Welcome to part 2 of the 3-part blog series. If you have not read part 1 here is the link! 

How a Disruption to Your Gut Impacts Your Body

The power of your gut’s ability to assimilate carbs, protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals is a direct reflection of optimum health. In other words, without the ability to absorb nutrients properly, everything you try to do thereafter will be of limited value. This is why testing gut function is so crucial for optimum health and why it’s listed in the 3 foundational body systems, the gut-hormone-detox system. Proper digestion and absorption in the gut is also crucial to many bodily functions such as immune function. So, what happens when your gut isn’t functioning properly? Let’s take a look!

The Process Of Digestion

Before the body absorbs nutrients from food, a series of stages occur first. The first stage is the body preparing itself to digest, known as the cephalic phase, this begins before food even enters the mouth through the thought, sight, touch, and smell of food. Yes, that’s right; digestion begins by sending a signal from the cerebral cortex in the brain to the stomach’s gastric glands via the vagus nerve. This signal triggers the release of gastric juices and enzymes into the stomach to prepare the body for the breakdown of food.

The next stage of digestion is when the mouth starts to secrete saliva filled with more enzymes. Your teeth then begin to mechanically break down the food. Simultaneously, hormones, enzymes, and digestive juices are produced throughout your small and large intestines as well as your liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. For more information about everything that occurs during digestion, check out this blog on our page, click here. There are five keywords crucial to digestion that I want you to walk away from this blog know. 

• Enzymes
• Stomach Acid
• Bile, Bile, Bile
• Food Reactivity 
• Microbiome

Let’s get into them! 

The Importance of Enzymes and Gut Function 

Enzymes are specific proteins secreted from various parts of the body such as the pancreas and salivary glands that are highly specific to certain functions in your body. Enzymes are defined as biological catalysts that catalyze biochemical processes in the body. There are specific enzymes that break down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins known as lipase, amylase, and protease. 

Other enzymes are formed from the salivary glands known as lysosomes, which function to destroy many pathogens and prevent the overgrowth of oral microbial populations. In general, enzymes act as a main component in many physiological functions. 

They are SUPER important, and without them, your body wouldn’t carry out simple processes. 

Low Enzymes and Your Gut

Now that you know the role of enzymes in your body, it is important to know how the level of digestive enzymes in your body affects the ability to digest food properly, prevent SIBO, and control gut dysbiosis (aka an overbalance or underbalance of gut bacteria). 

To put this into perspective, high cortisol levels may result in low digestive enzymes, which slows the rate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest phase) and speeds up the sympathetic nervous system response (fight or flight). What does this ultimately cause? With high cortisol levels there is a decrease in digestive enzymes produced from the pancreas and salivary glands. 

This ultimately leaves behind the partially digested food, as well as an influx of potential pathogenic organisms in your body. As a result, food that is not properly digested becomes a fuel supply for potentially harmful microorganisms like yeast, bacteria, and parasites. This often leads to SIBO, gut dysbiosis, and a whole host of other GI symptoms. Additionally, undigested food can also lead to overeating (weight gain) since your body hasn’t absorbed the proper nutrient requirements yet. Together, this can lead to symptoms that are not limited to:

• Bloating
• Gas
• Diarrhea
• Indigestion/heartburn
• Reflux
• Brain fog
• Food sensitivities

The Importance of Stomach Acid in Gut Function

Similar to enzymes, stomach acid is the big brother of enzymes. Stomach acid, also known as hydrochloric acid (HCL), is extremely acidic, with a pH of about 1.5. About 90% of people actually have low stomach acid, and this number gets even greater as you age. In fact, as you age, the amount of stomach acid you produce is significantly reduced to around a pH of 3-5. Click here to learn more about the importance of proper stomach acid levels as well as how to increase them.

This is a very concerning and unrecognized issue that many of us are facing today. The reason it causes symptoms such as poor digestion and an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach is due to the malfunction of stomach acid. Stomach acid helps break down food, particularly protein in the stomach. Without sufficient quantities of stomach acid, we are at risk of inadequate protein absorption due to fewer proteins being broken down into digestible smaller peptide chains and amino acids. 

Stomach acid also serves as a trigger for digesting carbohydrates and fats by stimulating the pancreas to release digestive enzymes, as well as your gallbladder to release bile. When the stomach acid is low in the body, the pancreas and gallbladder are unable to perform their function (or perform their function less efficiently). As a result, macronutrients are unable to break down for absorption. Furthermore, stomach acid is essential for the absorption of many important nutrients such as iron, B12, calcium, magnesium, and zinc. 

Coupled together, it’s not just macronutrient absorption that is impacted but micronutrient absorption as well. As a result, this increases risk for malnutrition, and anemia, and increases susceptibility for foods to ferment by gut bacteria.

Lastly, stomach acid is a protective barrier to various pathogens. When we eat or drink, we are not only ingesting those sources, but we are also consuming microorganisms. Stomach acid, luckily, acts as a first line of defense (assuming that we have an adequate amount) against these microorganisms, so that we don’t become ill or cause a disruption to the gut microbiome such as SIBO, gut dysbiosis, parasites, and subsequent weight gain. 

Low Stomach Acid and Your Gut

Now that you know what stomach acid is, you may be wondering whether you have low stomach acid and what causes it. If you couldn’t predict it, the famous hormone cortisol is once again the culprit at play due to elevated stress. As I’ve mentioned in my other blogs regarding stress, stress can be caused by many sources such as dietary (alcohol, smoking, caffeine, low protein, high carb, processed foods, antibiotics, antacids, pathogens, environmental toxins, emotional distress, or hidden inflammation). The key takeaway is any type of stress can cause low stomach acid.

Low Bile Production and Your Gut

I briefly mentioned the term “bile,” but do you know exactly what it is? Bile is created in the liver and stored in the gallbladder. It breaks down fat into fatty acids so that they can be absorbed in your body through the digestive tract. Bile also helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, along with removing toxins, excess hormones, and metabolic waste such as bilirubin and cholesterol. 

In relation to the gut-hormone-detox system, cortisol is making yet another appearance! When we have high levels of cortisol, it suppresses the release of bile from the liver into the gallbladder due to energy being diverted away from digestion and toward muscles in the fight-or-flight response. This is the same process that happens with enzyme and stomach acid production. As a result, digestion significantly slows during this time. This further causes the stomach to release partially digested food into the small intestine at a slower rate and fails to trigger the gallbladder to pump the proper amount of bile for digestion. Disruption in the biliary system can cause many symptoms such as:

• Fat malabsorption
• Fat-soluble vitamin malabsorption
• Diarrhea
• Lose fatty floating stool (aka steatorrhea)  
• Abdominal pain after eating fatty foods
• Nausea
• Feeling heavy after eating

In extreme cases, interrupted bile flow can cause bile to become overly concentrated with cholesterol and possibly lead to painful gallstones. Moreover, just like the effects of low enzymes, limited bile paves the way for food to sit in the gut undigested, and therefore allows for harmful organisms to feast. As you probably predicted, you see the same imbalances such as gut dysbiosis, SIBO, and weight gain.

What is food reactivity?

If a lack of enzymes, stomach acid, and bile function doesn’t disrupt your metabolism enough, other factors can influence the functioning of a healthy gut such as food allergies, food sensitivities, and food intolerances. These three food reactivities result in the production of antibodies known as  IgE, IgA,  IgG, and IgM, which ultimately lead to the downstream effect of mediators released from white blood cells (WBC). And, while all of these categories of food reactivity impact the gut in their own unique way, I do want to bring special attention to food sensitivities as this one category is often harder to diagnose. 

How food sensitivity affects the body

One common physiological effect is known as the leaky gut is something we often see with food sensitivities surrounding the protein gluten found in wheat, rye, or barley. The structure of gluten is made up of the protein peptides, gliadin and glutenin. Gliadin is the portion found in gluten that many people react to. When an individual has a gluten sensitivity or allergy (depending on if you have celiac disease or are gluten intolerant), the immune system identifies gluten as a foreign invader in the body and triggers an immune response. This then causes the breakdown of the gut lining. It does this by activating a protein called zonulin, which regulates tight junctions in the small intestine, to open and allow for large particles of undigested food to pass through the intestinal wall. As a result, this immune response can manifest as: 

• Inflammation
• Bloating and abdominal pain 
• Diarrhea or constipation 
• Digestive issues
• Joint pain 
• Difficulty concentrating 
• Confusion
• Fatigue 
• Skin Conditions
• Anxiety/depression
• Food intolerances 
• Nutrient deficiencies 

To further emphasize this cascade of events that food sensitivities can cause, gluten specifically damages the villi. Villi are finger-like projections in the small intestine that are responsible for the absorption of macro- and micro-nutrients. Consequently, you are unable to properly absorb nutrients which is important in sustaining the many different functions within your body. 

How to Test for Food Sensitivities 

In the highly abundant food supply that we have today, it’s so difficult to tell which ingredients are causing symptoms. While food journaling and elimination diets are encouraged, they aren’t the most efficient or reliable way to pinpoint what exactly is causing your symptoms. One way to better recognize food sensitivities is through the MRT Test as I mention in my MRT Food Sensitivity blog.

One thing to note about MRT testing is that it does not account for low FODMAP diets or any other elimination diets or interventions such as for those with potential sulfur or histamine intolerances.

Microbiome

Rounding out the digestive system, I can’t talk about the gut without talking about the microbial rainforest that each and every one of us has. Your microbiome is a plethora of beneficial bacteria that function to help digest food, create vitamins, protect us against foreign invaders as well as produce other biomarkers that help spark the chemical pathways. Over the decades, your microbiome has slowly become compromised through the increased use of antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and over-the-counter medications, whether we were breastfed versus bottle fed, and had pets or spent much time outdoors. With all this to consider, nowadays we are living in a very industrial, environmentally toxic, “germ-free,” high-stress fast paced world (think back to the effect of enzymes, stomach acid, and bile) that has collectively altered your microbiome and gut barrier from the thriving.

Immune System and GI Dysfunction

This section is about the connection between gut-brain connection and how hormones play a role in both. How does the body protect itself from foreign invaders? What happens when the immune system gets disrupted? 70% or more of immune function resides in the gut. An unbalanced immune system leads to leaky gut, resulting in environmental and food allergies. A major contributor to an unbalanced immune system is abnormal cortisol levels, as it directly affects the production of the SIgA antibody.  Levels may appear high at first sign of dysfunction but chronically, levels tank and become too low. Once your levels reach this low point, it is harder to correct and bring them back up to a normal level than if it is when caught at the initial spike. This is another reason why functional lab testing is crucial in understanding where your body is to effectively and efficiently combat gut dysfunction. 

When SIgA antibodies are suppressed, it provides the ideal environment for viruses, pathogenic bacterial overgrowth, and parasites. Having an insufficient amount of SIgA can lead to conditions such as IBS, autoimmune disorders, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and depression. 

As we talked about in part 1 of this blog series, the gut, brain, and liver all work together to optimally support the gut-hormone-detox system. When one of these components is imbalanced, the rest will not function properly. Thus again highlighting the importance of making sure each of your bodily systems are functioning optimally to promote ideal detoxification pathways.

Liver Detoxification: How Does Your Body Naturally Detox

When talking about the gut and digestion, it is also important to mention your body’s natural detoxification system which takes action in the liver. Liver detoxification occurs in two phases, phase I and phase II, but you will read more on that in part 3 of this blog series. As we mentioned before, optimal gut health is needed for optimal detoxification. 

There are multiple nutrients needed for the different phases of liver detox such as glycine, taurine, glutamine, n-acetylcysteine, cysteine, and methionine as well as B-vitamins. The table below outlines some foods that are high in these nutrients such as meat like beef, chicken, and lamb, fish, eggs, certain nuts, legumes, and more. 

The Organic Acids Test and the Individualized Optimal Nutrition Test (ION)  are needed to reveal where you may be lacking in nutrients and other biomarkers. Using your results, at 23 Nutrition Therpay will be able to dive deeper and find the root cause of your deficiencies and combat them appropriately to ensure optimal detoxification can occur. 

There are also additional, natural ways to support your liver such as avoiding alcohol, avoiding unnecessary weight gain, avoiding high-fat diets to subsequently avoid NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), and eating foods high in the nutrients we just discussed. All of these things in conjunction with targeting the root cause of your deficiencies will help alleviate stress on the liver so that it can function at its peak performance. 

The Microbiome Today 

That leaves us to where we are today. Many people are sick because their microbiome has been severely disrupted. And, while one person might not be able to ward off E.coli, a bacteria often found in beef products that cause severe digestive distress, others might eat that same beef product and be perfectly fine. The difference is the people who are able to ward off this pathogenic bacteria generally have a functioning gut barrier (no food sensitivities), optimal levels of digestive enzymes, stomach acid, bile, and a healthy abundance of beneficial bacteria. Yes, this is what it takes to have a thriving gut microbiome and functioning metabolism. It is possible, but first, you need to know where you stand to know where to start. 

What’s next for Your Foundational Wellness? 

The good news is, that you can get all the answers you need for your digestive health using the recommended functional lab tests in the gut-hormone-detox approach. With the comprehensive 3-day stool analysis, you will be able to determine levels of maldigestion, inflammation, dysbiosis, metabolic imbalance, and infection. This functional lab test will measure your levels of digestive enzymes, stomach acid, and bile output. 

While it can be overwhelming trying to navigate this on your own,  working with a skilled Kalish Method Practitioner, detoxification specialist, and functional medicine dietitian is essential in developing an individualized plan for long-lasting success! The very first step before beginning the initial “Comprehensive Root Cause Analysis” program is to schedule a free 15-minute nutrition strategy call to discuss the best approach for you!