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MSBC Media PlayerMedia Center
MSBCOC | Health & Wellness
Digestive Health - Gut Feelings
Deacon Donna Caldwell
At
lunchtime you enjoy a bowl of hearty chicken soup. In the afternoon, a juicy
pear satisfies your craving.
GERD AND HEARTBURN
From plate to pure energy, food takes a long and winding journey through the digestive system. That system is a marvel; spread out, the surface area of the small intestines alone would cover a tennis court. But its vastness also means that there are may areas where problems can, and do appear.
We all have occasional heartburn, but if you experience acid indigestion twice a week or more, you may have gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD).
WHY: Weakness in the lower esophageal sphincter allows stomach contents, including digestive acid, to leap from the stomach back into the esophagus.
TO HELP YOURSELF: For occasional heartburn, try drugstore antacids. Treating GERD requires a lifestyle of changes (such as losing weight and stop smoking), medication and, rarely surgery.
CHRONIC GAS
It's normal to have gas 14 or more times a day, but constant gas might be a symptom of a condition such as CROHN'S DISEASE.
WHY: Gas is produced when harmless bacteria acts on food in the large intestine. Foods high in sugars and starches (except for rice) produce the most gas. Some medications can also cause it.
TO HELP YOURSELF: When eating foods likely to cause trouble, consider taking lactase supplements. Drugstore antacids may help. Talk to you doctor if gas is persistent.
CONSTIPATION AND DIARRHEA
Moving your bowels as often as tree times a day or as little as three times a week is normal. Doing so less than three times a week, with pain and bloating, means you have constipation. Having loose, watery stools more than tree times a day counts as diarrhea.
WHY: Constipation may be cause by anything from a low fiber diet, some medications and a lack of exercise to a more serious GI condition such as irritable bowel syndrome. Diarrhea typically results from bacteria, a virus, intestinal disease or food intolerance.
TO HELP YOURSELF: To end constipation, add fiber to your diet and exercise more. If constipation persists, laxatives or enemas for a limit time may help, check with your doctor first. Diarrhea typically stops without treatment (remember to drink lots of fluids to prevent dehydration), but if it lasts more than three day call you doctor.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) brings on symptoms such as frequent abdominal pain, bloating, constipation or diarrhea. As many as one in five Americans suffer from IBS, making it one of the most frequently diagnosed health disorders in this country.
WHY: Nerves, hormones and muscles in the colon work together to move along stool; in IBS, this harmony doesn't happen, perhaps because of stress and oversensitivity to foods.
TO HELP YOURSELF: Avoid potentially troublesome foods and talk to your doctor about medications. Stress management through exercise, meditation and sufficient sleep may also help.
This chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines--especially the lower small intestine…involves sores, pain, rectal bleeding, diarrhea and, sometimes serious blockages.
WHY: Genes are believed to play a role, but scientists don't yet know what else might cause the disease. The most popular theory is the body overreacts to normal bacteria and other substances in the intestines, triggering attacks on tissue..
TO HELP YOURSELF: Though there's no cure yet, surgery and drugs like steroids, antibiotics and immune system suppressors can relieve symptoms
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