We Love Your Guts!

How to Avoid Digestive Problems and Help Your Immune System

By Sam Fox RN, HealthWalk™ Health Guide and Consultant

How is the Immune System connected to our Gut Health?

Let’s start with the basics…

The purpose of the gastrointestinal system is simple. It is designed to extract nutrients from foods, to digest nutrients into units small enough to be absorbed (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.) and to eliminate waste products.

Poor digestion can do more than give you a stomachache or gas because digestion is the mechanism that makes a body work. If a diet is lacking in food-source enzymes, your body appropriates them from other sites in order to attend to the digestive process. An inadequate digestive system will “steal” enzymes from the immune system to operate, thereby weakening immune function. This poor digestive capability increases the body’s toxic load and can lead to dis-ease.

Your immune system allocates the enzymes to the digestive system, preventing those enzymes from doing the work of protection. The result can be a body so vulnerable it can no longer protect and fight against outside invaders. Scientists have discovered that three quarters of your immune system resides in the gastrointestinal tract.

Poor digestion leaves the body and the immune system in the same predicament that poor nutrition does – a lack of nutritional factors that support immune functioning and the function of the entire body. This is because a poor functioning digestive system has lost some of the ability to turn what’s consumed into a form the body can use.

What are some symptoms of a poorly functioning digestive tract?

Symptoms of digestive problems may include abdominal pain, allergic symptoms, belching, a bloated feeling, a burning sensation after eating, chronic bowel irritation, chronic fatigue, constipation, diarrhea, gas, insomnia, joint and muscle pain, nausea, rumbling noises, skin disorders, sugar cravings, and vomiting. Heartburn often accompanies indigestion.

What are the ways to keep the digestive tract healthy?

Enzymes and Beneficial Bacteria.

The body obtains enzymes in a few ways: by manufacturing them, by eating foods (fresh, live and organic food has the most) that contain them (enzymes are lacking in processed foods) or through supplementation. The number of enzymes your body produces is finite and you cannot force the production of more when depleted. Approximately, half of the body’s total enzyme production is used for digestion. The three main categories of enzymes are lipase (breaks down fats), amylase (breaks down carbohydrates) and protease (breaks down proteins).

Beneficial bacteria (friendly) are called intestinal flora. The presence of beneficial bacteria in the intestines aids digestion, synthesizes vitamins, and inhibits the growth of disease-promoting pathogenic bacteria. Your body hosts over 100 trillion bacteria (majority in the colon), most of which are necessary to sustain health. The term “probiotic” is commonly used to refer to the use of them in supplemental form; capsule or powder.

The two most important groups of flora are the lactobacillus acidophilus found mainly in the small intestine and bifidobacterium, found primarily in the colon. Diminished enzymes or beneficial bacteria (intestinal flora) set up the gastrointestinal tract for pathogenic bacterial overgrowth.

How do we “lose” the good flora?

Compounds which destroy friendly bacteria include chemicals, oral contraceptives, steroids, sugar, and the most common cause – antibiotics. Antibiotics kill not only their intended “victim” but also the “good” bacteria in the gut leaving the territory wide open to the overgrowth of “not-so-good” bacteria, yeast, viruses and parasites.

These fungal and bacterial overgrowths give off endotoxins (toxins produced within the body) that suppress immune system function. It does this by knocking out communication pathways between cells of the immune system. Without these pathways open and in operation, immune cells don’t attack. We can help our own immune systems by increasing the number of friendly bacteria.

What is the best way to include these friendly bacteria in the diet?

Fermented foods like miso, tempeh, sauerkraut, yogurt, and kimchee are all good sources; however, many consumers find supplementation the most convenient and reliable form. Supplements such as HealthWalk's BioNue™ - a probiotic formula or HealthWalk's ReGenesys™ – an Enzyme Energy system provide nutritional support necessary to sustain a healthy digestive tract.

BioNue is a broad-spectrum probiotic allowing it to support the body’s ability to fight the pathogenic bacteria that is consumed with food and environmental contamination. ReGenesys contains both digestive and neuromuscular enzymes designed to overcome the effects of modern day stressors.

A final word about assisting the gastrointestinal tract and thereby aiding the immune system…

An important factor in increasing nutrient uptake is the consumption of water! HealthWalk™’s HydroMag™ is a water application product (available in a 5”x8” pad, coaster, car cup holder and water cooler strip) that re-structures water and raises the body pH – alkalizing and causing the red blood cells to become more efficient. The greater the efficiency of our cells to absorb and utilize nutrients, the stronger our immune system can defend against invading pathogens.

We at HealthWalk™ love your guts, please take the simple steps to loving your own, your body and immune system will thank you for it.