Are you also taking your digestive system for granted?

Conventional wisdom is that we are what we eat. Actually, we are what we DIGEST. Whatever we eat has to be broken down and chemically altered into nutrients to be of use to us. The food as it is only goes into our gastrointestinal tract which is a continuous tube from the mouth to the anus and not anywhere else in the body. It is this sturdy system which processes more than 100 quintals of solid foods in our life and supplies the nutrients obtained from this raw material called the food to the rest of the body. We breathe, move and think by using this nutrition as fuel converting it into ATP with the help of oxygen, on which our 37 trillion cells live.

The digestive system is a mighty powerful processing unit all right but it is affected by everything that we eat, drink or inhale. Yet, we assault it mindlessly. We put into it whatever we like, crave or can afford. Since the digestive system cannot speak, it expresses its disagreement through aches and pain, heartburn, bloating or indigestion.

Most of us do not heed these warnings and rather make matters worse by not exercising enough, smoking or not sleeping and resting adequately. Since the human body is built better than even the most dependable car in the world, nothing much happens initially—at least not in a perceivable fashion. But how long can a malfunctioning car go on without proper maintenance and repair? Sooner or later, the fuel lines get clogged, sludge forms in the engine and breakdowns start happening. In our case, this self-induced damage is called constipation, gallstones, ulcers, colon polyps or cancer.

Things take a turn for the worse after we turn 40. Suddenly, we find that we are developing a new disease almost every year. Instead of waking up and bringing about drastic lifestyle changes at least now, we continue increasing the dosage and strength of our medicines.

The results are all around. It has been estimated that majority of human beings suffer more pain and disease in the last three years of their life than they had suffered in their entire earlier lifetime. In majority of cases, the medical bills in the last three years are also as high or even higher than during the rest of the life. What a pity!