Digestive diseases can negatively impact an adult’s gastrointestinal (GI) function. Between 60-70 million Americans are affected by digestive diseases, resulting in 21.7 million hospitalizations per year. ¹

Impaired GI function impedes the normal digestive process, leading to potential discomfort such as pain, bloating, nausea, diarrhea, and various other symptoms that can significantly diminish an individual's quality of life.

There are many ways in which GI impairment can present in an adult patient. Among the most common include:

• Gut motility issues that may lead to abdominal pain, constipation and/or diarrhea
• Digestive tract inflammation resulting in malabsorption
• Structural abnormalities that may affect nutrient digestion and absorption

Emerging research on the gut-brain axis suggests that neuronal changes due to anxiety and mood disorders can also alter GI function by affecting the gut microbiota and resulting in symptoms of GI distress.⁷

GI impairment is often linked to a chronic GI-related illness, such as Crohn’s disease or celiac disease, but it can also happen under acute conditions, including during critical illness, pancreatitis, in periods of antibiotic use or while undergoing cancer treatment.^5,6

While impaired GI function in adults can be related to a diagnosed digestive disorder, it can also serve as a symptom of an underlying condition or coexisting comorbidities. Functional and motility disorders of the GI tract may also lead to intolerance and inadequate nutritional intake. Working as a multidisciplinary team to normalize a patient’s nutritional status can go a long way toward helping them heal and/or manage their other conditions.⁸

Because nutrient intake and absorption can be compromised in cases of adult GI impairment, the use of enteral nutrition or oral nutrition supplements may be required as a supplement to the diet or to meet all of a patient’s complete nutrition needs.

Insufficient intake and malabsorption of calories and protein are among the most serious consequences of impaired GI function in adults and can affect a patient’s health and quality of life. Micronutrient deficiencies are also common in adults with impaired GI function, particularly iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. The consumption of specialized formulas containing hydrolyzed high-quality 100% whey protein, medium-chain triglycerides, vitamins, and minerals has been shown to offer potential benefits, including improved GI tolerance, tissue repair, and healing.^6,10,11 Blenderized whole food formulas have also shown improvement in GI tolerance.

No matter the cause of GI impairment in adults, it is incumbent on the nutritional support team to find a solution that is well tolerated by the patient, addresses nutrition intake gaps and puts the patient on a path toward healing.¹⁰ Oral or enteral nutrition treatments are preferred if the digestive system can tolerate this form of nutrition, while parenteral nutrition should only be used in the most severe cases as it is associated with greater complications.⁸