What are the main gastrointestinal, or GI complaints?

Heartburn
GERD or Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
Duodenal ulcer
Crohn’s disease
IBS or Irritable bowel syndrome
Diverticulitis and diverticulosis
Constipation
Helicobacter pylori infection
Intestinal parasites
Gall bladder inflammation or cholecystitis
Liver diseases including hepatitis and cirrhosis

Almost all of these conditions can be treated effectively without pharmaceutical drugs; some of the conditions will need short term pharmaceutical treatment followed by non-drug treatment.

Some facts about GI complaints:
Heart burn and GERD are often caused by too little stomach acid which results in a breakdown of normally present reflexes within the GI system. This includes slow stomach emptying and abnormal closure of the sphincter between the stomach and duodenum; in addition, the lower esophageal sphincter does not close completely after a meal, allowing reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus. This results in lowered secretion of pancreatic enzymes and liver bile, resulting in maldigestion of foods. Constipation and intestinal inflammation are two consequences.

Crohn’s disease and IBS can often be the results of specific foods that cause intestinal and bowel inflammation. Please do not let a surgeon remove your intestines or bowel before you talk with a physician conversant in nutrition and diet.

There are blood tests that help identify foods that you react to; these panels typically test about 100 common foods. Another method to identify reactive foods is to eat only hypoallergenic foods for a few weeks, and then add other foods into the diet one at a time, observing for adverse reactions.

Alpine Physicians uses several different effective gut healing protocols to help eliminate your specific complaint.

Intestinal parasites can also cause a variety of gastrointestinal complaints, and are much more common in North America than most people realize. The following data are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
Trichomonas is the most common parasitic infection in the U.S., accounting for an estimated 7.4 million cases per year.
Giardia and Cryptosporidium are estimated to cause 2 million and 300,000 infections annually in the U.S., respectively. Cryptosporidiosis is the most frequent cause of recreational water-related disease outbreaks in the U.S., causing multiple outbreaks each year.
There are an estimated 1.5 million new Toxoplasma infections and 400–4,000 cases of congenital toxoplasmosis in the U.S. each year; 1.26 million persons in this country have ocular involvement due to toxoplasmosis; and toxoplasmosis is the third leading cause of deaths due to food-borne illnesses (375+ deaths).

Hepatitis (chronic) can be improved significantly with specific nutrients. The course of acute hepatitis as well as recovery can be improved and shortened.

Cirrhosis can be improved and symptoms decreased with intravenous phospholipids.