Do you often experience bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, heartburn, and trapped gas? It may be due to an impaired digestive system. There is no doubt that people are trying to keep a healthy digestive system as it can affect the whole body, which leads to poor quality of life.
There are some helpful ways to improve your digestive system. However, at first, you need to know how the digestive system works and how it maintains our overall health.
How does the digestive system work?
The digestive system is a simple yet complex system of your body. The digestive system mainly includes the mouth, throat, oesophagus, small and large intestine, stomach, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, rectum, and anus.
All the organs of your body are connected to the digestive system. That’s why your overall health is dependent on a good digestive system.
The digestive system or GI tract helps to break down the food and liquid after eating. From breaking, distributing nutrients, secretion to eliminating waste, the GI tract acts as a mother of your body.
- Digestion begins in your mouth. Mouth secretes enzymes and digestion starts when you eat and chew the food.
- The oesophagus sends food to the stomach through a series of contractions (peristalsis movement).
- Then the stomach secretes enzymes to smash the food. The liver secretes bile and the pancreas secretes enzymes to the small intestine.
- The small intestine absorbs nutrients and is distributed throughout the body.
- Therefore, the colon starts the process of eliminating the food debris.
- Rectum receives stool or waste from the colon. Through nerves, the brain gets the message of stool. If the brain sends a message to expel the waste you feel the urge to go into the toilet.
Ways to Improve the digestive system
You have got some idea about the digestive system working procedure. Constipation, diarrhoea, leaky gut, irritable bowel syndrome are common digestive disorders. To bit those disorders and absorb nutrients for your body through the GI tract, check out those below tips.
Chew your every bite of food
Your mouth secrets certain enzymes when you chew your food. Saliva mixed with that food particle helps to break in the stomach. The more you chew your food the less time food will stay in the stomach. As a consequence, you will not face trouble like gas, acidity, etc. A minimum of 24 times chew is needed for perfect digestion.
Add some healthy fat
We all know that nutritious whole food is important for a healthy digestive system. Such as green leafy vegetables, fiber-rich food, protein, etc. Besides, you need some healthy fat to absorb some fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, D, and K. Healthy fat-like eggs, butter, cheese, meat, milk, yoghurt nuts, and seeds can be your ideal preference.
Reduce your stress
Our brain and gut have a strong connection through the nerve cells. Too much stress and anxiety can disturb your digestive system. When the brain gets stressed, it sends a message to the gut. As an outcome, you feel acidity, heartburn, or bloating.
Make a healthy environment for your stomach
A healthy digestive system is hidden behind a healthy stomach. You can create a healthy stomach by changing some habits. Lemon, apple cider vinegar, probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, zinc, etc can be included in your daily diet.
Lemon and apple cider vinegar will boost your stomach acid. Too little stomach acid can cause heartburn. Moreover, it can reduce your healthy microbial flora.
Probiotic (yoghurt), prebiotic (banana), and post-biotic all aid for proper digestion. Post biotics are the metabolic output of the probiotic. There are a lot of probiotics and prebiotic foods. For example, banana with yoghurt and nuts can be an ideal food choice.
However, it gets difficult to get all the essential gut microbes from food alone. You can add a combination of probiotics like Nucific Bio X4, prebiotics and postbiotic. Probiotics and prebiotics help to maintain a good gut. From relieving cravings, reduce fatigue to boost energy level probiotic and prebiotic works like wonder. The main advantage is, these can improve your immunity and promote weight loss.
If you choose supplements as a source of probiotics and prebiotics, it is important to consult with a physician before using them. An article medically reviewed by Kimberly Langdon points out that too many probiotics can cause side effects like stomach pain, gas, bloating,… Make sure you take an appropriate dose of probiotics for your body.
Hydration is key for improve digestion
Lacking water or fluid makes your digestive procedure difficult. Fluids play an important role in absorbing nutrition and eliminating waste. It can prevent constipation, diarrhoea, and leaky gut problems. You should take at least 2 to 3 litres of water every day. Besides water, you can take water-rich food such as watermelon, cucumber, pears, etc. for hydration.
For an energized life you have to first nourish your digestive health. Eating well, managing your stress, exercising regularly, staying hydrated, and getting the rest you need are all good things that you can add to your life. There are more tips and tricks on www.healthcanal.com that can help you, but these five are a great place to start!
