Fix Your Gut

The GI System 

A properly functioning gastrointestinal system is critical for overall health and well-being, yet it is often ignored unless it starts making a lot of commotion. 

Consider the following about the gastrointestinal system: 

• The gastrointestinal system comprises 75% of the body’s immune system. 

• There are more neurons in the small intestine than in the entire spinal cord. 

• It is the only system in the body that has its own, independently operating nervous system, called the enteric nervous system. 

• If you stretched out the gastrointestinal system in its entirety, it would have the surface area of a regulation-sized singles tennis court. 

• There are over 400 species of microbes living in your gut, totaling over 15 pounds of mass and containing more bacteria than there are known stars in the sky. 

If the body allocates this many resources to one particular system, it must be important. In fact, we should start treating our gut with care if we are interested in weight loss, muscle gain or overall health in general. 

A Gut Feeling 

Actually, we don’t really feel our guts. Specifically, we don’t often feel gut pain or any other sensations. That’s because our guts lack pain sensing receptors (known as nociceptors). As a result, we typically don’t know when our gastrointestinal systems have a problem. Instead, we have to wait until things get bad enough to present symptoms to us. 

 If you have symptoms such as: 

• gas 

• bloating 

• burping after meals 

• inadequate digestion (feeling like you have a brick in your stomach after you eat) 

• undigested food in your stools 

• foul smelling stools 

• constipation 

• diarrhea 

• burning in the stomach 

• bad breath 

• nausea 

Then you can be sure you have some type of gastrointestinal dysfunction. 

Often, things like hormonal imbalances, migraines, allergies, eczema, and autoimmune disease all can be traced back to GI system problems. Interesting, isn’t it?