Bowel problems, a common but little discussed problem. And who will, and at what moment, have a nice chat about it? It is also not a bad thing if you have a stomachache after a bad meal, with a flu or on that adventurous trip in a faraway country. Your body will resolve it. But do the pains last for a long time, do they become frequent, does it affect your life, dominate… Then the search for a solution had better be a short path.
The average small intestine is six meters long and consists of the duodenum, the empty intestine and the ileum. The function of the small intestine is to digest food and absorb nutrients from the food. He does this by adding digestive juices to the food. With a double layer of muscle, the small intestine kneads the food so that it mixes well with the digestive juices. The small intestine sends the food to the large intestine. The enormous surface area of the small intestine ensures a large absorption capacity of nutrients. Food stays in the small intestine for four to eight hours. The food that is indigestible and therefore remains, ends up in the large intestine.
After the small intestine comes the ‘colon’, the large intestine with a length of about two meters. With an appendage called the cecum, the intestine ends up as the rectum. When the indigestible food remains arrive in the large intestine, there is still a lot of fluid in the remains. The function of the large intestine is to extract moisture from what we can now call the stool. The large intestine pushes the stool forward through peristaltic movements. The stool is stored in the storage tank until it is full: the rectum.
It has been discovered that the gut of prehistoric man was much longer! By eating differently and better preparation and hygiene, the food has become easier to digest for the intestines. As a result, the gut has become shorter during evolution.
25% have intestinal problems
In the Netherlands, a quarter of the population has intestinal problems and 60% is female. Until now, the doctors sought a solution in destroying the bad bacteria, while taking the loss of the healthy gut bacteria for granted. It’s actually weird that the focus of medical science has been on eradicating bacteria for so long. Of all the genetic material we carry with us, only 1% is human. The rest comes from the trillions of bacteria in our bodies. That is why some scientists are already talking about a paradigm shift. We must learn to control the bacteria, rather than eradicate them.
Possible causes of problems in the small intestine can come from an allergy, for example to a protein or gluten. They occur in: oats, wheat, rye and barley. The intestinal mucosa loses its intestinal villi due to contact with gluten, which means that nutrients can be absorbed less well and nutritional deficiencies arise. You can get food poisoning that causes problems. Inflammation can also arise in the intestines when the intestinal flora is out of balance .
Sensitive gut or problems with the gut? They can have a variety of causes and be both acute and chronic. Common bowel problems include: Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, appendicitis, colon cancer, and celiac disease.
These usually manifest themselves in: diarrhoea, greasy stools, inflammation and weight loss. Ulcers can form in the intestines, which sometimes get bigger. The signs can be minor such as flatulence and abdominal pain, but also larger such as diarrhoea, nausea and fatigue to even fever and weight loss. There can also be unpleasant side effects such as hemorrhoids and fistulas. Chronic intestinal inflammation can develop in both the small and large intestines. If you don’t get there in time, you’ll get further and further away from home.
