Digestion starts well before the intestines, from gut health naturopathy Melbourne experts

Digestion is the collection of processes that occur in the mouth, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, colon, and rectum. Naturopath Melbourne at Narayani Wellness first wants to explore the types of digestion.

1. Mechanical digestion: Chewing in the mouth, churning in the stomach and peristalsis in the intestines. Your intestines are actually muscles that contract to push food along, which is called peristalsis.
2. Chemical digestion: All of the juices throughout the digestive tract that contains acids and enzymes that break food down into smaller particles for absorption into the bloodstream.

Both of these digestive processes require activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, otherwise known as the "rest and digest" part of the nervous system. If you are stressed or so busy that you cannot focus on eating (eating at your desk anyone?), your parasympathetic nervous system will not be switched on, leading to digestive issues and poor absorption of nutrients.

In addition, it is also important that your digestive system has all the required building blocks to make its chemical components such as stomach acid and bile. These can all be sufficiently obtained through the diet if digestion is working sufficiently and the right diet is consumed. You can see how malnourishment and poor digestion is a vicious loop! In some cases, supplementation offers benefit as a temporary solution to poor digestion.

Melbourne naturopathy clinic Narayani Wellness are very passionate about digestive health. Let’s take a closer look at the processes that occur in upper digestion.

Gut health doctor Melbourne inform you that digestion starts well before food reaches the stomach. First, there must be a stimulus to the brain that says a food is about to be ingested. This could be the aromas of food or perhaps just the thought of food. Have you ever noticed that you start to salivate waiting in a restaurant for your food to arrive? It’s all those wonderful smells causing this reaction in your mouth. The lesson here is to enjoy your food before you’ve even eaten it!

Once food enters your mouth, chewing your food starts to break it down into smaller pieces. All of the holistic clinic Melbourne will encourage you to thoroughly chew your food. Some people find counting 20 chews for each mouthful is a useful way to retrain yourself to consciously eat. Furthermore, saliva that’s produced in the mouth contains amylase, an enzyme that begins the chemical digestion of carbohydrates.

Once you have swallowed your food, it will travel down your oesophagus and quickly enter your stomach, which should have a high level of acidity. The stomach lining is protected from this acid by a protective mucosal layer. It is important that the sphincter (circular muscle) between your stomach and oesophagus is working properly so that your oesophagus doesn’t get burnt (it doesn’t have a protective layer like the stomach). Stomach acid begins to unwind proteins in your food, another type of chemical digestion.

So there you have it! Did you know that so much occurred before food even reached your intestines? From one of the best naturopathic doctor, some simple processes like smelling your food, chewing sufficiently and ensuring you at rest when you eat your food, could dramatically improve your digestion.