Our New Discovery in Conquering Tummy Aches

Digestive health is essential to your overall health. I’ve heard various stats, but they believe that over 90% of illness is caused by an unhealthy gut. When I started learning about a healthy digestive system, the number one thing I was taught was the importance of probiotics and digestive enzymes. As I’ve learned more about health, I’ve learned there is a difference between maintaining and restoring gut health. Restoring gut health is a little more complicated, but vital to repairing overall health. Here’s a short lesson on the digestive system, how it works, and how to improve it. I wrap up with a recent story on what helped eliminate constant tummy aches for one of my children.

Disclaimer: I am a Certified Natural Health Professional, but I am not your health professional. I am educating and raising awareness. Please discuss anything I mention in this article with the health professional working with you before you implement anything in this article. I am not intending to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I am not liable or responsible for any damages you incur by use of this information.

How does the digestive system work (a simplified picture)?

While you are chewing your food, your saliva and the food releases digestive enzymes. After swallowing, the food mixes in your stomach with those digestive enzymes and stomach acid. Once the enzymes and acid digests your food into small enough particles, the mixture reaches a specific PH. After the optimal PH is reached, it signals for the stomach to empty the contents into the small intestine. The small intestine is where all the nutrient particles are absorbed through the intestinal wall into the blood stream. As food works its way through the small intestine, the nutrients are being absorbed out of all of it. The large intestine is next. It is where the water is removed from the remaining waste, and the waste is condensed and eliminated from your body.

What often goes wrong?

Digestive Enzymes

There are two key factors that come into play when looking at digestive enzymes.  One, as we age, our bodies make less digestive enzymes. And two, our food is also becoming more preserved. As we are trying to prevent foods from molding as quickly, we are inadvertently killing off some of the digestive enzymes that naturally occur within our food. Because digestive enzymes are the first part of our digestive process, they are essential to the process. By supplementing with additional enzymes, we help our stomachs break down the food into absorbable particles. This creates less work for the stomach and small intestine.

The Microbiome and Pre and Probiotics 

Let’s first talk a bit about the micro biome. We have many microbes living all over our bodies, inside and out. These microbes include bacteria, fungi, viruses and their genes. Your microbiome affects so many processes in your body from fiber digestion, to immunity, brain health, weight management, cardiac health, and much more. It is essential for your health and wellbeing. Scientists have just started to scratch the surface in studying the microbiome. 

The microbiome consists of both good and bad microbes. You want the amount of good to outnumber the amount of bad. As long as the good is in control, they keep the bad in check. Otherwise, if the bad outnumber the good, they cause sickness and disease. There is still so much more to learn. So far, the part they have so far learned the most about is some of the bacteria within the intestines.

We have learned that the good bacteria within the intestines can be depleted by many things from antibacterial hand soap and hand sanitizers to pain relievers and antibiotics. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t use those things, they are good for sanitary purposes. However, they do have a negative impact to the good bacteria within our body. Since we use these things, we should supplement our systems with some of the better known “good” bacteria. This supplement comes in the form of probiotics. When you are supplementing with probiotics, you want to be sure it contains prebiotics as well. The prebiotics feed the probiotics. This way you are supplying additional good bacteria, as well as good food to feed the existing and new bacteria. This ensures you are propagating your system properly.

Leaky Gut

Sometimes our small intestine lining becomes damaged and those junctions between cells become bigger. When this starts to happen, and we have food particles not being broken down into the proper sizes before reaching the small intestine, these larger particles start to get into the bloodstream. This causes inflammation because it is not something that the bloodstream would normally recognize. 

Leaky gut is often the cause of so many health related issues. If the cell junctions remained tight, these particles wouldn’t have made it into the bloodstream wreaking havoc on other body systems. Vitamin D and Zinc are two nutrients that are important in maintaining tight junctions in the intestinal walls. Collagen, although it has many uses for skin, muscles, and tissues, is another supplement that is often used to help tighten cell junctions in the intestinal walls.

Parasites and other Microbiobials

Often times, when we are having chronic digestive challenges, the microbiome becomes out of balance, and molds, parasites, or other microbes grow rampant within the system. Most people don’t like to know they have molds or parasites invading their bodies, so they want to detox them immediately. The biggest challenge with that is, if you have leaky gut, and you start stirring them up to get rid of them, you could introduce them to the bloodstream and create more problems than good out of it. Before ever messing with microbiobials and parasites, you need to ensure the intestinal lining is healthy and tight.

How to repair

Many natural health providers recommend the “5R’s” to repair the small intestine.

1. Remove any sort of inflammation causing foods, ie. dairy, gluten, sugars, egg whites, etc.
2. Restore the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, nutrients for a healthy functioning gut
3. Repopulate – usually with things like fiber, prebiotics, and probiotics
4. Repair – tighten those junctions back up
5. Rebalance – prevent stress and improve healthy lifestyle

My Recent Experience

We had a child who is a very picky eater (check out the article on picky eating to see our experience with that challenge). After he had started eating more foods, suddenly his tummy started hurting after almost every meal. We started trying to keep a food diary, but I wasn’t able to find any sort of consistencies. We were trying kids digestive enzymes, probiotics, and antacids, but nothing really seemed to help. Eventually, it got the point where it hurt every time he ate. Unfortunately, he would also associate his tummy hurting with every food he ate right before it hurt, and wouldn’t eat that food anymore.

I tested him and was able to identify a few foods that were triggering some system imbalances and that he had a parasite. Unfortunately, we had to be sure we fixed his gut before trying to eliminate the parasite. The challenge was, I couldn’t find anything that tasted good enough for him to eat to repair his body. I couldn’t even hide it in any of his food because he was too picky of an eater and would take one smell or taste and push it away.

A Solution

That weekend, we had guests visiting from out of town. Somehow we started talking about collagen powder. Our pediatrician had recommended giving some to my kids when one had developed food allergies as an infant. I hadn’t found one that I loved, yet. The one the pediatrician had recommended to us was not easy to use, and I couldn’t get my kids to eat it. Besides that, a couple of my kids have severe legume allergies, so I have to be incredibly careful of what we use. Many companies use soy or some sort of bean gum in their products.

My friend was using some to help her back and she recommended that we try the one she uses. She said that she absolutely wouldn’t take anything that didn’t taste good. She let me try her Ancient Nutrition Multi-Collagen Strawberry Lemonade collagen powder and it was amazing. I checked the ingredient label and realized that my kids with allergies could even have it. That was a huge relief. I’d be able to use it around them without having to worry about the dust flying into the air.

He Loved It

My picky eater loved it, too. That weekend, I made him smoothies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with that protein powder, probiotic, and digestive enzymes in it. They didn’t hurt his stomach and he loved them! After that, he could eat anything without his tummy hurting anymore. He’s been slowly adding foods back into his diet. He even tried 8 new foods this week without any prompting, whatsoever.

Since that experience, we are also regular users of the vanilla. They like chocolate protein shakes for breakfast. They call them “hot chocolate.” Unfortunately, Ancient Nutrition’s Chocolate flavored Multi-Collagen has bean gum in it, so we use the vanilla flavored Multi-collagen and add chocolate flavoring that the kids with the legume allergy are able to have.

“I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Phil 1:6 HCSB

Have you had any experience with healing digestive challenges. What are some of your favorite foods or supplements that taste good?

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