Table of Contents
In memory of Ray Clouse, M.D. His contributions to the understanding of gastrointestinal disease will never be forgotten.
Introduction
If youre interested in learning all about your digestive health, youve come to the right place. In this book, youll find all you need to know about the inner workings of your digestive system, what might happen when things go awry, and how to keep you and your family in great digestive health. The subject is a big one, but we think weve narrowed it down to its essential information and covered just about every possible question you might have. From Why do we burp? to How is Crohns disease treated?youll be quite the know-it-all after reading this guide.
Maybe youre particularly interested in a specific topic such as irritable bowel syndrome or how your colon conducts its business. Youll find what you want to know and more. Because weve created a comprehensive guide to all things digestive, youll no doubt be picking up this book again and again for quick, clear answers to nagging questions or for a solid rundown of a particular disease and its diagnosis and treatment. The more you know about your digestive health, the better off you will be in the long run. Its pretty interesting stuff, too, and quite amazing the way the whole gastrointestinal system comes together to perform for us day after day.
Well, its time to begin your journey toward great digestive health, so we wont keep you any longer. Here are just a few tidbits of information that will help you navigate through this book.
How to Use This Book
There are five parts to this book:
Part 1, Understanding the Digestive System, provides the nuts and bolts of what gastroenterology is all about, from the digestive process and its key players to your first visit with a gastroenterologist and what you might encounter.
Part 2, Upper GI Conditions and Diseases, is your detailed guide to the most common digestive disorders that occur above the colon, from acid reflux disease and its complications to gastritis, ulcers, and celiac disease.
Part 3, Lower GI Conditions and Diseases, explores the deeper bowels of the digestive process and explains disorders such as Crohns disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and the all-important topic of polyps and colon cancer.
Part 4, Additional Digestive-Related Conditions, discusses the potential problems that can affect some digestive side players, including the pancreas, gallbladder, and liver, while exploring the possible reasons for many tummy upsets such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
Part 5, Maintaining Good Digestive Health, explains how a healthy diet and lifestyle can keep you in good stead, while also discussing common food allergies, restricted diets, and natural and complementary approaches to many digestive conditions.
Extras
Youll come across many boxed notes throughout the book that provide some additional information. Watch for these:
DEFINITION
Here youll find explanations of medical terminology and some other tricky digestive jargon.
TUMMY TIP
These provide advice and hints on a variety of digestive matters.
GULP!
Specific health warnings and alerts are found here, so be sure to check them out.
GI DIDNT KNOW!
These contain a wealth of interesting facts, figures, and amusing trivia for your reading pleasure.
Acknowledgments
From Dustin:
Great thanks to Liz, the staff and physicians at Midwest Gastroenterology, and all the people at Alpha Books. Thanks also to my parents, Rich and Nancy, and the rest of the family, including Mandy, Andrew, Joshie, Emily, and my wonderful wife, Helen.
From Liz:
Thanks to everyone at Alpha Books, especially Paul Dinas, who deserves a medal for patience. Thank you also to Marilyn Allen, Coleen OShea, Larry Chilnick, Jennifer Pruden, Jim, Anna, and Connie for their support and help. Thank you Baby for sharing your angelic presence with me for 19 years, and thank you Bella for helping me heal.
Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be or are suspected of being trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Alpha Books and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Part 1
Understanding the Digestive System
Before you begin to improve and maintain your digestive health, youll need to know a bit about your bodys digestive system. How exactly does it work? What are the players involved? How does digestion relate to the bodys other systems and contribute to overall health? In Part 1, well take an up-close-and-personal look at the digestive process from beginning to end.
Well also go over some very common digestive symptoms and determine when they are serious enough that you should seek medical advice. Speaking of medical advice, youll meet and get to know the doc who makes digestion his lifes workthe gastroenterologist. Well lay out everything you need to know about your first visit, and youll also get a great primer on the myriad tests your doctor has at his or her disposal to sort out any digestive issues you may have. So lets take the first step to digestive healthunderstanding your digestive system.
Chapter 1
Digestion and Your Health
A healthy digestive system is as important to your overall health as a healthy heart, healthy bones, and the health of other parts of the body. In fact, the state of your digestive health can affect the level of wellness you experience in your other body systems. When running smoothly, we hardly notice the inner workings of our digestive organs, but when problems arise, we may not only have a bad gut feeling. We might experience any number of symptoms from our heads down to our toes.
The main job of our digestive system is processing the food we eat to obtain energy and absorb nutrients. Without proper energy and nutrition, we would find it difficult to accomplish just about any daily activity from walking to thinking. Even our sleep could be disrupted. But when the digestive system is doing its job correctly, our bodies can carry out normal activities with general easebarring any other physical ailments, of course. Healthy digestion usually indicates pretty good overall health.
Mind you, even healthy people with good digestion experience the occasional belch or periodic bout of indigestion. Many common digestive symptoms such as these are simply a sign of the system at work. In Chapter 3, well examine these symptoms in more detail and help you determine whether they warrant further attention. For the most part, however, if you are relatively symptom free and your weight is at an acceptable level, your digestive system is getting the job done.
