Healthy Notes » Digestion http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog Helpful Hints For Living Well Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:43:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Best Cleanse? Fruit and Juice http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2011/10/best-cleanse-fruit-and-juice/ http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2011/10/best-cleanse-fruit-and-juice/#comments Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:12:24 +0000 admin http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/?p=147 It all sounds good on the package, but I just don’t personally buy it. There are people that swear that we should all be doing a couple 2 week cleanses each year, but I believe thy have been sold a bill of goods. It is a nice dream that we can eat crappy all year and then do a 2 week cleanse and undo all of the past year, this is the promise that these cleansing product espouse on there product labeling.

If you really want to naturally detoxify your system for a few days just do a fruit and juice cleanse for 3 days. Eat and drink all the natura fruit and juice you want. This will give your body a nice break from all the hard to digest foods that we normally eat daily. You will probably drop 5 pounds in the process if you are lucky.

]]> http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2011/10/best-cleanse-fruit-and-juice/feed/ 6 Take Your Supplements at Lunch http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2011/10/take-your-supplements-at-lunch/ http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2011/10/take-your-supplements-at-lunch/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:02:54 +0000 admin http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/?p=82 During the many years I have been advising people on nutritional supplementation programs I have encountered hundreds of people that say that vitamins make them nauseous.

After hearing this problem over and over year after year I began to question people and found that ninety-nine percent of them were taking there vitamins first thing in the morning often right after eating only a small breakfast. I than began to recommend that people take their supplements after lunch. Let’s face it,  most of us really don’t have the most settled stomach first thing in the morning anyways. Then we often eat a very small breakfast that really does not do much to coat our stomach. Then to go and throw a handful of often acidic supplements on top of this is a very bad idea. So, it is no wonder why so many people have stomach nausea when taking vitamins.

About 10 years ago I began to recommend taking the bulk of your supplements at lunch time, or at your second meal of the day. The reasons behind this seem obvious, first is that in general most peoples stomach is far more settled in the afternoon than first thing in the morning. Next, is that after two meals your stomach is much more coated and naturally protected from the acids in some vitamins than after only one meal, especially when that is for many people a very small meal. In addition if you are eating smart, lunch should be your biggest meal of the day and therefore for the best nutrient absorption it makes perfect since to take your supplements with your largest meal.

So many people that I have guided have been able to take their supplements with little or no stomach upset by taking there supplements with lunch rather than with breakfast. I personally have never had problems with nausea from supplements, but have been taking mine at lunch for more than ten years now. My thinking is why risk future stomach problems by introducing acidic vitamins into your system first thing in the morning. I currently advice all my clients to take there supplements at lunch.

]]> http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2011/10/take-your-supplements-at-lunch/feed/ 0 How Much Probiotics? http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2010/09/how-much-probiotics/ http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2010/09/how-much-probiotics/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:52:09 +0000 admin http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/?p=615 Probiotics are the friendly natural bacteria that live in our digestive tract and they are getting more respected and more widely used everyday. In years past it was mainly natural practitioners that would regularly recommend them to treat and prevent various conditions. Nowadays I see doctor’s notes almost daily recommending probiotics to their patients for many different reasons. Very commonly they are being prescribed for gastrointestinal disorders such as diverticulitis, diarrhea, and food poisoning. It is also very common to see them prescribed for use during and after antibiotic therapy, because it is know well known that antibiotics kill off the good bacteria along with the bad bacteria in the body. The question most of my clients have is how much should I take? This will be the focus of this article.

Probiotics potency is measured in CFU (Colony Forming Units). Simply stated, how many good bacteria are you getting per dosage? They can be purchased in a wide and often confusing array of dosages ranging for one billion CFU to two hundred billion CFU. From 1 to 200 billion, that is a very wide dosage range. It is no wonder people do not know what they should do. Here is my take on the dosage.

First, are you using them for daily maintenance?  I describe maintenance as “I generally feel pretty good and just want to stay that way”, if this statement describes you than I have found between 1 billion and 15 billion each day to be an adequate dosage. Most experts believe that around 2 billion of total consumption daily is perfect for optimum  benefits.

Second, are you currently having gastrointestinal issues or you currently using or coming off of an antibiotic regimen? If this is the case I would recommend a considerably higher dosage. Usually between 15 billion and 50 billion each day until you feel back to normal. At that point it is suggested to stay on a lower maintenance dose of between 1 billion and 15 billion for a few months until you have built up your active colonies sufficiently to assure good digestion into the future.

Third, do you have continuous and severe gastrointestinal issues? If this is your situation than you should opt for a very high dosage probiotics that contains between 50 and 200 billion colony forming units per dose.  I would suggest continuing with this high dose for a couple of weeks or until an improvement is noticed. After this stage I would continue on a moderate dose pretty much forever. A moderate dosage would be between 15 billion and 50 billion CFU daily.

The final question is will I you have to take probiotics forever?  This answer is not simple. It depends on you. Most people seem to do well once thy have established natural active colonies within their digestive tracts, meaning that the probiotics that you have taken have established themselves and are now naturally regenerating inside the intestines. This is the best scenario, but for some people it seems that that the probiotics are not able to reproduce in enough numbers to alleviate the need to replenish this supply through dietary supplementation.

]]> http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2010/09/how-much-probiotics/feed/ 7 For Better Digestion Use Probiotics and Enzymes http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2009/11/for-better-digestion-use-probiotics-and-enzymes/ http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/2009/11/for-better-digestion-use-probiotics-and-enzymes/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:20:08 +0000 admin http://guaranteedtosleep.com/blog/?p=46 Most people that have any of the common digestion problems are lacking in either probiotics or digestive enzymes. These digestive problems can be everything from heart burn, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, and gas to more serious concerns like diverticulosis and ulcers.  Both probiotics and enzymes are essential for breaking down the food we eat into usable caloric energy. But, it is often very impossible to know which one of these we are lacking. In many cases we are lacking in both.

Probiotics are the friendly natural bacteria that live within the digestive track of all humans. These friendly bacteria are needed to break down the food we eat. When we lived and ate on the farm probiotics were plentiful in our natural diets, but with all the processed foods we eat today much of these good bacteria are eliminated from our diets.  And every time we use any type of prescription antibiotics these probiotics in our system are killed off by the prescribed antibiotics. Many good doctors and good pharmacist recommend replenishing your probiotics after the use of any antibiotics. When purchasing a probiotic the refrigerated products are much more accurately dosed than the non-refrigerated products. I would also focus in on a product with at least 5 billion activity per dosage.

Digestive enzymes break down the food we eat. Without digestive enzymes we would die. It is believed by many people that we have a limited amount of natural digestive enzymes at birth and once they are used up we can no longer producer any more. Like probiotics, when we ate whole and raw foods generations ago we replenished our enzyme reserve continuously, but today we get very little naturally occurring enzymes in out diet. If you purchase an enzyme product make sure you get an enzyme complex. This means an enzyme product that has enzymes for digestion of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

I have seen vast improvements in almost all kinds of digestive problems when people commit to supplementing daily with both probiotics and digestive enzymes. This is not an immediate cure, so give it a good month to see dramatic benefits.

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