The intestine, root of well-being or just the opposite. Never so appropriate the phrase that ran over generations in terms of health: “We are what we eat.”
The Greek physician Hippocrates, (460 BC – 370 BC) considered the father of Western medicine, argued that diseases began in the intestines. His approach also maintained that the body had the property of caring for itself with therapy based on healing power of nature. This natural process focused on diet, enemas and plants.
Many years later, with too much human intervention in nature, where plants harvested on a large scale contain agrochemicals and “poisons” that are not harmless to the body, current studies show, as Hippocrates arguedthat the intestine and its functioning will determine the general well-being of the remaining organs of the body.
A branch of alternative medicine associates the malfunction of the intestine not only with digestive diseases, but also respiratory, dermatological, different types of headaches, depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue, among others.
IT ONLY MISSES PRESS
The intestine is responsible for processing, transporting and absorbing food. So far what is known in general terms, but it is not only the organ that absorbs nutrients, but it is also a key organ of the immune system.
In the walls of the small and large intestines, under the mucosal barrier, live between 70% and 80% of the defense cells, called leukocytes or white blood cells.
There they wait to attack anything foreign that leaks in through a secretion called a cytokine. These foreign elements can be microorganisms, toxins or poorly digested food, among others.
DEFENSE AND ATTACK
The mucosal barrier in the walls of the intestine is weak and can lose its filtering capacity.. In this situation, the depletion of the immune system ends up weakening the defense capacity.
With this scenario, two things can happen: on the one hand, leaving the body exposed to contracting infections and on the other, the excessive production of cytokines that enter the bloodstream, generates a silent chronic inflammatory cascade that produces generalized irritation.
The question is what are the elements or under what circumstances the mucosal barrier of the intestine can be broken.
“The causes can be stress, emotional crises, painkillers, antibiotics, hormonal changes in women, childbirth, pregnancy, digestive or COVID-type viruses, surgeries, especially gallbladder surgeries,” he responds to NOTICIAS, Facundo Pereyrainternal Medicine specialist, gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy.
Cause and effect. Pereyra, born in Cipolletticompleted his academic training in Spain, Australia and the United States, but together with his father, Juan Carlos Pereyra, a famous gastroenterologist surgeon from Santiago based in Patagonia, he found the possible answer to the different problems of many patients.
A revelation arising from innumerable experiences that he obtained in the exercise of his profession was that many ailments dissipated if the digestive system rested through a correct diet.
If something went wrong in the intestine, the whole body would be affected. His father had watched him for a few years, although little and nothing was written. “You strictly remove from the patient everything that inflames the intestine: flour, sugar, processed foods, dairy products, legumes and some vegetables for two months and you will see that he has no more digestive problems, and everything improves, the migraine, osteoarthritis and even depression”, he says his father told him
“Over time I became convinced of something very real that medicine still does not accept: many of the chronic health problems are related to some degree of malfunction of the intestine and the community of microorganisms that live within it, better known as as microbiotics.
From 2013 to 2019, Pereyra Jr. embraced this quest and developed a comprehensive digestive health program. Today he is a health influencer with more than two hundred thousand followers on Instagram, Facebook groups, WhatsApp, online consultations, in addition to his clinic in Cipolletti and care at the local hospital.
This year he published the book “Reset your intestines”, More than 25 symptoms and diseases can be activated when the intestine malfunctions, according to his theory. The solution that is indicated is the so-called “reset of the intestine”: “That means that we repair it to a state prior to when it begins to malfunction”, explains the specialist.
by Adriana Vanoli
