Alan Richman10.01.09
At its most basic, the digestive system is like a revolving door. Something goes in on one side and comes out the other. The crucial difference is that not everything comes out. The goal of maintaining optimal digestive health is to make sure that what is left behind is the good stuff and not, pardon the expression, the crap.
Consumers put up with enough "crap" in items like junk food, as well as food additives, pesticide residues and growth hormones. So perhaps it's not surprising that Americans suffering from gastric distress rush off to doctors' offices upwards of 33 million times a year and wind up in hospitals more than 3.6 million times each year.
S.K. Dash, PhD, president of UAS Laboratories in Eden Prairie, MN, cites the following annual statistics attributable to digestive diseases:
Nearly 200 million sick days
Almost 17 million days lost from school
Nearly 200,000 deaths
Translating this into dollars lost, Dr. Dash said, "The most costly digestive diseases are gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrheal infections ($4.7 billion); gallbladder disease ($4.5
The Numbers
Consumers put up with enough "crap" in items like junk food, as well as food additives, pesticide residues and growth hormones. So perhaps it's not surprising that Americans suffering from gastric distress rush off to doctors' offices upwards of 33 million times a year and wind up in hospitals more than 3.6 million times each year.
S.K. Dash, PhD, president of UAS Laboratories in Eden Prairie, MN, cites the following annual statistics attributable to digestive diseases:
Nearly 200 million sick days
Almost 17 million days lost from school
Nearly 200,000 deaths
Translating this into dollars lost, Dr. Dash said, "The most costly digestive diseases are gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrheal infections ($4.7 billion); gallbladder disease ($4.5
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