There’s increasing awareness that our gut health isn’t just important when digesting food, but can also be a significant indicator of what’s happening in the rest of our body. If issues in the gut can act as early warning signs of wider health problems, then a gut health test is obviously a valuable investment. That […]
If you’re a sufferer of IBS or other digestive problems, you may have encountered the concept of the low-FODMAP diet. What exactly are FODMAPs and why are they important? They’ve been linked to all kinds of digestion-related symptoms, so it may help to know exactly what we mean. FODMAP is an acronym that stands for
Sometimes you just need to add a bit of extra spice to your food. It’s not about the health benefits – at least, they’re not usually the first things on your mind. You just want better flavors. If certain spices can actually improve your gut health, boosting some of those good bacteria down there, that’s
We know the brain controls pretty much everything else in the body, right? It sends the signals that tell us to move, or that something hurts, or just how we feel about a situation. Of course, it must also have some role to play in the digestive system. Communication between the brain and the stomach
It’s not just food that travels through your digestive system. It’s fluid. Yes, that includes water, but also juice, milk and other non-caffeinated drinks. If you want things to flow properly, you need to hydrate them. If you’re finding it difficult or painful to pass waste or your stool is particularly large, dry or lumpy,
No, don’t back away. I know bile isn’t generally considered a pleasant thing, but it is important. Without it, your digestive system wouldn’t work properly and you wouldn’t be able to get all the nutrients you need out of food. The concept of bile dates all the way back to Ancient Greece, when doctors thought
Heartburn is really a very descriptive name. The moment you hear the word, you have some idea of what it entails. There’s a pain or discomfort that resembles burning, and you feel it in your chest or abdomen, not far from your heart. It certainly flows a lot more easily off of the tongue than
When problems start occurring in your digestive system, there are lots of possible reasons. Some of them, while aggravating and uncomfortable, are generally not life-threatening. IBS is a good example. This means that some of the less common but more severe causes may be overlooked, including ovarian cancer. If you’re thinking about cancer affecting the
If you’re anything like me, the first thing you think of when people mention the digestive system is the stomach. After all, that’s where the bulk of the actual digesting goes on, right? Well, yes – there’s a lot happening in there, but it’s actually only the third stage of the digestive system. The second
It’s hard enough keeping your digestive system running smoothly when you’re healthy, but when you have a gastrointestinal disorder like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), it becomes even more complicated. It means thinking carefully about everything you eat and having to account for it when you’re planning your day-to-day life. We don’t know exactly what causes
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