Sunday 1st June 2008 - The PROBLEM we ALL face - Waste VS Waist Overload

Following some recent blog posts and the responses and questions emailed to me that I've been getting I decided to try to explain WHAT as I see as a very real problem that most of us face and very few people realize or want to talk about. It's time to talk about POOP.

In a nutshell - YOU may have decided to change your current health status to improve your life to achieve a result, BUT you can have the cleanest eating habits and exercise regularly, however, if you have not taken the time to "spring clean" your Gastro-Intestinal Tract (G.I.) then the availability of nutrients to be absorbed into your body may not matter. Yet that "matter" will continue to be part of your "inner pollution problems" and this will stop you achieving a healthy Human ECO System.

Now I know that everyone shies away from talking about POOP. It's surely not dinner conversation yet it should be understood how this plays a role in your body functioning.

With all the research, study and self efficacy trials I have been undertaking with the Human ECO System I think that this may be one of the missing pieces to long term success and ultimately achieving the body shape (flatter stomach) you desire.

Part of my research began when I was evaluating the content for my section on the topic of "Waist VS Waste" to get leaner and provide a flatter stomach. Yes I turned my back on more sit-ups and looked deeper (literally).

When you start to fully look how the Human ECO System functions there is no more important element than your G.I. Tract to assist your health goals yet it never gets mentioned or considered. We talk about macronutrients (carbs / fats) and micronutrients (vitamins / minerals) and nearly every other organ gets considered (heart / lungs / brain / liver / kidney / pancreas) yet the closest we come to talking about it is the exit point with our "colon cleansing" fascination.

You see all other organs that you have probably heard of derive aspects off or from the G.I. Tract and if it is not fully operating or in other words it's clogged with "gunk" then the chances of the other organs working efficiently is significantly reduced.

Now I want to try to create a visual perspective for US all to better understand how this works. Think of your G.I. Tract as the "home plumbing" of your body. Through those pipes travel many years worth of "nutrients and waste" because what the body doesn't require becomes waste. Along the way we try to absorb what is needed from nutrients (and water) and then allow the residual to pass out.

My better understanding or "aha" moment came for me when I was talking with a client (a plumber by trade) who I really wanted to adjust his eating habits and appreciate how nutrient absorption is important when he mentioned that it sounded like plumbing issues he had dealt with of "back-up causing gunk".

This terminology became our mutual understanding as he told me that pipes that have been in houses for some years get a "coat or lining" of waste not passed through them and that can cause both blockages and breakdown. I realized this also happens in your body.

A light seemed to go off over my head and that is how the Waste VS Waist thought process began to form for me. Now firmly digesting this information (no pun intended) I realized that I needed to try various methods to remove years of "gunk" but I had no faith in just bowel cleansing that so many people seem focussed on, but rather a MORE effective form of G.I. Tract Cleansing.

Digestion is the breaking down of foods into a form that can be absorbed and used or excreted. This allows these smaller components to be absorbed into the bloodstream and taken to organs for use. It begins by chewing food which travels to the stomach continuing to break down through the stomach digestion and mixing with enzymes. Very little absorption occurs in the stomach but it does in the remaining phases of the gastrointestinal tract, and the process finishes with waste excretion.

NOTE - the stomach allows for drugs like aspirin and ethanol to be absorbed from the stomach into the blood. This accounts for the quick relief of a headache after swallowing aspirin and the rapid appearance of ethanol in the blood after drinking alcohol.

So simply we go from Mouth to Stomach to Small Intestine to Large Intestine (Colon) for waste elimination. Now along the way we hopefully absorb nutrients and necessary water and eliminate ONLY the things we don't need.

Nowadays so many people are focussed on "liver cleansing" programs as a process designed to reduce unhealthy habits you've adopted by doing a short term "elimination program of alcohol and bad foods". But what about if you changed and adopted a full time healthy eating regime. This would have the Liver working more efficiently all the time and reduce "inner pollution" to your Human ECO System.

I agree with today's lifestyle the Liver needs help. You see the Liver removes many of the materials that should have been absorbed by the intestine such as Carbohydrates (Glucose) that are converted into glycogen (stored energy) when Insulin "transports" them there, and additional amino acids (breakdown of protein) are de-aminated so that the residual amino group can be converted into urea so it can be passed out in your urine.

The liver also secretes Bile which between meals accumulates in the gall bladder. When food, especially when it contains fat, enters the duodenum (part of the small intestine), a hormone release stimulates the gall bladder to contract and discharge the Bile which is made up of acidic compounds that are responsible for dealing with fats you've eaten. These chemical reactions ensure the large globules of fat, which are liquid at body temperature, are converted to tiny droplets so they are able to be more easily digested and absorbed. Good fats do good roles and bad fats just get deposited to accumulate.

And you also release bile pigments. These are the products of the breakdown of hemoglobin removed by the liver from old red blood cells and the brownish color of the bile pigments imparts the characteristic brown color of the feaces. Sorry but we need to get a handle on ALL of this.

Also the liver gets to do other roles like dealing with non-nutritive molecules, such as swallowed medical drugs, that are removed by the liver and, often, detoxified. So as you can see the liver's job is quite huge and it serves as a "bouncer or gatekeeper" between the intestines and the general blood circulation. It also screens the blood coming to it from the Kidney's (or the hepatic portal system) so that its composition when it leaves will be close to normal for the body.

Now imagine if those jobs are limited by a poorly operating transport system. Imagine peak hour at a subway station, and you are at the back of the line trying to get to your train but the crowd is not moving, and you realize not only have you missed your train but, the crowd has swept you along past the station, (which in the body means into the large intestine).

The large intestine then receives this liquid residue after digestion and hopefully absorption are complete. The residue consists mostly of water as well as materials such as the cellulose that weren't digested. Cellulose is not digestible by humans and is often referred to as 'dietary fibre' or 'roughage', acting as a bulking agent for feaces. This is also part of the "bowel cleansing" and to give you a visual, imagine a street sweeper cleaning the gutters. We do not want any build up on our "plumbing pipes" causing pollution.

The chief function of the large intestine is to again reabsorb the water in it. The large amounts of water secreted into the stomach and small intestine by the various digestive glands must be reclaimed to avoid dehydration.

Also if the blance of bad to good bacteria become out of balance and the large intestine becomes irritated, like you have an upset stomach, it may release its contents before water reabsorption is complete causing diarrhea (and possibly dehydration).

On the other hand, if the colon retains it's contents too long, which is very common with stress placing additional burden on the workload of "smooth muscles" of the bowel, the feacal matter becomes dried out and compressed into hard masses causing constipation. This can also impact YOUR goal of a flat stomach.

While the contents of the intestines are mostly sterile, the colon contains an enormous population of microorganisms. Most of the species live there perfectly harmlessly and you have all seen the advertisements nowadays for the growing promotion of healthy bacteria through products now, that never used to be required but through our unhealthy lifestyle have almost become necessary to help the "good guys cope with the bad guys" in there.

Think of it this way.
You eat three to five times a day on average everyday and sometimes even more. YET a lot of people don't have any bowel movements on a regular basis. If this isn't happening then you are "holding onto both weight and waste and POLLUTING your Human ECO System". This pollution is part of your health problems and I encourage to start adjusting your nutritional compass and considering a "GI Tract Cleansing program".

I have developed one and it is posted here in one of my Blogs as the 7 Day Human ECO Cleanse and you can get it for FREE and try it. It's your body and it's your life !