Have Digestive Troubles? Think Stomach Acid

Have Digestive Troubles? Think Stomach Acid

by | Feb 25, 2017 | Digestion, Functional Nutrition, Symptoms

So many of my clients suffer from heartburn, indigestion, belly aches, bloating, gas, constipation, or diarrhea. Are you one of them? I wouldn’t be surprised. Almost everyone has at least one of these symptoms on at least a semi-regular basis.

In particular, heartburn and reflux seem to be the most misunderstood of all. Heartburn is commonly thought, by doctors and regular people alike, to be caused by too much stomach acid. Common recommendations are antacids, and prescription PPIs (proton pump inhibitors), such as Prilosec.

But what would you say if I told you that heartburn is actually caused by too little stomach acid? Allow me to illuminate the physiology that explains why.

The stomach is designed to tolerate an extremely low pH of 1.0-1.5. It naturally creates hydrochloric acid when we begin to smell and think of eating, and while we eat our stomach with food. The hydrochloric acid has two functions: to chemically break down proteins into peptides, and to kill any incoming pathogens, such as unfriendly bacteria or parasites. It also facilitates absorption of vitamin B12 and iron. Vitamin B12 assists many essential processes in your body, and iron is important for energy levels. Do any of my readers out there have indigestion and fatigue?

The sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach (Lower Esophageal Sphincter or LES) maintains its normally-closed state by being exposed to adequate stomach acid. When stomach acid decreases, the LES becomes loose, and allows the acidic contents of the stomach to leak back into the esophagus. Because this material is quite acidic and because the esophagus isn’t designed to handle this acid, the sensitive skin there gets burned by the acid, and causes the familiar chest pain of heartburn.

The unfortunate truth about PPIs and antacids are that they are temporary fixes that may relieve immediate symptoms, but they do nothing to address the underlying cause of the heartburn, and further exacerbate the underlying cause: LOW stomach acid. Possible causes of low stomach acid include:

  • Chronic stress
  • Lack of pre-meal practices, such as preparing, smelling, and thinking about food (for example, eating convenience food on the run, in a hurry)
  • Pathogenic infections
  • Aging (we tend to produce less as we age)
  • Hormone imbalances
  • Consumption of coffee, chocolate, sugar, and alcohol can weaken the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), allowing heartburn to occur.

There are many other possible reasons why digestion may be compromised besides low stomach acid, such as inflammation from food sensitivities which can lead to malabsorption, slow motility, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which can lead to severe gas, bloating, and intolerance of certain foods, to name a few. But the phase of digestion that occurs in the stomach is one of the first major steps in the process, and when compromised, every step downstream is more of a challenge than it should be.

Here are some gentle, easy steps you can take to increase your stomach acid, improve digestion:

  • Take a few minutes before your meals to look at, smell, and imagine eating your food, and express gratitude for your food, to stimulate saliva and hydrochloric acid secretion.
  • Chew your food thoroughly, to help the acid you are making do its job more effectively.
  • Consume some lemon or apple cider vinegar in water first thing in the morning, and before a high protein meal. Aim for 30 minutes before eating.
  • If you suffer from heartburn and you consume coffee and/or alcohol, try eating some food first, to prevent weakening of the LES.

With these tips, I hope that you will find your digestion, energy, and elimination improving. Add a comment, and let me know if any of these tips made a difference for you.

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Symptoms Aren’t To Be Ignored

Symptoms Aren’t To Be Ignored

by | Dec 12, 2016 | Functional Medicine and Coaching, Functional Nutrition, Symptoms

Symptoms aren’t permanent, but they ARE a sign that something isn’t right.

A year ago, I was living in a world of continuous and constant symptoms: belly pain, hormonal fluctuations that left me in severe pain, unable to sleep through the night, hungry all the time, with migraine headaches at certain times, recurring diarrhea, frequent anxiety, and severe fatigue. In this state, it wasn’t hard to see and understand that there was something wrong with me that warranted investigation.

I sought out care, and was given some diagnoses, and care suggestions. These included surgery, medications (I refused these, because they weren’t going to address my underlying conditions, but would likely make them worse), psychotherapy, and a few supplements.

What’s interesting to me about this situation is that the symptoms I was experiencing expanded slowly over time. I was aware that things weren’t right, but between my lack of health insurance, lack of trust that doctors would be able help me troubleshoot my whole body system in a holistic way, and profound lack of personal time, since I was a mother of young children, I did what many people do when faced with symptoms: I continued to put up with them, and managed to carry on week to week to week, in spite of them.

If I had paid more attention earlier, I may have spared myself some pretty difficult times, saved myself a hell of a lot of money, and been able to save my uterus.

But if there’s one take home message I’ve learned from my intensive studies this last year, it’s that symptoms are windows into what isn’t working correctly in the body. It’s not normal to have headaches every day at 4 PM, or to regularly be unable to sleep well, or to be constipated every day, or to get regular colds and flus, or to be tired all the time. These symptoms are giving your body vital information that something isn’t right, that something deserves attention and inquiry.

But what do you do to learn what they have to say? First, it’s about beginning to pay attention to the variables we do have control over: our food, our movement routines, our sleep habits, and how we manage stress. Do we always get sleepy after eating a particular food? Do we tend to get constipated when we sit too much all day, or eat something at lunch? If we stay up too late, does it contribute to our migraine headaches? If we watch a movie before bed, does in interfere with our sleep quality? Answering these questions for yourself can give you a lot of power back over your symptoms. If you can evaluate what is causing your problem, you can change the situation, and relieve your difficult symptoms.

If this isn’t enough, it can be helpful to have assistance from a professional who can look for patterns in the symptoms, or evaluate what might be going on in there using lab tests, a health history, or tracking tools. Sometimes, we have to play detective to get to the bottom of things, but with some applied thinking, we can uncover the hidden causes of suffering, and see a path to relief.

Don’t let your un-managed symptoms go, they are messages about imbalance that are best listened to.