Americans are visiting their doctors more often for digestive problems than any other health issue. Heart burn, indigestion, bloating, cramping, and constipation rank as the top complaints. Anyone who has even had a stomach ache knows that when your digestive system is not happy, your whole body is affected. You just don’t feel like doing much of anything.

Digestive problems can be caused by a variety of things. The most common culprits are poor diet, stress, antibiotic, other drug use, and genetics. Some of the causes can rather easily be addressed; others, like genetics are not so simple.

Because the digestive system is a complicated lattice work of several key organs and affected by several other outside influences; diagnosing the cause of individual digestive problems can be tricky, costly, and often yield no specific results. We do know that there is a balance of good vs. bad bacteria, acid vs alkali, - even good stress vs. bad that must be maintained to keep the digestive system happy.

Just a few years ago most Americans had never even heard of probiotics, much less knew what they were. Thanks to the media and advertising, ‘probiotics’ is now a household word. We now know how important they are and what they are. We know that without enough of these ‘good’ bacteria our digestive systems won’t be in good working order. Unfortunately, there are many culprits that rob our bodies of these important critters: stress, antibiotics, poor diet. Luckily, replenishing them is easy and inexpensive. They’ve been added to foods like yogurt and can be found in supplement form that is shelf stable (does not require refrigeration).

Even though probiotics have received most of the attention, what we are now learning is that they do not act alone. The digestive system also relies on enzymes to help keep it happy. These enzymes are numerous and have been grouped together and called appropriately; ‘digestive enzymes’. These enzymes are necessary for the breakdown of food.

Most natural foods, like fruits and vegetables contain the enzymes necessary to digest them. Unfortunately, Americans are eating fewer ‘natural’ foods and are instead consuming more ‘processed’ foods. Unlike natural foods, processed foods do not come prepackaged with the enzymes needed to digest them. Even though our body makes its own menu of digestive enzymes, it is often not enough for the amount of processed foods we consume. Additionally, as we age our production of these enzymes diminishes. To maintain a good concentration of digestive enzymes, most of us will need a little help in replenishing them. A good source for additional digestive enzymes is to eat more fruit and vegetable (but we know that is not a piece of advice that is usually followed). Or you can get them in supplements.

If you’ve experienced digestive health issues (and have on more than on one occasion turned to Tums or Prevacid); try a new approach. Because chances are those ‘solutions’ were only temporary and didn’t solve the problem…. only masked the symptoms. Enough studies have shown that supplementing with probiotics and digestive enzymes have helped reduce the ‘problem’. In the long run, it’s less expensive and most likely more effective. Additionally, probiotics and digestive enzymes do not come with a list of possible ‘side effects’ like those other over-the-counter products!