DIGESTIVE HEALTH

Your digestive system is a long tube that begins at your mouth and ends at your anus. It has one purpose: to break down your food and extract energy and nutrients from it. Your digestive organs, esophagus, stomach, and intestines, etc., are modifications of this tube.

Dyspepsia, Ulcers, Heartburn, Gastritis, Pyloric Stenosis, Esophageal Reflux and Colitis are just a few of the disorders a person can develope in their digestive system. The majority of these problems are caused by an imbalance of the natural stomach acids already in your digestive system, and inflammation, tightening, or shrinking of the digestive tract walls.

THE MEDICAL APPROACH:
Digestive problems are often poorly understood. Medical care is often directed at treating the symptoms with drugs, but treating the symptoms alone, apart from the risk of the side effects, can lead you into the false belief that your problem is gone mearely because your symptoms are gone. It’s not unusual to hear of people "living on" over-the-counter remedies or prescription drugs for years. As a general rule it is always best to avoid medical drug therapy and surgery as much as possible and investigate first and foremost more natural forms of health care.

THE CHIROPRACTIC APPROACH:
Every organ in your digestive system - mouth, tongue, throat, esophagus, pyloric valve, stomach, intestines, glands, pancreas, and others - needs a healthy nerve supply from your spine.
The Chiropractor analyzes your spinal column for the vertebral subluxation complex. A vertebral subluxation can interfere with proper communication between your brain and internal organs. The vertebral subluxation complex can interefere with your body function and lower your resistance to disease.

THE SPINE AND DIGESTION:
Over a century of chiropractic clinical observation have shown that correction of vertebral subluxations can have a dramatic effect on some people with a wide variety of problems with their alimentary canal, including dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), abnormal nausea, digestive pains, ulcers, dyspepsia and epigastric distress, duodenal ulcers, stomach ulcers, gastritis, colitis, and spastic constipation.

WATER:
According to F. Batmanghelidj, M.D., most people do not drink enough water. As we age, we often satisfy our thirst with soda, coffee, juices, and teas, which although they may remove our thirst, do not hydrate us and therefore most adults are, to a greater or lesser degree, dehydrated. As people age, they become more dehydrated and develop health problems. When Dr. Batmanghelidj put many of his patients on a water drinking regimen (about 8oz. an hour over a period of many days) he observed a beneficial effect on various digestive problems including ulcers, constipation, colitis, and dyspepsia.