Do you regularly suffer from digestive problems such as bloating after meals, flatulence, heartburn, or cramps? Then it's possible that your digestion isn't working optimally. Digestive problems can range from mild discomfort to serious conditions, but fortunately, there are ways to address them and promote better digestive health.
What is the function of your digestion?
The function of your digestion is to break down food into usable nutrients for the body. The unusable nutrients leave your body through stool. When this process stagnates, your body may not properly absorb important nutrients, leading to nutrient deficiencies. Stomach and intestinal complaints can also arise.
What are digestive problems?
Digestive problems refer to any discomfort, pain, or disorder that occurs during the process in which our body breaks down food and absorbs nutrients. These problems can manifest as stomach pain, cramps, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or even more serious conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or Crohn's disease.
What are the causes of digestive problems?
Digestive problems can be caused by various factors, including:
1. Unhealthy diet
Meals rich in processed foods, unhealthy fats, sugars, and low in fiber can slow down digestion and cause problems.
2. Stress
Prolonged stress can disrupt digestion because it can disturb the balance of bacteria in the intestines. Stress keeps the sympathetic nervous system constantly active, and to digest properly, it is important to activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
3. Insufficient hydration
Water is essential for healthy digestion. Insufficient hydration can lead to constipation and slow digestion.
4. Imbalanced gut flora
Healthy gut flora is crucial for good digestion. Antibiotic use, unhealthy diet, and other factors can disrupt this balance.
5. Physical inactivity
Lack of physical activity can slow down digestion and cause constipation.
How can you remedy a digestive problem?
Fortunately, there are various ways to relieve digestive problems and promote healthy digestion! We discuss them below.
1. Healthy diet
Ensure varied meals and choose foods rich in fiber, fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, proteins, and healthy fats.
2. Sufficient hydration
Make sure you drink enough water and/or herbal tea throughout the day to support your digestion. Aim for at least 8 glasses a day, outside of meals. Drink 2 to 3 glasses consecutively instead of small sips spread throughout the day.
3. Exercise
Regular physical activity can stimulate digestion and help prevent constipation. Take a daily walk, ride a bike, or start your day with some gentle stretching exercises. It's important to be aware of how much time you spend sitting. Intense exercise is not at all necessary for good digestion; focus instead on creating more sitting breaks.
4. Stress management
Learn techniques for reducing stress. You can consider meditation, yoga, or breathing exercises, but also scheduling sufficient rest and relaxation moments weekly or saying no more often can help.
5. Supplements
Consider using high-quality orthomolecular supplements specifically designed to support healthy digestion and gut flora. Supplements with prebiotics and probiotics can help restore healthy gut flora, and enzymes are very important for good digestion.
Read more about the importance of prebiotics and probiotics here.
What are enzymes?
You need enzymes for good digestion. An enzyme is made up of proteins and acts like a pair of scissors. Among other things, it cuts macronutrients (such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) in the digestive tract into smaller pieces, making them easier to absorb from food from the small intestine into the bloodstream.
Types of enzymes
There are several types of enzymes. There are enzymes for metabolism, for digestion, and food enzymes. Digestive enzymes break down food into nutrients that can be absorbed and used by cells. These enzymes are mainly formed in the pancreas and intestinal glands.
The gastric gland and salivary gland also produce enzymes. Enzymes such as proteases, amylases, and lipases work by breaking down proteins into amino acids, carbohydrates into sugars, and fats into fatty acids, respectively.
Enzyme deficiency
Food enzymes are mainly found in raw foods like vegetables and fruits and are very important. The natural formation of enzymes in the body decreases between the ages of 20 and 30 and then continues to decline by about 13% every ten years.
Additionally, as we age, our stomach also produces less hydrochloric acid, making digestive enzymes less effective. Factors such as mild inflammation due to food allergies, medication, chronic heavy metal exposure, pancreatic problems, and chronic stress can also lead to enzyme deficiencies.
People with chronic and persistent digestive problems can benefit from the use of specific digestive enzymes. For greater biological activity, enzymes from different sources are preferably combined. We discuss 4 digestive enzymes below.
Amylase
Amylase is an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates into sugars. This enzyme is produced in the pancreas and salivary glands.
Protease
Protease is the enzyme that breaks down proteins into smaller structures, amino acids. The stomach produces pepsin, a protease.
Lipase
Lipase is the enzyme that breaks down fats into fatty acids. Before fat digestion can begin, emulsification primarily occurs (under the influence of bile salts from bile), causing larger fat droplets to break down into smaller fat droplets. This increases the surface area, allowing the enzyme lipase to work much more effectively.
If there is a lipase deficiency, fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K cannot be properly absorbed from food, potentially leading to a deficiency.
Lactase
Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose (milk sugar). Until about your second year, you produce enough lactase yourself. For most people, this ability later disappears. Lactase from the intestinal juice splits lactose into glucose and galactose.
