If there is a symptomatic problem with your digestive system - moderate, occasional with pain, or serious - it has to be healed. But health is not just the absence of the pain or symptoms. Holistic health is defined in terms of the functioning of the whole person rather than by the presence or absence of a specific symptom or disease. It encompasses the psychological, mental, emotional, social, spiritual and environmental aspects of the individual. While a topical and specific solution may cure the pain or symptoms, unless it’s approached holistically, the underlying causes may still be present. The process of restoring wellness to the body begins by creating a lifelong maintenance and prevention program.

Manage Stress

The digestive system is very sensitive to stress levels. When you feel stressed, your body reacts as if you're in danger by pumping extra blood to your muscles so that you have more energy to fight off an attack or run away leaving less blood volume to support digestion. Your digestive muscles exert less effort. The capability of enzyme producing organs is affected by stress and there is a notable increase in intestinal permeability. The passage of food waste through your digestive tract can also be slowed down or speeded up by the chemicals released in your bloodstream. All of these reactions impair digestion. In the complicated, crowded, busy modern life stress is pervasive. Worry, anxiety, anger and fear are often part of this life and can arise from relationships, work, finances or even the commute to work. It’s extremely important to recognize when you're feeling stressed and to take steps to not let the stress build up. While everyone has their own ways to relax and slow down here are some techniques that can help:
   • Deep breathing
   • Meditation
   • Yoga
   • A warm bath
   • Massage
   • Spend quiet time in nature
   • Regular exercise

Diet for Improved Digestion and Health

What you put on your plate each day has a profound effect on the state of your digestion and health. However, it's not only what you eat that's important, but also how much, how often, how regularly and in what state of mind you eat that will determine how you will digest that meal. Here are some habits to help you prevent digestive failure and maintain good digestive health.

1. Chewing food thoroughly
When food isn’t chewed thoroughly the amylase enzymes from the saliva don’t come in contact with the food for long enough to begin the digestive process and larger bits of insufficiently chewed food move to the stomach – often causing gas or indigestion. Eating too rapidly can also cause bloating because excessive air is ingested. Digestion is vastly improved by simply taking more time to thoroughly chew food, so that the first phase of carbohydrate digestion functions properly. As a start, try chewing food at least 30 times so that it is fully liquefied. The more thoroughly food is chewed, the better the digestive process will function.

2. High fiber diet
Fiber is a non-nutritious part of plant foods (fruits, vegetables and whole grain products) that passes through the bowels undigested. Despite its lack of nutrients, fiber plays an important role in digestion and elimination. Fiber comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber absorbs up to 15 times its weight in water as it moves through your digestive tract absorbing toxins and producing softer stools. It is most abundant in oats, legumes and fruits. Insoluble fiber is found in vegetables and whole grains and gives stool its bulk. Unfortunately, many people don't get enough fiber. Americans typically consume 10 to 15 grams of fiber daily with dietary guidelines recommending at least twice that amount. To boost your daily fiber intake and promote overall health some experts suggest up to 6 to 11 servings of whole grains, at least 3 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruit. Other options include replacing some meals with a high fiber meal replacers or fiber supplements.

3. Drink enough fluid
Proper hydration promotes healthy digestion by lubricating food waste so that it passes more easily through your digestive tract. Fluids also soften stool, helping to prevent constipation. Water is generally the best beverage. However cold liquids or excessive liquid intake should be avoided during meals. Cold beverages slow the digestive process and too much liquid with meals dilutes enzymes and interferes with digestive processes.

4. How much to eat, when and how?
Your body is able to produce only a certain volume of digestive juices and large meals put increased demands on the digestive system and decrease digestive efficiency. Large amounts of food also increase food waste and discomfort. Your body is designed to digest moderate portions effectively and safely. Digestive organs also seem to operate best for most people when they follow a regular schedule of small to moderate meals with sufficient time between meals for the digestive system to rest. It’s also important to be relaxed when you eat and to pay attention to what you are doing (focused on, or at least conscious of, the fact that you are eating rather than focused on another task). Eating while you feel stressed interferes with normal functioning of your intestines. Eating the same food repeatedly day after day can increase food sensitivities so a rotation of foods is recommended.

Enhance Digestion with Digestive Enzyme Supplements

The enzymes naturally present in raw food play an essential role in digestion. These enzymes are available quickly to begin breaking down food and later combine with those your body produces so that your body's enzymes don’t have to handle all the work. Unfortunately most enzymes in food are lost in cooking and processing. When enzymes are missing from your food, the full burden of digestion falls on your own digestive system which can lead to an over stressed digestive system and incomplete digestion. Since the body puts a higher priority on digestion than on maintaining health it will use enzymes from the immune system to finish digestion. A solution is the use of enzyme supplements to enhance the enzymes available in raw food and replace those lost when food is cooked or processed. Food can sit in your stomach for nearly an hour before your body's digestive enzymes are secreted. It is during this time that food and supplemental enzymes do their best work breaking down complex food molecules like carbohydrates to simple sugars, proteins to amino acids, and triglycerides to fatty acids and glycerol. In addition, enzyme supplementation enables more digestion to begin in the gastric region and eases the burden on the lower digestive tract. The earlier digestion begins the greater the likelihood that no undigested food will enter the colon where bacteria can feed upon it, causing problems like gas and bloating. As mentioned above, enzyme supplementation can also insure that your body doesn’t use enzymes from the immune system for digestion. Today's typical diet of cooked, canned and convenience foods make it very important to take supplemental enzymes with each meal to relieve some of your body's digestive stress.

Eliminate Toxins

The toxins are substances foreign to the body that pose a threat. As a reaction to toxins the body first tries eliminate them and then to build a barrier between the toxin and its own cells – in other words inflammation. When toxins can’t be eliminated fast enough they may be stored in various organs in the body’s attempt to protect itself. Toxins stored in the body, if they continue to build, will eventually overwhelm the system causing serious and/or chronic disease. Colon cleansing is the first step in detoxification. Even if there is a daily elimination, there can still be considerable waste clogging the lower intestines. Colon hydrotherapy is the therapeutic application of water in the colon. Unlike chemical laxatives, which encourage dependency, colon hydrotherapy actually helps to tone the bowel so that it resumes its normal function. Hydrotherapy sessions can be used to ‘re-educate’ the bowel to function normally. There are also many effective herbal cleansing formulas containing some of the 25 or more herbs effective in detoxification. Dandelion stimulates bile and acts as a gentle laxative. Aloe, rhubarb and triphala stimulate peristalsis and magnesium hydroxide regulates water absorption in the bowel. Here are some suggestions to help manage toxins:

• Detoxification of the body on a regular (but not too frequent) basis to eliminate those toxins already in the system. Care has to be exercised in managing the exposure to the toxins as they are flushed from the body.
• A toxin free diet through organically grown fruits and vegetables
  
• Meat and dairy products from animals raised without the use of steroids and antibiotics.
• Avoid commercial eggs. Choose fertile ones laid by free-range chickens.
• Fiber rich diet. The right kind of fiber is critical in adding proper bulk. Ideally a daily intake of 30-40 grams of fiber. A diet with enough fiber (20 to 35 grams each day) helps form soft, bulky stool. High-fiber foods include beans, whole grains and bran cereals, fresh fruits, and vegetables such as asparagus, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and carrots. Limit foods that have little or no fiber, such as ice cream, cheese, meat and processed foods. Since it’s hard to eat 30-40g of fiber per day through diet alone, take advantage of high fiber meal replacers and fiber supplements.
• Daily intake of essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are fats that lubricate and soothe the colon but the body does not produce them itself. Fish oils, flax oils and borage oils are the best source and they are high in Omega 3 or 9.
• Regular Exercise, Steam Baths, Saunas to eliminate toxins by sweating through skin.

Balance Gut Flora with Probiotics

The intestinal tract contains more than 400 species of bacteria or intestinal flora. Although the word "bacteria" is usually associated with “bad” or pathogenic bacteria and words like germs and illness, there are in fact both neutral bacteria and good bacteria necessary to human health. All of these bacteria, beneficial, neutral and pathogenic, are competing for food and space in the digestive tract and their balance is critical to good digestive health and the immune system. A healthy balance of intestinal flora would approximate 80% beneficial & neutral and up to 20% pathogenic bacteria. Though human beings usually start life with a relatively healthy intestinal tract, as we age lifestyle and environmental factors such as stress, chemical exposure, poor diet, overuse of antibiotics and other drugs can greatly reduce the number of friendly bacteria allowing pathogenic bacteria to take hold and cause problems. An overgrowth of bad bacteria such as e.coli, salmonella, Giardia, shigella or staphylococcus can lead to chronic gastrointestinal inflammation then to serious gastrointestinal diseases. A number of strains of beneficial bacteria including Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. casei and Bifidobacterium bifidum help the human body to function, maintain health and fight illness and disease. These beneficial bacteria or probiotics, are normal inhabitants of the intestinal tract and not only support digestion by breaking foods down into their component parts for absorption into the body but also crowd bad bacteria and keep them from becoming too numerous. They are required for bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber, which results in short-chain fatty acid production vital for the production of new cells to rebuild the intestinal tract. A good food source of probiotics is raw cultured (sourly fermented) vegetables, yogurt and kefir (a creamy drink made of fermented cow’s milk.) Supplementing our diets with an effective probiotic supplement re-populates the intestinal tract with friendly strains and helps rebalance the intestinal tract and guard against disease. There are many effective probiotic supplements available usually containing between 1 and 4 or more billion live organisms per capsule, tablet or gram. Some products contain only the bacteria and inactive carriers while others include probiotic blends that can include enzymes and immune system boosters. It is important that the expiration date be listed on the label as the live bacteria will die over time, especially if exposed to heat or oxygen. To rebuild and maintain the ideal intestinal environment, probiotic supplements with the multiple strains are recommended. A single strain product with specific well-tested transit strains such as L. casei or L. bulgaricus can be used also to boost the maintenance dose.

Repair the Intestinal Mucosa

The healthy lining of the digestive tract prevents toxins from entering the body. When this wall, the intestinal mucosa, is unhealthy toxins can pass into the blood stream and circulate throughout the body. This condition, called leaky gut syndrome, is serious in itself and leads to many chronic disorders. L-glutamine is considered to be an essential nutrient for the small intestine cells; it is their primary metabolic fuel. Glutamine deficiency can result in significant functional changes in the gastrointestinal tract and a dietary deficiency of glutaminie is associated with degeneration of the small intestines. L-Glutamine prevent and repair damage to the intestinal mucosa and therefore Glutamine is a very important nutrient for the healing of leaky gut and should be included in the healing protocol. The average therapeutic dose is app. 5 g per day and it is best taken in powdered form.

Interested in finding more about mentioned healing process? Click links below for more information:
Probiotics
Fiber
Digestive Enzymes
Glutamine Powder
Diet & Meal Replacament