What can go wrong with your digestion Pt 2

When we left off last week I had given you homework to see how slowing down and chewing more affected your digestion.

Did you try it?

How did you feel?

Any different?

Well this week we are going to continue the journey on down your esophagus and into your stomach. Ready....

Lets go!

Step 3. The Esophagus.

Once we are done chewing and we swallow our food (now called the Bolus if you wanna be nerdy about it) it travels down our esophagus to the stomach. It takes from 6-8 seconds for it to reach the stomach LES valve that allows it to enter the stomach. In that 6-8 seconds its being propelled down by muscle contractions (aka Peristalsis) so it's not just a long tube that dumps into the stomach - shocker I know!

Doesn't seem like this could be much of a spot for problems to pop up but let me tell you my story.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with EOE (click here to learn more) and I can personally tell you that there are PLENTY of things that can go wrong here! I am now a very s l o w eater and that seems to help (for starters) but that diagnosis was also where my food elimination journey started. I figured If I'm having all this reflux and these eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) popping up there must be a connection to what I'm eating right?!

Well my G.I. told me It didn't matter what I ate and prescribed me a PPI (Proton Pump Inhibitor like prilosec, zantac etc) and a steroid inhaler that I would swallow instead. I took the PPI for 1 day (it was a terrible disaster) and the steroids for a couple weeks (no change so I stopped). At this point I was bound and determined to show this Dr that food was the cause even if he didn't believe it!

So after about 6 months to a year of having food sensitivity testing done and cleaning up my diet from the offending foods (I also started taking HCl, digestive enzymes and L-glutamine but more on that another time) I went back to see that G.I. doc and have my esophagus re-scoped. He asked me what I was doing and I told him about my supplements and how I changed my diet and while he looked straight at me and said "OK" I could hear him rolling his eyes at me in his head!

Well, after the test he told me how incredibly improved I was and conceded that whatever I was doing I should keep it up! Thanks doc, I think I will!

Now I'm not going to tell you that things NEVER get stuck in my esophagus anymore or that I never need to throw up from impaction because it does happen occasionally (1-2 times/year maybe) but it's usually because I ate something too fast without chewing well enough or it was something I probably shouldn't have eaten in the first place (or it was peanut butter -head slap!).

I'm MUCH improved from the vomiting multiple times a month and constantly being worried that my next bite will send me to the trash can for the next 30 minutes plus it made eating in public very nerve racking.

Your esophagus is lined with delicate cells that can't take the Ph of the stomach (about the same as battery acid -if you're healthy). When we have disfunction in our stomachs the acid that's supposed to be breaking down food can also damage our esophagus when it comes back up (acid reflux or GERD) but we'll talk more about that next week. When that acid comes back up thats where the burning sensation comes from and you don't feel it in your stomach because it's mucus lining is made to handle that.

The last guard between your esophagus and your stomach is called the LES (lower esophageal sphincter) which remains closed except when food/drink is coming down, vomiting and burps. Your LES valve can malfunction and pop open if it's weak and even a tiny amount of acid sneaking through can feel like lava.

Well, thats a lot of information for 1 day and now you have a little bit more to think about if any of this sounds like you. I encourage you to keep doing the homework of slowing down and chewing well. If you have any damage it can take a while for it to heal but keep at it.

Comment below if you have any questions and talk to your Dr. (because I'm not one and this is NOT a diagnosis) or do some research on your own if you think EOE sounds like a problem you might have.