Spring allergies can be a nuisance, yet an unexpected tale featuring my mother-in-law’s escapade into dumpster diving offers a whimsical insight into gut health and its possible roll in allergies.
Our family had just finished a delicious meal at my in-law’s house when my mother-in-law asked how we like the dinner plates. We all glanced down at the white plastic plates with a gold decorated rim and waited. The mischievous smirk on her face told us we were about to hear a story.
Sure enough, the night before she was a server at a church dinner where these plates were used. After everyone left, she climbed into the dumpster to retrieve the plates to clean and use for our dinner today.
Oh. My. Goodness.
We laughed so hard our stomachs hurt as we pictured our 78-year-old mother dumpster diving.
Imagine your gut as a dumpster. All the food you eat—good, bad, or otherwise—hits your stomach to be digested. Just as a dumpster needs regular maintenance to prevent overflow and pest infestation, a healthy stomach will naturally produce HCl—hydrochloric acid—to break the food down into small particles and move it on to the next phase of digestion. It’s stomach hygiene.
When there isn’t enough HCl, food isn't broken down effectively, and undigested particles can enter your intestines triggering an immune response: inflammation, sinus drainage, headaches, sore throat, etc. The undigested particles can also breach the gut barrier and enter your bloodstream, further exacerbating the immune response. As a result, you become more susceptible to more allergies over time—seasonal, environmental and food allergies.
When your immune system gets activated because of undigested food, it’s like your body is calling pest control when pests swarm around a smelly, overflowing dumpster. Sure, the symptoms may disappear for a day or two, but the cause is still not addressed. The dumpster needs to be emptied and cleaned. The stomach needs hydrochloric acid.
With proper amounts of HCL, digestion improves, reducing the chance of undigested food causing trouble in your gut, decreasing inflammation and the risk of triggering an immune response that causes allergies.
Various factors such as stress, aging, diet, and certain medical conditions can lead to a decrease in production of HCl. VerVita’s #1 supplement choice for supporting healthy digestion is Gastro-Digest II.
The formula contains two types of hydrochloric acid, Betaine HCl and L-glutamic acid HCl, which are needed to digest the food you eat. HCl breaks down fats and proteins and also destroys any bacteria or other microorganisms that find their way into your food.
Additional ingredients such as beet root, pepsin, ox bile, choline, and bromelain all work synergistically to support the health of vital digestive organs including your liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.
Maintain a healthy gut as one way to reduce the risk of allergies and enjoy the beauty of spring without the discomfort of sneezing and sniffles.
…..See Spring Allergies Part 2: Your Filtration System is Backing Up