How to fix it

Eliminating all grain products from your diet is step one in supporting the digestive functions of your liver and gallbladder. This will ensure that you are doing your best to keep the signaling from your brain to your gallbladder working properly. Also, since your liver is taxed heavily by alcohol and excess fructose intake, I recommend limiting or even curbing your intake of booze and fruit (especially juices).

Eat the majority of your dietary fats in the form of short and medium-chain fatty acids (butter, ghee, and coconut oil) versus longer chain fats (olive oil or other nut oils), and your body will use the bile it secretes more efficiently.

You may also find that supplementing with some bile salts and digestive enzymes—lipase specifically—helps your digestive process. This is particularly helpful for people who have had their gallbladder removed.

the part: pancreas

The pancreas is an organ that is part of your endocrine system, which means that it produces hormones. It sits with its “head” nestled adjacent the duodenum (part of your small intestine) and its “body” underneath your stomach. Your pancreas is responsible for the production and secretion of the hormones insulin and glucagon, as well as the digestive enzymes trypsin and chymotrypsin, which serve to break down peptide bonds in the proteins you eat.

Remember that there were digestive enzymes secreted in your stomach as well, so the pancreas is adding more into the mix now that food is moving toward your small intestine.

What do the pancreatic hormones do? Insulin is a storage hormone produced by the beta cells of the pancreas. It signals your body to carry glucose (sugar) and other nutrients from the bloodstream into the liver, muscles, and brain. Insulin release is triggered primarily by the intake of dietary carbohydrates and secondarily in response to dietary protein.

Glucagon is produced by the alpha cells of the pancreas and is the counter-regulatory hormone to insulin. It is released in response to the intake of dense sources of animal protein and in response to drops in blood glucose levels due to hunger or exercise. In other words, it signals your body to release glucose from storage in your liver in order to raise your blood sugar when necessary.

what can go wrong?

The river of hormones and enzymes should flow smoothly, but if you have a grain intolerance or very low intake of dietary fats, you end up with an excess of bile which then backs up. As a result, you might eventually develop gallbladder disease or gall stones, which “block up the works” of the common bile duct. In some serious cases, this back up can lead to pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas.

Pancreatitis or gallbladder disease can cause a disruption in the production and secretion of digestive enzymes and hormones from the pancreas. Any of these disorders may have serious downstream negative effects on digestive function and overall health.

Diabetes is a disease of the pancreas as well. In the case of Type 1 Diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas are destroyed by your immune system, partly in an autoimmune response to the consumption of gluten-containing grain proteins (read more about this see here). This reaction leaves the pancreas unable to produce adequate insulin, and in many cases, it stops producing insulin entirely. This is why a Type 1 Diabetic usually needs to inject insulin in order to properly assimilate nutrients.

Remember that insulin is a nutrient storage hormone. For this reason, impaired pancreatic and insulin function can mean malnutrition and dangerous weight loss called “wasting.” These are common symptoms for a Type 1 Diabetic. Without the action of insulin, even if an individual eats plenty of food, the body can’t access, store, and pull the nutrients from the bloodstream and into the body’s cells. Until insulin is injected and cellular nutrient storage occurs, a Type 1 Diabetic will continue to waste away. While most Type 1 Diabetics cannot regain any beta cell function, if detected early enough and a strictly grain-free diet is adopted, some may be able to reverse the condition.

While Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes both involve problems with nutrient storage, they’re very different. A Type 2 Diabetic still has beta cell function, but the signaling is disrupted due to diet and lifestyle. Unfortunately, some Type 2 Diabetics may experience beta cell burnout or destruction, which means that not all beta cell function will be regained when they change their diet. Those people may need to inject insulin, although they usually need it to a lesser degree than people with Type 1 Diabetes.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14