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Dear reader,
November is here, and believe it or not, the busy holiday season is just
around the corner. With the days getting shorter and the temperatures
noticeably colder (you may even have seen the year’s first snowfall already,
depending on where you live), there’s no doubt that summer is long gone and
winter is knocking at the door, fresh on the heels of your neighborhood
trick-or-treaters.
With autumn flying by, winter health is the order of the day—and I’ll be
devoting the next couple of newsletters to offering you some tips on preparing
your body’s defenses against this notoriously sickly season.
Speaking of which, how was your fall cleanse? If you’ve finished already or
are in the process of doing so, you should definitely be feeling lighter,
healthier, and more energized for the winter. And that’s important, because as
you know, this time of year has more than its fair share of pitfalls for your
health.
I’ll be discussing one of the most common of them in this newsletter—and if
you have leftover Halloween candy hanging around the house or a family
Thanksgiving feast to attend in the coming weeks, then this problem may be a
familiar one already.
I’m talking about poor digestion—a widespread, embarrassing, and uncomfortable
concern that can also have a very negative impact on your overall health and
immunity.
By far the best known function of a healthy digestive system is to nourish
and feed your body. If proper digestion (by way of enzyme secretion in your small
intestine) isn’t taking place, your body is unable to absorb essential
components like vitamins, nutrients, and amino acids from your food, and it
won’t be getting the vital elements it needs to sustain itself.
Similarly, chronic digestive problems can weaken your intestinal lining
over time—meaning that, aside from being unable to produce necessary digestive
secretions such as bile and enzymes, rogue food particles can escape into your
bloodstream before they have been adequately broken down. This syndrome is
referred to as “leaky gut”—and its consequences can include anything from
abdominal pain, heartburn, and bloating, to anxiety, sleep problems, and
allergic reactions.
This strong relationship between digestion and overall health is emphasized
as one of the central schools of thought in Traditional Chinese Medicine—the
Spleen/Stomach school, or in simpler terms, the digestive school. This practice
looks at health and disease as a reflection of the balance and health of the
digestive system.
For example, we now know that the digestive system is indeed much more
than just digestion. Important functional and regulatory aspects
of the endocrine/hormonal system and the immune system (as well as others)
take place in the digestive system. In fact, your gut is in many ways the seat
of your immune defenses. Both the naturally acidic environment of your stomach
and immune-cell-rich mucosal lining of the digestive tract combine to form
a strong barrier against a variety of food-borne bacteria.
Your intestines also play host to hundreds of different natural
microorganisms, including germs against which your body produces antibodies.
The result is secretory IgA, a crucial immune substance that resides in your
saliva, tears, and other mucous membranes, where it acts as your first line of
defense against invading pathogens—including colds and the flu. This can
explain how and why simple dietary changes can have such a profound effect on
our health and wellbeing.
So what can you do to ensure that your digestive system is functioning
properly? To begin, you’ll want to take a closer look at what you eat.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Digestive problems are a result
of “digestive weakness”—a condition that can be inherent as part of our
constitution, but more often acquired as part of our lifestyle and dietary
habits. The weakness is seen as reduced digestive “heat.” In Western terms,
this heat can be understood as pertaining to essential enzymatic and secretory
activity.
As such, any conditions that might “cool down” the digestive system can
contribute significantly to the problem of sluggish and impaired digestion.
Some of the most common causes of this type of cooling include excessive
eating, late meals, rushed eating, and stress—all of which are even more
commonplace during the winter holidays.
Simply taking the time to slow down and mindfully eat your meals (as hard as
it can be when you’re busy) could make a big difference in keeping your body
(and your mind) healthy. But you should also be mindful of what’s on your
plate. The food that you eat is responsible for telling your digestive system
what to do—and if it’s not receiving proper direction in the way of natural
whole foods, it’s not going to function correctly. As such, a fiber-rich, organic,
nutritious and balanced diet can go a long way in helping you to achieve this
goal
Finally, plenty of fresh, clean water is key—your body needs ample amounts
of fluid to form the saliva and gastric and intestinal secretions that are
crucial to digestion. (Just don’t put your water on ice—beverages that are too
cold will further reduce the “heat” you want to restore. Warm beverages such as
herbal tea or hot water with lemon are best.)
What about supplements?
Supplements are especially important for digestive health, as they are often
used to replace components of our digestion that are no longer functioning.
Probiotics and prebiotics are two of the most important supplements you can
take to help restore healthy digestion. Probiotics provide live strains of
friendly flora to balance the bad bacteria in your gut—bacteria which, if
unchecked, can contribute to chronic diarrhea, flatulence, or constipation.
Prebiotics, on the other hand, will ensure that your friendly florae are
provided with the proper environment in which they can thrive.
Herbal support is probably the most helpful for restoring digestive strength.
In my clinic, I like to use an integrative digestive tonic called Integrative
Digestion Formula (IDF). . Based on ancient Eastern digestive herbal formulas,
it integrates herbs, digestive enzymes, medicinal mushrooms, and minerals as
well as other components. The unique feature of this formula is that it
addresses the root causes of weak digestion, while simultaneously addressing
common issues that result from such weakness as I discussed above.
The applications of this combination toward enhancing digestion are
comprehensive—it ignites, warms and supports the entire digestive tract. It
also helps to redirect the digestive energy in the stomach downward, reducing
flatulence and fullness, and improving the appetite and absorption of vitamins
and minerals from your food. You can even expect improvement in any number of
conditions related to poor digestion—from skin allergies, fatigue and retention
of fluids, to cold hands and feet.
Typically, I recommend anywhere from one to four tablets of Integrative
Digestive Formula per day in divided doses just before meals—but for daily use,
one to two tablets twice daily is ideal. This protocol—accompanied by a
balanced, organic diet and calming relaxation time whenever you can get it—is
one of your best natural means of ensuring strong digestion, a healthy gut, and
an immune system functioning at its peak.
Next month, I’ll be offering more strategies to keep you and your loved ones
healthy this winter—along with some specific tools to survive the dreaded cold
and flu season. I will also discuss the opportunity for inner reflection that
winter provides, and how it affects my own life journey. Until then, may this
year’s Thanksgiving dinner be more enjoyable than ever.
Yours in good health,
Isaac Gabriel Eliaz, M.D., L.Ac., M.S.
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