Restore Digestive Balance Naturally
- By Stephen Holt, M.D.

Digestion and General Health
Without healthy function of the digestive tract, general health cannot prevail. Every bathroom cupboard in America contains one or more digestive aids, including laxatives, anti-acids and other concoctions for "tummy problems". Digestive upset is notoriously recurrent in many people, because it is often triggered by adverse lifestyle. While symptoms of digestive disturbance can spell serious disease such as cancer or inflammation, most common digestive symptoms are due to altered function of the digestive tract. These disorders are called "functional digestive diseases".In other words, the most common causes of digestive upset represent an imbalance of the digestive function. Restoring the balance Is possible with lifestyle changes and natural dietary supplements.
Examples of functional digestive upset include the irritable bowel syndrome and upper abdominal pain in the absence of peptic ulcer. This disorder is often called functional dyspepsia. The mechanisms that control digestive function are highly complex and they have to work in harmony. Drugs and surgery for digestive disease do not work generally to restore the harmony of the gut, but these approaches are necessary for diseases that alter the structure of the bowel, e.g. cancer, certain serious types of inflammation and other serious diseases. I propose that functional upsets of the digestive tract are a prime target for the use of remedies of natural origin. Natural substances may provide simple, gentle and safe first-line options, before an individual reaches for an over-the-counter drug or a drug prescription.

Traditional Use of Natural Remedies for Digestive Upset
Several approaches exist in natural medicine to attempt to rebalance digestive function. Many consumers believe in the benefits of body cleansing, the use of enzymes to promote digestion, attempts to detoxify the body. Friendly bacteria can grow in the lower bowel and promote health in a variety of complex ways (probiotics).

Conventional medicine has argued that colon cleansing may not be a valuable intervention. However, many people report a favorable outcome from the appropriate intermittent use of laxatives or colonic irrigation. There is a revival in interest in colon therapy and some studies are attempting to define the benefit of colon cleansing in a variety of circumstances. The idea that the bowel can be a source of toxins is a concept that is being increasingly accepted, even though it is often challenged in conventional medicine.

Seeding the Gut: Prebiosis and Problosis
The value of using healthy bacteria (probiotics) in dietary supplements for gastrointestinal and general health is well recognized in the practice of natural medicine; and in recent years it has become part of main-line, conventional medicine. The process of reseeding the intestines with friendly bacteria normally found in healthy intestines is called probiotic therapy.

One can assist the growth of friendly bacteria in the colon by using specific "foods" (often complex carbohydrates) that are used by friendly bacteria, such as Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria. There are particularly, good sources of fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS). FOS promotes food for friendly bacteria and the growth of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria such as oats, bananas and onions, which contain (FOS). Also, good bacteria love dietary fiber. Friendly gut bacteria promote the normal structure and function of the lining of the intestines, and they prime the immune system in the gut. In this regard, some of the friendly bacteria are particularly important in enhancing the body's resistance to disease by simulating immune function and exerting interference with organisms that infect the bowel and cause infectious diarrhea (Table 1).