There’s nothing wrong with being polite. Saying “please” and “thank you,” using the turning signal, holding the door for a stranger—these are all good things. There’s such a thing, though, as being too polite, especially where our health’s concerned. Even in the doctor’s office, many Canadians are reluctant to talk about their “gas, diarrhea or bloating,” says Dr. Richard Fedorak, president of the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation. “You don’t go out for dinner and discuss that with your guests. It’s fine to discuss your high blood pressure or your diabetes, but you don’t discuss your gas.”
We might hesitate before airing our stomach problems in public, but they’re more common—and sometimes more serious—than most people think. Earlier this year, Scienta Health, a medical clinic in Toronto that specializes in preventative care, provided Maclean’s readers with its Q-GAP test, an online quiz developed by Scienta with 75 questions on topics ranging from sleep patterns to sex drive, to help people note symptoms that could point to underlying health problems. (The Q-GAP test is now available again at macleans.ca/howhealthy.) Over 14,000 people completed the test anonymously. Of all the symptoms identified, indigestion, heartburn, acid reflux, bloating and passing gas were among the most prevalent (of nine categories used in the test, gastrointestinal symptoms were second only to emotional health concerns among both men and women).
People tend to assume these problems are just part of the aging process, or maybe the result of last night’s spicy meal. But that’s a mistake, says Dr. Elaine Chin, co-founder and chief medical officer at Scienta Health. “Your gastric system is your input. It’s the first line of bringing nutrients into your body,” which is critical to the immune system, she says. “When the conveyor belt is screwed up, that’s where other problems start.” It’s not just a quality of life issue. An upset stomach can be a red flag for anything from poor diet to a heart attack. “We just ignore it, because we think we can’t do anything about it,” Chin says. That approach could be doing more harm than good.
In fact, “Canada has some high incidences of digestive diseases,” says Fedorak, director of the gastroenterology division at the University of Alberta. According to him, we have one of the highest rates of celiac disease in the world: an estimated one in 133 Canadians suffer from this condition, a gluten intolerance that damages the intestine. Another 200,000 have inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). Six million Canadians have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), when stomach contents splash up into the esophagus. Of the top 20 prescription medications dispensed in Canada last year, four were proton pump inhibitors (which suppress stomach acid), according to IMS Health Canada, a health and market information company.
