Our ability to think, feel, or do anything is critically dependent upon our ability to supply the energy to the cells that do this work.  If we were plants, that energy would come from simple sunlight.  That sunlight gets used to charging up tiny molecules like CO2 to enable them to combine together to form larger, high energy molecules like sugar, starch, and fiber.

We, on the other hand, do the reverse of this process.  We take these high energy molecules and break them apart in order to use that energy for doing all the different things that are life to us.  For those of you that remember biology class way back in high school, this final energy process is called the Krebs cycle.  This happens in the mitochondria power plants inside our cells.  I go into this detail because mitochondria are actually the very last step in our digestion process.  If we want to have the energy to live our life the way we want, we have to protect and optimize function on this level.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves.  Digestion really begins when we feel hungry and start looking for food.  Digestive juices start flowing, smell and taste receptors wake up, production of immune molecules (S IgA) that bind toxins and bacteria starts flowing in saliva.  The body is preparing to eat.  Part of preparing to eat is getting ready to deal with the many poisons and bacteria that enter our body along with the food.  So our first response to food is to defend ourselves from the downsides to having to eat.  Eating is a mixed bag for the body.  Part of the food we eat is vital for our survival while other parts are poisonous.  Some parts are not even for us but to feed the good bacteria in our guts while other parts end up feeding bad guy bacteria.  The indigestible fiber that holds the plant together ends up acting as a broom to push everything along through our intestines.

When we put food into our mouth, our tongue chemically feels the food to tell the rest of the body what is coming down the chute so it can be ready for it.  Saliva pours out to help us break down the food.  The saliva is full of enzymes that start breaking apart the chains of sugars that form starch, certain fats such as milk fat, and enzymes called lysozymes to help kill bacteria.  

Good digestion requires us to chew our food down to a liquid consistency to allow all parts of the food to interact with the enzymes.  Chewing has another big function that most people don't know about.  Chewing turns on the parasympathetic nervous system - the relax and digest system.  I have written previously about how important this side of the nervous system is to our health.  It is the anti-stress response for turning off the fight or flight activity of the sympathetic nerve system.  It has been proposed that the snacking people do when they are not hungry is really an unconscious way of decreasing stress by engaging the parasympathetic system by chewing.  If we do not relax and chew our food well, we stay in stress mode and our food does not digest properly, which drives the overgrowth of bad bacteria in our gut.  Meditation and prayer also switch on the parasympathetic nerves - hence the tradition of saying grace and feeling appreciation before we eat.  Next step – swallow.

Our food has now entered our stomach.  The stomach secretes a very powerful hydrochloric acid.  This acid does a couple vital things.  Proteins are long chains of amino acid molecules that fold in and out into complex structures that become the tiny machines that cause everything in us to happen on the molecular level.  Holding this structure into shape are little chemical bonds that act like glue and screws holding the machines together.  The stomach acid melts these bonds, so the protein “machines” fall apart back into the long chains of amino acids they are made of.  Once it is all unfolded then enzymes in the stomach and duodenum can snip apart the chains into the individual amino acids for us to reassemble into our own machines.

The hydrochloric acid serves two other essential purposes.  It destroys many bacteria that try to gain entry into our body by hitchhiking in with the food.  A second process that most people are unaware of is that the acid changes the structure of certain minerals in our food into a form that we can absorb.  There are many minerals that need the acid treatment to get into our body including iron, copper, magnesium, zinc, and several trace minerals.  So if you do not have enough stomach acid, you get mineral deficiencies and the diseases that result from them.  Examples of symptoms you might experience from low stomach acid are:

Bloating or distention after eating
Diarrhea or constipation
Flatulence after eating
Hair loss in women
Heartburn / Indigestion
Itchy anus
Low tolerance for dentures
Malaise - tiredness - iron poor blood
Multiple food allergies
Nausea or nausea after taking supplements
Involuntary defecation at night
Prolonged sense of fullness after eating
Soreness, burning, and dryness of the mouth
Chronic yeast infections/ parasites
Weak, peeling and cracked fingernails
Post-adolescent acne
Osteoporosis

Stomach acid naturally decreases production as we age, but by far the most common reason I find for insufficient stomach acid is the use of stomach acid blocking drugs to fight heartburn due to stress and bad diet.

The next big step is the movement of our food into the short 12 inch part of the small intestine just after the stomach called the duodenum.  Here the acid is quickly neutralized with our own inner form of baking soda.  Then, if the stomach phase all happened correctly, the magic of the pancreatic enzymes takes place.  There are many different kinds of enzymes, each of which breaks apart the different foods into tiny usable pieces our intestines can absorb and our body use.  At the same time bile salts from the liver/ gallbladder mix with the food to break up fat globules into tiny bits that can also be absorbed.  This becomes critical for us to absorb vitamins that are fat soluble like vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Lets review:  we started with mouth juices beginning the digestion process, then stomach juices, then pancreas juices, and liver/gall bladder juices.  All  these juices have to be working properly to mix with our food so it can be broken down into a form we can absorb through our gut lining.  From there it is carried either in our blood stream or the lymph fluid to the liver and the rest of the body, where it gets carried into our cells to be used to make the machines and energy to run our cells.  Amino acids are used to make the machines and the sugars and fats go to the mitochondria to dance through the last chain of steps to form the charged energy batteries, called ATP, that give life energy to all we are and do.

As you can see, digestion is a vast and hugely complex subject.  I have greatly simplified it here, but have given you enough detail to see why good digestion is vital to your health.  You are made of tiny protein machines that all run on even tinier ATP batteries.  The innate intelligence within the body needed to organize all this is unbelievable.  We are walking miracles – miracles that need us to take care of them and keep them going so they can fulfill their creative loving purpose.

Take care,

David

   
Ellen update:    

I turned 66 last week.  To celebrate Ellen took me to Mystique Dinner Theater.  I love magic, which this is an evening of, coupled with a delicious meal.  Mystique is a small venue with only 18 guests all seated at one grand table.  The magician performs at the head of the table at the conclusion of the meal.  We had a great time.