Class Notes from Lesson 3-8 Constitutional

 Lesson 3-8: Upper GI, Small Intestine

Review of chewing and saliva... again.... getting tedious.... really... I got it the first 3-4 times.

The food has made it to the duodenum! If digestion took as long to do as it does for MM to explain, we'd all stop eating and die. This is literally a process that could be summarized and written on a post card. It is complex, but not complicated.

Gallbladder contracts and secretes more quickly than pancreas. Bile and alkaline combine to make a kind of soap.

Aside: Pepsin supplementation good after surgery, hospitalization, long fast, etc, to re-start digestion. Enzyme supplement.

"Soap" digests fats. Digested fats absorb into lymph system. If your gallbladder is removed, you have to eat smaller amounts of fats. Butter fats do not require bile for digestion - digested in stomach. Women more prone to gall stones because they excrete cholesterol into gall bladder. Eating breakfast evacuates gallbladder - don't skip breakfast!

Now, I'm craving a "full English" breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs, kippers, blood pudding, fried bread, baked beans ,bubble and squeak, tea, a pint of beer, a fried tomato.... sometimes mushrooms and onions browned in butter.. we have a wonderful Southern, country breakfast version.... no baked beans or bubble and squeak, but maybe some hash browns or fried potatoes, and all of the above, plus a cucumber, chopped up and mixed into grits, topped with cheese... shad roe instead of kippers (if you are very lucky... shad roe isn't commercially sold anymore), a buttermilk biscuit with butter and honey (or molasses, jam, etc) instead of fried bread... liver pudding or mush instead of blood pudding... and bourbon and cream in the coffee. Red eye or Cajun style gravy is very nice... but some insist on ketchup.... which is a shame if you are an adult. Lots of butter and black pepper.... maybe some hot sauce. My tastes tend to be French in most everything but breakfast. I'd rather have brain tacos from an unregulated taco truck any day than just bread! Well, maybe if it is good bread served with really good butter or gravy... and some liver pate... but still. I'm very close to drooling right now!

Fat an bitter - olive oil and lemon juice on bitter salad greens is good for evacuating gallbladder.

Binging on anything is not good. Whether food or alcohol, it alters brain chemistry.

All the digestive juices are essential to digest foreign proteins. Undigested foreign proteins cause allergies.

98% of fat, protein and starch digestion occurs before small intestine. Absorption occurs in small intestine.

Secom is full of nasty stuff. Can become toxic if digestion is not efficient.

Intestinal flora breaks down nasty stuff and gives us essential vitamins.

Glad this one is over - I'm hungry! I could really go for some liver and onions, fried green tomatoes, fried squash, a horseradish sauce and some greens.

Here is the link to the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine Course

https://www.swsbm.com/school/