Genetically Modified Food Note: Choosing a diet of GM foods or non-GM foods (or a combination of both), should be a personal choice, determined by an individual, with guidance from health care providers. The Gastrointestinal Society encourages readers to research which foods are the best fit for their health needs and lifestyle so they can [...]
Plant-Based Low FODMAP Diet Plant-based diet What do oranges, almonds, basil, and olives all have in common? They’re all plants. This article will discuss what a plant-based diet is, how to eat a plant-based low FODMAP diet, and practical tips and strategies to get more plants into your diet, whether you’re following a low FODMAP [...]
Blood-Based Biomarkers for Diagnosing IBS-D When patients present with symptoms of chronic diarrhea, physicians often determine it to be either irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D), inflammatory bowel disease (primarily Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), and/or celiac disease. While highly accurate testing for celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is available, screening for IBS [...]
Advances in Diverticular Disease and Diet New evidence is shedding light on the ways diet influences diverticular disease and is reinforcing some of the Gastrointestinal Society’s long-held positions, such as how nuts and seeds are safe to eat. This article will focus on the latest research and how that influences recommendations on what you can [...]
Toxic Relationships Between Your Liver and Herbs Herbal medicines continue to be increasingly popular therapies for many illnesses and conditions. More than two decades ago, we published one of our first articles on herbal medicine in the Inside Tract® newsletter.1 Since then, we have written about herbal supplements, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and other herbal remedies, [...]
News Releases The GI Society and its related charity, The Canadian Society of Intestinal Research, frequently appear in the media; journalists are encouraged to use the information on this site in feature articles and news stories provided that the Gastrointestinal Society is informed, and a clear acknowledgement of the Society as the original source is included. BC [...]
Digestion Most of us don’t think about our digestive tracts beyond what we put into it, although those who have a digestive disease or disorder often worry a bit more about what comes out. Compare this to the skin, where a healthy complexion is closely linked to our perception of beauty. The musculoskeletal [...]
Gallbladder and Gallstones The gallbladder is a small sac-like organ located below the liver. Its primary function is to store and concentrate bile, an important digestive fluid made by the liver. When fat enters the upper portion of the small intestine (duodenum), bile flows from the liver through bile ducts to the duodenum. When the [...]
Click here to download a PDF of this information. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) Gastroesophageal reflux disease occurs when the upper portion of the digestive tract is not functioning properly, causing stomach contents to flow back into the esophagus. The esophagus is a muscular tube linking the mouth to the stomach. In normal digestion, a specialized [...]
Click here to download a PDF of this information. Hepatitis B The Liver The liver is the largest solid internal organ and it is located underneath the ribcage in the right upper part of the abdomen. Although liver size depends on a person’s age, body size, shape, gender, and disease state, it is about the [...]
Colic Helped by Probiotics Colic is quite common among babies, affecting approximately 3-28% of newborns. Colic is defined by excessive crying for no apparent reason, for at least three hours a day, on a minimum of three days per week, over a period of three or more weeks. Recent studies show that certain bad bacteria, [...]
Jordan Richardson's Story Seven years ago, I was 19 years old and just deciding what my future would be. I had a job delivering pizza, I spent most of my Friday nights at the local watering hole with my friends, and most of my tip money went to beer and nachos. Such was my life [...]
Celiac Disease's Associated Risks Celiac disease is an autoimmune gastrointestinal medical condition in which damage to the inner lining of the small intestine occurs. For those who have celiac disease, a substance called gliadin (a grain protein in gluten), which is found in wheat, barley, rye, and triticale, triggers an abnormal immune response that flattens [...]
Celiac Disease: Still Vastly Under-Diagnosed What is celiac disease? Celiac disease is a common, inherited disorder estimated to affect as many as 1 in 100 persons in North America. In genetically susceptible individuals, the ingestion of gluten triggers this autoimmune disease. Continued exposure to specific proteins (gluten) contained in wheat, rye, and barley damages the [...]
Mouth Ulcers and Celiac Disease In a recent study published in the journal, BMC Gastroenterology1, Iranian researchers found that recurrent mouth sores (recurrent aphthous stomatitis, or RAS) can be the only symptom of celiac disease. Also known as canker sores, RAS are small ulcers with a red base and a yellow layer that usually appear [...]
Children with Reflux (GERD) Whether your child is a toddler or a teenager, they will occasionally suffer from diarrhea, upset tummy, excessive burping, abdominal pain, or heartburn. Sometimes stress from a big event in a child’s life – such as the first day of school, exams, or a sporting event – triggers a digestive upset. [...]
Worms and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Have we become too clean? The prevalence of helminths – harmless minute parasitic worms – in our population has been drastically decreasing since the middle of the 20th century. Historically, humans co-existed with these creatures in what researchers are now coming to believe to be an essential immune regulatory relationship. [...]
Biopsychosocial Aspects of Functional GI Disorders “It’s all in your head!”, “There’s nothing wrong with you.”, “All tests are negative.”...these phrases may be familiar to those with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or functional dyspepsia (FD). Yet these individuals – with functional gastrointestinal disorders – are suffering from very real, frustrating, and sometimes debilitating symptoms. For [...]
So You Think You Know Hepatitis? Many people assume hepatitis is a disease that only affects alcoholics, drug users, and those who are unvaccinated. Actually, the word hepatitis is broken down this way: hepat originates from the Greek word for liver and the suffix -itis is Greek for inflammation. Therefore, hepatitis refers to any process [...]
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Hormone Replacement Therapy Please don’t hate us because we’re men. As a young male, I have formed the opinion that in many respects, the female gender has drawn the shorter end of the evolutionary stick. Here are a few points that illustrate how I came to this conclusion. As I [...]
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