David Casteleijn - Herbal Heroes: A Modern Clinical Lens on Globe Artichoke

How did, how did, because I think that's a really interesting point.

Like you've got the inulin type fructans in globe artichoke, I believe they're around about 70%.

And that's got a lot of attention somewhat recently for its prebiotic actions.

So fantastic.

But as you're saying, we can look towards reducing FODMAPs in the diet with some of IBS because of the fermentation process that takes place and that then triggering some bloating pain in an IBS individual, but.

As you said, like often then the solution is maybe pull that out.

And that was, you know, some, the early work on that was fantastic and it does produce some acute symptomatic reduction, but people often forget to put them back in.

And the problem with that being that we need those FODMAPs to feed those microbes and feed that gut and get it off its ground.

So how do you see globe artichoke working there to support the digestive system working in IBS, even though there's this contradictory fructan level

in the herb? I guess from the fructan aspect, I tend to see that whole aspect as being in a way overstated in that the people who were looking at that as an issue really saw IBS as symptoms, not as what's happening for the whole person.

It's like, how can we decrease these symptoms? And if you only look at the symptomatic treatment, then that really, I guess, seems a bit logical because those symptoms know microbes are um not necessarily well balanced so they're creating more gas etc you know and so okay let's just get rid of those the food for them we'll starve them and that then will decrease your symptoms so it's to me it's a very that's a very um black and white symptom a way of approaching it The important thing I think we've got to remember that the people who came up with the whole FODMAP idea were very clear that you should only ever do that for six months.

You know, I mean, that's the bit that we need to make sure we remember is that it's not a treatment.

It's symptomatic relief.

which it's so important to bring them back in.

So I think where Globe fits in is that because it's working on all of the other areas that we have with digestion, like, for instance, bile is so often overlooked, but bile is incredibly important for all of our digestive processes.

So when you have a herb which... improves the production of bile but also helps the release of bile then you're going to have so much better digestion going on for a start when you have a herb which has bitters so it has the bitter activity which supports the stomach to work properly so If you're supporting the stomach action, you're supporting the breakdown of proteins into their correct state because you've got more acid production.

So then you've got your activation of your pepsin to break down the protein because it needs to be attuned in order to really work properly.

So you're breaking down the protein right at the beginning there so that it's not then in the intestine in a state where it's inflammatory and irritant, et cetera.

So you're sort of working on all of those, all of the areas that are going to be happening for someone who has IBS and particularly with that connection to the nervous system where they are anxious and not digesting their food properly so it's supporting that digestive process all the way through rather than just focusing on the one bit which is the fructans at the end

It's really painting the picture there of his digestive tonic actions.

And I think how crucial when we're working on those aspects, such as pH, stomach acids, bile, establishing that terrain of the whole gut, which is what you're saying.

And so that, because when that terrain is wrong, then of course, then we're going to have fermentation issues with FODMAPs.

But let's look at correcting the terrain.

Yes.

And I think globe is a really important part of that.