Synopses & Reviews
Digestive Intelligence tells the fascinating story of how our digestive systems are the centre of our bodies second brain and how we think and live our emotions via our stomachs.
Not impossible when you consider there is something equivalent to the size of a village football pitch hiding inside our bellies thats the incredible magnitude of our digestive systems. They contain an extensive network of nerve cells, called neurons, which carry information to the brain and thus have a profound effect upon our intellectual, emotional and immune processes.
Dr Matveikova answers the obvious questions: How?” and Why can this be so?” by explaining, in straight forward laymans language, that the digestive system contains more than one million neurones, identical to those in the brain and is responsible for producing 90% of the bodys hormone, serotonin, the all-important hormone which makes us feel happy and full of wellbeing. It follows, that if our stomachs are out of sorts” we can feel irritable, in a bad mood, lacking in energy and those feelings will block our intellectual productivity, tend to disorientate us and completely change our thought patterns and physical processes.
About the Author
Irina Matveikova is licensed in Medicine, Endocrinology and Clinical Nutrition by the University of Minsk (Belarus). She is also a certified expert in Eating Disorders Behaviour.
She has undertaken international post graduate professional studies, including those in integrated natural and holistic medicines, in many different parts of the world (France, USA, Argentina, Spain and the Czech Republic); as well as courses in corporal detoxification and colonic hydrotherapy in Germany.
She has had extensive international experience of professional teaching in medical institutions and foundations, where she has given conferences and classes not only to the medical fraternity but also to the general public.
She has received wide recognition as a source of reference and for being an opinion leader in her field, throughout Spain and Latin America, where she has been invited to create and lead a University-based post-grad Masters course in Integrative Medicine.
Dr Matveikova is also currently receiving invitations for conferences and collaboration from Mexico, Chile, Puerto Rico, Panama and the Philippines.
She is a frequently-invited speaker on national radio in Spain and has made many appearances on national TV; as well as being interviewed regularly by top newspapers and magazines in Spain and Latin America.
She is the author of numerous articles concerning digestive health and nutrition in well-respected international medical journals and magazines and has also written a dictionary of medicinal plants (in five languages).
Dr Matveikova is recognised by the Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Médicos de Madrid (equivalent to BMC) and runs her own private clinic in Madrid (where she has an active list of over 2,000 patients); in addition to being an external consultant at clinics in Barcelona, San Sebastian and Palma (Majorca).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Yuyi Beringola
Preface
I. Your second brain
Curious facts about evolution
Out of control
Staying healthy and looking after yourself with complementary medicine is back in fashion
Two-way emotional influence
The enormous hidden potential of your stomach
The digestive brain concept in Eastern philosophies
II. The virtues of the digestive system
Are we hollow?
Digestive emotions
The T-bone steak and its journey
Is there such a think as a delicate digestion?
III. Emotion and digestion. Irritable bowel syndrome
Alternative treatments
Dietetic advice
Some practical hints
IV. A social taboo
V. The stomach
A short history
Anatomical and physicological cirtues
The witchs brew
Emotions and the stomach
Stomach problems and complementary medicine
VI. The small intestine: a football pitch in your innards
Strange names
Where does your cholesterol come from?
The intelligent customs service
Leaky gut and what it leads to
VII. The colon and toxaemia
This is not a rubbish bag
The journey through your gut may be complicated
Intestinal polyps
Brain activities and intestinal health
Auto-intoxication is a result of intestinal toxoaemia
VIII. Constipation. The ever-present shadow
Personality and constipation
What is constipation?
The treatment
Laxatives
Alternative advice
Colon hydrotherapy
IX. Colon Hydrotherapy (CH): the MOT test for the body
History of internal cleansing
CH nowadays
Colonic irrigation method
The MOT test for your body
CH: General indications
CH: General contraindications
CH and chronic disease
CH as an emotional link
X. Intestinal microflora: Myths and truths
What do we mean by intestinal microflora?
A whole world in our gut
How intestinal microflora is formed
Bacteria and their social classes
Why are intestinal flora and their goodbacteria so essential and important in our lives?
How do I know if my stomach had good or bad bacteria?
XI. Gastro-oesophagal reflux
Why do I have reflux?
Obesity, overweight, pregnancy, constipation, gases, flatulence
What increases stomach acidity?
XII. The liver and the gall bladder
What causes bile retention and gall bladder problems?
Cleansing and draining the liver
XIII. Ageing and digestion
Cellular ageing
Ageing is reversible
How to start your anti-ageing treatment
Metabolic age
XIV. Breathing and digestion
Final comments
Bibliography