Stomach pain from reflux, indigestion, bloating and wind seems to be far more common in the last year and it possibly has something to do with lockdown.
The trigger yet again seems to be due to stress. The physiological reason behind this is that the stress side of the nervous system, or “fight or flight” side, actually shuts down digestion.
This means food just sits in the stomach not being digested and the body will try longer and harder to digest the food adding more and more acid. Possibly giving an acidic pain but also creating fullness, bloating and wind.
The stomach is on PURPOSE adding more acid trying to achieve the correct breakdown of food so it can be absorbed correctly to get all the nutrition out of it into our bloodstream. There’s two things to note here.
1 - Using an acid suppressing medication will hopefully give acid reflux relief but stop the correct digestion of food. In the long term you would want to actually fix your digestion rather than relying on the symptom fix of decreasing acid. The aim would be correct digestion of your food to extract all the nutrition you need and to not have acid reflux either. This is possible.
2 - Acid reflux medications are well known to increase food allergy and intolerance. Because the medication decreases the acid breakdown of the food. Larger particles of the food are able to make their way into the bloodstream and trigger an allergy response in the blood.
From a naturopathic, holistic point of view there are two approaches that help and work with the body, rather than shutting it down in this situation.
Easing Stress
Firstly, stress relief if relevant to calm the nervous system from shutting the digestion down. The opposing side of the nervous system is called the parasympathetic nervous system, or “rest and digest”. Promoting this calming side will HELP digestion. This is done though deep breathing, meditation, relaxation, yoga, walking outside and other generally calming, nice activities which relax you.
Digestive enzymes
Next it is possible to actually help your stomach to digest the food better using natural supplements. These are one of my favourite supplements to use as they have such benefits around the whole body, because you will also extract better nutrition from your food because you digest it better whilst also reducing bloating and indigestion.
Digestive enzyme supplements are taken WITH each meal and the ingredients actually help your stomach digest your food better. For example, they contain natural enzymes that breakdown protein / meat, gluten / carbohydrates, fats and dairy sugars. My favourite enzyme supplement also contains herbs known to help digestion like, fennel, ginger and peppermint.
Dosage
To try these enzyme supplements you take 1 capsule WITH each meal. If the meal if light then you probably don’t need one. If it’s a Sunday roast then you can take two capsules to aid digestion. Eventually you can use them flexibly and use as and when you feel bloated or over-full.
If you have any questions about digestive enzymes then pleas feel free to email me christian@theperrymount.com.
Also please note there is far more help available for digestive complaints like IBS than just these enzymes. Again, please feel free to email me.
