Dr. Clint Sexton

Part #1 Diet

(Part A)

Welcome to Part 1 of the Women’s Digestion Solutions health series!

This is Part 1 of a 5-part series. Each series has a section A and section B. In Part 1 I will discuss the importance of diet and how it can interfere with your digestive tract.

Let’s get started!!!

Is Your Diet the Problem?

Your digestion problems may be due to the food you are eating every day. You might be wondering HOW food can be bad for your digestive tract. The main issue we run into with food is that it can cause problems for your immune system. Most of your body’s immune system is located around your digestive tract. When you eat foods that “trigger” your immune system, all sorts of problems occur…your digestive tract become a war zone. The immune system is treating your food like it is an enemy and launches an attack against it. Unfortunately, this attack leads to the production of chemicals that lead to inflammation, damage and destroys normal gut function. The main message I want you to take form this is that the main reason certain foods cause digestion problems is because your immune system has mistaken them for enemies. Yes, it is a mistake. Your immune system should not be causing damage to your digestive tract to keep you safe from food! These “offending” foods generally fall into two major classes; food allergies and foods sensitivities. So, lets discuss those now.

Food Allergies

Many people are confused about food allergies, food sensitivities and the problems they can cause. Even most doctors have a limited understanding of this area of health. Let’s keep this simple; a food sensitivity is not the same thing as a food allergy. They involve different aspects of your immune system and are tested for in different ways. You can get more information on the difference if you go to my website: napervilleintegratedwellness.com  For now let’s keep this easy and just say that if you have a food allergy or food sensitivity it means your immune system is overreacting to a particular food. You don’t want to eat foods that trigger an excessive immune response. Below are some common examples of food allergies and food sensitivities; you will notice that some foods make both lists.

Common food allergies: milk, eggs, nuts, strawberries, citrus, peanuts, soybeans, etc.

Common food sensitivities: wheat, milk, nuts, beans, tomatoes, soybeans, eggs, oats, corn, etc. There are many more possible food sensitivities than allergies in most cases.

Often, you will know if you have a food allergy because you will experience a negative symptom shortly after eating it. However, I frequently run allergy test on patients and discover mild allergies they were not aware of because they don’t experience the classic symptoms of a food allergy. Food sensitivities can be much more difficult to isolate on your own because you might experience a negative effect from a particular food days after eating it. Making matters even more confusing, you might be able to eat that same food one day and have no problems but if you have it again 2 weeks later, you experience a negative symptom. The point I’m making is that you may not always notice a negative response every time you eat a certain food.

Take a few moments and “digest” what you have just read. In Part B of this series I will explain food allergy and sensitivity testing as well as something called histamine intolerance.

You are going to know so much about your digestive tract by the time you are done with this series!!!

Health and Happiness,

Dr. Sexton

If you would like more information about women’s digestion, functional medicine or Dr. Sexton contact our Naperville office or go to www.napervilleintegratedwelness.com

Do your own research, inform yourself and ask lots of questions. When collecting information you MUST consider the source. There is no shortage of false, misleading, outdated, profit-driven and utterly biased information in healthcare today; even from the most respected sources and organizations.

This approach to healthcare is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease. Why is this? The FDA enforces its position that these words can only be used with drugs. This approach does not use drugs.