Is Your Gut Aging Quickly?

Social Media will have you thinking you have parasites, bacterial overgrowth, and a leaky gut messing with your digestion. 

Ten years ago candida (over growth of yeast) and food sensitivities were all the rage. 

What if the root cause of gut issues isn’t a trendy “diagnosis” and rather a consequence of an aging gut?

Gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, heart burn, abdominal pain and increased food sensitivities are common over 40. 

It’s rare to find someone that doesn’t have one of these complaints in my office. 

What does everyone over 40 have in common?

Time spent consuming food. 

I think of eating like putting miles on your car. 

There’s the rushed speeding around driving – comparable to eating on the go…

… and there are the long haul drives like dining out. 

How you eat determines your wear and tear much like how you drive your car. 

Sadly your car doesn’t have the ability to completely regenerate it’s parts every 3-4 days like the gut. 

But your gut lining is intelligently designed to stimulate stem cells to rejuvenate itself in under a week. 

If you can turn over your gut lining that fast…why do so many people struggle with gut issues?

They are making weak stem cells each time the cells turn over. 

Perhaps you’ve heard about stem cell therapy for reviving degraded cartilage in joints to prevent joint replacements. 

Stem cells are basic cells the body produces that can be stimulated to develop into any type of tissue. 

There is research going on right now to treat gut conditions like Crohn’s with stem cells. (check it out HERE)

Since the research is only showing stem cells to be 50% effective I’m thinking it’s best to work on keeping your own stem cells healthy. 

Stem cells are only part of the aging gut issue – decreased digestive enzymes are another major factor.
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Research says digestive enzyme production declines around 60 years of age but I can assure you I’m seeing it in most folks over 40 – likely due to stress.

Stress placed on the gut from eating fast, on the go and eating processed foods is more likely a cause for stomach acid and pancreatic enzyme decline. 

You can test for both of these phenomenons. 

1. “HCl Challenge” – determine how deficient in HCL (stomach acid) you are by supplementing with betaine HCL at each meal till you get a slight burn in the stomach (scroll down on this link to find the HCL Challenge from Healthy Gut Company – https://healthygut.com/hcl-guard-instructions/) 
2. Pancreatic Elastase – stool testing to determine your production of enzymes via your pancreas – LabCorp and Quest or specialty testing like GI Map

Or if testing isn’t your thing you could test out apple cider vinegar in water, digestive bitters or an aperitif prior to each meal to see if you have less gut symptoms. 

It’s very common for people to have acid reflux symptoms, be told they have “too much” stomach acid when in reality they don’t have enough. 

What’s causing the acid symptoms then?

Food sitting in the gut and pressure building opening up your lower esophageal sphincter to release acid up into the esophagus and cause the burn or regurgitation of food. 

Chronic constipation and diarrhea often respond to increasing digestive enzymes and more often than not you may need a blend of stomach acid boosting betaine HCL with pancreatic enzymes – I love Healthy Gut’s HCL Guard + Holozymes and Apex Energetic’s Enzymix Pro. 

It’s common to supplement with enzymes for 3-6 months to reboot your natural production and then you are good unless you are dining out at greasy burger joint or a steak house. 

Along with a decline in enzymes it’s common to have a microbiome imbalance.

Here’s what I use in the office:

• Natren Probiotics or Therbiotic Complete Klaire Labs – for general support
• Seed or Megaspore – for regulating microbiome imbalances – great after you’ve been sick
• Saccharomyces Boulardii – for chronic diarrhea
• L-glutamine 5-15 grams a day to calm diarrhea and intestinal inflammation
• GI Revive Designs for Health or Enterovite Apex Energetics – to calm diarrhea and inflammation
• Tributyrin X – Healthy Gut – to support colon cell regeneration in colitis, diverticulitis

You do not have to use supplements to support your gut… 

• Increasing cooked veggies and fruit help “pre-digest” these items and provide fiber to feed the good gut bugs.
• Avoiding eating raw veggies , frozen fruit smoothies and cold foods (think things you pull out of the fridge or freezer and eat right away) daily can help support your gut as these are hard on your gut to digest. 
• Sprouting or pressure cooking your grains and legumes makes these foods more digestible to an aging digestive system. 
• Sitting down to eat and chewing at least 25 times per bite is critical to not overload the gut with big pieces of food to work with. 
• Sipping on room temperature or warm drinks while eating versus guzzling drinks prevents dilution of digestive enzymes. 
• Same goes with avoiding ice water, a common occurrence at every American restaurant. 

Anything frozen or ice cold that hits the gut slows your digestion down. 

If you already have constipation – cold foods are not your friend. 

Your gut is central to your health – you want to protect it as it ages. 

If you’re struggling with constipation – consider magnesium citrate, betaine HCL and pancreatic enzymes to get things moving. 

Diarrhea got you down – consider a broad spectrum probiotic with saccharomyces boulardii like Therbiotic Complete from Klaire Labs, try L-glutamine 5-15 grams a day. 

Inflamed gut with pain – consider GI Revive or Enterovite + Tributyrin X. 

I have many podcasts with Healthy Gut’s owner Steven Wright – check out his website (HERE) and here’s a great podcast on “Where to Start if You Have Gut Issues”​

Here’s to a Healthy Gut at any age!

Dr. Jannine Krause

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