How to Measure Your Body Fat

Raena Morgan: Hi, I’m Raena Morgan with iHealthTube, visiting with Nena Dockery. She’s an expert on digestion and enzymes—what’s going on in the stomach? Nena Dockery: Well, really, the stomach is where digestion, for the most part, actually, simply begins. It is interesting—I teach some classes at a local college, and I had a student come up to me—we were not even studying digestion at the time, but he was asking me a question about digestion, and about the digestion occurring in the stomach. And, it was his understanding, or misunderstanding, that that’s where digestion occurs, and that’s where we absorb the nutrients from our food. And really, that’s somewhat incorrect, because except for a very few nutrients—our nutrients from our food—our digestive process actually occurs—the bulk of it occurs—in the small intestine; so, very little actually occurs in the stomach. Protein digestion begins, carbohydrate digestion begins, fat digestion begins through the action of some enzymes [in] that region, in that time, but most of it actually occurs in the small intestine. And that is because the food… simply begins to be broken down in the stomach and then it proceeds into the small intestine where the bulk of digestive enzymes do their job. And, after the food is broken down to its simplest components, or nutrients, then those nutrients are absorbed through the small intestinal wall. So, really, in the stomach very little digestion is occurring. So, when we think about— oh my stomach hurts, you know, I’ve got indigestion—we think of it being in our stomach. It’s really, usually, a process that is occurring in our small intestine. Raena Morgan: So, that is where the discomfort would be occurring? Nena Dockery: Right, normally in the intestines. Raena Morgan: In the intestines. So we think of it as stomach indigestion but it’s really intestinal indigestion. Nena Dockery: Right. Now, there are some things, some problems that can occur in the stomach, such as heartburn; it’s usually a product of something going wrong in the stomach. In other words, the gastric acid that is released in the stomach is backing up into the esophagus, but as far as the bulk of digestion [goes], it is actually occurring in the small intestine. And, the absorption of our nutrients definitely occurs in the small intestine. Raena Morgan: Okay, well, what is the importance of intestinal health, good intestinal health? Nena Dockery: Oh, it is very, very important, because if we do not have the functioning of the enzymes that are released both by the pancreas into the small intestine and the functioning of the enzymes that are found in the small intestine, then our food cannot be completely broken down. And, if it’s not completely broken down then we don’t absorb the nutrients from it through the intestinal wall, and we end up with a multitude of problems with digestion. Raena Morgan: And, there are a multitude of problems with digestion. You go to any pharmacy and you just see rows of digestive aids. And, that’s coming from lack of intestinal good health? Nena Dockery: Oh yes. When I first started working for National Enzyme Company, around 10 years ago, I read a marketing statistic that around 30 million had some sort of digestive problems. And, each year I would look at that same statistic, or a similar one, and that number has steadily increased to the point now where it’s well over a 100 million people. Raena Morgan: 100 million people have digestive problems? Nena Dockery: Right. Raena Morgan: And are taking aids for that? Nena Dockery: And are taking aids for that, and that doesn’t even [include] the people who may take an antacid 2 or 3 times a week. And, it’s to the point where we consider that as normal. I think one of the classic examples [is] the boiling frog. You put it in water and you slowly heat that water and that frog will be boiled. But if you put the frog immediately into boiling water he would jump out, or try to jump out. And, the same thing is true of our digestive health; it has occurred over a number of years, and we have become accustomed to having poor digestion. And, we don’t even recognize, I think, at this point, that it is a problem. It [has] become so normal for me to have to take an antacid, or a number of people to have to take an antacid that that is what has become the norm. And we see the vast increase in the number of even prescription antacid products or digestive products that have become over the counter digestive aids because the problem is so prevalent, it [has] become essentially normal for us. Raena Morgan: Okay, well, thank you very much Nena. We’ll talk some more about this. Nena Dockery: Thank you.