Digestive Health
Second Medical Opinion: When and Why You Need One
Getting a second medical opinion can be one of the most important steps you take for your health.
Canada Health Journal
Digestive-Health
Evidence-based health articles written and reviewed by licensed Canadian physicians.
Digestive Health
Pancreatitis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment in Canada
The pancreas sits behind your stomach, in front of your spine. It works as two systems in one organ.
Digestive Health
Chronic Pancreatitis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
The pancreas is a gland that sits behind your stomach. It does two important jobs: it makes digestive enzymes that break down …
Digestive Health
Autoimmune Pancreatitis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
The pancreas is a large gland behind your stomach. It helps digest food and controls blood sugar by producing insulin.
Digestive Health
Acute Pancreatitis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
The pancreas is a gland that sits behind your stomach. It produces enzymes that help you digest food, and hormones like insulin …
Digestive Health
Acute Pancreatitis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
The pancreas is a gland that sits behind your stomach. It makes digestive enzymes and hormones like insulin.
Digestive Health
Pancreatic Cysts: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
A pancreatic cyst is a closed, sac-like pocket lined with tissue and filled with fluid. These cysts form on or inside the …
Digestive Health
Pancreatic Cysts: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
A pancreatic cyst is an abnormal, fluid-filled sac that forms on or inside the pancreas. Most people feel alarmed when they first …
Digestive Health
Pancreatic Diseases: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
Your pancreas is a small but essential organ that keeps your whole body running. Pancreatic diseases — including pancreatitis, …
Digestive Health
Pancreas Health: Best Foods to Support Insulin Production
Your pancreas health plays a bigger role in your daily life than most people realize. This small organ, tucked behind your …
Digestive Health
Fatty Stool (Steatorrhoea): Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Steatorrhoea is the medical term for having too much fat in your stool. A small amount of fat in stool is normal.
Digestive Health
Leaky Gut Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms & How to Heal
Your intestinal lining works like a fine mesh screen. It allows nutrients to pass into your bloodstream while blocking harmful …
Digestive Health
Stomach Pain Causes: 8 Conditions You Should Know
Placing a hand on your abdomen is almost a universal sign of feeling unwell — and for good reason.
Digestive Health
Diverticular Bleeding: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Your large intestine, also called the colon, is a long tube that moves waste through your body.
Digestive Health
Blood in Stool: Causes, Signs & When to Act
Digestive bleeding does not always look the same. The appearance depends on where the bleeding is happening in your digestive …
Digestive Health
Ulcerative Colitis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
Ulcerative colitis is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It causes ongoing inflammation and sores, called ulcers, along …
Digestive Health
Rectal Prolapse: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
The rectum is the final section of the large intestine, just above the anus. In a healthy body, strong muscles and ligaments hold …
Digestive Health
Postbiotics: What They Are and How They Help Your Gut
You have probably heard of probiotics and prebiotics. But postbiotics are the newest player in gut health — and research suggests …
Digestive Health
Intestinal Polyps: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
A polyp is an abnormal clump of tissue that grows out from the surface of a mucous membrane.
Digestive Health
Colon Polyps: Symptoms, Screening & What to Do
Colon polyps are extra tissue that grows along the wall of the large intestine. Doctors do not fully understand what causes them.
Digestive Health
Malabsorption: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Your small intestine does most of the work when it comes to absorbing nutrients. It pulls vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, and …
Digestive Health
Visceral Ischemia: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
The word “ischemia” simply means a lack of adequate blood supply to a part of the body. Visceral ischemia — also called intestinal …
Digestive Health
Gluten Intolerance: Symptoms, Causes & What to Eat
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. It shows up in most grain-based foods we eat every day, including bread, …
Digestive Health
Norovirus: Symptoms, Treatment & Prevention
Norovirus is a group of viruses that infect the stomach and intestines. Despite the nickname “stomach flu,” norovirus has nothing …
Digestive Health
Diverticular Bleeding: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Diverticula are small, sac-like pouches that bulge outward through weak spots in the colon wall.
Digestive Health
Gastroparesis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment in Canada
Gastroparesis is also called delayed gastric emptying or gastric atony. In a healthy digestive system, the stomach’s muscles …
Digestive Health
Gastroenteritis: Causes, Symptoms & When to See a Doctor
Gastroenteritis is inflammation of the stomach and intestines. The word comes from “gastro” (stomach) and “enteritis” …
Digestive Health
Esophagitis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatments
Your esophagus is a muscular tube about 25 centimetres long. It connects your mouth and throat to your stomach.
Digestive Health
Stomach Pain: Causes, Symptoms & When to Act
Your stomach sits surrounded by the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, intestines, and other structures.
Digestive Health
Acute Abdominal Pain: Causes, Symptoms & When to Act
Abdominal pain is very common, and most of the time it is not serious. However, acute abdominal pain — pain that comes on suddenly …
Digestive Health
Dysentery: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment in Canada
Dysentery is an infection of the intestines. It leads to diarrhoea that may contain blood, mucus, or pus.
Digestive Health
Meckel’s Diverticulum: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Meckel’s diverticulum is a small, pouch-like sac on the wall of the small intestine (called the ileum).
Digestive Health
Diverticulosis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Diverticulosis means you have small bulging pouches — called diverticula — in your large intestine.
Digestive Health
Diverticulitis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Your large intestine (colon) can develop small, pouch-like bulges in its wall over time. Each individual pouch is called a …
Digestive Health
Prebiotics and Probiotics: Your Guide to Synbiotics
You have likely heard the words prebiotics and probiotics before — but do you know how they work together?
Digestive Health
Bloating and Gas: Causes, Symptoms & When to Worry
These three digestive experiences are related, but they are not exactly the same thing. Understanding the difference helps you …
Digestive Health
Digestive Problems: Symptoms, Causes & When to Act
Digestive problems are conditions that affect any part of your gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Digestive Health
Colitis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment in Canada
The colon is the last part of your digestive system. Its main job is to absorb water from digested food and move waste toward the …
Digestive Health
Ulcerative Colitis: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
Ulcerative colitis is one of the two most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The other is Crohn’s disease.
Digestive Health
Colectomy: What Canadians Need to Know
A colectomy is a surgical procedure to remove part or all of the large intestine, also called the colon.
Digestive Health
IBD and Sex: How Inflammatory Bowel Disease Affects Intimacy
IBD stands for inflammatory bowel disease. It is a term used to describe conditions that cause ongoing inflammation in the …
Digestive Health
Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Symptoms, Causes & Care
Inflammatory bowel disease is not the same as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), though the two are often confused.
Digestive Health
Diverticular Disease: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Diverticular disease is a group of conditions involving small, bulging pouches called diverticula.
Digestive Health
Crohn’s Disease Diet: What to Eat and Avoid
A Crohn’s disease diet will not cure the condition, but it can make a real difference in how you feel every day.
Digestive Health
Crohn’s Disease: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
Crohn’s disease belongs to a group of conditions called inflammatory bowel diseases. Unlike a stomach bug or food poisoning, it is …
Digestive Health
Digestive Health: Symptoms, Causes & When to Act
Your digestive health affects nearly every part of your daily life. From the moment you eat, your body works hard to break down …
Digestive Health
Aerophagia: Causes, Symptoms & Treatments
Aerophagia comes from the Greek words for “air” and “eating.” It happens when a person swallows excess air, usually during meals …
Digestive Health
Ruptured Spleen: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment Canada
A ruptured spleen is a serious medical emergency that demands immediate attention, especially in time-sensitive trauma situations …
Digestive Health
Peritonitis Symptoms: Causes & Treatment in Canada 2025
Peritonitis symptoms can escalate rapidly and require immediate emergency care — making early recognition potentially life-saving …
Digestive Health
Mesenteric Ischemia: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment Canada
Mesenteric ischemia is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when one or more of the arteries supplying …
Digestive Health
Abdominal Pain Causes: Types & When to Worry (Canada)
Abdominal pain causes range from mild indigestion to serious medical emergencies, making it one of the most common reasons …
Digestive Health
Abdominal Bloating: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment Canada
Abdominal bloating is one of the most common digestive complaints among Canadians, causing your belly to feel full, tight, or …
Digestive Health
Peritonitis Symptoms: Causes & Treatment in Canada
Peritonitis symptoms can appear suddenly and escalate into a life-threatening emergency if left untreated.
Digestive Health
Appendicitis Symptoms: Causes & Treatment in Canada
Appendicitis symptoms can appear suddenly and escalate quickly, making this condition the most common abdominal surgical emergency …
Digestive Health
Appendectomy Canada: What You Need to Know (2025)
An appendectomy in Canada is one of the most common emergency surgeries performed each year, involving the surgical removal of the …
Digestive Health
Colon Cleanse: Benefits, Methods & What to Know Canada
A colon cleanse is one of the most popular approaches to improving digestive health, and thousands of Canadians are turning to it …
Digestive Health
Abdominal Compartment Syndrome: Causes & Treatment (2025)
Abdominal compartment syndrome is a rare but life-threatening medical emergency that requires immediate recognition and …
Digestive Health
Bowel Obstruction: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment (Canada)
A bowel obstruction is a serious condition where a partial or complete blockage prevents food, fluid, and gas from passing through …
Digestive Health
Abdominal Cramps: Causes, Symptoms & Relief (Canada)
Abdominal cramps are one of the most common health complaints Canadians experience, affecting people of all ages at some point in …
Digestive Health
Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common digestive conditions in Canada, affecting millions of Canadians with …
Digestive Health
Appendix Function: How It Protects Your Gut (2025)
The appendix function has puzzled doctors and scientists for generations — many once dismissed this small, finger-shaped pouch as …