Digestive Health

Acid reflux is known by a number of names including GORD (gastro oesophageal reflux disease), reflux, dyspepsia and heartburn. This condition is caused by what happens to your food and drink after you have eaten.

It is difficult to detect when you have halitosis, or bad breath. But all of us have suffered from getting too close to others with bad breath and have not enjoyed the experience!

When you are constipated you produce a bowel motion less often than you usually do. Your normal bowel habit is normal to you. Some people produce a bowel movement three times a week, other three times a day.

The word diarrhoea, when translated from Greek, means “flow through”. People are diagnosed with diarrhoea when they have three or more loose bowel motions in a day. Often this is accompanied with sharp cramping stomach pain before the motion is passed and a desperate need to find a toilet quickly.

Escherichia coli (E coli) is a type of bacteria. An infection with this variety of bacteria generally causes diarrhoea. Children and the sick and elderly are particularly susceptible to more serious effects from this infection.

Flatulence, or wind, occurs in everyone. However for some of us, removal of this gas either upwards as belching or burping, or downwards as flatus or farting, is embarrassing, uncomfortable and painful until expelled. Often it’s not particularly pleasant for those around us either.

Intolerance to gluten takes many forms - from coeliac disease, which is a severe reaction to gluten containing foods, to wheat allergies or sensitivity to gluten in the diet. As a result, many people confine themselves to a gluten-free diet.

Haemorrhoids or ‘piles’ are swollen veins in the anus or bottom, usually just inside the external entrance of the bowel. Occasionally they can protrude or pop out, often immediately after or during a bowel motion.

Heartburn occurs when acids and other fluids that digest food leak up from the stomach into the oesophagus.

Worms are one of the most common conditions that children catch, occasionally from pets, but usually from themselves, or other infected people. There are several types of worms that can affect humans, but in New Zealand the usual culprit is the threadworm.