How are you doing down there in the middle of your body?

If you’re like a huge segment of the USA population, you are having more than your share of discomforts. Like regurgitation of gastric acid, burning sensation in your esophagus, bitter taste in your throat, nighttime coughing, burping and even nausea.

It’s often called “heartburn,” but it has nothing to do with your heart. In most cases these unwelcome symptoms are caused by indigestion. That means your digestive system is not functioning properly.
WHY wouldn’t your digestive system function properly? If you’re a typical American one or more of the following habits or issues might be causing your indigestion:

• Overeating
• Gulping down food too fast
• Eating the wrong foods
• Eating the wrong combinations of foods
• Stress in the family or workplace
• Inadequate Sleep

These or a few other issues may be sentencing you to a life of misery that affects your personality, your productivity and your enjoyment of life.
Face it! Your fast-paced stressful lifestyle and gulping down junk food “on the run” isn’t compatible with proper eating and digestion.

Let’s have a look at digestion. How does it work?

The digestive glands that act first are in the mouth—the salivary glands. Saliva produced by these glands contains an enzyme that begins to break down the starch from food into smaller molecules. An enzyme is a substance that speeds up and facilitates chemical processes in the body.

The next set of digestive glands is in the stomach lining. They produce stomach acid and an enzyme that digests protein. A thick mucus layer coats the mucosa and helps keep the acidic digestive juice from dissolving the tissue of the stomach itself. In most people, the stomach lining is able to resist the juice, although food and other tissues of the body cannot.

After the stomach empties the food and juice mixture into the small intestine, the juices of two other digestive organs mix with the food. One of these organs, the pancreas, produces a juice that contains a wide array of enzymes to break down the carbohydrate, fat, and protein in food. Other enzymes that are active in the process come from glands in the wall of the intestine.

The second organ, the liver, produces yet another digestive juice—bile. Bile is stored between meals in the gallbladder. At mealtime, it is squeezed out of the gallbladder, through the bile ducts, and into the intestine to mix with the fat in food. The bile acids dissolve fat into the watery contents of the intestine, much like detergents that dissolve grease from a frying pan.

After fat is dissolved, it is digested by enzymes from the pancreas and the lining of the intestine. Most digested molecules of food, as well as water and minerals, are absorbed through the small intestine. The small intestine contains many folds that are covered with tiny fingerlike projections called villi. In turn, the villi are covered with microscopic projections called microvilli.

These structures create a vast surface area through which nutrients can be absorbed. Specialized cells allow absorbed materials to cross into the blood, where they are carried off in the bloodstream to other parts of the body for storage or further chemical change. This part of the process varies with different types of nutrients.

In summary, “digestion” is the process by which your body breaks down and processes foods, chemically converting them into absorbable nutrients. Beginning in the mouth, it continues through all parts of the digestive tract including the stomach, duodenum, small and large intestines.

Well digested nutritious food feeds all parts of the body, promoting the health of cells, tissues and organs, enhancing energy, strengthening immunity, and contributing to optimal health, wellbeing and enjoyment.

But we have all known hard-driving, purposeful, intelligent and successful people who managed their business or profession well, yet did a shabby job of managing their own body – and died much too young.

For your sake and for the sake of those who love you, take control! Your body is a precious gift. Respect it enough to manage it better.

1. Slow down and smell the roses.
2. Study foods and proper combinations of foods.
3. Strongly emphasize plant-based foods rather than beef and pork laced with fat, or other products of animals such as milk and eggs.
4. Avoid processed, spiced meats that come in cans or strips like bacon, sausages and hotdogs.
5. Get 8 or 9 hours of good sound sleep every night.
6. Take a superior supplement that will significantly aid digestion.

NOTE: Including excellent Probiotic supplements in your health maintenance program is a very good idea, because it has been proven that Probiotics strongly support digestion, absorption, and the immune system.