What is a gastroenterologist and what is their job?

If you have been to a doctor with health problems, and they have told you they are sending you to a gastroenterologist for more tests, you may be wondering what that is and what this type of specialist does.

 

In fact, a gastroenterologist is not as scary as he or she may sound. Here is some information so you know who they are and what one does before you get there.

 

What is a gastroenterologist? — This is a specialist of problems of the digestive system or the GI tract. A doctor with this kind of specialty treats patients who have significant digestive problems, and looks at everything to do with the digestive system to see if the problem can be solved.

 

Everything from simple things like minor digestive problems to more serious things like Irritable Bowel Sydrome (IBS) and cancer is treated.

 

What does a gastroenterologist do? — If you have had digestive or gastrointestinal tract problems that your usual doctor has not been able to treat, he or she will eventually refer you to a gastroenterologist.

 

They will usually start with an examination, and then run a battery of tests to find out what the problem may be. They will look at areas of your body like the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, liver, gallbladder, tongue and rectum with a variety of endoscopic instruments. Instruments designed to find problems a simple examination cannot.

 

If they are not able to see anything, they will then run blood tests to see if anything can be detected that could be causing your digestive problems.

 

A gastroenterologist does not perform surgery. Instead, they diagnose digestive and GI tract problems and recommend specific treatments. If they believe surgery is necessary, they will then refer you on to a surgeon to have that done.

 

Specialist gastroenterologists — Just like any other type of medicine, there are gastroenterologists that specialize in just one area of the digestive system.

 

These might include a gastroenterologist that only looks at Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or another that specializes in gastroesophageal reflux disease.

 

How much training does a gastroenterologist have? — This is one of the more extensively-trained doctors.

 

Not only does someone going into this type of specialization have to have a four-year university degree, they then have to have four years of medical school, three years of a residency in gastroenterology, and then a three year fellowship on top of all that.

 

That means a typical gastroenterologist will have had 14 years of higher and then medical education before they are even allowed to take a certification exam. It is only after passing that exam that they are allowed to call themselves gastroenterologists.

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The Cool Grandmas on the Pot Block

No, CBD Vape Juice isn’t some pharmaceutical euphemism for high-tech, expensive equipment… nor is it something that you drink out of a box, like apple juice. It is, in all of its glory, a liquid form of cannabis extract which has immense medicinal and health benefits. In its liquid form, it is ingested through vape pens: electronic smoking pipes that heat up the contained liquid inside, converting the liquid into an inhalable smoke. Vape pens were first popularized through tobacco in the early 2000s and have now expanded into the evergreen cannabis industry.

 

The medicinal benefits of CBD vape oil are actually enormous: most internet searches and CNBC interviews will give the facts on CBD. Charlotte’s Web, though, is the most popular strain of CBD cannabis due to its media coverage. It was designed specifically by the Stanley brothers in Colorado for the purpose of saving a 12-year-old girl named Charlotte Figi from having severe epileptic seizures. It has extremely high yields of CBD, yet hardly any THC or “Tetrahydrocannabinol” so that this type of cannabis actually doesn’t get you high.

 

CBD Vape Juice doesn’t only stop seizures, but can also help lessen migraines, acne, depression, anxiety, and even reduces pain in cancer patients. There is a whole host of health benefits associated with CBD oil, and there is no cooler way to ingest these benefits than with a vape pen. Some lesser known benefits even include reducing obesity and associated diabetes… decreasing LDL cholesterol (the bad kind- not the good HDL)… it prevents bone disease and otherwise brittle bones… repairs the skin from UV damage and sunspots… and (as one would expect) drastically reduces pain levels.

 

Because CBD blocks pain receptors when ingested, the feeling of pain is drastically reduced. This fact has actually been known since before the times of Queen Victoria in 1859, whose primary neurologist and physician Sir John Russell Reynolds is quoted as saying, “For the relief of certain kinds of pain, I believe, there is no more useful medicine than Cannabis within our reach”. In addition to the British empire, cannabis has been long revered throughout the centuries across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.

 

With the recent decriminalization and legalization of cannabis throughout the United States recently, a new resurgence is being birthed with financial and health abundance galore. Couples are getting married and having pot parties instead of wine pairings. Grandmothers and aunts are no longer giving the stink-eye toward something which, no longer illegal or with harsh penalties, can actually help heal their aging bodies and minds. Now, when holidays and birthdays start rolling around the corner, you just might want to consider sending granny a CBD vape pen and some cool shades to go with it! Hopefully, she’ll at least she’ll enjoy the history behind CBD, as we do.