by Dr. Gordie
THE ILEOCECAL VALVE
How many times have you had a conversation about the ileocecal valve? Most people have never heard of it - never mind understood its importance. The ileum is the last part of the small intestine where it attaches to the first part of the large intestine, the cecum, There is a valve that keeps the two parts separate, thus the name ileocecal valve. Perhaps the easiest way to understand its importance is to view it as the doorway between the "kitchen and the garbage can.”
Its primary purpose is to keep fecal matter (yes, poop) from backing up into the small intestine. In layman terms it "keeps the garbage out of the kitchen." If you use that analogy one can see how important it is. If you had garbage in your kitchen and it mixed in with your food and you ate it, you’d feel ill. Similarly, if you absorb fecal matter into your body through your small intestine this can make you toxic.
The same is true if you do not open the door often enough, and the food which should be headed out into the garbage sits and rots in the kitchen; the same possibility of toxicity ensues.
In current allopathic medicine there is no listed syndrome related to the ileocecal valve. Unfortunately because of this, many people have had that section of their gut removed; most frequently in bowel cancer surgery. While it is possible that people can survive without it, or “function" when the valve is operating poorly, optimum health demands we look at its function.
Applied Kinesiology refers to a condition called the "ileocecal valve syndrome." The syndrome can refer with to an "open ICV (ileocecal valve) or a "closed ICV.” In the open condition, the contents of the colon pass back up into the ileum, and in the closed condition the ileum’s contents cannot move on into the colon.
Physiologically, the control of the value is regulated via pressure in the cecum from material that has already passed through the valve as well as the presence of certain hormones released during the digestive process (i.e. gastrin released from the mucosal lining of the stomach due to the presence of food).
In Applied Kinesiology we recognize several factors that can cause the syndrome. But first let’s look at some key symptoms you might experience clinically if you had ICV Syndrome. The ICV Syndrome has been called “the great mimicker” as it can appear like
many other conditions. Here is a list of possible symptoms: Bowel irregularities, headaches, nausea, faintness, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), low back pain, dizziness, shoulder pain, pain around the heart, flu like symptoms, dark circles under the eyes, sacroiliac pain, sinus symptoms, bursitis symptoms, Next > 1 2
