Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition (3 page)

This book takes the science and melds it with the practical. I’ve spent the past 30 years working with clients, talking with colleagues and experts, and delving into the research to see how to interpret the research into something more basic:
How can we help people to actually feel better?

My understanding of how to assess digestive imbalances and disease has grown and continues to change nearly every day. One of the places where I have learned the most is by being on a team at the Institute for Functional Medicine. A group of us discussed what was known, what was believed, what seemed to work, and what we
saw in our practices. From this consensus, Patrick Hanaway, M.D., Gerard E. Mullin, M.D., Tom Sult, M.D., Dan Lukaczer, ND, and I developed a 2½ day course that we have taught to more than 600 clinicians. For me, the main shift was in how we assess digestive imbalances and diseases. We call this the DIGIN model.

The DIGIN model allows us to look at the underlying mechanisms to assess and finally to come up with a plan for restoring health. These areas are:

D: Digestion and absorption

I: Intestinal permeabilty

G: Gut microbiome

I: Inflammation and immune

N: Nervous system

Two people can have the same diagnosis but different treatment. Two can have different diagnoses and have the same treatment. People with the same diagnosis may have different reasons for it. In the past several weeks, I’ve worked with four people who had been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. We discovered that each of them had a different issue yet the same diagnosis. The first person had a low-grade infection, called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. The second had food sensitivities to dairy and gluten-containing grains. The third had a parasitic infection. And the fourth realized that rest, stress management, and exercise were the key to her bowel issues.

On the other hand, it’s also possible for people with different diagnoses to have the same underlying issues. As you’ll read later on, people with irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, and interstitial cystitis may all have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth as the underlying cause. When treated with antibiotic or antimicrobial herbs, they improve.

Now, let’s discover more about the fascinating digestive system.

This edition of
Digestive Wellness
is built around this model. Most of the materials in these chapters are entirely new. The DIGIN model provides the big picture. Later, if more still needs to be done, we focus on details that are specific to each body part and type of imbalance or condition.

A lot of new topics are addressed in this book. There are chapters on the elimination diet and on restorative foods. For the first time, we discuss biofilms and biofilm protocols. As the research unfolds, so expand the chapters. There are now
sections on fatty liver, gastroparesis, pancreatitis, and microscopic colitis. You’ll also find chapters on the GI link to autoimmune diseases, interstitial cystitis, rosacea, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, obesity and metabolic syndrome, Sjögren’s disease, and diabetes.

Plus, every page has been updated based on the latest research studies.

In
Digestive Wellness
, you’ll find a functional medicine approach seen through the lens of a nutrition professional. What is functional medicine (FM)? The original idea was developed by Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., and David Jones, M.D., and continues to be refined and expanded by the thousands of health professionals who use it every day. FM, as evolved through the Institute for Functional Medicine in Gig Harbor, Washington, incorporates all of what is considered to be the best medical practices while also embracing a wide philosophy of health and healing. It offers clinicians a system for quickly assessing and evaluating underlying antecedents and triggers of disease. Functional medicine cuts across all disciplines and includes all types of clinicians—medical doctors, naturopathic physicians, chiropractic physicians, acupuncturists, nutritionists, nurses, physical therapists, psychologists, massage therapists, and more. It blends the best of science with the art and care of the person to find a personalized, patient-centered approach toward well-being.

In functional medicine, finding the underlying triggers of illness and listening to the person’s story are key. For example, I recently had a client whose main complaints were stomach pain, diarrhea, fatigue, and a feeling that she was failing. She’d been to many doctors without respite. She’d tried many approaches. After a single conversation, it became apparent to me that she had detoxification issues. Her health issues all began about a year after she moved into a brand-new home that was off-gassing toxic chemicals. Treating her digestive systems would have been the norm, yet finding a way to gently detoxify her achieved the best results. On the other hand, I recently worked with a client whose main complaints were depression and fatigue. Although she didn’t at first express issues with digestion, supporting her digestive system and an elimination diet were key to her improved health.

Functional medicine embraces person-centered therapies rather than setting protocols. It recognizes and honors the biochemical uniqueness of each person. Throughout this book, use your own story and initial triggers of disease to guide you. Recognize that one size does not fit all, and try what makes sense. Begin with
the recommendations on diet and lifestyle. If you aren’t eating well, sleeping, moving, or spending time to relax and renew, begin with small changes in lifestyle.

Here’s what you’ll find in the new
Digestive Wellness
:

Digestive Wellness
is divided into four parts. In
Part I
, we walk through the digestive system. This grounds you in a basic understanding of the system, which makes the rest of the book easier to “digest.”

Part II
delves into what I consider to be the heart of the book, the DIGIN model. The DIGIN essentials work for many health conditions, and once these are balanced and corrected, health emerges. The features of DIGIN are as follows:

Digestion (
Chapter 3
):
We move through fundamentals, such as how you can know whether you are digesting and absorbing your food. If you aren’t, how can you balance that?

Intestinal Permeability (
Chapter 4
):
Increased intestinal permeability, also called leaky gut, is explained along with what issues and symptoms it’s related to and how to heal from it.

Gut Microbiome (
Chapters 5
–
8
):
Next, we move into the gut microbiome and look at healthy gut ecology, biofilms, prebiotics, and probiotics.