or four plant enzyme capsules with each meal is a good starting dose, and after a couple of weeks, once the pancreas has been able to rest, you can decrease the dose slowly (like the process discussed in the HCL Challenge handout). Usually if you're decreasing by one capsule every week, the pancreas will slowly start making its own enzymes again.
Next, the bile duct releases bile from the liver or extra bile that has been stored in the gallbladder to aid in digesting a fatty meal. If the liver is not making bile properly this can cause stones to form, irritation to occur along the bile duct lining, and fats to be poorly digested. There is also a specific drainage protocol that can help the liver make bile more appropriately. If stones have begun to form or irritation is occurring, this can be corrected by taking bile salts in tablet form when you eat a meal that contains fat. This takes the place of the bile that you would be creating yourself, giving the liver time to rest while you're correcting the problem by using the drainage protocol.
When the problem is corrected and you are producing bile and digesting fats properly, you can slowly decrease the dose of the bile salts and usually your liver will begin to produce bile properly. After stones have been dissolved and released as sludge, your gallbladder can hold on to bile more appropriately. If you have had your gall bladder surgically removed, you will need to take the bile salt tablets for the rest of your life if you are eating larger amounts of fat in a meal.
Most of the problems that happen along the rest of the digestive tract are from irritation and inflammation. These can cause the delicate, one-cell thick membrane of epithelial cells that line the digestive tract to lose their selective permeability and the gap junctions between the cells to lose their integrity, which means that large particles of food or toxins can slip through into the bloodstream without being properly monitored. This can not only cause inflammation and irritation but can also overstimulate the immune system. Remember, the immune cells are some of the most intelligent cells in the entire body--they know exactly what is safe to let in and what needs to be excreted without being absorbed. If there are repeated exposures to substances the immune system does not recognize as food, the irritation that's created causes those gap junctions to open, which can produce not only a leaky gut, but colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel, and eventually diverticulosis.
The most common offenders are items that we may consider food today but are not recognized on the molecular level as food--the more the food is processed, the less it's like the original food on a cellular level. For example, our digestive tract has recognized wheat for thousands of years, but the wheat we're eating today is very different from the wheat that was grown back in the early 1900's. As we start to hybridize food in an attempt to feed more people, we change the chemical structure of that food to the point that it becomes unrecognizable by certain people's digestive systems, and the same is true with corn, soy, sugar and dairy. Alcohol and caffeine should also be included in this list simply because they are basic irritants to the digestive tract.
Eating a diet that contains only whole foods and eliminating processed or hybridized foods can reduce a huge amount of irritation and inflammation, but some people do have sensitivity or even an all-out allergic reaction to what would be considered a normal food. If you're working with your diet and have eliminated the most common allergens, but are still having allergic reactions, it's important to get tested to discover which specific foods you are sensitive or allergic to.
Once the intestinal lining is irritated, it's also important to calm and soothe the cell membranes. This can be done by taking demulcent herbs or plants that tend to be slimy, like aloe vera, slippery elm, and marshmallow root. Glycine and glutamine are slippery and healing amino acids, which can also be helpful. It's best to use these in small but frequent amounts to provide continuous demulsifying activity to heal the gut.
If the GI mucosal cells become severely damaged, the protein receptors can no longer absorb amino acids. When this happened in the past, the damage was permanent because the proteins needed to provide structure for the next cell's DNA couldn't be absorbed, but about twenty years ago a product became available called SeaCure, which is simply a pre-digested white fish. Because it's already pre-digested, it doesn't require a carrier to take it into the GI cell; the already-broken-down amino acids simply slip through the cell's broken gap junctions into the bloodstream and cycle back into the current GI cell to provide the needed DNA sequencing. For this to happen, 6 capsules daily are required.
If the good bacteria that make up our gut biome become imbalanced, healthy flora may be added by taking probiotics. Remember, these are the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers of your internal village, so it is important to get the proper type and ratio of each. I like to use a human form because it matches our chemistry perfectly. These are called HMF (Human MicroFlora), which come in different floral quantities. You can ask about them at Nature's Medicinary.
If bad bacteria have taken over the neighborhood, the HMF will replace them with the right kind of bacteria. It's important to start with a small amount, as this can be like sending a police squad into a gang neighborhood--it can create copious gas and bloating. Increase the dose slowly until you can take an entire packet without these reactions.
To recap: By eliminating the irritating items (processed foods, food allergens, etc.) and giving the damaged GI cells what they need to heal properly, gut health may be restored. This may take a few weeks or many months, depending on the extent of the damage to the cells.
If you need assistance with any digestive issue, please consult with your health care provider.
