Table of Contents
Causes and symptoms
The alteration of digestive processes that leads to slow and difficult digestion, it depends on several factors. You can digest poorly when taking certain drugs, in case of food intolerances, diseases or inflammations of the stomach, intestines and other organs involved in digestion, or due to imbalances in the intestinal flora.
Slow digestion, also known as dyspepsia, can also result from changes in gastric secretion and biliary or gastrointestinal motility. Sometimes, digestive difficulties can also be of psychosomatic origin, therefore linked to emotional or psychological states such as anxiety, agitation and nervousness. Slow digestion does not normally have serious consequences, but the symptoms of dyspepsia can be very annoying.
THE symptoms alteration of digestive processes include:
- sense of fullness after meals
- nausea
- stomach acid
- stomach pains
- early satiety
- aerophagia
- abdominal bloating
If these symptoms they appear sporadically it is possible to intervene with natural remedies. Conversely, when difficult digestion occurs frequently or has lasted for over three months, consult your doctor. If it persists over time, in fact, dyspepsia can indeed be sign of a pathology – not necessarily serious – and in this case it requires a specific therapeutic approach, depending on the cause.
Natural remedies
When digestive difficulties occur occasionally or if a pathological cause for slow and difficult digestion has been excluded, it is possible resort to natural remedies capable of relieving symptoms.
Remedies for excessive fullness
After a heavy or heavy meal that causes heaviness, you can have relief thanks to plants rich in bitter principles. Herbal drugs with bitter taste are indeed capable of increase stomach secretions, thus promoting the digestion of food. Among the bitter drugs we find gentian, absinthe and bitter orange. This category also includes pungent bitters such as ginger and chilli, and astringent bitters including the lichen of Iceland.
Amari are generally taken during or after a meal, in the form of a hot infusion. A beneficial action in the digestive processes is also given by many aromatic plants that we grow in the garden or on the balcony like basil, mint, oregano, rosemary, thyme, marjoram and savory. Making an infusion with these herbs and sipping the drink throughout the day is a great remedy for slow and difficult digestion.
Remedies for acidity and reflux
Anyone with stomach acid and gastroesophageal reflux should avoid mint and bitter drugs which, as we have just seen, stimulate gastric secretion and therefore they would worsen the acidity. Instead, it is better to opt for drugs containing mucilage such as mallow, marshmallow and aloe gel, capable of carrying out an emollient and protective action on the mucous membrane of the esophagus. There ascent of gastric contents, due to its acidity, it irritates the mucous membrane of the digestive tract and can damage it over time. Remedies containing mucilage are administered in the form of an infusion after main meals or when symptoms occur.
One of the most widely used natural remedies for gastric excess acidity is probably the licorice, also effective against Helicobacter pylori infections, but to be avoided if you suffer from high blood pressure and water retention. Very interesting are the preparations based on alginates extracted from algae: these substances, in contact with gastric secretions create a sort of “plug” that prevents the contents in the stomach from rising and thus preventing any damage to the mucous membrane that lines the esophagus.
In the end, baking soda may also be helpful, to be taken after meals by dissolving a teaspoon in a glass of water to buffer excess acidity in the stomach.
Remedies for swelling
When difficult and slow digestion cause a accumulation of gas in the intestine the help comes from natural remedies with carminative action, to be taken as an infusion before, during or after meals or as needed. Among these we find many drugs containing essential oils that they act on the intestinal bacterial flora and which help eliminate excess gas. As a result, abdominal bloating, tension and the phenomena of bloating and flatulence will be reduced. Natural carminative remedies are for example fennel fruits (or fennel seeds), green aniseed, star anise, cumin and coriander.
Remedies that help the liver
To digest better you can also resort to herbal drugs capable of supporting the functionality of the liver and stimulate the production and secretion of bile, consequently favoring the digestive processes. This category includes artichoke, dandelion, milk thistle and turmeric, which can be taken before main meals in the form of mother tincture.
