Gut check: Keep it healthy

Edited by Dr. Matthew Prihoda

Mercy Family Medicine of Washington

    Deep in the bowels of your body, important work gets completed. With most nutrients having been removed in the stomach and small intestine, food that cannot be digested passes into the colon. While you rarely notice it, muscles in your colon gently churn like a washing machine, removing excess water and returning it to the body while moving waste matter along the tube and finally depositing it in the rectum for removal from the body.

    Unfortunately, the orderly work of the bowels can be disrupted by a number of diseases?Crohn?s disease, diverticulitis or diverticulosis, ulcerative colitis, colon cancer. Irritable bowel syndrome is not a disease but a functional disorder, usually causing abdominal pain and discomfort and chronic diarrhea, constipation or both.

    The causes of these disorders are complex, but there are many things you can do to improve the functioning of your bowels and keep them healthy.

    EAT PLENTY OF FIBER: Nearly all of the matter that passes through your colon is fiber. Parts of a plant that provide a framework or structure, these can?t be digested by the human body and are thus removed from the body by the colon.

    Once known as roughage or bulk and considered important primarily for maintaining bowel regularity, fiber has been shown to have many health benefits, including lowering cholesterol, regulating blood sugar and reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, gall bladder disease and many cancers.

    Nutritionists recommend that you consume 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, although the average American diet does not include nearly that much.

    Fiber promotes wave-like contractions and expands the inside walls of the bowel, easing the passage of wastes. Fiber also tends to absorb water, resulting in a large, soft, bulky stool. This means more bowel regularity, less constipation and a lower risk of hemorrhoids.

    With reduced pressure in the colon, the risk of diverticular disease is also lowered.

    Diverticulitis and diverticulosis occur when waste becomes trapped in little pockets of the bowel that develop due to defects in the wall.

    In the past, persons with diverticular disease were often told to restrict consumption of nuts, popcorn and foods with seeds or husks?all high in fiber. Recent research has reversed that view, determining that such foods are actually beneficial to persons with diverticular disease.