The Gut "Connections to Health & Disease"

Introduction

The digestive system is home to many of the organs that help digest food into vitamins and nutrients and has a bidirectional with the central nervous system. The organs that consist in the digestive system include the stomach, the intestines (both large and small), and the liver to name a few. When there are unwanted factors and pathogens that enter through the mouth and into the digestive system can cause problems and unwanted symptoms like inflammation, leaky gut, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) pop up over time causing a person to be in pain. In this article, we will be taking a look at what the liver does in the body, what is NAFLD and its symptoms, as well as some treatments to prevent NAFLD’s effects on the body from rising. By referring patients to qualified and skilled providers who specialized in gastroenterology services. To that end, and when appropriate, we advise our patients to refer to our associated medical providers based on their examination. We find that education is the key to asking valuable questions to our providers. Dr. Alex Jimenez DC provides this information as an educational service only. Disclaimer

Can my insurance cover it? Yes, in case you are uncertain here is the link to all the insurance providers we cover. If you have any questions, please call Dr. Jimenez at 915-850-0900.

What Does The Liver Do?

About the size of a football, the liver is a reddish-brown wedge-shaped organ that has many functions that help the body stay functional. Research studies show that the liver has many physiological processes like macronutrient metabolism, blood volume regulation, immune support, helps control growth signaling pathways for the endocrine system, and many more. Located in the upper right-hand portion of the body and on top of the stomach, the liver is an essential organ that provides proteins and hormones that the other organs need in the body. Other research studies have shown that some of the jobs that the liver does for the body include:

• Stores glycogen and vitamins for the body to use later
• Make bile fluid to help the body digest food
• Cleans toxins out of the blood
• Metabolizes proteins, carbohydrates, and fats 
• Produces substances to help with blood clots

General Disclaimer *

The information herein is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional, licensed physician, and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make your own health care decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified health care professional. Our information scope is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, sensitive health issues, functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from a wide array of disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and support, directly or indirectly, our clinical scope of practice.* Our office has made a reasonable attempt to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.

We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900.

Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*

email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com

Licensed in: Texas & New Mexico*

The role of the gut-liver axis in NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) has been examining probiotics and have found some new information on the gut microbiome and how probiotics work in NAFLD. The new information that future research found was quite interesting. It stated that there were about 26 major randomized controlled trials that used probiotics for NALFD that ranged between 20 to 200 individuals in four weeks to 1 year. The laboratory assessments included liver enzymes and anthropometric parameters in the body. Some of the studies added cardiovascular risk factors like C-reactive proteins and lipid profiles as markers for insulin resistance. Furthermore, most of the studies have used a probiotic formulation that includes multiple species, although a few were conducted by using a single strain.

What NAFLD does to the body is that it becomes a hepatic consequence of metabolic syndrome. This includes obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. What is interesting about the connection between gut microbiota and NAFLD has been attracting a significant amount of attention in recent years. The data has shown that the gut microbiota can affect the hepatic lipid metabolism while also influencing the balance between pro/anti-inflammatory effectors in the liver.