By Susan Colacicco – Nutritionist

Did you know that an unhealthy digestive tract can lead to foggy thinking and having a hard time concentrating?  Nobody really thinks about fixing their gut when their memory starts failing or when they feel that they are not able to multi-task as efficiently as before. And just because you are having regular bowel movements doesn’t mean your digestive tract is top notch health. 

Hippocrates was right 2500 years ago when he said: “All diseases begin in the gut”.

Here are just some of the things that can go wrong with your digestion:

1. Poor Chewing

Chewing is very important to breaking down your carbs (veggies, fruit, bread, noodles, etc.). If you do not chew enough, then all those undigested food particles will cause toxicity in your body.

2. Low Hydrochloric Acid (HCL)

We need hydrochloric acid to break down the proteins that we eat. You need B vitamins, chloride (from salt), zinc, and magnesium to make this hydrochloric acid. If you are deficient in these nutrients, the proteins you eat will putrefy and create an unhealthy gut.

3. Low Enzymes

Your pancreas creates enzymes that breakdown mostly carbs, but also protein and fat. If the pancreas is tired from high sugar diets, then the carbohydrates will ferment and yes this will lead to feel super gassy!

4. Low Bile

Your liver produces bile that it pumps into your gallbladder to digest fat globs into smaller particles. Fat can go rancid if the particles are too large to pass into your lymphatic system. This can affect the health of your stool.

5. Partial Digestion

Enzymes and bile reach the intestine to complete more than 90% of your digestion! Partially digested food will start to ferment and putrefy leading to symptoms. Parasites will also feed upon this partially digested food.

6. Bacterial Overgrowth

Any food that has not been digested by the time it reaches the colon will be digested by bacteria. Too much undigested food will cause overgrowth of “bad” bacteria strains like H. Pylori.

So how can you know if your gut is healthy? Some people may have digestive issues and problems and not show any symptoms!

An easy way to check how your digestion is doing is with a Live Blood Cell Analysis screening test.  During this test a drop of blood is collected in a slide and examined under a microscope.  Your blood will give us a lot of clues on what is happening with your digestive tract.

The best time to do this test is 4 hours after eating your last meal or snack.   We should not see any undigested food in your blood after 4 hours. 

If you have been struggling with digestive tract problems and you want to get to the root cause of the problem then come in for a Live Blood Cell Analysis today – call us at 905-239-3900.  We are happy to help!