Small Intestines

The small intestine begins where the duodenum ends. Aajonus sometimes used the terms interchangeably with the caveat that medical institutions kept reclassifying the boundary, which he attributed to institutional confusion. He described the duodenum as the site where bile from the gallbladder first enters the food stream, beginning the breakdown of fats. From that point, the food moves into the long winding passage of the small intestine proper, where it spends approximately sixteen to eighteen hours of a total twenty-four-hour transit time through the entire digestive system. The bowel, or large intestine, handles the final three to five hours of that transit.

The ileocecal valve, which Aajonus also referred to as the "oocycle valve" or "oloquial valve," marks the transition point between the small intestine and the large intestine. Once food passes through this valve, it enters an entirely different bacterial environment. The ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, and sigmoid colon follow in sequence.

One of Aajonus's most repeated points about the small intestine was that hydrochloric acid is not confined to the stomach but is continuously secreted throughout the entire length of the small intestine. He used this observation to counter vegetarian arguments that humans produce only a fraction of the hydrochloric acid found in carnivore stomachs. While canines and felines do have approximately fifteen times more hydrochloric acid in their stomachs than humans do, Aajonus argued that humans produce an equivalent total amount by distributing that secretion gradually across the much longer small intestine. The carnivore concentrates acid production in a short tract; the human distributes it across a longer one and arrives at the same functional quantity.

The hydrochloric acid in the small intestine serves a specific mechanical purpose: it dissolves large food particles into smaller molecules so that bacteria can infiltrate and consume them. Hydrochloric acid does not itself constitute the primary digestive event. It is preparatory, reducing particle size so bacterial digestion can proceed. The same is true of bile, which continues to travel through the intestinal tract and act on fat molecules well past the duodenum.

Bile is produced by the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and initially dumped into the duodenum. However, Aajonus described bile as continuing to function throughout the small intestine, transported via the lymphatic system to different portions of the intestinal tract as needed. The villi measure the size of passing fat molecules and signal for additional bile when needed, just as they signal for additional hydrochloric acid when larger protein particles are present.

Aajonus noted that bile is specifically designed for animal fats. He said bile can assist fractionally with vegetable oils but does not do so efficiently. With animal fats, whether from butter, cream, meat fat, or any other animal source, bile can digest approximately ninety percent of what passes through, provided the liver and gallbladder are functioning well. Bile handles fat; hydrochloric acid handles protein. Both operate across the full length of the small intestine, not only in the stomach.

Aajonus described the villi of the small intestine using the image of sea creatures in the ocean, the small waving tentacle-like projections found on urchins and similar organisms. As food particles move through the small intestine and contact the villi, the villi register the size and type of the particle. Based on that registration, the intestine determines how much additional hydrochloric acid to secrete, whether more bile is needed, what kinds of bacteria should be activated, and whether additional enzymes are required. If the food particle is already small enough for bacterial infiltration, no further acid or bile is needed at that point. If a large clump of meat or fat passes a set of villi, the intestine responds by releasing the appropriate additional digestive resources.

This means the villi act as a continuous monitoring system that modulates digestive fluid output along the full length of the intestinal tract. When a person eats a simple diet primarily composed of animal foods, the villi have relatively little adjustment to make. When the diet includes vegetation, starches, nuts, and other plant foods, Aajonus said the villi have to "work very hard and do things they're not really built for."

The dominant actors in small intestinal digestion are bacteria. Aajonus stated that bacteria are responsible for eighty to ninety percent of all digestion in both the small and large intestine, with enzymatic and other digestive juices accounting for only ten to twenty percent depending on the individual. The bacteria in the small intestine are numerous and varied. He cited approximately sixty thousand groups of bacteria in the small intestine, drawn from only about three to four bacterial families. He also described the human body as carrying around 150 bacterial genes for every single human gene, emphasizing the degree to which the human body is a bacterial organism.

Named bacterial strains he associated with the small intestine include Campylobacter, Salmonella (approximately 2,300 varieties in the small intestine alone), Acidophilus, Cocosicus, and Bulgarius. He described each of these as working on different components of food, whether protein, fat, or carbohydrates. He emphasized that Salmonella, Campylobacter, and other organisms conventionally labeled as dangerous pathogens are in fact normal residents of healthy small intestines performing legitimate digestive functions.

The mechanism by which bacterial digestion works is that bacteria eat the food and their excrement, their waste and secretions, becomes the nutrients absorbed by the body. No matter what food is consumed, whether blueberries, meat, or anything else, once the bacteria of the small intestine have finished working on it, the resulting substance is a thick, milky white material that resembles fresh milk. This milky substance is then absorbed into the lacteal system, a web network of lymphatic tissue running alongside the intestines. The lacteal system carries this material into the lymphatic system, where it becomes a slightly translucent, still slightly milky substance that is then distributed to feed every tissue in the body except the brain and nervous system, which are fed by the final stage of digestion in the large intestine.

The lacteal system is Aajonus's term for the absorptive web network that connects to both the small and large intestines. It is the mechanism by which digested food enters the lymphatic circulation. The term "lacteal" refers to the milk-like appearance of properly digested food as it is absorbed. Aajonus emphasized that this milky appearance holds true regardless of what food was consumed at the start. Digestion transforms all food, through bacterial action, into this consistent milk-like substance before absorption.

Once absorbed into the lacteal system, nutrients move into the broader lymphatic system, which Aajonus described as the true nutrient delivery network of the body, analogous in scope to the nervous system and the blood, running to every cell. The lacteal-lymph system, fed by small intestinal digestion, delivers nutrients to all tissues except the brain and nervous system, which require the more refined output of large intestinal digestion.

Aajonus described trichinosis, the whipworm, as a natural and beneficial resident of the small intestine, particularly relevant given that the human digestive tract most closely resembles that of a pig. He cited a gastroenterologist who observed that university-housed pigs with no whipworm in their intestines were sluggish and unhealthy, while farm pigs full of trichinosis were thriving, robust, and energetic. When the gastroenterologist transferred whipworm from the farm pigs into the intestines of the university pigs, within five days the university pigs had recovered their health and energy.

The whipworm, Aajonus explained, can digest approximately double what bacteria can digest in a twenty-four-hour period while still providing the same quality and concentration of nutrients. Its waste, like bacterial waste, feeds the host. He described trichinosis as part of a four-million-year symbiotic relationship between humans and parasites, one that has been systematically disrupted by modern medicine and dietary practices.

Aajonus used his own experience as a central case study. He suffered from what was labeled constipation for his entire life, going to the bathroom every three to five days, and then only every five to seven days during his worst periods. The fecal matter was consistently hard as granite and large enough to tear his rectum on the way out. By the time he was twenty-one years old, his rectum had developed an inch and a half to two inches of scar tissue all the way around, so that even small movements caused bleeding and tearing. This continued on the raw diet, with the first portion of each movement remaining hard and large.

When he eventually acquired a tapeworm, which he said he had been trying to obtain for years, the character of his fecal matter changed immediately. The sigmoid colon area softened, the fecal matter became thinner and softer even at the start, and he no longer experienced rectal tearing or bleeding. He documented passing approximately forty-five to fifty feet of tapeworm in two separate events several months apart, the second and final passage occurring about three months after the first sighting. After the tapeworm's departure, he reported no return of the constipation. He attributed his lifelong improvement to the parasite's work in the small intestine and its downstream effects on the large intestine.

Aajonus developed a specific recommendation for people suffering from constipation or intestinal dysfunction that draws on the similarity between human and pig digestive tracts. He advised contacting an Amish farmer and requesting fresh small intestines of a pig. The preparation is to chop the intestines and eat them. He described a case of a man who had been constipated for sixty-two years. Even on the raw diet the man had difficulty, producing hard fecal matter at the beginning of each movement. After eating a one-inch section of pig small intestine in November, the man had no further constipation from that point forward.

He also mentioned giving people a pound or a cup of raw pig small intestines, with results including the resolution of constipation lasting six months at a time. With repeated intake over four to five years, he said the intestines can be fully repaired. He framed this as the mechanism by which the whipworm and appropriate bacterial populations are introduced into a depleted intestinal environment.

The pig small intestine is also known regionally as chitlins or tripe, as Aajonus acknowledged in one exchange where audience members offered those terms.

Throughout his descriptions of small intestinal function, Aajonus returned consistently to the point that the small intestine and all of its secretions are specifically designed for animal food. Hydrochloric acid in the stomach and throughout the small intestine is oriented toward protein and meat digestion. Bile is oriented toward animal fat digestion. The bacteria that populate the small intestine primarily digest animal proteins, animal fats, and dairy products. The villi and the enzymes they trigger operate most efficiently when processing animal matter.

When vegetation, grains, nuts, starches, or other plant foods are introduced, the small intestine must adapt and reconfigure. Aajonus described this as a burden on the system, not an efficient process, requiring changes to the bacterial environment and demanding more work from the villi. He was not arguing that the small intestine cannot process plant food at all, but that doing so represents an adaptation rather than the organ's native function. The intestinal environment that processes plant matter is different from the one processing animal matter, and the body must shift between them.

He noted that around 60,000 bacterial groups in the small intestine, drawn from three to four families, handle animal food digestion. Processing carbohydrates, vegetation, and starches requires different bacteria and places different demands on the digestive machinery.

Aajonus described leaky gut as the condition that results when the mucous lining of the intestines becomes too thin to protect the intestinal walls. Normally, bacteria and their associated digestive acids can pass through this mucous fabric in one direction only, moving from the intestinal lumen into the lacteal system. When the mucous layer is not formed properly, digestive acids, including hydrochloric acid and bile, eat away at the intestinal walls themselves. Over time the walls become so thin that stretching from passing food causes lesions, and undigested food particles pass directly into the abdominal cavity.

Once undigested food enters the gut cavity, the body has to digest it somewhere. Aajonus said the body sends it to the second most resilient tissue, which he identified as cartilage, meaning the joints. The body produces hydrochloric acid and bile-like acids in the joint tissue to break down these particles, which is the mechanism behind joint inflammation and pain in people with leaky gut.

The causes of inadequate mucous production he associated with fat deficiency in particular, noting that the body cannot produce sufficient or appropriate mucus without adequate fat intake. Diverticulitis, which he defined as inflammation in one or more intestinal sacs resulting from collected food or toxins within the intestinal walls, he also attributed primarily to fat deficiency, usually accompanied by protein deficiency.

Aajonus repeatedly described a problem specific to people who are new to the raw diet or who have been eating cooked, processed food for decades. As food moves through the small intestine, the body, starved for nutrients and particularly for fats, absorbs essentially everything it can process. By the time the food reaches the ileocecal valve and enters the large intestine, nearly all the usable fat has already been extracted. The bacteria of the large intestine, principally E. coli, are then left with very little fat to work with.

He described this as the E. coli and bowel bacteria receiving "the dredges," the worst of what remains after the small intestine has taken everything of value. The consequence is that E. coli cannot break down proteins and fats into the finite molecules required to feed the brain and nervous system, and the fecal matter in the sigmoid colon becomes dry and hard because the body is also extracting all available fluid in an attempt to recover nutrients. This produces what most people call constipation, though Aajonus did not consider it true constipation in most cases. He reserved that term for situations involving a physical block where peristalsis stops entirely.

For diverticulitis, which Aajonus described as inflammation in intestinal sacs resulting from collected food or toxins, usually from fat and protein deficiency, he recommended eating one to two eggs every one to two hours followed by a half tablespoon of a butter and honey mixture, maintained for three to seven days to calm the condition. After that period he recommended continuing to support intestinal healing with raw fats and appropriate bacterial repopulation.

Aajonus made a detailed technical argument about the composition of healthy fecal matter. He stated that sixty to eighty percent of all fecal matter should consist of bacteria. Without adequate bacterial populations in the intestines, fecal matter becomes the size of marbles, granite in texture, and causes physical damage during evacuation. He linked this directly to antibiotic use, colonics, enemas, and other practices that destroy intestinal bacteria, all of which deplete the bacterial populations in both the small and large intestines.

He estimated that the human body should carry three to five pounds of bacteria in the intestines at any given time. When that population is depleted, constipation, hard fecal matter, and intestinal damage follow.

He also described what he called "true constipation" and distinguished it from what most people experience. True constipation is a physical block in the intestine where peristalsis stops and food cannot move through at all, with the stomach and sigmoid colon growing increasingly distended. The other condition, where the body holds fecal matter in the sigmoid colon for extended periods to extract all available nutrients, is actually a sign of malnutrition and nutrient deficiency, not a mechanical failure. In that scenario the body is rationing, not blocked.

The total transit time from ingestion to excretion is approximately twenty-four hours. Of those twenty-four hours, sixteen to eighteen hours are spent in the small intestine. The remaining three to five hours are spent in the large intestine, with the longest pause occurring at the sigmoid colon, where the body performs its final absorption of what the E. coli and other bowel bacteria have digested.

Aajonus described specific digestion times for certain foods. Raw milk takes six to ten hours to digest, with nearly all of that time occurring in the small intestine. Very little milk ever reaches the bowel. Raw eggs digest in approximately twenty-seven minutes. He noted that if milk were delivered directly to the bowel through a suppository, children would become cognitively sharper at a very young age, because the bowel is where the brain and nervous system receive their nourishment. The fact that milk is almost entirely absorbed in the small intestine means its primary nutritional contribution goes to the body's general tissues rather than to the nervous system.

In his iridology work, Aajonus described the small intestine as visible in the iris. He pointed to the intestinal ring and described the ridge pattern that indicates the intestinal structure, noting that in some people the intestine can become so distended and prolapsed that it is visible as a very pronounced ridge pattern in the iris. He described cases where the intestinal walls in extremely distended people would be visibly thickened, and noted that the intestines can become prolapsed, meaning they drop lower than their natural position.

He also described reading a case in which there was "a lot of congestion in the small intestines," specifically attributing it to suet that normally surrounds the kidneys failing to break down properly, filling with ammonia, and sending that ammonia out into the intestines where it was blocking flow.

Aajonus addressed acidophilus specifically in the context of small intestinal bacteria. He distinguished it from bacteria useful for bowel movement facilitation, noting that acidophilus primarily assists with sugar digestion and does not significantly help with physical movement of fecal matter. He did not dismiss acidophilus as harmful but was clear that it addresses a different function than what is typically hoped for by people who take it for constipation.

He mentioned clay, specifically Aztec Secret clay from health food store cosmetic departments, taken as a heaping teaspoon in any liquid including smoothies, water, milk, or mixed with an egg, as a substance that helps encourage intestinal bacteria. He suggested this particularly in cases of diarrhea or irregular bowel movements.

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