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Your digestive system and the mucosal barrier test.

The digestive system is the underlying basis upon which your health is based. You may hear the saying that you are what you eat but in reality you are what you digest.

Why is digestion important?

Digestion is important because unless you get the nutrients you eat in your food into the actual cells and blood stream your body will become malnourished regardless of what actually went into your mouth.

Poor digestion creates a negative cycle because when you absorb fewer nutrients it weakens the digestive efficiency further and the cycle repeats itself once more creating further degeneration. Inefficient digestion can potentially cause malnourishment, as well as making your body fertile ground for the development of infectious and degenerative diseases.

What is digestion?

Normal digestion is a cascade of events beginning when food is placed in the mouth and ending with elimination about 24 hours later. Digestion requires thorough chewing, and subsequent mixing of the food with enzymes. This is followed by exposure to a large quantity of acid and enzymes in the stomach. About two hours later, the chyme (food in the process of digestion) is moved on to the small intestine where it is bathed in bile, bile salts and more enzymes which allow further absorption. Finally the chyme is mixed with bacteria (pro biotic) to aid in further digestion. During this process the mucosal barrier, which lines the gut, acts as a filter mechanism and allows through the nutrients the body needs while keeping out particles it does not desire.

How do I optimize my digestive ability?

To optimize your digestive abilities you must give the body all that it needs to prepare the food to penetrate the walls of your intestines and support the mucosal barrier that lines the wall if it has degraded.

To prepare the food you must ensure you chew it thoroughly to begin the process. Then you can support the body with HCL supplementation if needed and also by taking specific enzymes to digest the chyme. For the intestine you can re-populate by taking pro biotics. This will optimize your ability to digest the food you have eaten.

To optimize the mucosal barrier you can follow a repair protocol which will allow the gut to heal. It may also be necessary to look to cleanse the gut to remove parasites, bad bacteria or fungus.

Mucosal barrier test (#304)

The mucosal barrier test is used to indicate the health of your digestive tract. It is used to identify the state of the immune system, inflections, dysbiosis and the prescience of food sensitivities.

A mucosal barrier is a lining which protects from infection. There are numerous sites within the body which have these barriers including the nose, eyes, urinary tract and digestive system. This test looks at the barrier within your digestive tract.

In the gut it protects the body by filtering out toxins, antigens and pathogens that are passing through the digestive tract. As well as stopping unwanted pathogens entering the body it must also allow the nutrients your body needs into the blood stream.

The test is performed via a saliva sample and looks at the level of antibodies within the saliva. An antibody is produced when you are fighting a pathogen. This test looks at your most common antibody; Immunglobin Sig A.

Through looking at the total levels of antibodies within your saliva the amount of antibodies you have produced can be seen. A high level suggests you are fighting an acute infection while low levels suggest the body is shutting down it’s response as a result of a chronic infection. A high ration of Cortisol:DHEA (as seen from your adrenal #205 test) will also further shut down your immune response.

The test further breaks down the level of antibodies into the responses towards specific stimuli. From this we can see how the levels in response to aerobic bacteria, anaerobic bacteria, protein and yeasts. High levels suggest the prescience of these within the gut. The ratios of aerobic to anaerobic bacteria can show if dysbiosis is present within the gut (An uneven balance of bacteria).

Helping your body

The fastest way to help your body and gut is to resolve the factors creating stress upon your system. Discovering your metabolic type is initially the first step to be taken as eating the wrong foods is one of the biggest contributors to gut stress.