Friday, July 1, 2011

My Intestinal Saga, Part 10: Final Thoughts

For this final installment of "My Intestinal Saga," I wanted to add a few notes and resources to each of the previous parts before I close with an assessment of where I am now, as well as ideas I have to further improve -- or possibly completely resolve  -- my digestive problems.  I would appreciate any input from others, as well.  Please leave a comment if you think you might have more insight into all this gut stuff.  Here we go again down the long, hollow tube!
Part 1, Dabbling in Parasites:  Here I delve into my childhood health issues a bit, which included headaches and TMJ (tempromadibular joint) disorder.  My best guess as to why these things were happening is the same reason that I experienced them in a more mild form as I grew older: digestive tension/pain.  There is a direct correlation for me.  I believe I had a problem with gluten as a young child, and this created a poor digestive environment and subsequent pain in the GI tract that referred pain and tension to my neck and jaw.  Here is a quote from a great blog post explaining this phenomenon:

In a nutshell, referred pain happens when nerve fibers from regions of high sensory input (such as the skin) and nerve fibers from regions of normally low sensory input (such as the internal organs) happen to converge on the same levels of the spinal cord. 

This is something to keep in mind for folks out there engaged in your own health explorations.  The body can be a tricky bugger sometimes, so it is important to stay open to what the origins of your discomforts truly are.

I also want to expand upon some of the thoughts I had in this post about bloating.  I was completely unaware that the bloating was a simple distention of my belly and not an actual "gut."  This unawareness created body image issues for me, as I thought I was fat and struggled to get rid of the belly.  No matter how hard I worked out, it remained, and it left me feeling frustrated and inadequate.  I imagine there are others out there for whom this may be the case, and I just want to say that bloating is not fat!  Even today, I can see my belly go flat and distend over a matter of hours depending on my mealtimes, types of foods eaten, etc.


Part 2, Lower Back Pain: This is where I discovered the magic of referred pain and what measures I truly needed to take to resolve it.  The tweaking of my back left me debilitated, and at that time I thought it was because I had a "bad back."  This turned out to not be the case, as I found out while working in the wilderness, where my back pain disappeared while eating very little.  It was all digestive, once again.

I want to share a wonderful resource that I came across a few years ago that shed a lot of light on how digestion is connected to much of the pain and discomfort I have felt in my life.  It is a book called, The Digestive Awareness Diet.  Interestingly enough, the author actually says that the reason we suddenly throw out our back or get a tweak in our neck isn't from muscle strain, but digestive tension.  This certainly rang true for me.  Check it out.  It might help you better understand your body.  I know it helped me.

A few more resources about general body awareness that might be useful which I utilized during my "yoga years" are the Feldenkrais Method and the Alexander Technique, both of which got me thinking about posture and what is and isn't the natural, optimal use of the human body -- or "use" for short.  One of the authors even suggested something I had already intuited: observing little kids and indigenous people to understand proper use. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that resolving digestive tension is a big part of regaining our bodies' natural ease.  Utilizing the body awareness techniques in combination with digestive understanding is a potent combination in restoring some of the light and easy feelings we are supposed to have in our bodies.


Part 3, Making Connections: Ahh, the wondrous world of the ileocecal valve (I found this page randomly on Facebook -- I am one of two people that like it so far.  Ha!).  Some natural health practitioners believe this is the root of many of our digestive ailments.  All I know is that it was directly related to my back pain.  The interesting thing is that once I got my posture back on point after doing yoga and the aforementioned body awareness methods, I was able to feel the pain exactly where it was -- my lower right abdomen -- as opposed to thinking it was only my back muscles acting up.  This reinforces the idea that, in order to come to more full understanding of what's happening in the body, an individual must use a multi-faceted approach to health observation.


Part 4, Gurus and Rotten Meat: One interesting occurrence from this period of wild dietary experimentation was a complete malabsorption of fat.  Looking back, I believe this was due to my duodenum just beginning to recover from years of being beat down by the gluten in my diet.  A classic consequence of such a beating is flattened microvilli, which inevitably leads to the poor processing of proteins and fats.  There is also a chance that Giardia played a role in this process.  Whatever the case may be, this problem resolved on its own after several months.

The chest pain I experienced during this time was exclusively due, once again, to digestive stress.  The chest pain was most likely my stomach being unable to resist the huge amounts of acid it was all of the sudden releasing for my high-meat diet.  I'm sure it was in a weakened state from years of malnourishment.  I swore I was having a heart attack.

I also describe a "heavy" feeling in the entirety of my body.  I believe this was a result of very slow intestinal motility and the hard stools I was constantly having.  Another symptom I didn't mention at this time was shallow breathing, presumably from the stiffness of my abdomen.  I have heard accounts from others of a similar phenomenon, and it is something that I still have now and again.

Final thoughts on "My Intestinal Saga" to be continued ...
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9 comments:

Half Navajo said...

i had bad shallow breathing a couple years ago... hiatel hernia that was stress induced, and also by following a high fat dumb ass low carb diet. Switched out the fat for carbs, started doing the massage technique to push down the stomach twice a day, quit my job, quit doing squats, and deadlifts, and presto... i haven't had a problem since!

troy

trix said...

I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but I recently read Dr. John Sarno's, "Healing Back Pain, the Mind-Body Connection". A bunch of people recommended Dr. Sarno to Richard Nicoley of Free The Animal to help him with his severe shoulder pain. Anyway, if you haven't already done so it is worth the read. It rang true to me.

Lucy

R K @ Health Matters To Me said...

Half Navajo,

I investigated the possibility of a hiatal hernia, and my conclusion was that it was part of the reason I had trouble breathing. My stomach and diaphragm, it turns out, were being pressured by the bloating in my lower abdomen. When the bloating is resolved, I have no problem whatsoever. Glad the massage technique and lifestyle changes worked so well for you!

trix,

I think I may have seen that book and skimmed over it once. I'll have to take a deeper look at it. Thanks for the recommendation.

Anonymous said...

Forgive me as I haven't read all of your blog posts (it's hard to when you're supposed to be busy at work!), but did you mention that vegetarianism contributed to your digestive problems? As I was going to suggest cutting out meat altogether (or, at least, cutting it down significantly, if not completely). Doing this personally vastly improved my digestive problems, and I haven't had a hard stool since starting on a vegetarian diet (it's now been 3 years). It did take a couple of weeks for my body to get used to it, so when my body was adjusting to the different foods, my stools were rather unformed, but after the transition period my body has never been better. I found meat really clogged up my system. However, what works for me may not work for everyone!

R K @ Health Matters To Me said...

Anonymous, July 7th,

I covered my dietary history in my own personal health profile. I have tried vegetarianism and have found that I feel the best in terms of physical strength, mood stability and mental sharpness while eating meat. But, yes, less meat does generally equal a more stable gut for me. I suspect this is because meat firms up stools, and my intestines are somewhat atrophied which makes for a difficult transit. Whereas a normal gut would simply eliminate the somewhat firmer stool, my gut tends to slow them way down and turn them into rocks.

Thanks for the comment.

Anonymous said...

What ever happened with the Homeoblock?

R K @ Health Matters To Me said...

Homeoblock update soon! Things are moving slowly, and I'm pleased so far. I have an appointment with my dentist in a week or so to get a new Homeoblock fitted, as I've run out of space with the current one. Stay tuned!

Amanda@RelovedRubbish said...

You have a very interesting blog. I seem to be on a similar path and also suffer from gluten intolerance and slow digestion. I am glad to find someone that researches nutrition as much as I do. I have been following a Weston Price diet for several years and I have, also, recently discovered Aajonus and started experimenting with raw proteins and fats. I feel really good eating all the raw dairy and meat, but I also have slow digestion. I have found that homemade kefir helps me.

Thanks for all of your great information!

Amanda

R K @ Health Matters To Me said...

Thanks for reading, Amanda! Hopefully I find out more about resolving my slow digestion and can provide you with some more helpful information in the near future. I've been "reloving" the rubbish that is my GI tract for a long time. :-)