Digestive System Disorders

Celiac Disease Is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley, and if they do their immune system responds by damaging the villi in the small intestine.

Choking Occurs when food or other objects become stuck in your throat or windpipe, which then blocks the flow of air into your windpipes. Causes include incomplete chewing of food, eating too much food at once, and talking or laughing when chewing food.

Salmonella Is a small group of bacteria that live in the intestinal tracks of animals and birds and is transmitted to humans when we eat food that is contaminated with animal feces. Those bacteria survive in the acidic environment of your stomach then travel to your small intestine and stick to its lining, where they begin their life cycle.

Lactose Intolerance Is the inability to digest significant amounts of lactose, the major sugar found in milk. Caused by a shortage of the enzyme lactase, which is produced by the cells that line the small intestine.

Colitis Is a disease involving the inflammation of the colon or other parts of the large intestine. Causes include various infections and many illnesses. There are 3 types of colitis: 1) inflammatory, 2) amebic, and 3) mucous colitis. Chrons disease is a type of inflammatory colitis.

Crohn’s Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting mostly the small and large intestine, but can cause complications in other parts of the digestive system as well. Occurs when the body’s natural defences, which are normally supposed to fight infections, attack your body’s own tissues and fail to distinguish the body itself from foreign material in the body.

Appendicitis Occurs when your appendix becomes blocked with mucus causing the bacteria that usually lives in your appendix to become infected and then multiply. The appendix then becomes infected and inflamed.