7 habits to take care of your intestine (and improve your health)

More and more research shows that the good state of the intestinal flora – made up of more than two thousand types of microorganisms – influences many aspects of health. It is known that some of these microorganisms are even involved in the prevention of colon cancer. Adopting certain lifestyle habits is essential to keep it in good condition, and can be crucial in certain cases:

If you are taking drugs. If we review the medicines that lead sales in the Spanish Social Security, we will see, with or without surprise, that gastric protectors are among the first. This is not essentially due to the fact that we Spaniards eat poorly or have primary digestive problems, but above all to the need of many patients to protect their digestive system from the secondary actions of other drugs.

Along with the prescription of a gastric protector, good health education on how to care for and protect the digestive system should be offered.

If you are not taking a balanced diet. Dr. Mayr (1875-1965) equated the functions of the intestine with those performed by roots in vegetables. These must be healthy for the plant to be able to establish good contact with the environment in order to absorb and develop nutrients.

From the context of take care of the intestine To improve health, these are our recommendations:

1. Adapt the diet

Food is one of the most notable elements that affects the good health of the intestine. An intestinal problem may depend on a food intolerance. This is easy to understand in infants in their maturation process to adapt to foods other than breast milk, but it can also happen in adults if their adaptation to the environment includes foods or situations that they cannot tolerate.

In such a case it is possible to moderate or Eliminate hard-to-digest foods: meat, fish, as well as excessive consumption of sugarrefined flours or industrially manipulated fats, which could include milk whose fat has been homogenized. To care for the intestine, it is preferable a diet based on cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables. It is convenient to be fully aware of the fact that we are eating, of the importance of chewingof the complete crushing and liquefaction of the food.

To take care of the intestine, a diet based on cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables is preferable.

2. Pay attention to how we eat

Food is one of the most notable elements that affects our health: what we eat, what we choose through sight, smell and touch, how we taste it, how we chew and salivate it, how we digest it… It is convenient to be fully aware of the fact that we are eating, of the importance of chewing, of the complete crushing and liquefaction of the food.

The movement of the jaws stimulates the salivary glands and saliva predigests carbohydrates. Fritz Perls, creator of the gestalt therapyI thought that learning to chew means learning to face problems and to establish itself in the world. You have to try to thoroughly distinguish the smells and flavors in order to enjoy them more intensely. You should not take a piece to your mouth without first chewing and swallowing the previous one. By chewing well, you eat less and feel better when you are full. It is enough to eat three times a day. The gastrointestinal system will be able to make the necessary breaks and, if eaten at regular times, it will help the digestive functions to develop rhythmically.Eating small amounts many times a day only makes sense in exceptional cases. (as seriously ill). Everyone has to understand their own rhythm, but thousands of years ago Chinese medicine discovered that the stomach works better in most people during the morning. Digestion is optimal between maximum and minimum temperatures. Sometimes we observe how animals wait patiently for their food to cool down or heat up. It is important drink more between meals and less during them.

3. Fast sometime

Fasting from time to time is a good hygienic practice. In fasting, only water, infusions, vegetable broth and natural juices are ingested. Since nothing solid is eaten, the digestive system reorganizes itself, like the brain during sleep.

The toxins, prepared in the liver to be expelled, are evacuated through the intestinal mucosa, the lungs, the skin and the kidneys. The intestinal mucosa is released from its encrustations and impurities; Little by little, she participates again in the detoxification process.

4. Perform a bowel cleanse

Naturopathic doctors were once called the “doctors enema”, since they made profuse use of this resource to treat a wide variety of pathologies. Today the enema is restricted to very specific situations of obstruction, although on the other hand devices have been developed to perform intestinal washings at different pressures, perhaps with a somewhat abusive use, both in frequency and in pathologies in which they could be contraindicated.

This has given rise to a host of secondary problems that perhaps should not be attributed to the technique but to the misuse that is made of it. My personal opinion is that When we talk about cleaning the intestine with water, let’s think more often about introducing it through the mouth instead of through the anus.since it is not its natural route.

5. Give two good massages

There are two types of massages that can help improve the health of our intestines:

Treatment of the abdomen according to Rosendorff. At night or in the morning, the person lies on his back in bed, relaxed, and gently runs a hand over his belly. She starts on the outside, with circular movements in a clockwise direction, to then get closer and closer to the navel and move away again. The treatment is done slowly and is repeated a few times. The hand is then passed up and down the belly, starting under the breast, at the costal arch.

The arm has to guide the hand during all movements so that the touch remains soft and adapts to the profile of the body.

The tactile massage of the abdomen by Dr. Mayr. To do this, the doctor or patient carefully palpates the state of each intestinal segment and treats it with movements in which small pressures are exerted, which increase and decrease the internal pressure of the abdomen in a rhythmic series. This increases the specific activity of the intestine, improves circulation in the abdominal cavitythe digestive glands are stimulated, the blood is purified and breathing is improved.

6. Sign up for vitalizing baths

An indirect purpose of the hydrotherapy is to strengthen the digestive system and thus promote healing processes. For this, the following may be useful:

Alternating morning showers. It starts with hot water and alternates with cold water as many times as desired, but always ends with cold water. Then the body is dried with a linen towel, rubbing vigorously, so that the skin is warm and revitalized.Walking on the dew If you have the opportunity, it is invigorating to walk barefoot on the grass. It is convenient to try to feel, for five minutes, the earth and the cold ground. You have to concentrate on yourself, relax your feet, realize how they adapt to the ground; Finally, dry your feet very well.Abdominal compress. Hot compresses also facilitate digestion and stabilize the digestive organs.

7. Practice regular exercise

It pays to set aside time each day to perform toning exercises and movement of the abdominal muscles, such as the obliques twisting, the rectus femoris flexing forward, and the transversus abdominis pulling the belly in and out.

Many yoga exercises are beneficial for intestinal transit. The most important thing is that they are carried out slowly, that the patient observes himself while doing them and that he is fully aware of his limits.