Chronic Digestive Problems

I have been working with comprehensive solutions to difficult health problems for my entire career and would like to talk today about chronic digestive problems. This is a very big topic. We could spend hours on this easily. We are just going to try and give you a few minutes of over-view and let you be aware of some alternatives for handling certain digestive problems that many people are unaware of.

Amongst the most common problems that have alternative solutions that they may not be aware of that we hear of so often today are reflux disorders, of nervous stomach-type problems and what sometimes people refer to as irritable bowel disorders, also, food sensitivities, problems with upper digestive issues including belching and bloating problems and especially the bowel problems. Often these problems treated in the mainstream medical world tend to not always resolve so well. Sometimes certain conditions, reflux disorders will actually stay under control as long as the person takes medication but when they come off the medications, their conditions often revert, signaling that they really haven’t gotten to the bottom cause of their problem. They have really been doing something to just relieve the symptoms and not getting at the underlying cause. On the TV commercials for these drugs, there is always that tag-on warning that you may still have ongoing disease in your gastrointestinal tract despite the relief that you get. If you listen carefully, you will hear that kind of warning.

On the other end of the digestive tract, we have the experience of people with intestinal and bowel problems and colitis who I hear of going to gastroenterologists over the years and having repeated “scopings,” and brief visits over-the-desk, and ongoing use of medications with not so satisfactory results. These people seem to go on with a lifetime of difficulties, a lifetime of struggle and while they may get some relief from some of the medications, it often carries a high price, especially if these are steroids which is often a fall-back drug when these people get in to more acute trouble. It often is a wonder to me that these individuals, in all the time that they have seen their doctors have not had any kind of functional health analysis of what is going on with their problems. They have not had comprehensive stool analyses, they have not had comprehensive evaluations of what is going on inside their intestinal tract, they have not had broad-spectrum microbiological evaluations, they have not been cultured for yeast, they have not had additional biochemical parameters for inflammation and digestive absorptive problems and immunological changes that can occur inside the intestinal tract. They have not had evaluation of the bio-markers that are available for evaluating the health of the cells lining the intestines and their exams are often limited to an evaluation for whether blood is present or not and for some of the more virulent bacteria which may cause obvious diarrheal disease only. There can be many other imbalances that can occur and a test called the Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis is often recommended for these patients in a setting like my office so that we can get a much better over-view of what is going on in their intestines. A sampling of some of the two most recent tests we have done revealed a marked overgrowth of “klebsiella pneumonia” causing an imbalance in flora along with a complete absence of bifidobacterium, one of the beneficial flora. Another study revealed a significant yeast overgrowth. There are many points of information that can be gained by appropriate functional health testing for individuals with chronic intestinal difficulties.

In terms of reflux disorders and in terms of intolerance in the upper digestive tract, many people are treated with drugs over the years and have never ever been tested for food sensitivities or food allergies. There are blood tests that can simply test for these problems and this is a whole other topic of discussion but these are tests that are done on a routine basis in a setting like this office. In addition, we check for soft tissue distortions, cramping of the diaphragm around the stomach, distortions in the soft tissues of the gallbladder and the ileocecal valve area which are frequent areas of disturbance that we find and are able to work with in a gentle corrective manner to help individuals overcome their problems. Again, taking a more functional health approach, a more in-depth look at various functions of the digestive tract and looking to see where the individual has gone out of balance and helping with that, as well as restoring the nerve supply to their digestive organs, is an approach that is very satisfying and has helped many people who have been suffering without better resolutions to their problems.

We would like to help you. If you or a loved one is suffering these types of problems, please feel free to contact me. I can be reached on the phone at 239-597-3929 and our web site is www.NaplesPainRelief.com and I would be happy to answer your questions.





Daniel P. Hillis, DC
Chiropractic Physician
Clinical Nutrition and Kinesiology
Chiropractic Cranial Care
Naples, Florida
www.NaplesPainRelief.com
Office: 239-597-3929