Is your digestive system
acting up?

Digestive System Ailments

Your digestive system works day and night to break down the foods that we eat into the essential nutrients that we need to fuel our body. It begins at your mouth and ends at your anus. In between we have the throat, stomach, small and large intestines, and some other organs such as the pancreas, liver, and colon thrown in for good measure. Normally everything functions as planned. However, if just one tiny little part breaks down then your body will rapidly fill up with waste and that's when the problems begin.

When your body is busy burning fuel it produces wastes which are either the by-products of burning the fuel, or food that your body had no use for and just passed right back out of you undigested. If you've ever had a bowel movement after eating a can of corn then you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, the waste that your digestive system produces is expelled from your body as fecal matter, urine, or flatulence. You're in for a bucket load of problems if your body stops discharging these wastes on a regular schedule.

One of the most common ailments is a condition known as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). IBS usually produces a combination of symptoms including abdominal pain or cramping, alternating bouts of diarrhea and constipation, a feeling that your bowels have never quite emptied themselves even after a bowel movement, a presence of mucus in your feces, and a general loss of appetite. Doesn't sound like much fun, does it?

To make matters worse, all of these symptoms can be indicative of other potentially more serious digestive system diseases. As a result, you should always see your doctor to have a diagnosis made. The examination may include blood tests, stool (feces) tests, the insertion of a small tube in your anus that is needed to perform an examination of your bowels that is called a sigmoidoscopy, or a full-fledged colonoscopy.

There is no cure for IBS. The best that your doctor can do is to treat the symptoms. Treatment may include:

• An increase in dietary fibre.
• An increase in drinking clear fluids.
• Reducing or eliminating gaseous foods such as beans and cabbage.
• Reducing or eliminating dairy foods.
• Anti-constipation medicine

If you do not have IBS, you may have a bacterial infection, Diverticulosis, Diverticulitis, stomach ulcers, some form of intestinal blockage, or a more serious condition such as cancer of the colon.

Digestive system problems are not to be fooled with. It generally takes only a few hours of a non-functioning waste discharge system to cause you severe pain and put you at risk of blood poisoning, a burst intestine, or other life-threatening condition. There's no but's about it. If your butt is not functioning then it is time to make a contribution to your doctor's retirement plan. Get in there at once.