How to Overcome Some Common and Embarrassing Gut Complaints

Gut symptoms like diarrhea, gas, and abdominal pain are more common than you think. They can also be debilitating, embarrassing and seriously impact your health and your quality of life. If you’re struggling with these symptoms, then here are some gentle and natural remedies that can help.

1:20 - Causes and reasons for indigestion
4:05 - Apple Cider Vinegar Challenge to help with low stomach acid
4:50 - Bicarb Challenge to help with high stomach acid
6:10 - Causes of Bloating
7:45 - Adrenal Fatigue cause of bloating
8:30 - How to heal stomach lining
9:30 - Causes of diarrhea and loose stools
10:30 - How to help diarrhea

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Transcript

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 0:06

Do you experience uncomfortable and embarrassing gut complaints, like tummy aches, gas, diarrhea? These can severely impact your health and your life. We know that the human gut is a delicate part of the body and if something goes wrong, you'll know about it. This is the Dr. Lam show. We're here to empower you to take control of your health as we talk about integrative medicine. If you enjoy this show, press the like button, and share it with your friends. We hope that we can get more visible and reach more people to tell them about adrenal fatigue. If you haven't been with us before, I'm Dr. Carrie Lam, and I'm board certified in family medicine, anti aging and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD: 0:49

I am Dr. Jeremy Lam. I'm an internal medicine physician, who also specializes in integrative medicine. Today we're going to talk about the gut and some common problems you may experience and what you can do about them. Let's get started with some of the most common gut complaints, indigestion and gassiness. Dr Carrie, why don't you tell us a little bit about indigestion.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 1:18

Indigestion can range in many different types, some may call it bloating, and others feel that they're not digesting their food well. There are some common remedies that people try, like eating papayas, or apple cider vinegar. Today we will go into a little more detail about how to help indigestion, which is the inability to digest correctly. First, what are the reasons for indigestion, Dr Jeremy.

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD: 1:54

The first reason can be that there's not enough digestive enzymes inside the body. As we age, we don't have as much enzymes, and in today's times when we take PPIs or medications over the counter, that decreases our digestiv enzymes. So papaya is a great atural food good as it is acked with a lot of those dig stive enzymes. One of the enzyme is called bromelain which helps to digest your food. Another one is apple cider vin gar which is acidic and so if th pH of the stomach acid is not b lanced, then this helps to res ore your ability to digest food. So having a balanced diet, an addressing acidity are some

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 3:01

Papaya is a combination of bromelein and quercetin and both these compounds have antihistaminic properties. There are histamine receptors in your stomach, we think of histamine, only for allergies, like allergic rhinitis, congestion in your eyes, nose and sinuses. And therefore for spring fever, or if you having allergy symptoms, or a histamine reaction to food. So papaya containing bromelain and quercetin and other herbs that can really help with that antihistaminic properties. And as far as stomach acid is concerned, a lot of people think that you have gastric discomfort because you have too much acid, which is GERD. We have acid reflux becasuse you have a lot of acid that's coming up. However, there's so many people who actually need more acid, because they actually have low stomach acid. So a good challenge would be to take apple cider vinegar, and see if you take it before meals, does it help with the bloating, digest better and have less heartburn. This tummy ache or heartburn that you might be having because of acid-base imbalance, can be due to either too much acid or too low or too little acid or due to indigestion. Seeing a doctor and understand which side it could be is very important. There's also another challenge that you can do right Dr. Jeremy,using bicarb?

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD: 4:51

Yeah, heartburn is very common, like I mentioned, and it is from acid base imbalance. So if you're having too much acid, what you could try is taking bicarbonate which is baking soda. You can find it anywhere, and most of you probably have it at home. Bicarbonate is alkaline, so if your stomach acid is too high, and want a natural alternative instead of PPIs or h2 blockers, then baking soda can neutralize the acid and reduces the stomach acidity. That can help with those stomach aches. So if you experience indigestion symptoms, the first thing you need to do is visit your doctor. They'll be able to perform tests to eliminate serious causes. Once that's done, and you still can't find any relief, then you can get more guidance from our team by calling 714-709-8000 for free initial phone call. So we have one more annoying issue to look at when it comes to stomach troubles and that's bloating. So Dr. Carrie, why don't you tell us more about these bloating symptoms.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 6:15

Bloating can be of different types. For example, some people get bloating with their menstrual cycles, which is more of a hormone imbalance issue. Then others might feel bloated all the time and some feel bloated after a meal. If the bloating happens, right after you eat, you have to look at indigestion, as discussed before, whether you have enough enzymes for digestion. If not, you might feel bloated right after you eat. If you feel bloated, a few hours after eating, that means the food remains longer in the small intestine or the large intestine. So it's probably something that's going on in your small intestine like SIBO, small intestinal bowel overgrowth. Or it could it be overgrowth of Candida, or something similar. The small intestines then should be evaluated if you experience bloating, even after a few hours of eating. And so getting to the root cause of the bloating is very important. Whether it's indigestion, low acid, too much acid, or the small intestinal bowel overgrowth, make sure you find out the cause and address it. Another reason for bloating might be because their whole body just slows down, especially in adrenal fatigue. Many people have problems assimilating when your body slows down, the ability to break down food and absorb it. And that's why there's a tendency to collect the GI tract leading to more bloating. Dr. Jeremy what can someone do about this?

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD: 8:17

Well, if your body is under stress, because of food poisoning, in extraordinary circumstances, then charcoal can help with the symptoms. However, if your stomach is under chronic stress, some other supplements that are helpful are tumeric, and aloe vera. Aloe vera is very good because it's very healing for your digestive tract. It can heal the stomach lining and prevent damage. It can also help with heartburn symptoms, and bloating issues.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 9:03

So if you have bloating, and you really don't know what the root cause of the bloating is, and you want to improve your gut health, we've given you some ideas that might work for your condition. But if they are not working, we would like to invite you to give us a call at 714-709-8000 where we can offer you a free initial phone call and learn about Adrenal Fatigue and how it's impacting your gut health. We will also discuss other gut symptoms like diarrhea, loose bowel diarrhea and what you can do about it. So Dr. Jeremy, let's say someone has diarrhea, what should they be doing about it?

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD: 9:43

Many people with adrenal fatigue experience loose stools, and oftentimes, they have constipation as well. So the first thing is to do is to make sure you're not taking any supplements that is causing loose stool. Vitamin C, for example can have that effect. Magnesium, which relaxes the muscle, if taken in high dose can loosen the bowels. So make ure that you are taking the ppropriate supplements and in he right dose.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 10:24

Vitamin C in different delivery forms, may not suit everyone, and too much vitamin C, can cause loose stools. So, like you said, knowing the dosing, the delivery and what supplements or medications you're taking is a first step to ruling out any loose stools. After that, you can start to use something that's been used for 1000s of years, and that is charcoal. It is a very ancient remedy and opular even today. Activated harcoal binds and helps to abso b toxins and metabolites and ater in your stomach. So f you have loose stools, it help to solidify it. But keep in ind that the stools will tur black . This charcoal is not the ones used the barbecue, it s activated charcoal powder w ich is medicinal. Another su stance used very similar to char oal is clay. What would you lik to say about it Dr. Jeremy?

Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD: 11:40

Clay has a very similar purpose. Bentonite clay is very good, because it's a very good binder and can absorb the toxins and remove them from your body. Not only water, but other toxins and metabolites. Anything that's not healthy in your GI system, can be eliminated from your system. When you take binders like charcoal and clay, you might get constipated. Then stop the charcoal and see your doctor to see if anything else is going on. If there is nothing else that goes going on that make sure you drink a lot more fluids, to keep things going. You can drink coconut water, or kombucha or kefir. These are all really good because they are probiotics. If you have an imbalance of the microbiome inside your gut, you can get loose stools because your microbiome helps to break down your food. Imbalance in your microbiome, therefore can cause digestive issues. Kombucha, kefir, yogurt and other probiotic fermented foods can bring balance into your microbiome.

Dr. Carrie Lam, MD: 13:24

Keep in mind that some people in the later stages of adrenal fatigue cannot take these probiotics and it could have a paradoxical reaction. And also, it can be stimulating, or they cannot tolerate fermented foods. So always do this with the consideration of your coach or your healthcare professional. And don't simply just take it on your own as there is a risk of paradoxical reactions to probiotic rich foods. If you are dealing with diarrhea, first go to your doctor and make sure there's nothing else going on whether it's parasites, dysbiosis, or the small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome. So there's a lot of things that you can rule out before you try any supplements. Even after your doctor has done all the workups, you still need help, and you'd like more information on how adrenal fatigue can be impacting your gut health and your bomb movements, then definitely give our team a call 714-709-8000. So that's all that we have for today. We hope that this information has helped you and given you some hope that one day you can have a healthy gut without these embarrassing symptoms of reflux, or too much acid, too little acid or diarrhea. Your health and your gut is incredibly vital to your health. So if your gut is unhealthy, the rest of your body, your immune system, your neurotransmitters will also get affected. So it's very important you address the gut symptoms right away. We thank you for listening today on The Dr. Lam Show. If you've enjoyed it, please subscribe for more great content on adrenal fatigue, on ur Dr. Lam show and we hope to ee you next time as we're here o empower you to take control f your health.

Unknown: 15:24

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