What Causes Digestive Dismay?

Perhaps you’re familiar with setting modern indoor speed records to get to the bathroom. And maybe you know about foods racing through your system, stopping only long enough to liquify before demanding “Out! Out!”

I could go on, but if you spend time thinking about your digestive activities, you don’t need details.

Since the digestive and endocrine systems are closely related–they’re even talking about declaring the digestive system to be part of the endocrine system–digestion is a huge problem.

Half of the world’s population has thyroid problems, whether we know it or not–and most of us don’t. And if we do know it, the chances of getting good care are slim, so we get to keep all our symptoms and problems.

Since no part of the endocrine system can get into trouble without all the others jumping in to make things right, thyroid problems can sink your adrenal glands. All the others, too, but I want to talk about an adrenal symptom.

The adrenals are where digestive problems come into the story. There are other causes of digestive disruption, such as fluoride, but the adrenals are huge.

Here’s how it goes. We constantly renew all our cells. We keep becoming brand new people via the process of new cells replacing old.

But when the adrenal glands are out of sorts, the mucosal lining of your small intestines doesn’t get renewed all that well. Adrenals roaring along at top speed burn out the mucosa. Adrenals inching along at a snail’s pace means you don’t get enough new cells to replace the old. In either case, your mucosal lining is toast.

I was virtually housebound for nearly two years with this mess. About six months in, when it reached the point where blood was pouring out of my body every time I went to the bathroom, I realized doctors didn’t have a clue what to do, and it was up to me–again.

My primary care doctor said she didn’t know what was causing my problem or how to fix it. I really appreciated her honesty.

The gastroenterologist diagnosed it as a simple problem with a simple fix–and proceeded to make everything worse. And I realized he would keep trying one thing after another just to be doing something.

As it turns out, doctors aren’t taught about the adrenal/small intestine connection. Getting the turkey-trots earns a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut syndrome, Crohn’s disease or some other shot in the dark. And you’ll end up on a “standard of care” that has nothing to do with fixing the small intestine mucosa–and it won’t do you a lick of good.

Here’s how it goes: The lining of the small intestine, the mucosa, keeps not-quite-digested food from getting into the bloodstream where it doesn’t belong. When food gets into the blood stream, it’s poison, and the body reacts strenuously, but poorly. It’s turkey-trot time.

And that’s not even the whole story. When the small intestine’s in a mess, we can’t absorb nutrition from our food. Which is huge! A lack of nutrition makes any problem worse. For instance, at least 70% of all deaths come from inadequate nutrition.

To compensate, you need to bulk up on vitamins and minerals. Since a whacked out intestinal lining means you can only absorb a little of what you get, you have to chug down a bunch. It can’t be willy-nilly. You need to balance a program so a bunch of different vitamins and minerals are each contributing different benefits that work together to make up for your nutritional lack.

Plus, vitamins and minerals help your thyroid, adrenals, et al–as well as the mucosa.

Don’t even talk to me about how you don’t like to take pills. Nobody does, but you have to do what you have to do to get to where you want to get.

Besides, if taking pills makes you gag, it’s your body talking to you. Retching whilst taking pills is a very specific symptom of this mess.

(I talk about healing the mucosa in my Moving to Health program, but it’s too big a problem to cover in an article. Especially since it involves shaping up the adrenals, too.)