Good digestion is the foundation upon which every other aspect of health is built.

Digestion is the most important element for good health. It is the foundation upon which every other aspect of health is built. We can eat the most nutritious, balanced diet, but with poor digestion little will be gained from those efforts.

Some digestive issues are obvious such as diagnosed problem like irritable bowel, diverticulitis, or Crohn’s Disease. They can also present as symptoms such as constipation (having less than one bowel movement per day), loose stools, bloating, gas, or hemorrhoids. However, many health problems are the result of digestive issues that you may not even know you have. As a matter of fact, in our experience, digestive imbalances play a role in 90 percent of the health challenges we see.

If you experience any of the following symptoms, then digestive problems may be at the root of your trouble:

• Back pain
• Headaches
• Arthritis
• Vaginal or prostate infections
• Pain in the joints
• Weight gain or loss
• Reoccurring sinus or lung infections
• Depression, anxiety or other non-resolving emotional issues
• Inability to concentrate, ADD, ADHD
• Foggy brain, memory loss, and overall mental decline
• Food allergies
• Hormonal imbalances
• Osteoporosis
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Obesity
• Auto Immune

Digestion contributes to these health challenges differently for each individual. However, the common denominator we see is improper digestion leading to a poor nutritional status on a cellular level. Our bodies are comprised of cells, which have an amazing capacity to regenerate. Most cells regenerate in only a few days or weeks. Some, like bone cells, can take years. Regardless of how often a cell regenerates, when it does nutrients are required. Most of these nutrients come from the food we eat that has been properly broken down through the process of healthy digestion.

Cells then combine to form organs. Organs work together to keep us alive. When our nutrition status is low, cells do not have what they need to regenerate new, healthy cells, which leads to a decline in the health of our organs. This decline can cause symptoms and disease to develop.

In addition, to be healthy our cells must continually detoxify waste. A lack of available nutrients decreases our cells’, and hence, our organs’ ability to detoxify resulting in a buildup of toxins. Low nutrient density, plus toxin build-up is a major contributor in the development of inflammation. Inflammation breaks down tissue and is the root cause of many disease processes including, but not limited to heart disease, arthritis, and other pain conditions.

At the most fundamental level, if you are not eating and digesting the nutrient dense food you need, then maintaining health becomes very difficult, if not impossible. At the Sustainable Health Center we use a combination of techniques to identify digestive issues and use 100 percent natural methods to support the healing, repair and restoration of digestive function. In our experience, once digestive function returns to normal the body is than able to heal other areas that it previously was unable to and many disease processes slow down or even disappear.

Article written by Cari Schaefer.