Home Prevention What helps digestion after eating. How quickly does our stomach digest food? Psychological factors - how anxiety and depression affect digestion

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What helps digestion after eating. How quickly does our stomach digest food? Psychological factors - how anxiety and depression affect digestion

The digestive system breaks down food into small parts, allowing your body to get the maximum amount of energy and nutrients. Different kinds food is digested at different rates. Although the speed digestive system depends on individual characteristics body, however, there are ways to speed up this process. After reading our article, you will learn ways to speed up the digestion of food.

Steps

Change your lifestyle

Exercise regularly. Increased physical activity Helps food pass through the digestive system faster. This helps speed up the digestion process and promotes better absorption of food.

Rest. Sleep gives your digestive organs time to rest, increasing your ability to digest food quickly and efficiently. By making some changes to your sleep routine, you will reap some benefits for your digestive system in the long run.

Drink fluids. Drinking fluids, especially water or tea during or after meals, helps stimulate digestion. The liquid will help speed up the process of breaking down food and give your body the moisture it needs.

Eliminate or limit your intake of dairy products. Overall, yogurt is good for people. But if symptoms of lactose intolerance occur, yogurt should be excluded from the diet along with other dairy products. It is not known exactly how dairy products cause constipation or stomach upset, but they do slow down the digestion process. Lactose intolerance can cause bloating, gas, and indigestion, which can slow down the digestion process.

Eliminate or limit your consumption of red meat. Red meat can cause constipation and make it difficult to have regular bowel movements, which is very important for your health. fast digestion food. There are many reasons negative influence red meat on the digestive process.

Red meat contains a large amount of fat, so the body needs more time to digest it.
Red meat is rich in iron, which can lead to constipation.

Change your eating habits

Eat small, frequent meals throughout the day. Don't overload your digestive system, but instead eat small meals throughout the day to speed up the digestion process. Try to eat 4-5 small meals a day. Try eating every three hours to curb excessive hunger.

Choose fresh rather than processed foods. Highly processed foods are more difficult for the body to digest. Instead, choose fresh foods that are free of preservatives and other chemical substances. Eat fruits, vegetables, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, beans, nuts, seeds and other foods that help ease digestion.

Chew your food thoroughly. The chewing process starts the digestive system, but it is often underestimated. Proper chewing increases the surface area of the ground pieces of food several times and allows enzymes to break down more food in your body. Breaking down more surface area of food with saliva is a great start to efficient digestion.

Use of additives

Consider taking probiotics. Probiotics are bacteria that help maintain the natural balance of microorganisms in the intestines. There is evidence that taking probiotic supplements can help the digestive process by retaining beneficial bacteria located in the intestines. Probiotics are also found in some foods, so if you don't want to take a supplement, you can still get probiotics by simply including certain foods in your diet.

Take enzyme supplements to improve digestion. Over-the-counter enzyme supplements can help improve digestion by supplementing the body's natural enzymes. Enzymes break down food into its component parts and allow the body to better absorb it. If these supplements are effective, they will help speed up the digestion process.

Drink tinctures. Tinctures (often alcoholic) are made from various herbs, barks, and roots that help the digestion process. Alcohol acts as a solvent for the plant extract and also helps preserve it longer. beneficial features. Taking tinctures before or after meals can speed up the digestion process. However, tinctures have not been scientifically proven to have beneficial effects on the digestive system, and not enough research has been conducted to establish their effectiveness.

You difficulty digesting food? Is digestion difficult and slow? We investigate the causes (diseases and bad habits), remedies and what to do to relieve symptoms when they occur.

First of all, calm down, digestive problems are a very common disorder: suffice it to say that in Russia 20-30% of visits to the doctor are due to difficulties with digesting food!

In most cases, to eliminate digestive disorders, it is enough to follow simple tips, such as improving your lifestyle or limiting certain foods and drinks; but in other cases, digestive difficulties may hide the disease gastrointestinal tract or even extraintestinal.

Main causes of slow and difficult digestion

Digestive disorders such as heartburn, acidity and heaviness are very common nowadays in the Western world, and are mainly a consequence of lifestyle and diseases such as food or drug intolerance.

Let's look at them in more detail.

Bad habits that slow down digestion

Analyzing the points listed above, it is obvious that the main reasons for slow digestion are derived from personal habits, roughly speaking, poor lifestyle. Let's look at what aspects negatively affect the digestive system.

When you skip meals or eat a large portion at once, it puts undue stress on the gastrointestinal tract, and given the fact that digestion is much slower and more labor-intensive than usual.

Also fried foods significantly extend the digestion time, especially those that are 100% soaked in oil.

Alcohol is important factor, which delays gastric emptying (the effect depends on the dose: the more, the longer it takes to empty the stomach).

Cigarette smoke also slows down the secretion of acid in the stomach.

In addition, sedentary behavior may increase gastric emptying time and intestinal transit time.

Difficult to digest foods

Often those who follow healthy image life, may complain of digestive disorders associated with the consumption of certain foods or medications:

All starchy foods: You may have difficulty digesting pizza, bread, and cakes that are made using Saccharomyces Cerevisiae yeast or brewer's yeast. The cause may be yeast intolerance. Often, certain sources of carbohydrates with a high glycemic index, such as pasta or rice, can also slow down digestion, especially if they are combined with foods containing a lot of fat: in these cases, it is recommended to eat whole grain foods, as well as keep sugar levels under control in blood .
Milk: People who are lactose or milk protein intolerant often experience bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea after drinking cow's milk. You may suspect intolerance when indigestion is accompanied by nausea, dizziness, or constipation. A solution may be to use vegetable drinks such as soy, rice or almond milk.
Meat: It is difficult for all people to digest, especially fatty meats (veal, lamb and pork). The fats contained in it make digestion difficult and increase the time it takes for the stomach to empty.
Fish: As with meat, some types of fish can cause poor digestion. Risk areas include eel, mackerel, salmon and tuna.
Onion and garlic: They weaken the tone of the lower esophageal sphincter, the valve that separates the esophagus and stomach. Their use should be avoided in case of reflux and dyspepsia.
Spices: In particular, mint and pepper, which increase the heat and acidity.
Cabbage and tomatoes: Vegetables in general, being rich in fiber, speed up the emptying of the stomach and hence do not cause digestive problems. Only some of them, in particular, cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and turnips) can cause gas and bloating. Some people also complain of intolerance to tomatoes, the consumption of which is accompanied by hives, nausea, and fluid retention.

Taking medications and digestive disorders

Some medications can cause digestive problems, but these tend to occur with long-term treatment:

Potassium salts, are suitable for the treatment of hypertension, dehydration and replenishment of potassium deficiency. High doses of potassium salts can cause ulcers, stomach upset and nausea.
Alendronates, used to treat osteoporosis, can cause esophageal ulcers, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain.
Antibiotics cause fermentation in the intestines and bloating because they kill intestinal flora.
Digitalis, used for heart disease, often causes lack of appetite, nausea and vomiting.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin - one of the most common causes of gastritis and peptic ulcer, because they reduce the protective power of the gastric mucosa and increase the secretion of acidic substances.

Psychological factors - how anxiety and depression affect digestion

Scientists have discovered a close connection between digestive disorders and anxiety in people who evoke somatic emotions. Stress and emotional stress may cause difficulty digesting food, as in the case of hysterical dyspepsia, but the mechanisms are still little known.

Hormonal changes: pregnancy, cycle and menopause

Underlying hormonal changes menstrual cycles, may interfere digestive processes: An imbalance between estrogen and progesterone causes excessive bowel movement, often leading to episodes of constipation, diarrhea and digestive difficulties.

Hormonal changes, along with intense levels of stress, are responsible for poor digestion during menopause and pregnancy.

In particular, during pregnancy, the level of progesterone increases, which has a relaxing effect on the muscles and, accordingly, loss of tone of the lower esophageal sphincter. This makes it easier for stomach contents to rise into the esophagus. In addition, the intestinal muscles do not contract strongly enough, the intestinal contents move slowly and constipation occurs.

Difficulty digesting food appear at the beginning of pregnancy, but the situation worsens from the fourth month, when the stomach begins to grow and the fetus puts pressure on the stomach and intestines. There are very few remedies against digestive difficulties during pregnancy, since such medications, due to their high calcium content, cannot be used by pregnant women.

Diseases and symptoms associated with poor digestion

Digestive disorders occur more often after eating and are often associated with banal gluttony.

But, sometimes the same symptoms can be associated with problems of the esophagus, stomach, liver and biliary tract, for example, if they occur in old age digestive disorders half an hour after a meal, “intestinal ischemia” can be suspected.

On the contrary, an ulcer duodenum gives symptoms directly during meals, and nausea before meals may indicate hepatobiliary dysfunction. Poor digestion is often associated with eating a large dinner after fasting all day.

Often discomfort occurs regardless of food intake, for example during sleep: in the case of people suffering from reflux disease. In this case, it may be useful to raise the head of the bed by 10 cm.

Below we explain, what diseases can cause digestive problems, and what symptoms they manifest.

Stomach diseases

Reflux disease, hernia hiatus aperture	The reason is the rise of stomach contents into the esophagus. This occurs due to decreased tone of the lower esophageal sphincter.	Excess acidity, bitterness in the mouth, halitosis, pain and burning in the stomach area, insomnia, high blood pressure and tachycardia.
Ulcer	Caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which destroys the gastroduodenal mucosa, making the stomach walls susceptible to action gastric juice	Heartburn, pain in the upper abdomen.

Intestinal diseases

Irritable bowel syndrome (so-called “nonspecific ulcerative colitis»)	It is believed that the cause of this condition is an imbalance of intestinal flora, but it is not yet clear how this can cause digestive disorders	Bloating, flatulence, diarrhea, side pain
Celiac disease	Reduces the absorption function of sugar and nutrients; nutrients are not absorbed, remain in the intestinal lumen, ferment and form gas	Bloating, flatulence, diarrhea

Diseases of the liver, pancreas and biliary tract

Extraintestinal diseases

Digestive disorders can also cause diseases outside the gastrointestinal tract, such as diabetes mellitus, thyroid disease, inflammation of the adrenal glands and blood vessels, heart and kidney failure.

In all these cases, intestinal transit slows down, bloating and constipation develop, because the effect of the autonomic system decreases. nervous system(part of the nervous system responsible for intestinal motility).

Dyspepsia is a diagnosis of exclusion

If the symptoms are constant or periodic and persist for at least 3 months, then we can talk about functional dyspepsia. This is a diagnosis of exclusion, that is, they talk about it when the doctor excludes everything else. causes of indigestion.

Symptoms of dyspepsia: feeling of heaviness after eating, nausea, vomiting, frequent belching, drowsiness.

Consequences of slow digestion - constipation and bloating

Complications of slow digestion vary depending on the reasons that caused it. If the underlying cause of indigestion is stomach disease, such as an ulcer or reflux disease, then delayed gastric emptying leads to increased secretion of gastric juice. In case of ulceration of the mucous membrane, prolonged presence of food in the stomach can lead to perforation of the stomach wall with bleeding.

Slow digestion in the intestines suggests a slowdown in peristalsis and, consequently, the development of constipation. If digestive waste remains in the intestines for a long time, it mechanically irritates the intestinal walls and causes them to swell.

Slow digestion causes obesity

According to some experts, slow digestion can lead to weight gain: mainly due to constipation and water retention, rather than due to the accumulation of fat deposits.

However, this question is not so clear-cut, because all the foods we eat are well digested and absorbed from the intestines, regardless of the length of the journey, and with slow digestion we absorb the same number of calories as with normal digestion. Rather, the opposite situation may occur - when the stomach remains full for a long time due to slow digestion, the brain does not receive the stimulus of hunger, therefore, as a rule, such people eat less and lose weight.

Effective remedies for digestive problems

Slow and prolonged digestion of food can be, as we have seen, a consequence of disease of the stomach, intestines or, in some cases, may have an extraintestinal cause, but it can also be a consequence of improper food intake.

First digestive aid- this is maintaining a healthy lifestyle in food. Eat slowly, chew properly, reduce stress, move more - in most cases, following these recommendations will solve all digestive problems.

You can also add herbs to tea or use chewable tablets to stimulate bowel function and digestion. These drugs are most effective for functional disorders.

If digestive difficulties persist, it is necessary to consult a doctor and do research to find out the causes of intestinal disorders.

What to eat and what foods to avoid - nutrition rules

What to include in your diet to help slow digestion? In principle, you can eat anything that does not cause bloating and heartburn, the main thing is to make your meals too large and high in protein and lipids.

Other useful tips:

Eat a balanced diet, in which nutrients will be divided equally between all meals, so as not to burden digestion.
For exacerbation of digestive disorders, it may be helpful to reduce main meals and introduce two snacks in the middle and afternoon so as to more evenly distribute the load on the gastrointestinal tract.
Avoid Products that are difficult to digest, such as fried and fatty meats, the types of fish mentioned above, fats that slow down stomach emptying and cause a feeling of heaviness.
Avoid flour, milk and dairy products, in case of intolerance to these products.
When Digestive problems due to reflux It may be useful to exclude garlic, onions, and spicy foods from the diet.
If you are suffering from bloating, avoid cruciferous vegetables.
Avoid alcohol to speed up gastric emptying and from smoking to reduce burning and acidity.
Maintain the correct weight- this reduces pressure on the abdomen, especially when you sleep, this can reduce episodes of reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus.

Strategy - food diary

To find out which foods cause digestive problems, you must learn to recognize the signals that our body sends. In this light, it is useful to keep a food diary in the following form:

By filling out this chart every day for a week, it will be easier for you to understand which foods cause digestive problems, including the timing of their consumption.

Natural remedies - herbal teas and tablets.

To improve digestion we can use natural herbs in the form of teas or chewable tablets, which should be taken before meals two or three times a day.

Herbs that help us digest food better.

The digestive process in the stomach allows the body to obtain the necessary energy and nutrients. In order for food to be digested well, you must adhere to certain nutritional rules. Undigested food stagnates in the intestines, leading to constipation and inflammation, and can also poison the body.

How long does it take for food to be digested?

Digestion depends on the individual characteristics of the body. However, we can distinguish the main groups of products, depending on the speed of their absorption, which are presented in the table:

Category	Products	Duration of digestion
1	All fruits except bananas, avocados	40-45 minutes
	Vegetables
	Juices
	Berries
	Kefir
2	Fermented milk products, except cottage cheese and hard cheeses	1.5-2 hours
	Greenery
	Nuts
	Dried fruits
3	Hard cheese	2-3 hours
	Cottage cheese
	Legumes
	Cereals
	Mushrooms
4	Meat	More than 3 hours
	Fish
	Canned food
	Coffee with added milk
	Tea
	Pasta

What can you do to make food digest better?
Miscellaneous Products require a certain amount of time to fully assimilate.
It is individual and depends on many factors. It is important to know how to help the body cope with food faster, since stagnation of food in the gastrointestinal tract can provoke a number of pathologies. The absorption time depends on the foods you eat, but there are ways to speed up the process. In order for food to be digested faster, you need to do simple recommendations.

Lifestyle
It is necessary to exercise regularly. Contributes to the rapid passage of products physical activity. Food is not retained in the large intestine and is eliminated faster. Exercise stimulates contractions of the stomach muscles, which has a beneficial effect on the entire digestive system. Another condition for good gastrointestinal function is healthy sleep. During rest in the digestive organs, the ability to actively digest food increases. It is recommended to go to bed 2-3 hours after eating, so that it has time to digest; it is better to lie on your left side. You should also drink more fluids. Water helps process fiber. In addition, the liquid softens stool and prevents constipation. Drinking water stimulates the production of saliva and gastric juice, which increases the speed of digestion.

Food
For better work The gastrointestinal tract should include the following foods in the diet:
Ginger enhances the secretion of digestive enzymes.
Whole grains, vegetables and fruits, legumes. Eating such food speeds up metabolism and prevents gas formation and bloating.
Yogurt. Fermented milk product contains components that help improve digestion. Live cultures and probiotics influence the formation of beneficial bacteria in the stomach.
Ginger. Affects the synthesis of gastrointestinal enzymes and promotes contraction of stomach muscles.

You should limit your consumption of fatty and fried foods. It is difficult for the body to cope with such foods. They cause an additional release of acids into the stomach and slow down the entire digestion process. Reduce or eliminate red meat from your diet. The product contains a large amount of fat and iron, which can cause constipation.

Rules for eating
Fractional meals. During the day, it is recommended to take food 4-5 times in small portions. To avoid feeling hungry, you can eat every 3 hours.
Easily digestible food. Preference should be given fresh vegetables and fruits. It is unacceptable to use preservatives.
Proper chewing. This process is often underestimated, but chewing allows for better grinding of foods and helps enzymes break them down more easily.

Small meals allow you not to stretch the walls of the stomach. Chopped food will saturate the body, and the feeling of hunger will not return soon.

A balanced diet is the most reasonable type of nutrition today. By the term “digestion,” medicine refers to the time that food spends in our stomach. This time is enough to digest proteins and fats, since their breakdown time is equal to the time of digestion in the stomach.

With carbohydrates, things are more complicated. Here two concepts are required: “digestion”, “assimilation”. But they form the basis of the diet for a raw food diet, so clarity on this issue is important. It is when a person decides to switch to a raw food diet that the question arises, what is the rate of absorption of foods.

Unfortunately, little attention is paid to this issue, despite the fact that it is fundamental in such a food system. Separate intake does not simply mean sequential consumption of food, which is separated in time, but the intake of one class of food after digestion (assimilation) of another. It is worth saying that the time and speed of assimilation various products may vary significantly.

Let's talk now about digestion and assimilation of food.

Food is vital for our body; it receives from it the substances necessary for life: nutritional and biologically valuable. But in order to get them, you must first digest the food, first breaking it down into chemical components, and then assimilate it.

The digestion process takes a long time, it begins with enzymatic and mechanical processing of food in the oral cavity and ends in the last sections of the intestine. Such a journey of food in the body in time looks approximately as follows: food is digested in the stomach from 30 minutes to 6 hours, and continues to travel further into the stomach for up to 7-8 hours. small intestine, continuing to be broken down and absorbed along the way, and only then everything that has not had time to be digested ends up in the large intestine and can remain there for up to 20 hours.

Now let's move on to the time of digestion and assimilation of foods. This time is also commonly called the rate of digestion (assimilation) of products. But in fact, at this time, food is processed only in the stomach. So.

Vegetables:

Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, herbs - 30-40 minutes (vegetables seasoned with oil - up to 1.5 hours).
Zucchini, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, corn - boiled, digested for 40 minutes, seasoned with oil - 50.
Parsnips, beets, carrots, turnips - will be digested within 50-60 minutes.
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, chestnuts, pumpkin, yams - in 60 minutes.

Berries and fruits:

Berries and watermelon are digested in 20 minutes.
Melon, grapes, citrus fruits and other juicy fruits - 30 minutes.
Apples, pears, cherries, peaches, apricots and other fruits are digested for 40 minutes.
Fruit, fruit and vegetable salads - 30 - 50 minutes.

Liquids:

Water is absorbed almost instantly if there is no other food in the stomach. In this case, it immediately enters the intestines.
Fruit, vegetable juices are absorbed within 10-30 minutes.
Broths of varying strengths - 20-40 minutes.
Milk - up to 2 hours.

Cereals, cereals, legumes:

Buckwheat, polished rice, millet are digested in 60-80 minutes.
Barley, oatmeal, corn flour - 1-1.5 hours.
Peas, chickpeas, lentils, beans (red, white, black) - in 1.5 hours.
Soy - 2 hours.

Nuts and seeds:

Sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, and melon pear seeds are digested on average in about 120 minutes.
Hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, almonds, Walnut- digest 150 - 180 minutes.

Eggs:

Protein is absorbed in 30 minutes.
Yolk - 45 minutes.

Milk products:

Any fermented milk drinks - 60 minutes.
Cheese cheese, cottage cheese and low-fat homemade cheese - 90 minutes.
Milk, full-fat cottage cheese - 120 minutes.
Hard fatty cheeses such as Swiss and Dutch require 4-5 hours to digest.

Fish and seafood:

Small, lean fish will take 30 minutes to digest.
Oily - 50-80 minutes.
Protein from seafood is absorbed in 2-3 hours.

Bird:

Chicken, skinless chicken - 90-120 minutes.
Turkey without skin - a little over 2 hours.

Meat:

The beef will take 3-4 hours to digest.
Lamb - 3 hours.
Pork is digested in about 5 hours.

We looked at the speed of digestion of food in the stomach, as well as the processes that affect this speed. Now you know what is digested faster and what is slower, and you can use this knowledge in the fight against extra pounds.

With normal functioning of the digestive system, a healthy adult takes food 3 to 5 times during the day. It is fully digested and absorbed with the complete breakdown of its nutrients into molecules with further distribution throughout the body, conversion into energy and a resource that ensures the activity of the whole organism. If the food consumed is poorly digested, then the person begins to experience heaviness in the stomach, dyspepsia develops with signs of nausea, vomiting, and watery diarrhea. The most common cause of this pathological condition is a lack of digestive enzymes that are secreted by pancreatic tissue. The presence of other factors and secondary diseases that disrupt the stable digestion of food cannot be ruled out.

All symptoms of reduced activity of the gastrointestinal tract organs in terms of processing consumed food are felt directly by the patient himself and can be observed by loved ones who are in his environment.

Signs that the cooking process is not going well are as follows.

Unusual severity

Immediately after lunch, breakfast or dinner, severe heaviness occurs in the stomach cavity. It seems as if a stone was placed inside the stomach. At the same time, the person has the feeling that the stomach has completely stopped and temporarily stopped its functional activity.

Lack of appetite

In the morning, a person feels that his stomach is empty and the urge to eat is really present. As soon as he has had breakfast, heaviness follows. complete apathy to food. Appetite disappears until the evening and quite often people suffering from insufficiently good digestion go to bed with the same feeling of pathological fullness as in the morning when the dish was just eaten. The desire to eat returns again only the next day.

Nausea and vomiting

Throughout the day, the patient experiences stomach cramps, which sometimes intensify, then the condition stabilizes and for a while it seems that the disease has subsided. In some cases, the digestive system cannot cope with the load and all the food that was eaten the day before comes back in the form of vomit. At the same time, the feeling of hunger is completely absent.

Diarrhea

Almost immediately, when the process of food digestion stops, the gastrointestinal tract begins an urgent evacuation of those food debris that are in different departments intestines. In addition to vomiting, loosening of the stool is also used. In this regard, the patient develops liquid diarrhea, which can have a one-time manifestation or occur 3-5 times a day.

In especially severe cases, watery stools appear every 2-3 hours after the next meal.

Weakness and dizziness

Due to dehydration of the body due to diarrhea, as well as the lack of sufficient amounts of nutrients in the form of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins, fats and carbohydrates, as the main component of energy metabolism in the body, the process of gradual depletion of cells of all human tissues and organs begins. Therefore it decreases arterial pressure, there is a loss of strength and physical weakness, bordering on a state of drowsiness.

Pain inside the abdomen

In the area where the stomach and intestines are located, a stable pain syndrome, which intensifies as the patient’s general well-being worsens. If the reason for poor digestion of food is a lack of digestive enzymes, then sharp pain appears in the left hypochondrium, where the pancreas is located.

Temperature increase

Disturbances in the digestive system are always stressful for the whole body. With prolonged dysfunction, the intestinal mucosa begins to become inflamed, the balance of beneficial and pathogenic microflora is disrupted, which can cause a slight increase in body temperature to a level of 37.1 - 37.6 degrees Celsius.

In some cases, the pathological condition intensifies in patients when meat, animal fats, legumes, butter, and bacon appear in their diet. This is explained by the fact that the gastrointestinal tract needs to spend much more effort, energy and enzymes on these types of products in order to ensure not only their digestion, but also high-quality absorption. Therefore, during the period of exacerbation of the disease, it is recommended to limit yourself in taking products of this type.

Why food is poorly digested in an adult, the causes of the disease

There are a large number of factors, the presence of which negatively affects the performance of the stomach, intestines, liver, gallbladder and other vital organs. Despite this, they highlight following reasons poor digestion of food, which are most common in medical practice:

alcohol abuse, smoking and taking drugs (all these harmful addictions cause intoxication of the body varying degrees severity, which inevitably leads to the accumulation of poisons in the liver and the development of dyspeptic manifestations);
overeating and improperly organized diet (eating foods with low biological benefits, saturating the menu with fatty, smoked, pickled, spicy dishes, leads to gastrointestinal upset);
inflammatory processes in the tissues of the pancreas (this is a pathological condition of this body is fraught with the fact that it ceases to synthesize the required volume of digestive enzymes that ensure stable and high-quality digestion of food);
hormonal imbalance with a decrease in secretions responsible for the tone of muscle fibers that ensure the functioning of organs abdominal cavity;
chronic cholecystitis(a disease that affects gallbladder when an insufficient amount of bile comes from its cavity and all the fats consumed during the meal are not digested, which causes an emergency stop of the stomach, or a significantly reduced activity);
oncological processes in the tissues of the gastrointestinal tract ( cancer tumor completely destroys all layers of the epithelium in the area of its localization, so poor digestion of food can also occur for this reason);
food poisoning when products were consumed that were stored improperly temperature conditions, which ultimately led to their damage;
entry into the gastrointestinal tract of severe strains of bacterial, viral and fungal infections that provoked acute inflammatory process and long-term indigestion;
recently transferred surgical intervention on the abdominal organs, after restoration of which the patient’s appetite returns again, and the digestive process returns to normal.

Also, quite often, this kind of problem with digesting food develops against the background of gastritis, peptic ulcer, erosion of the duodenal mucosa, viral infection liver (hepatitis of various strains), intestinal obstruction.

Treatment - what to do if the stomach does not digest food?

If you notice symptoms indicating a lack of digestive cycle, you should immediately make an appointment with a gastroenterologist. It is quite possible that due to a prompt examination and prescribed therapy, it will be possible to avoid a large number of complications and quickly get rid of secondary ailments that cause poor functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

The most commonly used therapeutic methods are aimed at restoring stable digestion of food:

drugs containing artificial digestive enzymes, which compensate for the lack of secretions produced by the pancreas;
antibacterial and antivirals if the cause of the pathological condition of the gastrointestinal tract is due to the entry of pathogenic microorganisms into the body;
sorbents that ensure the absorption of toxic substances with their further evacuation outside the body in order to facilitate the functioning of the liver and kidneys;
antispasmodics (used to relieve attacks of nausea and vomiting if all food has already been removed from the digestive system, and stomach spasms continue to bother the person);
pills and intramuscular injections containing synthetic hormones when there is an imbalance of these substances in the patient’s body;
cleansing enemas and laxatives, when poor digestion of food is caused by fecal blockages and the patient has been long period suffers from constipation for a long time;
chemotherapeutic agents for a certain category of patients whose examination results revealed the presence of foreign neoplasms of a malignant nature in their body;
drugs intended to cleanse liver tissue (these are special medications that relieve the workload of this digestive organ, increasing its activity in the absorption of fats).

Depending on whether the patient has one or another symptom, concomitant diseases, it is possible that the attending gastroenterologist will decide to include other categories of medications in the therapeutic course. The type of drug, its dosage and duration of administration are selected individually for the characteristics and specifics of the functioning of the digestive system of each patient individually.