My Horrible Gut Pain -- Part 2

In Monday’s Living Well Daily, I described the wracking gut pain that hit me a few weeks ago and my struggle to figure out what was wrong.

It hurt after I ate, every time. And yet I never felt nauseous or lost my appetite. It was driving me crazy…

Until I got an idea one day and bought a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. The next day, I ate the whole thing and felt fine.

Can you guess what was going wrong?

I’ll give you a couple more hints:

  1. Previous to all this, I had been eating a low-carb, mostly paleo diet… although not as natural as I would have liked.
  2. The whole “cinnamon raisin” was a bit of a red herring… the extra flavor didn’t matter. The point was the loaf’s essentially a 100% carb meal.
  3. The day after I ate it, I bought another item at the grocery store… began taking it before every meal… and have felt great ever since.

OK, ready for the answer?

Enzymes.

I lacked digestive enzymes, specifically for processing fat and protein. Eating the bread felt fine because I had the enzymes for it. But a healthier fat- and protein-laden meal? Not so much.

This was confirmed when I later began taking an enzyme supplement before every meal: The pain went away. And a painful reconfirmation happened every time I missed a dose — the pain would come back.

Why is this?

Digestive enzymes break down our food into nutrients so that our bodies can absorb them.

They’re produced in the pancreas, small intestine, salivary glands, and stomach. Normally, enough are made to help properly digest food.

But sometimes your enzyme production drops. This can be due to stress, low stomach acid, or inflammation. In my case, I suspect stress contributed.

If you’re lacking enzymes, food doesn’t get properly digested and is eliminated without the nutrients being properly absorbed by your body. You can see this for yourself when you look in the toilet. In my case, it also lead to outright pain, which finally got my attention.

As nice as it was to have discovered the issue, I had zero interest in using a crutch for the rest of my life. So when our senior health editor, Brad Lemley, visited Baltimore, I told him my story. Here’s roughly what he had to say:

“Fermented foods are what you need. We weren’t meant to eat 100% clean, sanitized products our entire lives.”

Made complete sense. Fermenting a food means adding yeasts and/or bacteria to break down some of the carbs. This results in the production of healthy bacteria.

You’re probably familiar with sauerkraut, which is a fermented food. Unfortunately, commercial sauerkraut has been pasteurized, so all of the beneficial bacteria are killed.

Which is why visiting the farmer’s market was such a nice coincidence for me. Especially when I happened upon the booth showcasing kombucha.

Kombucha is a fermented drink of sweetened tea produced by fermenting the tea using bacteria and yeast. As a result, it’s rich in active enzymes.

I bought a bottle.

“Make sure to put it in the fridge as soon as you get home,” the woman running the booth warned me. “And don’t shake it before you open it.”

That gave me a chuckle, but Laissez Faire Today’s Chris Campbell, who was with me at the time, confirmed this was a bad idea: “It’s not too funny when you’re cleaning up lavender that’s sprayed all over your apartment.”

Duly noted. As soon as I got home, I released the cap with a *thunk* and poured a couple fingers’ worth. Then took a swig.

It was sweet with some serious zip to it and warm in my gut. And an excellent omen for how things would go.

For the next couple weeks, I’d take a swig of kombucha in the morning and then take my enzyme pills as usual… but then carefully reduced the number.

Long story short, I haven’t had any pills in a week and I’m feeling fantastic.

And it got me to thinkin’: How long had this truly been progressing? Sure, I finally felt enough pain a few weeks ago to do something, but how long had I been lacking in digestive enzymes before that? Months? Years? Since I was born?

The sad part is many doctors will scoff at the idea of “lacking in digestive enzymes,” but wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I began taking them, I felt better.

A nice bottle of kombucha, as well as other fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir, and yogurt which hasn’t been zapped of its active cultures, will always have a place in my kitchen.

Humans were meant to eat a certain amount of rotting stuff, like it or not. Kombucha, however, is a downright delicious way to get your healthy share. Find some at your local health food store or farmer’s market and try it out.

And please do so even if you aren’t suffering from poor digestion right now… because perhaps you only think you’re not. You might be shocked by how much better you feel, how much more energy you have, and how other seemingly “unrelated conditions” disappear when you improve your digestion.

Regards,

Nate Rifkin
Underground Health Researcher

Nate Rifkin

Written By Nate Rifkin

Nate Rifkin is an obsessed health and mind-power researcher and author. To hear more from Nate, sign up to receive Living Well Daily for free, here.

View More Free Articles

MAILBAG: Ease Annoying Allergy Symptoms

“My allergies have been so terrible the last few weeks and my allergy medicine isn’t really doing anything. What can I do?” – Darlene from Chesapeake, Virginia Hi Darlene, There are two steps I typically recommend to tackle troublesome allergies. The first is to focus on nutrients. Begin by getting enough magnesium, folic acid, and carotenoids...

Read This

Drug Company FAILS to Respond to Heartburn Drug Risk

Type the word “Zantac” into any search engine, and the first thing likely to come up is “Zantac lawsuit.” And the reason WHY people are suing the drug’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is a twisted tale that’ll turn your stomach… The drug company allegedly took a page straight out of big tobacco’s playbook. And as a...

Read This

"Splash Hack" DOUBLES the Benefits of Your Morning Brew

I love coffee. I roast my own beans. I have a fancy coffee maker. The WHOLE nine yards. Of course, I love the bright, bitter punch of flavor I get in every sip. And there’s nothing like the jump-start coffee gives my brain in the morning. But I also know that coffee has bunches of...

Read This

Ocean Organism KILLS Resistant Cancer Cells

Cancer treatments essentially come in two “flavors.” There are the sickening meds that poison the cancerous cells (and sometimes the healthy ones, too), like chemotherapy. Or there are the physical “slash and burn” options such as surgery and radiation. There are times that either or both might be necessary. But let’s face it, cancer treatments...

Read This

Nutrient Fix for Deadly "Orphan Condition"

Venous thromboembolism is what I call an “orphan condition.” The chances are high that you’ve never even heard of it before. But we should discuss it more often because it’s underdiagnosed, SERIOUS, and preventable. A (VTE) happens when a blood clot forms in a vein. When that clot is in a DEEP vein (usually in...

Read This

"Liquid Gold" Packs a Powerful Healing Punch

Bone broth has popped up on grocery store shelves nationwide in the last few years. And I couldn’t be happier about it! I love to drink bone broth. But I used to have to make my own “liquid gold.” And to be honest… it’s time-consuming. Now, you can pop down to your local supermarket and...

Read This

Diabetes Risk PLUMMETS with THIS Vitamin

I’ve got to be honest with you. When it comes to health, the future is looking a bit grim. If you’re no spring chicken, a tsunami of poor health could be headed your way. Recent research has found that 25 percent of people over 65 ALREADY have diabetes. But it gets worse. Over 50 percent...

Read This

MAILBAG: Exercise AFTER a Heart Attack?

“My wife had a heart attack a few months ago. She’s sitting around and doing even less than she did before. I’m a regular reader and know you’ve mentioned moving is important for heart attack patients. What are some safe things she can do to keep moving? How much should she move?” – Rob from...

Read This

Olive Oil Compound WOWS Researchers

Olive oil has been getting some well-deserved attention the last few years. So it would be easy to assume that the golden oil’s status as a health food was recently earned. But the truth is, olive oil has been considered a healthy staple in the human diet since it was first developed 600 years ago....

Read This

NEW Medicinal Mushroom Benefit UNCOVERED

I’m a big fan of medicinal mushrooms. Almost everyone has eaten a standard mushroom on a pizza or in a spaghetti sauce, of course. But most folks have yet to experience medical mushrooms’ power to improve our health. Medicinal mushrooms are already used to treat heart, liver, and brain conditions. They can boost the immune...

Read This