Osteopathy for Digestive Issues

Have you ever thought about the fact that strains in your body may be disrupting your ability to digest your food?

To digest well we need our body to be in good working order: We take food into our mouths, so we need our jaw hinges to be working properly to chew food. We need to be able to use the tongue to shunt food from the front to the back of the mouth and swallow efficiently.

When food enters the digestive system it is pushed from the stomach to the small intestine to the bowel before exiting through the anus. This shunting from one section to another is facilitated by a squeezing and relaxing of the different parts in a sequence to ensure the passage of the food in the right direction.(Peristalsis) All the parts of the gut need to be able to move a little bit so that they can expand and contract and help this process. Sometimes a part of the gut becomes tight and restricted and over time it starts to inhibit the efficient transit of food. If this goes on for long enough it can impact negatively on the chemical processes of digestion too. For example: if the gallbladder can not open and close properly it stops bile reaching food which makes it harder to digest fats, and also stones can result from sediment forming in stagnant bile (gallstones).

Things that can cause part of the digestive system to tighten up and stop working efficiently are:

• Food poisoning ( sometimes an area in the intestine can feel tight even many years later)

• Operations

• Endometriosis

• Accidents

• Emotional stress

• Chronic poor diet

• Chronic constipation (restriction of the bowel can be both a cause and effect of constipation)

• Diverticulitis

• Gallstones

• Reflux

• Inflammatory diseases

As Osteopaths we have a very highly trained sense of touch. We are looking for different things than are picked up by blood tests and gastro/colon-oscopies. While these tests are vital to eliminate the possibility of disease, they can only give us information about things that can be seen like growths or sores or lesions. Osteopaths are able to tell if the gut is pulled or twisted or tight in a particular area. This can often be a hidden piece in trying to figure out why the digestive system is not clearing well or digesting properly. To remedy these problems we use direct hands-on techniques to the digestive system, (we stretch and restore mobility to the area) and we also work on the areas of the spine that send nerves to that part of the digestive system. For the most part these techniques are comfortable and pain free.

TRY A FRESH APPROACH TO YOUR DIGESTION TODAY!