I have patients ranging in ages from in their preteens to their late 70s suffering from bowel disorders. Some learn to live with it; they know every restroom on their drive home from work, while others wish they had the need to find one. Their lives revolve around their digestion and how the day will go. Many ask me which foods might be causing it. Lately, it has been popular to focus on gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and other dietary changes. Often, new patients have already tried these diets before visiting my office, with little-to-no success.
The truth is it is not the food that’s the problem. Well, let me say much of the food in this country is a problem. But why can others tolerate it, but many cannot? It is because the system’s function is lacking. For whatever reason, the digestive tract is not functioning as it should. Certainly, some foods may be more irritating than others, such as the gluten and dairy. The severity of the reaction has more to do with how much “bad” food was consumed and how much stress the person was under, rather than a certain food itself, in most cases.
Too much emphasis is placed on the food and anti-inflammatory treatment, rather than improving digestive function and finding the true source of inflammation. The inflammatory diseases are like a fire on a natural gas line. If you try to put the fire out directly, you will get nowhere. But if we figure out how to shut the main off, the fire will go out by itself. This premise can be applied to the human body just as well. We need to find the true source of inflammation and dysfunction, which often can be far from the symptoms. Some sources can be found in the lower portion of the digestive tract, but often the issue actually begins on the other side, which is what I call “primary digestion.” Primary digestion is the function of the stomach, gall bladder and pancreas on food in order to do the majority of breakdown and digestion required for food to move onward into the small intestines.
Many with bowel disorders know they might have heartburn, reflux or GERD, but even more do not. If food is not sufficiently digested in this early step, then undigested and impure food will be delivered into the small and large intestines in a far more difficult and inflammatory state than it was supposed to.
Others have hormone imbalances, such as thyroid disorders or adrenal deficiencies, which have massive effects on the function of the digestive tract. Those individuals may also have no idea these problems are happening. Some signs of hormone imbalance include fatigue, anxiety, depression, weight gain or loss, low libido, sleep disturbance, and many others.
There are many areas of the body that are outside the digestive tract that can lead to IBS/IBD, Crohn’s and colitis. The key is to find the true cause in each individual case, as the source inflammation can be different. I have seen great success in so many cases of the terrible problems, and many get their lives back. Please use the advice of an experienced holistic digestive specialist when tackling these issues.
Source: Dr. David Pollack. Location: Pollack Wellness Institute (formerly Creating Wellness Center) is located at 66 Commack Rd., Commack. For more information, call 631-462-0801 or visit CreatingWellnessLI.com. See ads on pages 21 and 31.
