Meet Your Second Brain to Lowering Your Toxic Burden

Meet Your Second Brain to Lowering Your Toxic Burden

Your digestive system constantly works to break down food to release nutrients that
nourish and energize your body. Digestion is controlled by the autonomic nervous
system (ANS), the part of the nervous system that controls our involuntary bodily
functions and acts as the main switchboard for signaling each phase of the digestive
process. For the digestive system to work properly, the ANS and the digestive
system must “dance” the digestion cha-cha-cha.

When the Digestion Cha-Cha-Cha Is Blah-Blah-Blah

The big picture is that the intestinal tract, once considered merely a conduit for
the transport of food and nutrients, is a complex organism unto itself. An integral
part of the body’s neuro-endo-immune system, it responds to both internal stimuli
and stimuli from the environment. For example:

• It is estimated that over 60 percent of the immune system is located in the intestinal tract (Lipski 2005).
• Because of the intimate association between the gut and the brain, eating under stress constricts bowel function and diminishes immune activity. This is particularly unhealthy because being constipated can cause us to reabsorb bowel toxins (Gershon 1998).
• Incomplete chewing of your food places an unnecessary burden on your entire digestive system and can lead to systemic inflammation.

• Contrary to popular opinion, it’s actually a lack of stomach acid that causes heartburn and other upper GI symptoms for many people.
• The integrity of the intestinal wall must be intact for proper absorption of nutrients to occur. If the intestinal wall is too porous (from infection, stress, drugs, or toxins, such as chlorine), large protein fragments will get through it and go right into the bloodstream, setting the body up for allergies and inflammation.
• In our practices, we have noticed that about half of our clients over sixty years old do not produce sufficient stomach acid to adequately process their food. We’ve also observed that a minimum of 30 percent of our clients have an imbalance of yeast, harmful bacteria, or other pathogens inhabiting their intestines.

• Due to a number of factors, including using antibiotics and drinking chlorinated water, most of us are deficient in healthy bacteria. These beneficial microorganisms not only help protect us from pathogens (unfriendly microorganisms) but also manufacture vitamin K and some of the B vitamins. And, they help us eliminate excess estrogen.

As you can see, anything that compromises digestion can have a profound effect
on the health and equilibrium of your entire body. Let’s take a closer look at some
ways to lose the digestive blahs and keep your digestion dancing, thus maximizing
your ability to keep breast cancer at bay.