THE GUT

Natural Medicine revolves around what Hippocrates once said: “All disease begins in the gut”. This wisdom is still shared over 2000 years later with scientific validation.

The gut is everything to everyone. As our primary environmental interface, the gut houses more nerves than the rest of our peripheral nervous system put together and makes more immunological decisions in one day than the rest of the immune system makes in a lifetime. It is home to a 70% share of the human microbiome.

It is said we are 10% human and 90% bug. Gut function is linked to almost every known disorder including digestive conditions, autoimmune disease, allergies and intolerances, metabolic dysfunction and mental health imbalances including depression and schizophrenia.

The gut (gastrointestinal tract) is the long tube that starts at the mouth and ends at the back passage (anus). The mouth is the first part of the gut. When we eat, food passes down the oesophagus into the stomach and then into the small intestine. This is the place where food is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream. The small intestine joins the large intestine at the caecum, near the appendix and continues upwards from here and is known as the ascending colon.  The next part runs across the body near the diaphragm and this is known as the transverse colon. It then becomes the descending colon as it heads down the left side towards the sigmoid flexure (s-bend) which leads to the rectum (storage compartment of stool matter). It then gets pushed out, often with some degree of difficulty for many, out from the anus when on the toilet. The large intestine absorbs water and contains food and microbes that has not been digested such as fibre.

Some foods and liquids are absorbed through the lining of the stomach, especially alcohol. The muscles in the wall of the gut mix the food with bodily enzymes. To help with peristalsis, or food movement through the gut, fibre is an essential requirement. The digestion of food is controlled by the brain, nervous system and various hormones released in the gut. The vagus nerve is one of the most important regulatory nerves and is happiest when stress levels are low.

The gut is often called “the second brain”. This other brain is called the enteric nervous system or ENS. And its not so little. The ENS is two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells lining the GIT from esophagus to rectum. Both brains talk with each other so therapies that help one may help the other.

Fast food, chemicals and gluten can all cause irritation of the lining and gluten increases intestinal permeability, also referred to as leaky gut. Without the help of our trillions of active microbes in the intestine especially large bowel humans would suffer an endless array of diseases and general poor health. The microbiome means everything to all of us.