The health of your digestion plays a critical role in your overall health and wellbeing. A healthy digestive system is something that you can’t see or feel; it just keeps silently ticking away, every day and night. Digestive problems are typically discovered at the onset of symptoms such as

• bloating
• a feeling of fullness
• constipation
• diarrhoea
• reflux
• heartburn
• nausea
• flatulence or
• general digestive discomfort

Untreated digestive problems tend to accumulate and can lead to many health conditions that can adversely affect the quality of your everyday life.

Digestion – your very own food processor

Your digestive system is quite complex and consists of the stomach, intestines (small and large) plus other accessory digestive glands that include the liver and gallbladder. The food you eat provides a complex combination of nutrients that need to be broken down and simplified into their smaller components, ready for absorption and finally the production of waste. You can spend a lot of time and money sourcing the freshest organic foods in the world, but if your digestive system isn’t working properly, you will not be able to digest and absorb any of these nutrients. This leads to nutritional deficiencies and increased risk of chronic health conditions.

5 ways to improve your digestion:

• Digestive enzymes If you have problems with bloating, indigestion, flatulence or a feeling of fullness, you might need digestive enzymes to help improve the digestion of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, including fibre and lactose. Digestive enzymes speed up the process of digestion and allow you to digest food more easily. A diet high in processed and refined foods is typically low in enzymes.

• Probiotics Probiotics help maintain balanced, healthy intestinal flora and healthy digestive function by reducing the growth of unhealthy intestinal flora and helping to re-establish friendly intestinal flora. Probiotics also help to modify digestive inflammation and some even produce antibiotic-like substances that prevent the growth of pathogens, so help to support healthy immune function.

• L-Glutamine L-Glutamine is essential for maintaining a healthy digestive tract and provides an important energy source for the fast turning over digestive tract cells. This helps to preserve the integrity of the intestinal lining, supporting normal digestive barrier function and helps to maintain healthy immunity, primarily by preventing the attachment of bacteria in your digestive tract. Glutamine is also a vital component of your master antioxidant, glutathione.

• Liver and Gallbladder support St. Mary’s thistle, Dandelion root and curcumin from Turmeric, have a long history of use in supporting liver and gallbladder function, and relieving poor digestion, feeling of fullness, bloating, flatulence, heartburn and to assist healthy bile flow. Dandelion root has a mild laxative effect so is useful where there is constipation.

• Reflux and heartburn Reflux and heartburn are very common problems that affect around 2 million Australians. Reflux may be related to hiatus hernia, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection or even some over the counter or prescription medications. A specialised Licorice root extract known as DGL (deglycyrrhizinated Licorice) can be taken long-term to help soothe inflammation of the digestive tract, providing relief of indigestion, bloating, feeling of fullness, heartburn, reflux and digestive discomfort in the upper abdomen. Amla (Indian Gooseberry) is traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine as a rejuvenating digestive tonic that supports healthy digestion with anti-inflammatory and soothing properties.

Mr Vitamins recommends

Herbs of Gold Products to support Digestive Health

• Digest-Zymes
• Probiotic + SB
• L-Glutamine 750
• Liver Care
• Reflux Relief

Find out more about Herbs of Gold products for Digestive Health here