Absorbtion and the gut

[mattnapa]

I have read a fair amount of the threads here, and by the way they are terrific, but I have not seen much dealing with supplement asbsorbtion. Magnesium deficency is certainly a huge problem with a lot of sick folks. But are they sick because they have neglected magnesium in some way or is it becuse their digestive system is not absorbing it properly. Probiotics are certainly a big new trend and may provide some of the answers, but what role might the PPI legions be playing? PPI's being the proton pump inhibitors such as Nexium, Prilosec, etc. Even if the PPI's are not a major part of the problem the largely unaddressed issue of hypocholidia, or too little stomach acid, may be a significant part of the proble. Linus Pauling believed part of the benefit of ascorbic acid was it's acidyfying effect on the gut and the subsequent improvement of absorbtion of essential nutrients. Betaine has become a mainstream recomendation of alternative practioners recently for those who may have a hypochloridia problem. Beyond this I think we may find the speed and care in chewing one's food may play a bigger role in digestion than has been previously realized. Anyway, my prediction is one of the main foci for health in the future will be gut physiology

 

[mattnapa]

Apologies for the lack of spell check on the last message. I got locked in a computer glitch and choose to post it the way it was.

 

[Gaby]

Hi Calypso,

There is some material about gut absorption in the recommended book reading, but if you find articles about it, you can post them here. We'll try to do the same.