5 Ways to Improve Your Digestive Health

Digestion is foundational to overall health, which means that a healthy functioning digestive system leads to a healthy functioning you! Your digestive system influences and communicates with many other organs and systems in the body including your brain, your immune system, and your endocrine system. Unfortunately, the digestive system is very complex which means there is ample opportunity for things to go wrong.

What’s covered in this digestive health article?

We’ll discuss the potential root causes of digestive distress and some tips and supplements to get your digestive system working optimally:

• Common symptoms
• Potential root causes of your digestive discomfort
• Impacts of stress
• A strategy to get your digestion working better
• Targeted supplements
• Getting some personalized help

Common Symptoms of Digestive Issues

Digestive discomfort is an all too common feeling that many adults and children have experienced at one point in their lifetime. For some, it may be a passing uncomfortable reaction that dissipates quite quickly after a rich meal, while others might experience more chronic and lasting discomfort that seems to never go away. Although symptoms look different for everyone, there are many commonalities that most individuals have experienced at some point in time. Possible and common symptoms might include bloating, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, and heartburn. To make it more complex, your digestive symptoms may change continuously and can make it more difficult to identify a root cause or pattern.

To really understand what your digestive discomfort means, we first need to understand what the potential root causes of the distress are. Identifying the root cause is difficult and it is possible to find yourself down one too many rabbit holes searching for answers. Why is it so difficult you ask? Because everyone’s body is different–that’s what we like to refer to bio-individuality! However, just because it is difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible and that you should quit your quest to find answers. With a bit of consistency, determination, and support from the right type of professionals, you can get on the right track to feeling better and supporting your digestion in no time.

Potential Root Causes 

There are many potential issues that can impact digestion and lead to digestive distress. By understanding what the different root causes are, you will be better able to understand your own uncomfortable symptoms and how to best address them. 

Chronic Stress.

A commonly overlooked cause of digestive distress is one that many people experience but fail to recognize the influence it has on digestion: chronic stress. Chronic stress is extremely prevalent in modern day lifestyles and though it might be difficult to eliminate, it is possible to change your reaction to this stress, thus changing how your body responds! Stress can take many forms, and while some are obvious there are probably some you're experiencing that you don’t even realize are a stressor for your body. For example, upcoming work deadlines, arguments with loved ones, traffic jams, and current events are common and obvious stressful events. On the other hand, hidden stressors like eating while driving or working, under-eating, autoimmune conditions, and lack of sleep all play a significant role in digestion and increase our stress bucket levels, leading to burnout. To deal with the stressor to the best of our ability, our body shuts down digestion and puts all of its energy into supporting the other organs and systems involved (your heart, your blood pressure, your extremities). You can see how trying to eat when you are stressed is not ideal.

 

Food and Environmental Sensitivities

Another common root cause for digestive symptoms include pesky hidden food and environmental triggers that increase inflammation in the digestive system. Some people might read this and immediately be able to identify foods that upset their digestion and leave them feeling less than stellar. Common examples of poorly tolerated foods include processed grains, highly processed packaged foods, gluten, dairy products, and soy products. Remember that this is not a definitive list and each body is different, which means that each person’s triggers could be different too. Food triggers are not the only source of distress in the body, in fact environmental triggers can cause just as much distress. Potential environmental triggers that disrupt digestion include personal care products, commercial cleaning products, off gassing from new furniture (like beds or carpets), asbestos in old buildings, and mold especially in wet or humid environments.

Sluggish Digestion

For some individuals, a lack of digestive fire increases their experience of unwanted digestive symptoms, especially bloating, constipation, and acid reflux. You should imagine your digestive system as a large wood stove is constantly burning to keep your house heated. As the fire dwindles, so does the ability for you to digest your food and absorb those essential nutrients. Without this fire, our body does not receive the signals it needs to release digestive enzymes and gastric juices that are essential for breaking down food into digestible pieces. Examples of these important guys include hydrochloric acid (stomach acid), pancreatic amylase, bile, lipase, and pepsin.

Nutrient Deficiencies

Finally, some nutrient deficiencies can influence the intensity of digestive distress. It is not always clear whether the digestive symptoms led to a nutrient deficiency or the nutrient deficiency led to the digestive symptoms, you might call it a “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” scenario. Regardless, research has shown that there are a few specific nutrient deficiencies that are commonly associated with a downregulated digestive system including zinc, vitamin D, selenium, and iron. 

• Zinc is a trace mineral that is needed in small amounts within the body and is required for many digestive processes, most importantly the pancreas. 
• Vitamin D is also an important nutrient required for maintaining a healthy functioning digestive system. Vitamin D deficiencies are potentially very common depending on the hemisphere you live in (specifically northern hemisphere folks) due to lack of high quality sun exposure. Individuals who have darker skin or rarely eat wild-caught fatty fish are also at an increased risk for deficiency. Research shows that healthy vitamin D levels can help to support a healthy and diverse gut flora while lower vitamin D levels are associated with digestive disorders such as Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD). 
• Selenium is an essential mineral that must be obtained in trace amounts through diet as our body can not create it on its own. One of the great qualities of this mineral is its high antioxidant properties which help to reduce oxidative stress, repair cellular damage, and manage excess free radicals floating around the body. Antioxidants are essential for reducing inflammation not only throughout the entire body but specifically within the digestive system as well. Research has linked an inverse relationship between selenium levels and IBD, in other words the less selenium there is the higher likelihood it appears that IBD occurs. Selenium's role in decreasing inflammation also means that it supports the integrity and strength of the GI lining.

5 Ways To Support Your Digestion

Supporting your digestion isn’t as complex as you might think. Thankfully, it's actually quite simple to get to the root cause of your distress and improve your overall health. 

Eliminate Offending Foods

The first place to start when working to improve your digestion is to identify and remove potential offenders that are increasing inflammation in your digestive system. Known as an <elimination diet>, an individual following this protocol would refrain from eating suspected trigger foods (or common ones if they are completely unsure what their triggers might be) for 3-4 weeks to ensure the body is completely rid of the proteins that make up these foods. By doing this, it gives the digestive system a break from repeated exposure and gives you a chance to track your symptoms as you eliminate the foods. In the first phase of an elimination diet, it’s important to pay attention to any changes you experience and take note. 

 

Reintroduction

After the 3-4 weeks, it’s time to move on to the second and most important phase: the reintroduction phase. This is important because the overall goal is not to eliminate foods forever, but to be able to eat the most varied diet possible! To properly reintroduce foods and identify potential triggers, it is recommended that you introduce foods in small amounts one at a time. Allow a few days in between reintroductions to be sure no delayed reactions occur. Looking for more guidance? Check out our recent blog post, Your Easy Guide To Food Eliminations and Reintroductions discussing how to properly follow an elimination diet the healthy way.

Restore Balance

After you have removed and identified potential triggers it’s important to begin restoring balance of the bacteria in your microbiome. This means increasing your consumption of fermented foods that contain healthy bacteria to repopulate your microbiome and crowd out the unhealthy bacteria. Healthy fermented food options include plain greek yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, and tempeh. Consuming these foods frequently can help to increase your microbial diversity, something that is important for overall health.

Light Your Digestive Fire

Finally, many people lack the intense digestive fire needed to properly digest their foods. The term “digestive fire” refers to the digestive enzymes and gastric juices that work to break down food and absorb important nutrients. Digestive enzymes including pancreatic amylase, pepsin, and lipase as well as gastric juices like hydrochloric acid can become deficient due to many lifestyle and dietary factors including age, medications, processed foods, excessive alcohol intake, and nutrient deficiencies. If this feels like you, or you fall into any of the above categories, increasing your digestive fire through nutritional choices is both simple and effective in improving your digestive symptoms. 

One way to wake up your digestion prior to a meal is to enjoy an apple cider vinegar tonic made from a mixture of 8 ounces of warm water, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a big pinch of cinnamon and a small spoonful of honey either first thing in the morning or about 30 minutes before a meal. The acidity of the apple cider vinegar helps to stimulate the release of digestive enzymes and increases the acidity within the digestive system itself. Think of it as one of those quick lighting logs you put into a fireplace. This delicious trick helps to rev your digestive system quickly and effectively. 

Another easy way to improve your digestive fire is to chew your food fully. It may sound simple and silly, but many of us don’t actually chew our food to smoothie texture before swallowing it. The mechanical act of chewing helps to release salivary enzyme, an enzyme important for carbohydrate breakdown, but also makes it easier for a weakened digestive system to break down food.

Supplements to Improve Digestion

There are many different supplements that can help to improve your digestion, most notably including digestive bitters, prebiotics, and probiotics.

It may be surprising to you to think that something bitter can actually be really great for your health. After all, didn’t some plants taste bitter to warn us that they aren’t safe to eat? While this is the case for some plants, and why you shouldn’t eat random plants unless you know for sure what they are, there are plenty of bitter vegetables and herbs that are superb for supporting digestion. The body contains many receptors designed specifically for bitter compounds spanning all the way from the mouth to your gastrointestinal tract and when these receptors are stimulated they signal the release of important digestive juices. They are also really helpful in supporting the natural detoxification properties of the liver and gallbladder, two organs that are essential for healthy digestion. Although there are many bitter foods including bitter greens like arugula or dandelion greens that can produce the same effect, supplementing with digestive bitters may be the preferred choice due to convenience and concentration. For best results, bitters should be taken either directly before or after a meal.

Probiotics tend to receive a lot of attention when it comes to gut health, but most people are not aware that prebiotic supplements exist as well. Both are equally important in digestive health and essential for keeping your bacteria balanced. So what's the difference between the two? Prebiotics are a type of indigestible fiber that feeds the healthy bacteria that probiotics provide. Ensuring you are supplementing with both a probiotic and prebiotic (or a blend of the two) is essential for optimal digestion.

Sometimes the body is really struggling to create its own enzymes and could benefit from supplemental sources. These supplements are often either a single or combination of multiple digestive enzymes and can improve your ability to digest food that otherwise might spend too long in the digestive system, leading to uncomfortable symptoms like bloating or nausea.

If you’ve had digestive issues for a while, you might be feeling overwhelmed about where to start the healing process. Our Nutritional Therapy Practitioners are knowledgeable about how digestion works and can create a customized plan that addresses the root cause of the discomfort you may be experiencing. If you’d like some help sorting it out, join now to make an appointment.

Emily Alexander, M.Ed, FNTP

Emily is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner with Curated Wellness. She is passionate about supporting others in their journey to improve their relationship with food and their body through gentle nutrition, and is a firm believer that understanding the bio-individual components of nutrition is one of the best ways to do so. Emily completed her Master’s of education in health education and promotion with a concentration in eating disorders, and draws from both her educational background and life experience to help her clients improve their energy, understand their bodies, boost their athletic potential, and break down diet myths one at a time. Learn more about Emily.

The information presented on this website is intended for educational purposes only. Statements within this site have not been evaluated or approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This content is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any specific condition or disease, nor is it medical advice and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical expertise. Readers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health conditions or concerns. One should always consult a qualified medical professional before engaging in any dietary and/or lifestyle change or new health program. Curated Wellness does not take responsibility for any health consequences of any person or persons following the information in this educational content. 

Reference:

1.  https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/body 

2.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24668555/ 

3.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24668555/ 

4.  https://www.clinicaleducation.org/resources/reviews/the-role-of-hcl-in-gastric-function-and-health/ 

5.  Shaik, F. A., Singh, N., Arakawa, M., Duan, K., Bhullar, R. P., & Chelikani, P. (2016). Bitter taste receptors: Extraoral roles in pathophysiology. The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology, 77(Pt B), 197–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2016.03.011