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DrG's Medisense Feature Article
18071-Food_as_Remedy
Stomach
problems? Try food
by Ann Gerhardt, MD
July 2018
Print Version
An elderly patient of mine suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
with abdominal pain and alternating constipation and
diarrhea. Standard medication either didn’t work or
had unpleasant side effects. She ended up controlling her
constipation with peanut butter and the diarrhea with banana and was
happy as a peanut butter-banana eating clam until she died at age
ninety-two.
Her solution jived with my food-is-medicine philosophy. If
possible, I prefer that to the
spend-a-small-fortune-on-supplements-and-medications-with-side-effects-and-drug-interactions
approach.
As with all things human and medicinal, some work in some people and
some don’t. Here are a few food remedies to try for
gastro-intestinal maladies.
Motility
problems like esophageal reflux, heartburn, diabetic gastroparesis and
constipation:
Rhubarb stimulates gut motility that propels food, secretions and stool
through the esophagus, stomach and intestine. Fresh rhubarb
is hard to find, and I know of no studies of rhubarb pie or jam
efficacy. The water in which rhubarb is boiled works
well. As does rhubarb powder, but that creates a supplement
product, which raises issues of purity, dose and side
effects.
I’ve written about foods that cause heartburn before
– These are the few that one might omit to help that
symptom. See
http://www.healthychoicesformindandbody.org/Medisense_Articles/17122-Heartburn_Treatment.pdf
Nausea:
Ginger often tames nausea associated with pregnancy and chemotherapy
and quells symptoms of motion sickness. Candied ginger works
well, is portable and avoids issues of dose: Just eat enough.
The only problem is keeping it down when nausea is accompanied by
intractable vomiting. There are limits to food therapy.
Diarrhea:
Banana or banana flakes bind up diarrhea. Some people swear
by green banana. Reducing (not cutting out) dietary
non-absorbable sugars like sorbitol (in prunes, cherries and pears) and
fructose might help, but only rare people should cut their fruit intake
to less than 2 fruits per day. Reducing dietary fiber might
help but isn’t particularly healthy.
Ditto for dehydration.
Constipation:
Except in people who have abused laxatives or have genetically
slow/weak colon contractions. Constipation is the easiest to
treat. Start with LOTS of water: The right amount
is the amount that works for an individual. Add high sorbitol
fruits like prunes, pears and cherries. Top off with peanut
butter and LOTS of leafy and cruciferous vegetables.
Bloating:
Make sure you are not constipated (see above), then go to
sleep. Most of us pass gas and lose the bloat at
night. Cutting out too much fiber, fruits and
vegetables might starve the gas-producing bacteria in stool, but
it’s not very healthy.
Abdominal
pain from spasm:
Peppermint oil might attenuate abdominal pain related to spasm by
relaxing smooth muscle in the gut. Between 0.05 - 0.1 ml
taken 3-4 times per day seem to work (use a dropper – these
doses are small fractions of a teaspoon. It may cause side
effects of heartburn and nausea, which abate with dose reduction (or
adding ginger and rhubarb?).
Spasm might respond to curcumin in turmeric-containing foods.
Unfortunately, many are spicy, which might lead to other symptoms.
Too often people blame their symptoms on food, rather than more likely
culprits, like antibiotic treatment, unbalanced diets, infections or
stress. Seems to me that we shouldn’t be
use healthy foods to stay healthy, rather than risking malnutrition by
cutting out foods.