Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Manufacturers List Ostomy
Major Manufacturers
Listed below are major manufacturers of ostomy products — e.g., pouches, wafers, etc. Most will send free samples if requested. Many also have an ostomy nurse on staff. For additional manufacturers, check with your ostomy nurse.
Blanchard Ostomy Products
1510 Raymond Ave.
Glendale, CA 91201
818-242-6789
Karaya wafers, pouches, etc. for ileostomy, urostomy.
Coloplast Corp.
1601 West River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55411
800-533-0464
Full product line: SenSura, Assura, ColoKids, and full line of accessories.
ConvaTec
100 Headquarters Park Drive
Skillman, NJ 08558
800-422-8811
Full product line, Sur-Fit Natura, Active Life, Moldable Technology.
Cymed Ostomy Co.
1440C Fourth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
800-582-0707
Full product line including the MicroSkin Ostomy Pouching System.
Genairex, Inc.
12501 71st Court
Largo, FL 33773-3254
877-726-4400
Hollister Incorporated
2000 Hollister Drive
Libertyville, IL 60048-3746
888-740-8999
Full product line: New Image, Premier, Adapt, Pouchkins.
Marlen Manufacturing & Development Co.
5150 Richmond Road
Bedford, OH 44146-1331
216-292-7060
Full product line: Ultra Duet, Ultra, Skin Shield.
Nu-Hope Laboratories, Inc.
P.O. Box 331150
Pacoima, CA 91333-1150
800-899-5017
Urinary, colostomy, ileostomy pouches, adhesives, etc.
Perfect Choice Medical Technologies
2955 Pineda Plaza Way, Suite 209
Melbourne, FL 32940
800-665-3412
Pouches, deodorant, barrier rings & strips.
The Perma-Type Company
83 Northwest Drive
Plainville, CT 06062
860-747-9999 in CT; 800-243-4234 in other states
Reusable appliances for ileostomy, colostomy, urostomy.
Schena Ostomy Technologies, Inc.
2313 Harrier Run
Naples, FL 34105
239-263-9957
EZ-Clean™ Ostomy Pouching System.
Torbot Group, Inc.
1367 Elmwood Ave.
Cranston RI 02910
800-545-4254
Full product line, including customized appliances.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Stacy's Story
Stacey doesn't remember a time before IBD.
She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when she was 18 months old and still struggles with IBD today, at age 43.
People like Stacey are the reason that Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) is working nonstop to find better treatments and cures for these dreadful diseases.I'm so grateful for everything you're doing to help us get there.
As a child, Stacey spent a lot of her childhood in the hospital – missing school, birthday parties, and summer days at the beach.
Her symptoms eased up during her teenage years, but things got much worse in her 20s. First, she was diagnosed with colon cancer, which she successfully treated... but soon after, she developed Crohn's disease.
By the time she was 35, she'd undergone 14 surgeries.
"I didn't think I'd live to see my son graduate from high school," she says. "The pain and the anguish I've gone through with this disease are more than most people can imagine."
Monday, October 21, 2013
Health Benefits of Basil
What comes in green, purple, dark opal, boxwood, lemon, cinnamon, cardinal, spicy globe, Holy, Thai, Greek, and Genovese? The answer is - basil! Each has a unique appearance, aroma, flavor, and best use.
The basil's name may describe the flavor, as with lemon, cinnamon, and spicy basil. Or it might point you to its best regional recipe use, as with Greek or Thai. Boxwood simply indicates plant shape. With a basil such as Cardinal, the name pays homage to the gorgeous flowers. The accompanying picture is purple basil.
Fresh or dried, basil adds flavor and great nutrition to any meal. Fresh basil also offers some rather surprising health benefits.
Health Benefits of Basil:
Basil is high in calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium. The pretty plant holds an amazing range of vitamins from A to Zinc, including a good dose of vitamin K - one of the go-to nutrients for bone health. Holy basil’s water soluble flavonoids help support white blood cells boosting your body’s ability to resist radiation induced chromosome damage.
Fresh basil helps to keep you from getting sick in the first place. The Journal of Microbiological Methods explains how basil’s volatile oils (essential oils) increase your body's resistance to three widespread and resistant food borne bacteria - Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, and Pseudomonas. Protect your family and make basil a part of your healthy life. It’s deliciously easy.
Basil is Easy to Grow:
Basil is happy either in a pot on the window sill or planted directly in a garden. Sow a row of seeds or purchase a few varieties in small nursery pots. Pinch back the flowers to encourage more leaves. Harvest, dry, and crumble leaves for storage in clean, labeled dried herb bottles. Do let a few flower stems go to seed. Snip the stem and place, seed pods down, inside a clean paper bag. After the surrounding pods dry, remove the seeds, and store in an envelope for next year’s garden! New to herb gardening? Organic Gardening’sbasil growing tips are superb.
Cooking with Basil:
Use dried basil in measured teaspoons. Or rinse and pat dry handfuls of fresh basil and toss them into sauces, soups, and stews. Add basil to egg scrambles at breakfast and sprinkle the leaves on your lunchtime salads. Basil’s flavors, either fresh or dry, work especially well with tomatoes. My favorite way to use fresh basil is to tear it in half and stir into pasta sauce.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
CCFA Irritable Bowel Disease Seminar
Don’t forget to register for the
2013 ORLANDO EDUCATION IBD SEMINAR
hosted at the Orlando Science Centeron Saturday, October 19th.
FREE EVENT
SEATS LIMITED – register today athttp://online.ccfa.org/2013orlandoeducationseminar
Protection from Heart Disease
Protect yourself from heart disease
Lycopene: Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that has been reported to decrease the risk of heart attacks as well as inhibit cancer cell growth. This phytochemical is one of beta-carotene’s carotenoid relatives.
Top foods: Tomatoes, guava, apricots, papaya, watermelon and pink grapefruit.
Resveratrol: Resveratrol is a phytochemical protecting against heart disease by limiting clot formation and inflammation that can damage artery walls.
Top foods: Red wine, grape skins and peanuts.
Quercetin: The phytochemical quercetin has natural anti-inflammatory ability that helps protect against blood clots.
Top foods: Apples, onions, green tea, cranberries, buckwheat and beans.
Beta glucan: Is a soluble fibre that helps reduce cholesterol levels.
Top foods: Oats, barley, rye, wheat and mushrooms
Omega 3: The essential fatty acid omega 3 can help reduce inflammation and risk of clots.
Top foods: Flaxseeds, walnuts and oily fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, anchovies).
Folate: Folate can also protect against heart disease. Without folate, homocysteine (by-product of metabolism) accumulates and can enhance blood clot formation and arterial wall damage increasing the risk of heart disease.
Top foods: Soybeans, leafy greens such as spinach and silverbeet, broccoli, peas, asparagus, avocados, chickpeas, lentils, and fortified breads and breakfast.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Patient Question: If you are in remission, will there still be signs of disease seen during colonoscopy?
A. Patients with Crohn’s disease may feel completely well but have quite active disease at the time of colonoscopy. For this reason, your medical provider may recommend that you undergo periodic blood work, stool studies or even a follow up colonoscopy to make sure that the inflammation is under control. In patients with ulcerative colitis, there is usually a much stronger correlation between how patients feel and the findings on colonoscopy. Despite that, I estimate that up to 15% of patients with ulcerative colitis will have significant inflammation in the colon even when they feel well.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
eam Challenge Takes You to Las Vegas!
Race like a rock star with Team Challenge, CCFA's half marathon training and fundraising program. Participate in a professional training program designed to meet your unique "walk or run" fitness needs.
When you join Team Challenge, you'll also help raise critical dollars for research, education, and support programs to help the 1.4 million people suffering from Crohn's and colitis. Our next stop: The Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and Half Marathon on November 17, 2013. Join the Team on the Vegas Strip in an incredible night race!
Get Started Now at An Online Info Meeting
You can learn more about Team Challenge and how to join your local team at one of our online info meetings:
| Date: | Time: | Login info: |
| August 13 | 8:30p EST/ 5:30p PST | https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/644102070 Call in: 1-877-309-2071, Access Code: 279-306-854 |
| August 19 | 8:00p EST/ 5:00p PST | https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/546015750 Call in: 1-877-309-2071, Access Code: 583-039-155 |
All attendees will receive a special regisration discount to join Team Challenge. Can't make the webinars but want to learn more? Let us knowand a Team Challenge manager will contact you directly!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Auto Immune Disease Causes
Shocking information about the EPA and other environmental government agencies hiding toxic evidence.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Crohn's and Colitis Picture Project
Take a moment to stop by www.cdpictureproject.com
But first below........
This is a must read and I guarantee you will be glad you took the time to do so.
But first below........
This is a must read and I guarantee you will be glad you took the time to do so.
How many people ( including family and friends) that you know have no idea what you "really" deal with on a daily basis? I bet you look great most times on the outside and put on a happy face. Because of this, no one, except other Crohn's and Colitis patients understand.
Did you have a surgery (surgeries) that is not visible? Answer probably YES
Do you hide your scars? Probably YES
Do you sometimes wish you could just show people your surgical victory scars?
Are you embarrassed to show people?
Do you hide your scars? Probably YES
Do you sometimes wish you could just show people your surgical victory scars?
Are you embarrassed to show people?
When in the hospital have you had to measure your bodily functions every time you go to the bathroom? Often times I wanted to take a picture so even my immediate family understood how inconvenienced I am.
How about the NG tube, IV's, machines, oxygen, picc lines; etc?
It's time to put a face and a body to this horrible life long illness.
I thought about breast cancer survivors, heart patients, kidney dialysis patients,
diabetics and other illnesses and how they potentially can carry on with their lives after a surgery. They can participate in Relay for Life and other related type walks and fundraisers. There are several such walks and fundraisers for Crohn's and Colitis but how many of us can really participate? If we are in remission we sometimes don't want to even think about CD or Colitis for as long as we can until the next flare! No wonder our funding isn't what it should be.
diabetics and other illnesses and how they potentially can carry on with their lives after a surgery. They can participate in Relay for Life and other related type walks and fundraisers. There are several such walks and fundraisers for Crohn's and Colitis but how many of us can really participate? If we are in remission we sometimes don't want to even think about CD or Colitis for as long as we can until the next flare! No wonder our funding isn't what it should be.
The TV commercials show people looking for restrooms, drugs such as Humira and Remicade. I believe anyone not familiar with the disease thinks we just need to go to the bathroom a lot. Whoopie, what's so bad about that?
Do you think a commercial is not enough? I certainly do.
Do you think a commercial is not enough? I certainly do.
My mission is to document stories and pictures of our scars, medications, TPN, infusions, and what people "don't see". The impact will turn heads.
I know I'm on the right track. So many people have submitted head shots and body shots. I have a hard time looking at them and get upset at the enormous amount of people dealing with the impact of CD/ IBD.
I know I'm on the right track. So many people have submitted head shots and body shots. I have a hard time looking at them and get upset at the enormous amount of people dealing with the impact of CD/ IBD.
I for one do not what anyone to see my body deformations. I bet you feel the same way. I have an ostomy and it can be quite disturbing to those not familiar with one.
So, I have found a way to anonymously compile many pictures. I don't care who they belong to, only that I receive them. Many people want to allow their names to be displayed so I created a "Featured Story Page". That's fine but definitely not
necessary.
necessary.
What will I do with all these pictures and documentations? Glad you asked.
I will spend the next year or two, organizing and collecting all I can of our behind the scenes lives. Next I will put it into manuscript form or book to present to legislative branches of health for each state. This manuscript (book) will be useful for doctors, GI students and advocates. It will be a big project but I figure, I can't work and why not spend my time helping myself and others find a cure. The first step is to show the need. Talking and reading about it just isn't going to cut it. I think we need IMPACT. Raise eyebrows, hear a few, wows, I didn't know it was that bad! I am a web designer so I can easily keep the project visible.
I went through the trouble of providing a picture uploader on the site. I even have a sample of what comes through to cdpictureproject@gmail.com. It show only a file number, no names (unless you want to share), just pictures and documents.
If you take a picture of your entire self, I will crop only the mid section of your body image so there's no need to go through much trouble on your end.
If you take a picture of your entire self, I will crop only the mid section of your body image so there's no need to go through much trouble on your end.
Like I said, there a many who wish to reveal their identities because they are advocates for the disease. They feel as I do. Not enough is being done.
Please help us help you and contribute in any way you can. I am seeking out professionals with the illness such as lawyers, doctors and others. We know this illness does not discriminate. We've seen celebrities come forward. They can only do so much and they certainly don't want to tarnish their image by really "putting it out there". Another reason we need pictures.
Remember, everything is 100% anonymous, private and will not be shared publicly or without your written permission. The website is in its infancy so please excuse the simplicity at this time. It will evolve into something amazing.
If you have a google email, please add me to your circle or request I add you. I will keep you informed as we progress. I can also share from google drive what you might need to help assist.
I of course would love any help or input. I know you are out there with talents I could absolutely utilize. I am looking for CD Picture Project representatives in each state. I am in Florida to get the ball rolling. I do not think I can afford to represent to each state physically at Board of Health meetings at this time. In the future I will travel but am relying on participation from anyone who can give a few hours a month.
Finally, the website address iswww.CDPictureProject.com
Go there asap, tell your Facebook Support Pages to participate. Get the word out.
I am also working on a page right now to list every support page I can find. If you have a url address please forward to me. If you need my direct phone number, please email me. I do respond much quicker by email however.
I am also working on a page right now to list every support page I can find. If you have a url address please forward to me. If you need my direct phone number, please email me. I do respond much quicker by email however.
Thank you in advance, we are gonna make this happen!
Have a fabulous day, keep the faith and keep smiling.
Anna Marie
Have a fabulous day, keep the faith and keep smiling.
Anna Marie
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Team Challenge Florida Kickoff
I wanted to personally invite you to our Team Challenge Vegas/Miami Information Meeting/Kick-off this SATURDAY, August 3rd, 9:00 am. (Info Meeting)10:00 a.m. (Kick-off) at Mimi’s Café in Altamonte Springs. This is a great way to meet other Team Challenge participants, learn more about Team Challenge and celebrate the beginning to our Winter Season with a delicious brunch from Mimi’s! : )
If you attend, you will be entered into a raffle for the change to win a cool prize!
Please R.S.V.P. by emailing me back. Please feel free to bring someone as well. We need your help to make this our BIGGEST SEASON YET!! Thank you so much and we hope to see you there! : )
Saturday, August 3, 9:00 a.m. (Info Meeting) 10:00 a.m. (Kick-off)
Mimi's Café
Take care and have a great day! GO TEAM CHALLENGE!
Warmest Regards,
Layne
lkauffman@ccfa.org
Join Our Group at Crohns Disease News and Views - Faceboo |
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
What's your PH?
Most Crohns, IBS, Colitis patients have a hard time digesting greens of any kind. When I was first diagnosed, I was told to avoid ruffage. The cramping wasn't worth eating a salad or vegetables. Bloating and gas is another unpleasant side effect.
It doesn't take much to realize we actually need these nutrient rich antioxidants. The very thing we really need for healing, we can't eat!
I've been doing research on PH balance. Seems confusing but makes so much sense.
Are you alkaline or acidic? There are strips you can buy to check those levels. Inexpensive at Greens Plus.
Take a moment, click on the picture and read about the superfoods that we need. Personally I'd rather eat a nice delicious salad but if I have to, I'll supplement. Can't hurt.
Friday, February 22, 2013
CCFA A Great Legacy
CCFA co-founder Suzanne Rosenthal
and husband Irwin
It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news of our co-founder Suzanne Rosenthal's passing. Suzanne was a fearless, determined and courageous woman who turned her diagnosis of Crohn's disease in 1955 into a legacy that has gone on to benefit hundreds of thousands of people over the years. As a patient, volunteer, and activist, Suzanne was a tireless pioneer for patients living with IBD and other digestive diseases. She dedicated her life to helping other patients, and she is personally responsible for the creation of the various CCFA chapters nationwide.
No words can truly express our gratitude to Suzanne. We will proudly carry on her vision of raising awareness and finding cures. I invite you to read more about Suzanne's legacy here.
Thank you,
Richard J. Geswell
President
and husband Irwin
It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news of our co-founder Suzanne Rosenthal's passing. Suzanne was a fearless, determined and courageous woman who turned her diagnosis of Crohn's disease in 1955 into a legacy that has gone on to benefit hundreds of thousands of people over the years. As a patient, volunteer, and activist, Suzanne was a tireless pioneer for patients living with IBD and other digestive diseases. She dedicated her life to helping other patients, and she is personally responsible for the creation of the various CCFA chapters nationwide.
No words can truly express our gratitude to Suzanne. We will proudly carry on her vision of raising awareness and finding cures. I invite you to read more about Suzanne's legacy here.
Thank you,
Richard J. Geswell
President
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Feeling Vulnerable When Someone Dies
A few days ago, Thanksgiving Eve, a cherished friend died of a massive heart attack.
Maryann P. was only 54 and seemed like she was in good health.
She was a nurse and even with her vast medical knowledge was not apparently aware of a pending collapse in her health. She did not smoke, drank socially, was eating healthier and took care of others as well.
As I write this, I have a few leads on my arm to a pic line for intravenous nutritional feeding for Crohns complications. I feel vulnerable health wise and can't seem to stop crying about my friend. I imagine most of my fear comes from family history of heart disease. Crohns issues involving pic line placement left me with several blood clots.
We really have no control over our longevity or lack there of but it is something we all think about at least once. I ask myself after every surgery (which are many) "Why am I still here?" "What is my purpose?" There must be a reason. I've never really given in to feeling sorry for myself, in fact the opposite.
The last few days I've felt sorry for my own situation dealing with CD. I've suffered for over 30 years and still manage to push on. Other Crohns patients have died from CD and complications. Today I am terrified when all these years I "thought" I wasn't afraid.
Am I alone in my feelings of vulnerability? Do you believe people can sense when their time in earth is coming to an end? I remember before my grand pop died, he started talking about my grand mom who passed away 20 years prior. I knew he was sensing his final days. He died the following month. He helped me prepare for his death if that makes sense.
Maryann P. was only 54 and seemed like she was in good health.
She was a nurse and even with her vast medical knowledge was not apparently aware of a pending collapse in her health. She did not smoke, drank socially, was eating healthier and took care of others as well.
As I write this, I have a few leads on my arm to a pic line for intravenous nutritional feeding for Crohns complications. I feel vulnerable health wise and can't seem to stop crying about my friend. I imagine most of my fear comes from family history of heart disease. Crohns issues involving pic line placement left me with several blood clots.
We really have no control over our longevity or lack there of but it is something we all think about at least once. I ask myself after every surgery (which are many) "Why am I still here?" "What is my purpose?" There must be a reason. I've never really given in to feeling sorry for myself, in fact the opposite.
The last few days I've felt sorry for my own situation dealing with CD. I've suffered for over 30 years and still manage to push on. Other Crohns patients have died from CD and complications. Today I am terrified when all these years I "thought" I wasn't afraid.
Am I alone in my feelings of vulnerability? Do you believe people can sense when their time in earth is coming to an end? I remember before my grand pop died, he started talking about my grand mom who passed away 20 years prior. I knew he was sensing his final days. He died the following month. He helped me prepare for his death if that makes sense.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
The View - Amy Brenneman, Colitis
Amy Brenneman has stepped up as the spokeswoman for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America after suffering from inflammatory bowel disease for years.
The Private Practice star underwent surgery in 2010 to have her colon removed and she has been in good health ever since.
Brenneman was recently approached by organisers behind the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation to help raise awareness about the disease and she agreed to film a public service announcement to encourage others not to suffer in silence.
During an appearance on U.S. talk show The View on Monday (01Oct12), she said, "A lot of people suffer from it, it is not a glamorous disease. They (Foundation officials) wanted it to get some traction because there is something really private and embarrassing and strange about (inflammatory bowel disease)".
IBD sufferers are prone to ulcers and sores on their large intestine or colon.
Letter from Rick Geswell, CCFA President
We have a number of exciting projects in the works at CCFA this fall, including a new teleconference next month exploring the latest breakthroughs in research. We're also working to raise awareness by making sure our legislators are helping us find cures. You can help by asking your legislator to join others in support of issues important to our patients and loved ones. In addition, we've created a new way to fundraise through personalized fundraising pages.
Finally, we're excited to announce the launch of Campus Connection, a website designed for students with IBD. This site will connect students with IBD and create a community of shared experiences to reinforce that you are not alone!
Finally, we're excited to announce the launch of Campus Connection, a website designed for students with IBD. This site will connect students with IBD and create a community of shared experiences to reinforce that you are not alone!
My CCFA Fundraising Page
Is my donation tax deductible?
Yes. The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, Inc. is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. To claim a donation as a deduction on your U.S. taxes, please keep your email donation receipt as your official record. We'll send it to you upon successful completion of your donation.
Monday, October 15, 2012
The Digestive System Determines Your Health
A healthy digestive system determines
vitality and outstanding health.
The nutrients in your food provide both the energy that fuels your life, and the building blocks needed to continuously maintain your physical body in its peak condition.
It's your digestive system that extracts the nutrients from your food and absorbs and assimilates them into your body.
A healthy digestive system is necessary to maximise your nourishment from the food you eat.
Nourishment is the source of life. The quality of your nourishment is what determines your ability to live and love to the full, and to look and feel great.
And it's not just what you eat that matters (though that's crucial).
For optimum nourishment you need to keep your digestive system in peak performance.
But mostly we take our digestive system for granted.
Because digestion happens more or less automatically, without our conscious thought or intent, we mostly don't even think about it.
We overload ourselves with food and drink taken on the run and under stress, and wonder why we end up feeling down and depleted of energy.
The symptoms of indigestion are unpleasant and all too common.
We all know what it's like when our digestive system is not working properly.
The symptoms of indigestion are all too common. A burning sensation in the upper abdomen, abdominal pain, belching, flatulence, vomiting, heartburn, bloating of the stomach and nausea - we've all experienced them.
Of course these symptoms can indicate a more serious health condition. If they persist or if for any reason you're worried about them, seek professional advice. Self diagnosis and medication can be unwise.
But more often than not, stomach problems are self-inflicted. We overeat, drink too much alcohol, mix incompatible foods or eat foods that 'don't agree' with us. We eat too many unhealthy foods - 'junk' foods - and we rush them down while stressed and on the run.
We can probably blame only ourselves for our tummy troubles.
And we ought to know better. We all know from experience that when we mistreat our digestive system it gets back at us. This is certainly one body system that knows how to communicate.
Clearly it's got something important to say.
Learn to listen to the wisdom of your body. Your health depends on it. Symptoms are signals that something is not right. And when all is not right with your digestive system, you need to know.
We're easily tempted to overeat. Our bodies evolved at a time when the steady availability of food was by no means certain. We had to cope with cycles of feast and famine, so in good times we needed to eat enough to tide us over. We stored the excess calories as body fat (we still do!) until needed.
We're easily tempted to eat more than we can comfortably digest. We pay the price.
But if your digestive system can't cope with your current food intake - what you eat and drink, how much and how quickly, in what mixtures and under what conditions - your digestion simply won't work properly.
It won't extract the full nutritional benefit of your food. Your body won't get the nourishment it needs to serve you faithfully and well, and to keep on going.
Clearly this is critical for your health and vitality. It seems only natural that your stomach should be programmed to kick up a stink when you neglect its needs.
The better your digestive system works, the better the use your body can make of the nutrients in your food. The healthier you will be. Good, healthy digestion is crucial to provide you with great levels of energy and vitality, productivity and creativity. And it will help ensure your longer term prospects for lasting health and longevity.
Let's just take a brief look at your digestive system, what it does and how it works. This brief overview will help you understand how you can help your digestive system to work better for you. Your body will love you for it.
Your Digestive System
Your digestive system takes the food and drink you put into your mouth, and breaks it down into its smallest units (amino acids, simple sugars and fatty acids). This enables the fats, sugars, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in your food to be absorbed into your bloodstream and carried to cells throughout your body.
There they're reassembled into the materials your body needs to provide the energy for both your conscious activities and your unconscious automatic body processes such as pumping your blood, breathing and maintaining your body temperature. Digestion of your food also supplies the raw materials needed for your body's maintenance and growth.
Finally, undigestible material (fiber and some starches), is prepared for elimination as feces.
It helps to think of your digestive system as having two parts - a digestive tract through which your food passes to be processed, and a group of accessory organs that provide the chemical substances - acids and enzymes - needed for digestion to take place. Let's look at each of these.
The Digestive Tract
Your digestive tract (also called the gastrointestinal tract) is basically a long muscular tube that starts at your mouth and travels down through the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and rectum, finishing at the anus.
For the average person it's about 30 feet in length. Its full of twists and turns as it coils around and about on itself to fit snugly inside your body.
The food you eat travels through this tube, is 'digested' along the way, and then absorbed into your bloodstream through the walls of the tube.
The Accessory Organs of Digestion
This is a group of specialised cells and organs, which produce and secrete digestive enzymes into the digestive tract. Several of the digestive glands are located in the walls of the digestive tract. Others, for example the salivary glands, pancreas, liver and gallbladder, are located outside the tract but secrete into the digestive tract through small tubes called ducts.
The digestive system performs five important functions.
1) Ingestion
This is the first step in digestion. It's when you take food or drink into your mouth.
2) Movement of food
Once the food leaves your mouth, waves of muscular contraction continually push your partially digested food along through the various sections of the digestive tract. The process is called peristalsis.
3) Digestion
The breakdown of the food by both mechanical and chemical processes that began in your mouth, continues once the food reaches your stomach. Most of the digestive action takes place in the stomach and, especially, in the small intestine.
4) Absorption
The small units into which your digested food has been broken down, pass through the walls of the digestive tract, moving from the digestive system into the bloodstream for distribution to your cells and organs throughout the body.
5) Defecation
Some components of your food are indigestible substances. Dietary fiber is an example. These substances travel the entire length of the digestive tract, and are ultimately eliminated as feces.
The Digestive Tract
There are five major parts to the digestive tract.
1) The Mouth
The work of the digestive system actually begins in the mouth, where you begin the digestion process of breaking the food down into smaller components. You do this in two ways.
a) Mechanically. The first thing you do when you put food into your mouth is attack it with your teeth. You bite, grind and chew your way through it until it's ready to swallow. This is called mastication. Your tongue helps in this by acting like a tumbler to move, churn and reposition the food between our teeth and against the roof of your mouth (your palate). The process of chewing our food is the only process within the digestive system (other than choosing when to defecate) that you can control consciously.
b) Chemically. This is an unconscious, automatic, process. Your salivary glands infuse of saliva which mixes with your food and begins the process of chemically breaking it down.
After you chew your food you swallow it. Swallowing is actually an automatic reflex that occurs when you have finished chewing and pass the mass of chewed up food to the back of the mouth into the opening of the pharynx. The mass of food that has been chewed and swallowed is called a bolus (from the Latin for a ball).
2) The Esophagus
This is a muscular tube connecting the mouth with the stomach. It's about ten inches long in the average person. The mouthful of food you have just chewed and swallowed, the bolus, moves down through this tube pretty quickly, helped by the action of peristalsis and by gravity (unless you're lying down!). The role of your esophagus is simply to get your food down into your stomach, where the processes of your digestive system begin in earnest.
3) The Stomach
This is where the real action begins. The average person's stomach has a capacity of about four cups. When the stomach receives food, it is swept by powerful waves of muscle contraction. These waves churn and mix the bolus as it arrives, causing it to break down into smaller and smaller particles.
After a while these particles are moved, little by little, down from the upper to the lower portion of the stomach. Here juices containing hydrochloric acid and other enzymes are added to the food and it is ground into a semi-liquid mass called chyme.
A stomach enzyme called pepsin combines with the strong stomach acid to uncoil proteins and partially break them down.
The strong acidity of the stomach prevents bacterial growth and kills most bacteria that enter your body with food.
The stomach releases the chyme bit by bit through a the pyloric sphincter, a valve which opens into the small intestine and then closes behind the chyme.
4) The Small Intestine
Most of the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream takes place in the small intestine. It's a long narrow tube, typically up to about 11.5 feet long and about an inch in diameter.
When partially digested food enters the small intestine from the stomach, its acidity stimulates the both pancreas and cells of the small intestine to release a number of different types of digestive enzymes into the intestine. These enzymes play an important role in digestion. They assist chemical processes that break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins into molecules small enough to be absorbed through the wall of the small intestine into the blood.
In addition, the pancreas secretes sodium bicarbonate. This is a strongly alkaline substance that neutralises the acid from the stomach.
The entry of food (particularly fat) into the small intestine also causes the secretion of bile, which has been produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. Bile is not an enzyme. It is a complex solution of salts and other substances. Bile breaks large fat droplets down into much smaller droplets, which in turn allows the digestive enzymes to break down fats more effectively.
Food remains in the small intestine for somewhere between three and ten hours. By the time it has reached the end of the small intestine some 95% of the nutrients that were in the food will have been absorbed into the blood.
The small intestine is responsible for 85-90% of the water absorbed from the digestive system. Only a small amount of water remains in the still undigested material that passes from the small intestine to the large intestine.
5) The Large Intestine
The remnants of digestion that enter the large intestine are the remaining water, some minerals and undigested fibers and starches. Only a minor amount, around 5%, of carbohydrate, protein and fat generally escapes absorption from the small intestine.
The large intestine is a wider tube than the small intestine, but ii's only about 3.6 feet long.
The large intestine mainly absorbs sodium and potassium, along with some water.
Bacteria living inside the large intestine ferment different dietary fibers and undigested starches to produce short-chain fatty acids. Many of these are actually used by the cells of the large intestine as an energy source.
Bacterial fermentation inside the large intestine also produces vitamin K and biotin (a B-group vitamin).
Food generally takes about 24-72 hours to pass through the large intestine.Occasionally the intestine becomes irritated and peristalsis moves material through it too fast for enough water to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream from it, causing diarrhea. On the other hand, if material moves through the large intestine too slowly, too much water is reabsorbed from it, and constipation is the result. An adequate amount of dietary fibre should provide the bulk needed to stimulate enough peristalsis in the large intestine to prevent constipation.
The last part of the large intestine, the rectum, serves as a storage chamber for the feces until defecation takes place through the anus.
More on Healthy Nutrition
Knowledge is the key to taking personal responsibility for your health.
Modern scientific studies have overturned traditional notions of a 'balanced diet' based on the Five Food Groups and the Nutrition Pyramid.
The key to fighting stress is to understand what it is and how it affects you. Learn about the causes and symptoms of stress.
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward.
vitality and outstanding health.
The nutrients in your food provide both the energy that fuels your life, and the building blocks needed to continuously maintain your physical body in its peak condition.
It's your digestive system that extracts the nutrients from your food and absorbs and assimilates them into your body.
A healthy digestive system is necessary to maximise your nourishment from the food you eat.
Nourishment is the source of life. The quality of your nourishment is what determines your ability to live and love to the full, and to look and feel great.
And it's not just what you eat that matters (though that's crucial).
For optimum nourishment you need to keep your digestive system in peak performance.
But mostly we take our digestive system for granted.
Because digestion happens more or less automatically, without our conscious thought or intent, we mostly don't even think about it.
We overload ourselves with food and drink taken on the run and under stress, and wonder why we end up feeling down and depleted of energy.
The symptoms of indigestion are unpleasant and all too common.
We all know what it's like when our digestive system is not working properly.
The symptoms of indigestion are all too common. A burning sensation in the upper abdomen, abdominal pain, belching, flatulence, vomiting, heartburn, bloating of the stomach and nausea - we've all experienced them.
Of course these symptoms can indicate a more serious health condition. If they persist or if for any reason you're worried about them, seek professional advice. Self diagnosis and medication can be unwise.
But more often than not, stomach problems are self-inflicted. We overeat, drink too much alcohol, mix incompatible foods or eat foods that 'don't agree' with us. We eat too many unhealthy foods - 'junk' foods - and we rush them down while stressed and on the run.
We can probably blame only ourselves for our tummy troubles.
And we ought to know better. We all know from experience that when we mistreat our digestive system it gets back at us. This is certainly one body system that knows how to communicate.
Clearly it's got something important to say.
Learn to listen to the wisdom of your body. Your health depends on it. Symptoms are signals that something is not right. And when all is not right with your digestive system, you need to know.
We're easily tempted to overeat. Our bodies evolved at a time when the steady availability of food was by no means certain. We had to cope with cycles of feast and famine, so in good times we needed to eat enough to tide us over. We stored the excess calories as body fat (we still do!) until needed.
We're easily tempted to eat more than we can comfortably digest. We pay the price.
But if your digestive system can't cope with your current food intake - what you eat and drink, how much and how quickly, in what mixtures and under what conditions - your digestion simply won't work properly.
It won't extract the full nutritional benefit of your food. Your body won't get the nourishment it needs to serve you faithfully and well, and to keep on going.
Clearly this is critical for your health and vitality. It seems only natural that your stomach should be programmed to kick up a stink when you neglect its needs.
The better your digestive system works, the better the use your body can make of the nutrients in your food. The healthier you will be. Good, healthy digestion is crucial to provide you with great levels of energy and vitality, productivity and creativity. And it will help ensure your longer term prospects for lasting health and longevity.
Let's just take a brief look at your digestive system, what it does and how it works. This brief overview will help you understand how you can help your digestive system to work better for you. Your body will love you for it.
Your Digestive System
Your digestive system takes the food and drink you put into your mouth, and breaks it down into its smallest units (amino acids, simple sugars and fatty acids). This enables the fats, sugars, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in your food to be absorbed into your bloodstream and carried to cells throughout your body.
There they're reassembled into the materials your body needs to provide the energy for both your conscious activities and your unconscious automatic body processes such as pumping your blood, breathing and maintaining your body temperature. Digestion of your food also supplies the raw materials needed for your body's maintenance and growth.
Finally, undigestible material (fiber and some starches), is prepared for elimination as feces.
It helps to think of your digestive system as having two parts - a digestive tract through which your food passes to be processed, and a group of accessory organs that provide the chemical substances - acids and enzymes - needed for digestion to take place. Let's look at each of these.
The Digestive Tract
Your digestive tract (also called the gastrointestinal tract) is basically a long muscular tube that starts at your mouth and travels down through the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and rectum, finishing at the anus.
For the average person it's about 30 feet in length. Its full of twists and turns as it coils around and about on itself to fit snugly inside your body.
The food you eat travels through this tube, is 'digested' along the way, and then absorbed into your bloodstream through the walls of the tube.
The Accessory Organs of Digestion
This is a group of specialised cells and organs, which produce and secrete digestive enzymes into the digestive tract. Several of the digestive glands are located in the walls of the digestive tract. Others, for example the salivary glands, pancreas, liver and gallbladder, are located outside the tract but secrete into the digestive tract through small tubes called ducts.
The digestive system performs five important functions.
1) Ingestion
This is the first step in digestion. It's when you take food or drink into your mouth.
2) Movement of food
Once the food leaves your mouth, waves of muscular contraction continually push your partially digested food along through the various sections of the digestive tract. The process is called peristalsis.
3) Digestion
The breakdown of the food by both mechanical and chemical processes that began in your mouth, continues once the food reaches your stomach. Most of the digestive action takes place in the stomach and, especially, in the small intestine.
4) Absorption
The small units into which your digested food has been broken down, pass through the walls of the digestive tract, moving from the digestive system into the bloodstream for distribution to your cells and organs throughout the body.
5) Defecation
Some components of your food are indigestible substances. Dietary fiber is an example. These substances travel the entire length of the digestive tract, and are ultimately eliminated as feces.
The Digestive Tract
There are five major parts to the digestive tract.
1) The Mouth
The work of the digestive system actually begins in the mouth, where you begin the digestion process of breaking the food down into smaller components. You do this in two ways.
a) Mechanically. The first thing you do when you put food into your mouth is attack it with your teeth. You bite, grind and chew your way through it until it's ready to swallow. This is called mastication. Your tongue helps in this by acting like a tumbler to move, churn and reposition the food between our teeth and against the roof of your mouth (your palate). The process of chewing our food is the only process within the digestive system (other than choosing when to defecate) that you can control consciously.
b) Chemically. This is an unconscious, automatic, process. Your salivary glands infuse of saliva which mixes with your food and begins the process of chemically breaking it down.
After you chew your food you swallow it. Swallowing is actually an automatic reflex that occurs when you have finished chewing and pass the mass of chewed up food to the back of the mouth into the opening of the pharynx. The mass of food that has been chewed and swallowed is called a bolus (from the Latin for a ball).
2) The Esophagus
This is a muscular tube connecting the mouth with the stomach. It's about ten inches long in the average person. The mouthful of food you have just chewed and swallowed, the bolus, moves down through this tube pretty quickly, helped by the action of peristalsis and by gravity (unless you're lying down!). The role of your esophagus is simply to get your food down into your stomach, where the processes of your digestive system begin in earnest.
3) The Stomach
This is where the real action begins. The average person's stomach has a capacity of about four cups. When the stomach receives food, it is swept by powerful waves of muscle contraction. These waves churn and mix the bolus as it arrives, causing it to break down into smaller and smaller particles.
After a while these particles are moved, little by little, down from the upper to the lower portion of the stomach. Here juices containing hydrochloric acid and other enzymes are added to the food and it is ground into a semi-liquid mass called chyme.
A stomach enzyme called pepsin combines with the strong stomach acid to uncoil proteins and partially break them down.
The strong acidity of the stomach prevents bacterial growth and kills most bacteria that enter your body with food.
The stomach releases the chyme bit by bit through a the pyloric sphincter, a valve which opens into the small intestine and then closes behind the chyme.
4) The Small Intestine
Most of the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream takes place in the small intestine. It's a long narrow tube, typically up to about 11.5 feet long and about an inch in diameter.
When partially digested food enters the small intestine from the stomach, its acidity stimulates the both pancreas and cells of the small intestine to release a number of different types of digestive enzymes into the intestine. These enzymes play an important role in digestion. They assist chemical processes that break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins into molecules small enough to be absorbed through the wall of the small intestine into the blood.
In addition, the pancreas secretes sodium bicarbonate. This is a strongly alkaline substance that neutralises the acid from the stomach.
The entry of food (particularly fat) into the small intestine also causes the secretion of bile, which has been produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. Bile is not an enzyme. It is a complex solution of salts and other substances. Bile breaks large fat droplets down into much smaller droplets, which in turn allows the digestive enzymes to break down fats more effectively.
Food remains in the small intestine for somewhere between three and ten hours. By the time it has reached the end of the small intestine some 95% of the nutrients that were in the food will have been absorbed into the blood.
The small intestine is responsible for 85-90% of the water absorbed from the digestive system. Only a small amount of water remains in the still undigested material that passes from the small intestine to the large intestine.
5) The Large Intestine
The remnants of digestion that enter the large intestine are the remaining water, some minerals and undigested fibers and starches. Only a minor amount, around 5%, of carbohydrate, protein and fat generally escapes absorption from the small intestine.
The large intestine is a wider tube than the small intestine, but ii's only about 3.6 feet long.
The large intestine mainly absorbs sodium and potassium, along with some water.
Bacteria living inside the large intestine ferment different dietary fibers and undigested starches to produce short-chain fatty acids. Many of these are actually used by the cells of the large intestine as an energy source.
Bacterial fermentation inside the large intestine also produces vitamin K and biotin (a B-group vitamin).
Food generally takes about 24-72 hours to pass through the large intestine.Occasionally the intestine becomes irritated and peristalsis moves material through it too fast for enough water to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream from it, causing diarrhea. On the other hand, if material moves through the large intestine too slowly, too much water is reabsorbed from it, and constipation is the result. An adequate amount of dietary fibre should provide the bulk needed to stimulate enough peristalsis in the large intestine to prevent constipation.
The last part of the large intestine, the rectum, serves as a storage chamber for the feces until defecation takes place through the anus.
More on Healthy Nutrition
Knowledge is the key to taking personal responsibility for your health.
Modern scientific studies have overturned traditional notions of a 'balanced diet' based on the Five Food Groups and the Nutrition Pyramid.
The key to fighting stress is to understand what it is and how it affects you. Learn about the causes and symptoms of stress.
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
How to Manage Gout
Gout is a type of arthritis that results from the deposit and buildup of glass-like crystals of uric acid in your joints. Uric acid is a by-product of the breakdown of certain proteins. Normally, uric acid is broken down in the bloodstream and then eliminated in the urine.
It is estimated that over 2 million Americans have gout. A severe gout attack is extremely painful and, if left untreated, can cause permanent and severe joint damage. Fortunately, gout can be managed or controlled.
First things first: risk factors
Are you at risk for gout? Although gout can occur in men and women of any age, it most often occurs in men over age 40. Gout usually does not affect women until after menopause. Lifestyle factors increase the risk of gout, including being overweight, fasting or crash dieting, drinking alcohol in excess and eating a diet that includes foods high in purines (proteins which make up uric acid):
Organ meats (e.g., liver, kidney, brain, sweetbread, heart)
Fish roe
Mussels
Anchovies
Herring
Sardines
Legumes (e.g., dried beans, peas, soybeans)
Meat extracts
Consommé
Gravies
Mushrooms
Spinach
Asparagus
Cauliflower
Poultry
Drinking high-fructose beverages, like sugar-sweetened sodas and orange juice can dramatically increase your risk of gout. There appears to be a genetic component as well, but not a large one. Six percent to 18% of people who have gout have relatives who also have gout. (In a small number of people, the risk of gout is increased by an enzyme defect that interferes with the way the body breaks down purines.) That means that 82% to 94% of the people with gout do not have a genetic link to the disease; it is primarily a lifestyle issue.
Certain medications can increase the risk of gout. These include:
Diuretics
Salicylates and medicines made from salicylic acid (such as aspirin)
Caffeine, including medicines containing caffeine
Levodopa (used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease)
Aminophylline
Withdrawal of corticosteroid medications
Cyclosporine (used to help control rejection of transplanted organs)
Niacin in doses of 1000 mg per day may trigger an attack in someone with gout
In addition, surgery, trauma, and cancer treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy may also increase your risk of developing gout.
It is possible to develop gout with or without the risk factors listed above. However, the more risk factors you have, the greater your likelihood of developing gout. If you have a number of risk factors, ask your doctor what you can do to reduce your risk.
Reducing uric acid
It is known that Vitamin C reduces uric acid in people with gout – and there is simply no better form than Dr. Libby’s Vital C™. As little as 500 mg of Vitamin C daily can help the body reduce uric acid levels over time and a Vital C flush is a common solution recommended by Dr. Libby for people with gout. Folic acid is also a time-honored solution for the symptoms of high uric acid. And, according to legendary naturopaths Dr. Murray and Dr. Pizzorno, essential fatty acids like those found in OmegaPrime® can also be very useful.
Check out Trivita Products for relief of many ailments.
It is estimated that over 2 million Americans have gout. A severe gout attack is extremely painful and, if left untreated, can cause permanent and severe joint damage. Fortunately, gout can be managed or controlled.
First things first: risk factors
Are you at risk for gout? Although gout can occur in men and women of any age, it most often occurs in men over age 40. Gout usually does not affect women until after menopause. Lifestyle factors increase the risk of gout, including being overweight, fasting or crash dieting, drinking alcohol in excess and eating a diet that includes foods high in purines (proteins which make up uric acid):
Organ meats (e.g., liver, kidney, brain, sweetbread, heart)
Fish roe
Mussels
Anchovies
Herring
Sardines
Legumes (e.g., dried beans, peas, soybeans)
Meat extracts
Consommé
Gravies
Mushrooms
Spinach
Asparagus
Cauliflower
Poultry
Drinking high-fructose beverages, like sugar-sweetened sodas and orange juice can dramatically increase your risk of gout. There appears to be a genetic component as well, but not a large one. Six percent to 18% of people who have gout have relatives who also have gout. (In a small number of people, the risk of gout is increased by an enzyme defect that interferes with the way the body breaks down purines.) That means that 82% to 94% of the people with gout do not have a genetic link to the disease; it is primarily a lifestyle issue.
Certain medications can increase the risk of gout. These include:
Diuretics
Salicylates and medicines made from salicylic acid (such as aspirin)
Caffeine, including medicines containing caffeine
Levodopa (used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease)
Aminophylline
Withdrawal of corticosteroid medications
Cyclosporine (used to help control rejection of transplanted organs)
Niacin in doses of 1000 mg per day may trigger an attack in someone with gout
In addition, surgery, trauma, and cancer treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy may also increase your risk of developing gout.
It is possible to develop gout with or without the risk factors listed above. However, the more risk factors you have, the greater your likelihood of developing gout. If you have a number of risk factors, ask your doctor what you can do to reduce your risk.
Reducing uric acid
It is known that Vitamin C reduces uric acid in people with gout – and there is simply no better form than Dr. Libby’s Vital C™. As little as 500 mg of Vitamin C daily can help the body reduce uric acid levels over time and a Vital C flush is a common solution recommended by Dr. Libby for people with gout. Folic acid is also a time-honored solution for the symptoms of high uric acid. And, according to legendary naturopaths Dr. Murray and Dr. Pizzorno, essential fatty acids like those found in OmegaPrime® can also be very useful.
Check out Trivita Products for relief of many ailments.
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