Digestion: How it Works & How to Fix it

Without good digestion, no diet will work for you.  

The most important aspects of digestion most people need to focus on are having/producing enough stomach acid (HCL) and maintaining good bile flow.

In this post you will learn:

• the fundamentals of how digestion works.

• how to identify what parts of your digestive system need extra help.

• what steps to take to correct digestive issues you may be experiencing.

The Root System of the Body

Digestion is literally the root system of the body.  Think for a moment: how well could a plant live if you damaged it's root system? Not long.  Could it thrive? Nope.  Same goes for you - if you're digestive system isn't working properly, you will not be able to stay healthy for long. 

Not only are digestive issues uncomfortable, but they are also the most common source of a HUGE variety of health problems including obesity, anxiety, depression, and a wide array of diseases.

Digestion Fundamentals

There are many complex and intricate aspects of what goes on during digestion, but fortunately, the majority of digestive issues can be resolved by focusing just a few fundamentals. 

The essential fundamentals are:

• Stomach Acid / Hydrochloric Acid (HCL)

• Bile Flow

• Water Flow

• Intestinal Flora

Let's talk about each one in turn to understand why they matter, how to recognize if something is off in regards to any of them in particular, and what to do about it if your digestive system needs help in any aspect of these digestion fundamentals.

Stomach Acid / Hydrochloric Acid (HCL)

Stomach Acid (HCL) is the first digestive fundamental you need to know about.  HCL does the following:

• Helps breakdown protein you consume into usable amino acids and essential nitrogen needed for a wide variety of critical metabolic functions.
  

• Sterilizes your food as it enters the digestive system.

• Speeds the rate that food passes through your digestive system.

Stomach Discomfort from Will Wolfgang on Vimeo.

If you do not have sufficient amounts of HCL, you will not be able to use the protein you consume for energy or cellular construction.  Instead, proteins will pass through the stomach in large, unusable particles that, instead of nourishing the body, end up occurring to your body as a toxic invader.  Not cool. 

Additionally, if there is insufficient HCL then your food will not be properly sterilized as it enters the body. This will create a lot of stress on your immune system and will increase the likelihood of bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infection.

The Truth About Acid Reflux...

If there is insufficient HCL in your stomach, then bacteria can live in your stomach and cause all sorts of problems.  If there is bacteria in your stomach, they will eat the food you eat, mostly feasting on the carbohydrates you eat, and they will create exotoxins / ferments as they excrete their metabolic waste into your stomach (gross!). 

These waste products of bacteria metabolism include off gases that cause air pressure in your stomach - which make you feel bloated and can cause so much pressure that it forces the upper valve of the stomach to slip open momentarily, resulting in the contents of the stomach to sometimes be regurgitated.   This is the true cause of most cases of acid reflux. 

It is usually thought and mistakenly thought/taught that acid reflux comes from having too much acid in your stomach.  The exact opposite is actually the truth.  If you have sufficient HCL levels then that HCL kills off the bacteria that would cause the air pressure that causes the valves of the stomach to slip open and allows the contents of the stomach to regurgitate. 

Make sense?  If it does, then you'll realize what a ridiculous blunder the millions of dollars spent on anti-acids, alkaline water and proton pump inhibitors are.  It's one of the most profitable segments of pharmaceutical sales in the world.  Why is it so popular if it's so completely mistaken?  Because it eliminates the painful and damaging symptoms of acid reflux.
 
Anti-acids do indeed neutralize whatever stomach acid you have, so that when you do have reflux it no longer burns your esophagus, which is a good thing because the tissue of the esophagus is not designed to deal with exposure to HCL.  The thing is, if you went the other way and took steps to improve your HCL levels the you wouldn't have acid reflux in the first place.

Anti-acids, while they quickly and easily eliminate the painful symptoms of acid reflux, they are not a long term solution if you are interested in actually being healthy or being able to digest your food.  Doctors know that anti-acids turn off digestion so sometimes they'll recommend taking a multi-vitamin/mineral because, and I've heard clients actually quote they're doctors saying this: "You're not going to digest your food when you take this anti-acid." 

WTF?  A multi-vitamin is not going to replace the nutrition you would get from properly digested food.  And any drug / substance that turns off digestion is NOT a viable solution. 

The real solution is to take the steps you need to take to improve your own stomach acid levels.  We'll talk about that in a moment, but first let's just point out the signs and symptoms of insufficient HCL levels.  They are:

• Reflux / Heartburn
• Burping
• Bloating in your upper abdomen
• Undigested food in your stool
• Constipation
• Low blood pressure
• High Urine pH (urine pH over 6.4)

Steps to Improve HCL Levels

If you have any or all of the above symptoms you may benefit from supplementing with HCL.  As you supplement with HCL your body will start to get more of the nutrients it needs to make it's own HCL, so you become less and less dependent on it over time.  If you have low blood pressure you may also want to start eating more salt, as that provides the chloride your body needs to make hydroCHLORIC acid. 

If you do supplement with HCL you need to know that, when you start to take it, you may experience a lot of discomfort - i.e. nausea, increase acid reflux issues, etc.  This discomfort is not a sign that HCL is bad for you; rather, if you experience discomfort when you take HCL it is because your stomach is nowhere near acidic enough.  If your stomach was already acidic like it should be, then adding a little more acid would be no big deal.  The more alkaline your stomach is, the stronger the chemical reaction is when that HCL hits your stomach. 

This is very much like when vinegar and baking soda are mixing together to create those cool elementary school science fair volcanos - lots of fizzing and a big sizzling mess.  This acid/base should happen - but it should happen later in digestion after the food leaves the stomach and enters the start of the intestinal tract (the duodenum).  If the contents of the stomach are alkaline then the HCL will create this big fizzing reaction, resulting in discomfort, nausea, possible increase in reflux and even vomiting.  Not fun. 

A degree of this discomfort is sometimes just part of the process in correcting stomach acid levels, but there are steps you can take to make the process easier.


When supplementing with HCL follow these guidelines:

• Before even thinking about starting to supplement with HCL make sure that you have good bile flow.  To figure that part out, be sure to finish reading this post because later we are going to talk about the 2nd critical stage of digestion - bile flow.  DO NOT TAKE HCL if you do not have good bile flow first.  YOU HAVE TO FIRST CORRECT BILE FLOW BEFORE YOU EVEN TRY SUPPLEMENTING WITH HCL!!!
• Only take HCL with meals that have protein in them (e.g eggs, meat, fish)
• Take HCL once you have started eating your meal or within 20 minutes of having eaten your meal.
• Start with just 500 mg. of HCL per meal for a day.
• Add an additional 500 mg. of HCL per meal each day until you build up to taking 2500 mg of HCL per meal.
• If you start to get loose stools or diarrhea then reduce or your dosage of HCL or stop taking it entirely until bowel movements get solid again, then try a smaller dose of HCL.
• At least initially, avoid eating carbohydrates with meals when you take HCL.
• If you are having a powdered form of protein - e.g. egg white protein or whey, take only 1000 mg. of HCL.  Solid forms of protein like meat and eggs require more HCL to digest.
• Most people will hold at five capsules per meal for months. However, if you begin to feel a warming sensation after your meal, you know you have taken too many capsules. At your next meal, you can reduce by one capsule and hold at that dose until you feel a warming sensation again. This is telling you that your body is starting to make more of its own HCL and you can begin to reduce the amount you are adding in.
• Be sure to adjust your dose according to the amount of protein in each meal. If you have a meal with very little protein, you may need to reduce the number of capsules you use with that meal.
• Once you have eliminated all signs and symptoms of low HCL you can start experimenting with gradually reducing your dosage of HCL by cutting down 500 mg. increments.  If signs or symptoms of insufficient HCL return, then raise your HCL dosage again until the symptoms disappear, then try to gradually reduce your dosage again.

In choosing an HCL supplement, I recommend Empirical Labs Betaine HCL - available here: www.naturalreference.com

---

---

All About Bile Flow

What is Bile and why does it matter?

Bile is a liquid alkaline soap that your liver makes and your gall bladder stores and concentrates.  When the food you eat leaves the stomach and enters the start of the intestinal track (called the duodenum) the gall bladder should squirt the concentrated bile onto the food sludge (a.k.a. Chyme - chyme is the fancy, anatomical name for the acidic food sludge your stomach just melted down - well, ideally you had enough acid in the stomach to melt it down.)  When the acidic food sludge leaving the (ideally highly acidic) stomach meets the highly alkaline bile (and bicarbonate secreted by the pancreas) there should be a powerful chemical reaction - literally a sizzling explosion, akin to the “explosion” of the vinegar/baking soda elementary school science fair volcano fizzy fun.  This is where the majority of the nutrients in your food are chemically liberated and become available to your body to be used as fuel and cellular construction material. 

However, if the contents leaving the stomach isn’t very acid (due to insufficient stomach acid levels) then when the food hits the bile…no fizzy. No magic of digestion.  No molecular explosion that would have liberated the nutrients and justified you spending 3 extra dollars per item on organic food at the grocery store.  Nope, if you don’t have both the acid (HCL) and the base/alkaline agent (Bile) then you miss out on the mass majority of the nutrients you eat.  No bueno. 

And if you have stomach acid but no bile to meet the chyme when it leaves the stomach, then you have a real problem.  That acid from the stomach needs to be neutralized before it moves through the intestinal tract.  If your bile flow is blocked up then that acidic food sludge will start to burn your intestines - which is what usually causes intestinal ulcers.  That acidic food will just sit there burning the lining of your intestines until the gut senses the damage being done.  When it does finally notice the burning going on your gut will activate emergency expulsion mode (diarrhea) to minimize damage.  

Further, being that bile is literally a soap, it is the only thing in you that enables you to turn the fats you eat into useful nutrition.  Think of what happens when your hands are covered in oil and you try to wash it off with just water no soap.  It doesn’t really work.  That’s because fats are not water soluble. It requires soap to break dietary fat down into useable lipids.  If you don’t have good bile flow, all the fat you eat is just going to give you problems.  Here’s a list of a few problems that arise…

When you don’t have good bile flow the fat you eat, even “healthy” fats, can make you:

*Gain bodyfat
*Feel nauseous
*Itchy
*Have skin issues (acne, rashes, blotchy skin)
*Gassy
*Bloated in your mid and lower abdomen

Further, if your bile flow sucks then, not only will the fats you eat occur to your body as toxic invaders, but you will also experience all the problems that go along with dietary fat deficiencies - EVEN if you’re eating it! So you’ll start to experience the…

Symptoms of dietary fat deficiencies

*Unstable blood sugar
*Long term over reliance on carbohydrates for energy (which commonly leads to high cholesterol and diabetes)
*Low levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL - High Density Lipids)[1]
*Hormonal Imbalance
*Bodyfat retention
*Weakened libido

Our bodies cannot survive long, or thrive at all, if we aren’t able to digest the fats we eat (or if we avoid eating fat at all.)  As just mentioned, bile is the necessary agent we need to break fats down into usable lipids, which we use as building material for every single cell in our body, as energy, and for a huge range of metabolic functions.  So it’s really important that our bodies make sufficient amounts of bile AND that the bile we make gets stored and concentrated in the gall bladder like it should AND that the gall bladder effectively squirts bile onto the chyme as it leaves the stomach.  There can be breakdowns in all those different aspects of bile production and bile flow.  Let’s first go over the symptoms you may be experiencing that can help you identify if your bile is not flowing as it should…


Indications of poor bile flow/production

*Saliva pH is below 6.7  (see Self Test Instructions to learn how to test your saliva pH)
*Diarreia / loose stools
*Constipation  (yeah, lack of bile can cause alternating diarrhea and constipation)
*Light colored stool (e.g. The color of cardboard or lighter)
*Chronic acne
*Nausea, especially upon eating fats
*Blotchy skin
*Itchiness
*Gas
*Bloating in your mid and/or lower abdomen an hour after eating
*Testing positive for being in a Catabolic Imbalance
*If you’ve had your gall bladder removed you definitely do not have sufficient bile to digest your meals.
*Elevated Cholesterol (cholesterol primarily leaves the body with the excretion of bile. If bile flow is backed up, cholesterol levels will rise).

All those suck.  So, lets figure out how to fix bile flow.  As with insufficient stomach acid production, there are multiple things that may be getting in the way between you and happy, healthy bile function.  Let’s look at each in turn and talk about how to resolve each potential roadblock.  Remember, there may be multiple causes disrupting your bile function, so don’t just try one of these solutions and give up if it doesn’t work. Hang in there and take the mindset of a detective for a bit to effectively distinguish what hitches are occurring in YOUR system, then take effective, sustained action until the issues are resolved.


Alternating constipation and diarrhea: without sufficient bile peristalsis does not occur, causing the HCL rich chyme just sits in the intestines  When enough acids accumulate in the intestines they start to burn, then react by quickly purging the intestines clear in an emergency response.

Half of the immune system is located in the intestines. Bile regulates the intestinal immune system.  If you’re suffering from a gut related autoimmune condition, it may be due to lack of bile presence which plays a fundamental role in intestinal immune processes.



First set of problems: not getting enough bile into the intestines

Second set of problems: when the bile and toxins with the bile reflux back into the bloodstream
The only way cholesterol leaves the body is along with bile excretion through the colon.  So cholesterol will start to rise when bile excretion is obstructed.  Bilirubin will also start to build up, but so will thousands of other toxins that the body tries to send out along with the bile.

Bile acids that have backed up and refluxed into the bloodstream inhibit the white blood cells. - Inhibit phagocytosis (when the white blood cells protect the body by ingesting (phagocytosing) harmful foreign particles, bacteria, and dead or dying cells) & chemotaxis (white blood cell stimulus response to alert of toxic presence.)

Third set of problems when the bile refluxes back into the pancreas and liver which can cause alkaline burns.  There are valves that are supposed to prevent this, but bile stones can get these valves stuck in the open position, causing caustic alkaline burns.  If this occurs chronically, it can cause diabetes, hepatitis and cancer.


Water with epsom salts to relax the bile ducts, then lemon/oil to trigger bile excretion.  These flushes do not address the cause of biliary sludge.  Nutritional deficiencies and toxicity create biliary sludge.


3 ingredients: glycine, taurine & phosphatidylcholine are required to create healthy bile flow and function.

Glycine and taurine conjugate with bile acids in the liver, turning them into bile salts (alkaline).

Phosphatidylcholine helps protect the mucous lining of the intestines from alkaline burns that bile acids would otherwise cause

Glycine and taurine are also used in the detox process called peptide conjugation. Chlorine can only be detoxified through this process.

Phosphatidylcholine is used to help perform the  detox process called  methylation.  Mythelation is the method we use to rid our bodies of adrenaline and nor-adrenaline - the more stressed we are the less phosphatidylcholine we have available for bile health.


Things that may be interfering with your bile function:

Nutritional Deficiencies:
Glycine, taurine are the amino acids our bodies use to turn bile acids (made by the liver) into bile salts.  phosphatidylcholine

Toxicity
The industrialized world daily barrages the human body with toxins more so than any time before in the history of our species.  The constituents that our body uses to make bile (including glycine, taurine and choline) are not only used to make bile, but also for many, many other purposes, including neutralizing toxins we are exposed to daily.  For example, glycine and taurine perform a detoxification process called peptide conjugation - which is how the body neutralizes toxins in chlorine, lead and cadmium.  Phosphatidylcholine performs methylation - the detoxification process our body uses to neutralize the metabolic waste products of adrenaline and noradrenaline.  The more we are exposed to such chemical/elemental toxins, and the more stress hormones we produce, the less Glycine, taurine and phosphatidylcholine we have available to make bile.  

Gallstone & Biliary Sludge
Biliary sludge is coagulated bile. Gallstones are a further crystallization of bile, more solid and even less motile than biliary sludge.  

The Catabolic Imbalance
This is a complex physiological state of internal affairs that is explained in detail in the Chapter: The Catabolic Imbalance. What you need to know about it in this moment is that the catabolic imbalance can make your bile sticky / sludgy / and even crystalize into gall stones in the gall bladder.  That means that it can’t flow the way it’s supposed and thus doesn’t effectively reach the chyme to do it’s job.  This happens due to in part to accelerated cell die off rate (an aspect of the catabolic imbalance) that results in an increased amount of bilirubin accumulation.  Bilirubin is a normal constituent of bile, but too much of it makes the bile more prone to crystalize and to become sludgy.

    - Detection: take the Self Assessment Quiz to figure out whether or not you are presently in a catabolic imbalance. Notable markers: low urine pH, high urine specific gravity, loose stools, elevated blood sugar levels, difficulty going to sleep, susceptibility to bacterial and fungal infections, slow breath rate, itchy at night…there’s more. Read the Catabolic chapter for more details.

     - Correction: If the Self Assessment Quiz shows you’re in a Catabolic Imbalance, then take the recommended steps to fix it.


The Sympathetic Nervous System Imbalance
If your body is stuck in a Sympathetic Nervous System Imbalance (Fight or Flight state) then it will deprioritize digestion and prioritize the metabolic functions that have to do with fighting a potentially lethal threat or running away from a potentially lethal threat.  As our species evolved, if a saber toothed tiger jumped out of the bush and started chasing you, your body had to respond fast, so the nervous system had to learn how to slam into full speed and optimize muscle performance, split second decision making and critical problem solving.  With all energy directed to saving oneself from immediate danger, the digestive process is put on hold and energy is redirected to the body systems that can help fight or run away.  In modern times, we still have the same nervous system response to stressors, but those stressors aren’t usually life threatening like they use to be - traffic jams, people yelling at you at work, watching scary movies, panic about paying bills, etc. 

Many people often consume a lot of stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, allergy medications, Adderall, cocaine, etc.) that chemically push the body into the sympathetic state (fight or flight) and thus diminish digestive activity.  If you’re stuck in a Sympathetic Imbalance you may be experiencing bile flow disruption, as well as stomach acid issues.

Additionally, you may not be taking stimulants or have much external stress in your day to day life, but could still be stuck in a Sympathetic Imbalance if your body is having a hard time metabolizing carbohydrates effectively - a.k.a. Slow Oxidizer Imbalance.  That’s right, the Slow Oxidizer Imbalance can cause the Sympathetic Imbalance as your nervous system tries to speed the rate at which you metabolize carbohydrates. 

-Detection: Take the Self Assessment Quiz to see if you are stuck in the Sympathetic Imbalance.  See also if you are stuck in the Slow Oxidizer Imbalance as that can often cause the Sympathetic Imbalance.

-Correction: Take the steps recommended to correct the Sympathetic Imbalance, presented in the Sympathetic Imbalance chapter.  If your Self Assessment Quiz also reveals you are in a Slow Oxidizer Imbalance, start working on that imbalance first by following the recommended steps in the Slow Oxidizer Imbalance chapter.  Correcting the Slow Oxidizer Imbalance, if it is indeed present in your case, is often enough to resolve the Sympathetic Imbalance, though their may be other causative factors pushing you into the Sympathetic Imbalance concurrently.  If your addicted to any of the stimulants or dead set on taking medications you’ve been prescribed, just work on correcting all the imbalances that your Self Assessment Quiz reveals you are presently in and notice how your need for stimulants and/or medications naturally diminishes the more balanced you get.


Cholesterol Lowering Medications (Statins & Bile Sequestrants)
These drugs are often assigned if your LDL (low density lipid) cholesterol levels are higher than doctors like them to be.  Statins block your ability to make cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase. So if you’re on Statins all the sudden your body can’t make cholesterol and then your ability to make bile (bile production requires cholesterol) is severely impeded.  Sucks.  Bile sequestrates prevent bile salts from being reabsorbed and recycled to keep being used by the liver / gall bladder to make fresh bile.  The body likes to reuse these salts over and over to preserve resources, but doctors think they’re being clever when they prescribe bile sequestrants because they know that if you start taking that kind of medication, its going to pull bile salts out of your body and then your liver is going to have to make more bile salts, thereby using up more cholesterol in the process, which accelerates the rate at which your body uses up its available cholesterol reserves, leading to lower overall cholesterol levels in the body.  Doctors get excited about that because the blood tests then show that “yeaye cholesterol levels are back in “normal” range” - but did they address the real reason why your body was making so much LDL in the first place?  They normal blame it on faulty liver function, and to their credit often mention that horrible diet choices are contributing to the problem.  While these drugs do lower overall cholesterol levels, making heart attacks less likely to occur, they also largely (if not entirely) block your body’s ability to make bile and drain it of the bile salts reserves it manages to create despite the statin. 

- Detection: if you’re on medication, do a quick google / wikipedia search to learn whether or not you are on a statin or bile sequestrant medication.

- Correction: Again, it is totally beyond my bounds to recommend any medical advice and I am not doing so here at all.  I am not saying to get off your medications.  That’d be illegal of me and I put it on you to take responsibility for your own health and your own choices.  What I do suggest, however, is to read the appendix section: The Truth about Cholesterol and imagine what would happen if you took steps to lower your LDL cholesterol naturally through intelligent dietary choices.  Then you may soon not even qualify to take those medications because soon your cholesterol levels would start to drop way too low and your doctors would be in full agreement that it is no longer a good idea for you to take them.  (Note: some doctors may think/say you will always need to be on them once you have high cholesterol because they are not aware or willing to see that corrective dietary strategies and naturally restore healthy cholesterol levels & ratios, but you may be capable of teaching them a thing or two if you do it naturally through diet yourself and report back to them with your success story.) 


Medications in General:
effective doses of medication must include just a bit more of the medication than the liver can possibly filter out.  The liver has it’s hands full with more than 500 different chemical functions in the body! When you take almost any orally ingested medication it is going to end up getting filtered by the liver.  The liver perceives it as a foreign substance / chemical invader and will do its very best to make sure that whatever toxin it is doesn’t reach the bloodstream.   Drug manufacturers know this so they have to adjust the dosage of the medication to be higher than the liver can possibly filter out in time so that the medication makes its way to the blood stream.  That means that, with the mass majority of medications, whenever you take them you are overwhelming your liver with more junk than it can handle so the drug can sneak its way through into the blood - kinda like a clever mom might fill the hands of an amusement park security guard so full with stuff she asks him to hold “for a minute” that he can’t see her kids sneak into the park without paying admission.  How well can the security guard fulfill any of his duties when his hands are so full of stuff he’s holding trying to help the damsel in distress that he can’t even see what else is going on?  Same is true for your liver getting barraged by daily doses of powerful medications.  Or, how good would you be at doing 500 crazy complex things I ask you do to if I and a team of bandits were also constantly trying to set your house on fire from every corner of the house? Makes things more difficult doesn’t it.

- Detection: You can get a good idea as to whether the medication you are taking is interfering with your bile flow and/or bile production if 1.It is clinically documented to do so OR 2.If upon beginning taking whatever medication you may be on you started experiencing any or many of the symptoms that indicate poor bile flow/production detailed earlier in this chapter.

- Correction: As I have clearly stated several times and will do so again several time - it is not my place or my intention to recommend you take or do not take whatever medications may have been prescribed to you.  The practice of prescribing and recommending has been pretty much monopolized by the A.M.A. And other government generated regulatory corporations.  What I am suggesting you consider is: what would happen if you took the right dietary, lifestyle, detox and nutritional supplementation approaches to eliminate the imbalance that caused the doctor to prescribe you the medication in the first place?  E.g. If you have high blood pressure and were taking a blood pressure lowering medication, what would happen if you took steps to lower your blood pressure naturally via diet, proper water intake and exercise? Soon your blood pressure would likely be too low to qualify to take the blood pressure medication because that medication would be pushing your blood pressure into dangerously low zones. 

That particular medication just pushes your blood pressure down regardless of wherever it is - so if you changed your diet and lifestyle in such a way would normally produce normal blood pressure, then a reduction of your dose or complete stoppage of that medication would then seem imperative and a responsible doctor would soon change the prescription accordingly. 

That’s a good reason why, if you are taking medications and you choose to start making diet/lifestyle changes, you should be in close communication with your doctor about what your doing and how you are trying to use nutrition to fix the problem naturally.  They may be close-minded and dismissive of the idea, but if your doctor is so blind as to dismiss the potential power of nutrition then I would seriously question the competency of that doctor in most cases. 

If they are willing to work with you in the process though, talk with them about a proposed schedule of gradual reduction or elimination of the medication as they monitor specific  biomarkers that you are aiming to improve through diet/exercise/lifestyle/nutritional supplementation. 

As whatever biomarkers are relevant in your situation shift (e.g. Blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood vitamin levels, enzyme levels, etc.) you may soon be able to qualify as someone who empirically (evidence based) doesn’t need that medication anymore.  Then you could make your own choice as to whether or not you want to continue taking that medication that you now no longer have any empirical or rational reason to continue taking.  

Hepatitis:
This condition literally means inflammation of the liver and can be caused by viral infection, alcohol obstructed bile flow, drugs/medications, certain complications during pregnancy, metabolic imbalances, genetic disorders and food poisoning (e.g. Poisonous mushrooms).

- Detection: Blood tests are appropriate in trying to confirm whether or not you are experiencing hepatitis.

- Correction: The course of action to take in case your blood tests show you are experiencing hepatitis (liver inflammation) will, of course, vary greatly pending on what is causing your liver to inflame/swell.  If it is viral you may benefit from doing the Self Assessment Quiz to see if you are in an Anabolic Imbalance or a Vitamin C deficiency.  Taking steps to correct the anabolic imbalance and/or a vitamin C deficiency can give your body a better chance at restoring health if you are presently imbalanced in either of those ways. If the inflammation is caused merely by obstructed bile flow, then the General Protocol to Improve Bile Flow (below) may greatly benefit you and health eliminate the cause of your liver inflammation, allowing it to chill out and start functioning peacefully again.

Antibiotics & nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs):
Both of these types of medication can interfere with liver function and bile production and secretion by causing immunoallergic reactions creating inflammation in the liver and disturbing its normal bile production/secretion processes.   
    -Detection: if you’ve recently taken antibiotics or anti-inflammatory medications and notice you are now experiencing any of the above mentioned indications of impaired bile flow/production then you may be experiencing poor bile flow due to the impact of those medications.  
    -Correction: You want to look to alternatives to such medications in the future (not always a good idea - e.g. In emergencies, antibiotics can be lifesaving) as well as take steps to boost bile flow using products like Beet Flow (see appendix: Resources), as well as regular consumption of beet greens and occasional coffee enemas or coffee suppositories like Xeneplex (see appendix: Resources).


Birth Control & Steroids
It has been clinically verified that birth control medication and androgenic steroids (steroids that push human physiology to be more masculine - I.e. The kind of steroids many bodybuilders use)  inhibit the Bile Salt Export Pump (BSEP), which is the rate limiting step in bile formation.  So if you’re taking birth control or testosterone boosting steroids be aware that they are interfering with your body’s ability to secrete bile salts.  This is the main reason why birth control and steroids can cause people to break out in acne.  Restricted bile production & poor bile flow prevents the body from effectively eliminating toxins through its favorite pathway (out through the colon via bile transport) and it also disables fat metabolism. 

The backup strategy for toxin elimination and expulsion of the large undigested fat it doesn’t know what to do with is through the skin - resulting in acne, rashes, itchy/blotchy skin, etc. Birth control manufacturers know that and purposely include additional compounds in birth control medication to try to suppress this undesirable reaction because who’s gonna stay on the birth control when it makes them break out in terrible acne?  So those compounds help you not break out, and for that reason some people even take birth control specifically to improve their complexion, but the horrible thing about that is is that, while you don’t see those toxins coming up through your skin, they are being forced to remain circulating in the blood and tissues of your body which can lead to much bigger health problems.  
  

*Gall Bladder Removed
    -Correction: You will need to take a bile supplement.  Ox bile is commonly the go to here.  You will have to learn how to time this supplement correctly and how to adjust your dosages based on what you ate that day and when you ate it.  Please refer to the appendix section:


Side Note About Medications: In addition to addressing all of the above potential causative factors that you identify as being likely to contributing to impaired liver function / bile flow in your particular case, there are a few bile flow support tactics that most people find very effective.  Of course, if you are presently, knowingly or unknowingly, doing things that are powerfully impeding proper bile flow or bile production (e.g. Medications that outright block bile production or restrict the common bile duct) then the nutritional strategies detailed below will have sometimes less, sometimes no chance of working.   While it is still usually helpful to follow the steps detailed below, do not be surprised if you have less than optimal results if you keep taking those medications that powerfully disrupt bile production and bile flow. 

The steps and tools mentioned below are commonly effective, organic compounds - but as my mentor/friend T.C. Hale said in his “Kick Your Fat In the Nuts” book: (paraphrasing) using nutrition to counter what pharmaceutical medications are doing is like trying to stop a tank with a shovel.   If you want to work with your body to naturally restore overall balance and good digestion, you may do well to figure out how to use diet, detox modalities, lifestyle changes and exercise in such a way as to no longer need those medications in the first place.  Once those meds are out of the system, then nutrition and holistic efforts have a much better chance being efficacious.


Natural Tools to Improve Bile Production & Bile Flow
(Choleretic (def.): a substance that increases bile flow.)

Beet Flow 
Beet Flow is a very effective, yet gentle bile flow booster that the mass majority of my clients quickly learn the value of upon taking it.  It is the most repurchased supplement in the whole array of products I tend to recommend.  It’s primary ingredient is a concentrated extract from the greens that grow on beets.  Beet greens themselves are also a great thing for almost everyone to include in their daily diet to keep bile flow optimized, but it is not always convenient to stop and prepare beet greens and a regular size dose (3-4 capsules) of Beet Flow’s concentrated extract is the equivalent of eating a bucket full of beet greens, so you get a lot more of the active ingredient you’re after with a lot more ease. 

Beet Flow works by improving the consistency of the bile to be more motile (better at flowing).  If there is something mechanically blocking the flow of bile (e.g. scar tissue, medication induce biliary obstruction) then the enhanced motility of the bile not be the only thing you need to do to get your bile flowing well. 

Beet Flow is pretty much always a good idea to take to generally improve bile viscosity, but if your biliary tract is really blocked up (by scar tissue or drug induced constriction) then bile that your liver has already dumped bilirubin (cellular debris) and other wastes into can backwash through into the bloodstream instead of being expelled out of the body through the colon as stool.  This refluxed conjugated bilirubin & dirty bile can get lodged in the skin and cause itchiness and rash to occur (a.k.a. Cholestatic pruritus).  Fortunately, in many cases this is just a temporary occurrence and, within a matter of a few days to a week, bile flow improves enough to start actually making its way out through the biliary tract like it’s should, and with it, effective detoxification of the body overall and great improvement in digestive efficacy can take place.


Coffee Enemas: 
Coffee enemas are useful as an adjunctive therapy for a variety of health conditions, ranging from constipation to hepatitis to cancer. They are very effective at evacuating the colon, thereby helping to removing wastes and toxins. Coffee acts like a solvent in loosening impacted waste materials, and also stimulates the process of peristalsis (the wavelike rhythmic muscular contractions that moves food and waste materials through the digestive tract). Coffee enemas are also believed to boost the detoxification capacity of the liver. This is a vital function for general health maintenance, as well as for combating the toxic metabolites produced in disease states.

Research by Heubner and Meyer of Goettingen University, Germany has show that rectally administered caffeine dilates bile ducts and promotes bile flow.  Further, the theophylline and theobromine in coffee further dilates blood vessels and can reduce inflammation in the gut. Coffee enemas can be a very effective tool to use to dilate the biliary pathway and make the path clear for bile to flow.   Rectally administered coffee enemas do dilate (open) the biliary tract so that they bile has more clearance to flow.
Further, coffee can stimulate your body’s own production of glutathoine S-transferase, which is the enzyme that glutathoine requires to be activated.  Glutathoine is you’re body’s own homemade “master anti-oxidant” and possibly the most powerful detoxification agent your body has to cleanse and heal itself.

Coffee enemas can be used daily (or even twice daily) for several months; however, such long- term use is not advisable unless under the supervision of a knowledgeable health care practitioner. Coffee enemas may be taken any time of the day, but most people find the early morning to be most convenient. If taken later in the day, they may interfere with sleep. Allow 30 minutes, or more, for the procedure, and make sure you have unlimited bathroom access.

Coffee enemas are possibly the most potent way to stimulate bile flow, but they are not always easy on the colon and intestinal tract.  Medical documentation has recorded some cases of ulceration and irritation caused by coffee enemas, and if not properly regulated, coffee enemas can cause dangerous electrolyte imbalances that have even been fatal at times. Yikes! I say this because I don’t want you to take this modality lightly.  It’s very powerful and when done correctly, can be very, very useful.  The risks of electrolyte imbalance can be minimized through proper concurrent supplementation of electrolytes and making sure you are not in an electrolyte deficient or electrolyte excess state (see: Self Assessment Quiz to determine your electrolyte balance)

If your electrolyte levels are balanced and you have proper medical supervision you may want to take advantage of this powerful choleretic (bile flow booster).  For instructions on how to perform a coffee enema see appendix section: Coffee Enema.
If you are not in a state of stable electrolyte balance and/or are worried about the risks or put off by the somewhat cumbersome procedure of coffee enemas you may consider the alternative: coffee suppositories.  


Xeneplex (Coffee/Glutathoine Suppository): 
Xeneplex (see: Resources) is a safer alternative to coffee enemas.  While some practitioners I know and trust state that their experience with coffee suppositories show they are only half, or less than half, as powerful as coffee enemas, the fact that they are 1.easier to perform, 2. Less dangerous & 3.Sometimes come with additional synergistic ingredients (e.g. Bioavailable glutathoine) make particular coffee suppositories, such as Xeneplex, fantastic alternatives.  Xeneplex is my coffee suppository of choice for its purity of ingredients and due to the fact that it comes with highly desirable additional ingredients like bioavailable glutathoine.  
Orally ingested glutathione is useless because it’s tripeptide bond is broken down by acids and enzymes in the stomach.  However, when administered rectally glutathione can reach the bloodstream intact.  Coffee’s natural stimulation of the body’s own glutathione S-transferase combined with bioavailable glutathione is possibly the most potent detoxification boost you can give your body - but that incredible benefit is partly aside the point in the matter as we, in this chapter, focus on rectally administered coffee’s potent capacity to dilate the biliary tract thereby powerfully promoting bile flow. 

Suppositories are faster and more convenient than coffee enemas and do not wash away electrolytes - which is a huge plus because you eliminate the big concern about creating a potentially very dangerous electrolyte imbalance.  Grant it, coffee suppositories, as stated above, are not as potent a force as a full on coffee enema when it comes to stimulating dilation of the binary tract and bile ducts, but it is still nevertheless a very powerful means of doing so and the reduced risk of coffee suppositories compared to coffee enemas has me favor suppositories as a go to big gun in the arsenal of choleretics (bile flow stimulators).

Not only is Xeneplex is one of my favorite tools in working with clients to stimulate bile flow, but also for those who are looking to cleanse their body of toxins from pesticides, petrochemicals, plasticizers, solvents, metals, artificial flavors, artificial colors, as well as mold and fungal aflotoxins.  This is due to, as just mentioned, the addition of glutathione to the suppository along with coffee’s natural stimulus of the body’s own glutathoine S-transferase - the enzyme necessary for activation of glutathione’s anti-oxidant activity.


Glytamins
Glytamins are another suppository, in addition to Xeneplex, that are designed to work in a complimentary manner along with Xeneplex.  Glytamins contain glycine, taurine and phosphatidylcholine. While the coffee in Xeneplex dilates the biliary pathway, glytamins supply the raw materials utilized by the liver to make healthy bile directly to the intestines.  Glycine & taurine are the two amino acids the liver uses to turn bile acids in the liver into bile salts.  If there isn’t enough glycine or taurine available then bile production can be impaired.  Glycine and taurine are in high demand throughout the body Phosphatidylcholine helps protect the intestines from damage that bile acids have the potential to cause to the intestines.   If there are the wrong kind of bacteria in your small intestine, those bacteria can break the glycine & taurine bonds those amino acids had formed with the bile acids to form bile salts.  That results in your alkaline bile salts being chaffed off back down into bile acids, which means your bile will no longer be the fat emulsifying agent we need it to be.  These bile acids can then damage the inner lining of the intestines.  Phosphatidylcholine can buffer the damage such bile acids can inflict in this scenario.


Bile boosting foods
    -Beet Leaves: It is possibly due to the betaine in beets and beet leaves that they facilitate bile motility.  Due to the presence of betaine in other foods and their lack of impact on bile flow contrasted with and the remarkable effectiveness of beet leaves improving bile flow, it is likely some other naturally occurring chemical compound in the beet leaf itself aside from betaine that makes it so awesome. I’ll be sure to update this detail when we figure it out, but what we do know is that it’s our most effective tool on hand in improving bile fluidity.
    -Gelatin and Collagen: due to their exceptional levels of glycine, a constituent of bile.
    -Egg: egg yolks and whole eggs are the highest natural food sources of choline, another key ingredient for health bile
    -Fish: (especially mackerel), crab, chicken liver.  All animal meats actually, but fish most of all for their high levels of taurine, which is another necessary
    nutrient for healthy bile formation.
    -Also: Cottage cheese, fresh green beans, cabbage, squash, pumpkin and lima beans
    

Ox Bile Supplementation
If you have had your gall bladder removed then you should definitely understand that, if you want to be able to properly digest fats and have even halfway decent nutrient assimilation from your food, then you are going to have to supplement with bile.  Ox bile is the most commonly supplemented form of exogenous bile supplementation.  If you do not supplement with exogenous (I.e. From outside the body) bile then you will never fully digest your food.  So, if you have had your gall bladder removed, please be sure to read appendix section: Ox Bile Supplementation.
If you still have your gall bladder then it is more appropriate in almost all cases for you to focus on improving your body’s own bile production and bile flow rather than just supplementing with exogenous bile.  If you think you can just take exogenous bile and skip all the work of trying to fix your own bile flow, then you’re forgetting how critically important it is for your body’s detoxification pathways for bile flow to be working well, and you’re also not realizing that ox bile doesn’t work as well as your own for matters of precision timing and dosages that your body, through millions of years of evolution, has developed.  That innate brilliance will be way more effective and easy on your life when you get your bile flowing so do the work and don’t think you can just supplement with bile and be fine….Slacker.
     


General Protocol to Improve Bile Flow

Day 1: Take 4 Beet Flow per meal at breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 2: Perform the “Beet Flow Flush” skip taking Beet Flow at dinner, then resume taking 4 Beet Flow at dinner.  To perform the Beet Flow Flush, simply take 4 Beet Flow with breakfast, then 30 minutes later take 4 more, then 30 minutes later take 4 more, then 30 minutes later take 4 more.  So 16 total over an hour and a half time span.  Then take 4 more Beet Flow with dinner.

Day 3 & till bile flow is corrected: Continue taking 3-4 Beet Flow per meal at breakfast, lunch and dinner until symptoms of impaired bile flow disappear.  (See earlier in this chapter for identification of what exactly those symptoms are.)

Tapering Down: Once the symptoms of impaired bile flow disappear, being gradually reducing your dosage of Beet Flow, at first cutting down to 2-3 per meal for a few days, then down to 1-2, then 0-1, then ween off of it completely.  

Use As Needed: If you start to experience reoccurrence of any of the symptoms of impaired bile flow again, resume taking Beet Flow at whatever dosage necessary to eliminate those symptoms, then taper down again at whatever rate necessary.

Beet Flow is a great way to get things moving again and can really help you fix your bile flow issues even while you still have existing biochemical imbalances.  Ultimately, resolving those deeper imbalances is the key to keeping your bile flow on point without always having to take Beet Flow.  E.g. If you are in a Catabolic Imbalance, you’re always going to be creating too much bilirubin for your bile to have a good, fluid consistency, so Beet Flow will always seem necessary. 

If, however, you correct the Catabolic Imbalance, then your bile has a much better chance of being fluid without needing Beet Flow.

So why not just work on correcting the Catabolic Imbalance and not even bother with the Beet Flow?

The main problem with that is that, to correct a catabolic imbalance one of the most important things your body needs is saturated fats (sterols), but if your bile isn’t flowing well (because you’re in a catabolic imbalance) then its really hard for your body to digest those saturated fats - which forms a vicious, gassy nauseating circle.  If you need fats to correct your bile flow, but can’t digest those fats until your bile is working, you’re stuck, unless you can find an alternative way to stimulate bile flow to enable you to metabolize those fats and then soon no longer need the additional support because your body has the materials to make good bile itself. 

Regular consumption of beet greens and moderate amount of whole beet root (not beet root juice!) is also recommended to maintain good bile flow on an ongoing basis.  The whole food form of beet greens is usually not sufficiently potent enough to fix biliary stasis but, as a whole food / natural way to keep things running smoothly, it is highly recommended.  

     

Big Gun Protocol to Improve Bile Flow

If you’ve tried the General Protocol to Improve Bile Flow with less success than you were aiming for, you may have more luck following the Big Gun Protocol.  This involves the usage of Coffee Enemas or Coffee Suppositories, as well as Glytamins & Beet Flow.
If you’re scared of coffee enemas creating an electrolyte imbalance, and that concern outweighs your concern about biliary stasis, then you may want to stick to coffee suppositories (Xeneplex).  Suppositories, while only half as strong as coffee enemas (or maybe less than half), they are still potent, and used in combination with Glytamins & Beet Flow, together pack a very powerful punch, working on bile production, bile motility and bile flow from (literally) every angle.  

Coffee Enema Or Xeneplex Suppository
Glytamins Suppository
Beet Flow

Bile Flow Inducer - Extra Strength Protocol

Continue alternating with Coffee Enemas or Xeneplex one day, then Glytamins the next day, all the while taking 4 Beet Flow 3 times per day with meals.  As you start to notice your bile flow improving you can start to reduce the usage frequency of the coffee enema/suppositories as well as the Glytamins.  Often it only takes a single coffee enema to notice measurable improvements in bile flow.  What you’ll want to look for is a raise in saliva pH up to around 6.8-7.0  Low saliva pH is one of many indicators of potentially impaired bile flow.  If you have low saliva pH (below 6.5) and perform a coffee enema, you may be happy to see your saliva pH boost up to around 6.8-7.0 the following day.  See appendix: Self Test Instructions to learn the do’s and don’ts of saliva pH testing. 


Other clear indications of improved bile flow are describe earlier in this chapter, but just to review, you know you have good bile flow if:

*Your stool is dark in color, like a forest floor (as opposed to cardboard color or lighter)
*You do not have diarrhea, or constipation alternating with bouts of diarrhea
*Your saliva pH is up around 6.8 between meals
*You are not gassy or bloated in your mid or lower abdomen an hour or more after meals.
*Fats do not make you nauseous
*Your breath rate is around 15-16 breaths per minute
*You do not have bilirubin or urobiliogen on your Urine Dip Stick - (see Self Test Instructions to learn about the Urine Dip Stick test)
*You do not have chronic acne.

As you start to have all these signs and indications of good bile production & good bile flow, you can experiment with tapering down your frequency and usage of coffee enemas, the suppositories and beet flow.  

If you start to notice a reoccurrence of poor bile flow indicators, start back up with the Beet Flow, enema or suppositories and experiment with which one(s) work best for you.  Learn to use them on an “as needed” basis and know that the more balanced you get your overall chemistry (See: Key Points of Balance) the better your bile flow will just stay good on its own.

Just to clarify, that which is commonly referred to as “bad” cholesterol, i.e. LDL - Low Density Lipids, are not actually bad at all.  They serve a highly functional purpose - buffering against the oxidative damage of chronically elevated blood sugar levels and transfatty acids.  They get a bad wrap because, in their effort to protect you from the oxidative damage of excess blood sugar and transfatty acids, they can accumulate in your circulatory system and the whole mess can lead to serious cardiac issues.  But it’s really not the LDL’s fault - its the elevated blood sugar and transfatty acids that force your body to try to cope by creating more LDL.  More on this in the appendix section: The truth about Cholesterol.

---

If excellent health is a priority for you, or you're aware of present digestive issues that are negatively effecting your quality of life, I highly encourage you to check out the free resources my friend / business partner Tony Hale and I have created.  To learn more about digestion in greater depth than is explained in this blog post please check out our free digestive issues course and/or listen to our free podcast episodes that talk in great depth about various digestive issues including constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, heartburn, GERD and much more.