Key to Healthy Living: The Small Intestine

The saying,  ”you are what you eat” is a true statement. Better yet, the beginning of your health begins in the GI tract (Gastrointestinal tract), especially when it comes to the small intestines and the content that makes their way through this first and far most important organ in our body. The SI (small intestines) plays rather an important role in the GI tract for its participation in all aspects of digestion, absorption and transportation of food.

The small intestines produces enzymes which mixes with enzymes from the pancreas and the gallbladder to break down food in smaller components. This is also where the proteins are converted into amino acids, carbohydrates into simple sugars, and fats into smaller units readily to be absorb into the blood. The quality of our blood depends largely on the extent to which it receives adequate nutrition- depending on our diet and the functioning of the small intestines- and this brings us to the importance of this organ.

The inside of the small intestines is covered with finger like projections known as, villi. The villi increases the absorption area and they act as filters, preventing toxins to be absorbed back into the body. When the small intestine is full of toxins, the lining and the villi are damaged and defective. Then digestion is impaired and slows the amount of adequate nutrients absorbed, sending your body into Mal-Absorption, which results into loss of vitamins and minerals. In such a situation diarrhea compounds the problem, resulting to numerous symptoms like, body pains, skin rash, abdominal distension, smelly stool and weight loss.

Because the small intestines takes part in almost all aspects of digestion, the absorption of iron from the food into the blood is also impaired. Iron helps transport oxygen to the cells around the body, and in such a case, the low levels of iron means low levels of oxygen in the blood. And when the levels of oxygen is low in the blood, it leads to various diseases which sadly includes cancers which thrives in oxygen depleted cells. Fat burning also depends on the amount of oxygen we carry in the blood and with low amounts, the metabolism is slow and therefore we end up storing a lot of fat, and weight increase is the result. Problems in the case of the elevated levels of VLDL (very low denstiy lipoproteins ) and LDL ( low density lipoproteins) increases the risk of atherosclerosis, the primary cause of heart attacks and strokes, very common in cases of low levels of oxygen in the blood.