Got Heartburn?
What If I told you that your heartburn is because you do not have enough stomach acid versus too much?
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most common digestive disorders, and it is also one of the most mismanaged diseases by the medical establishment. According to the American College of Gastroenterology, up to 15 million American suffer from heartburn daily [1]. And you know who capitalizes on that? The antacid industry raked in almost $2 billion in 2018 [2].
Most people think acid reflux is caused by too much stomach acid, hence an acid blocker. The problem with this theory is that the incidence of heartburn and GERD increase with age, while stomach acid levels decline with age.
The truth is heartburn is NOT caused by too much stomach acid, it is caused by too little.
No way, Heidi. You say. My symptoms go away when I take my daily Omeprazole.
Let me tell you the story of happens when you eat or drink something. When food enters the stomach it mixes with hydrochloric acid (HCl) naturally produced by the stomach, and it becomes chyme (rhymes with time). I call this "the burn and churn". This mechanical mixing of our food with acid triggers pepsin, the enzyme required for protein digestion.
Now here's the catch: a normal stomach has an acidity level of 0.8, and in order for food to move into the small intestine, it must reach 1.5-3. The small intestine is where the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates and fats occurs. If it is not acidic enough, the pyloric sphincter (the muscle separating the stomach and the small intestine) will not open and chyme will sit in the stomach. As it sits there fermenting (carbohydrates), putrefying (protein), and turning rancid (fat), it's becoming a toxic mess and the body wants to get rid of it.
Picture a bottle of beer. Shake it, pop the cap, and what happens? It explodes! Well, your stomach is the bigger part of the bottle, and your esophagus and throat are the neck. If your stomach cannot get its acidity level to 1.5-3, this is exactly what happens to you. All that acid creeps back up to your throat and makes you feel as sick to your stomach as your stomach is actually sick.
So yeah, your antacid does reduce the symptoms of heartburn and GERD because it completely blocks the acid from being produced, but in no way does it heal the problem. In fact, it makes the problem worse. The longer someone is medicating with acid blockers, the more severe the condition becomes, often making this a lifelong medication for those who are taking them.
Antacids are NOT meant to be lifelong medications. People who take acid blockers for an extended period of time have shown to have increased bacterial overgrowth, higher incidence of SIBO, impaired nutrient absorption, decreased resistance to infection and parasites, and an increased risk of cancer and other diseases.
Without adequate stomach acid we are not able to properly digest and absorb the nutrients from our foods. Low stomach acid has been linked to a plethora of nutritional deficiencies:
B12 is needed for nerve activity, brain function, and is used by the liver as part of the detoxification process. B12 enters the body bound to animal proteins and cannot be separated from its carrier protein unless there is adequate stomach acid.
Iron is required for the oxygenation of body tissue. People who are anemic are iron deficient and their tissue is being starved of oxygen. Studies have proven that people with chronic anemia are also have below normal stomach acid secretion.
Folate is crucial to red blood cell production, helps prevent osteoporosis-related bone fractures, and helps prevent dementia diseases including Alzheimer's. Low stomach acid interferes with the absorption of folate by raising the pH of the small intestines. It has also been shown in studies that both the drugs Tagamet and Zantac reduced folate absorption.
Calcium is used largely to keep our bones and teeth strong, thereby supporting skeletal structure and function. Calcium also assists in cell signaling, blood clotting, muscle contraction, and nerve function.
Zinc plays a crucial role in over 300 enzymes in the body. It is vital for growth, cell division, and fertility. Among all vitamins and minerals, zinc shows the strongest effect on our immune system. Low zinc levels reduce and weaken T cells, which are required to recognize and fight off certain infections.
People with low stomach acid or on acid blockers are also more susceptible to pathogens like Salmonella, Campylobacter, cholera, Listeria, giardia, and Clostridium difficile. Their immune system is also decreased in its ability to fight infections.
Heartburn and GERD are caused by too little versus too much stomach acid, however, it is possible to heal the body and stop dependency on these drugs. Check out my page on Gastrointestinal Health
for more information on how we can help get you off these sneaky, debilitating drugs.
1. https://gi.org/topics/acid-reflux/
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/194544/leading-us-antacid-tablet-brands-in-2013-based-on-sales/
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Heidi Toy Functional Medicine Blog
Did you know most people didn’t have refrigerators in their homes until well into the 1900’s? It wasn’t even invented for large scale commercial use until the mid 1800’s [1]. So how did people keep their milk cold and make their food last longer? Fermentation. It sounds like a gross concept, because we often associate fermentation with a bad odor, but foods like cheese, yogurt, sauerkraut and pickles are all fermented foods. And those aren’t gross, are they? Well, some might disagree with me about sauerkraut, but that’s beside the point. Fermented foods are digestive aids. Microscopic living organisms in fermented foods help extend the food’s shelf life, enhance flavor, and help the body absorb minerals. These organisms pre-digest the food, getting rid of harmful components, and create more vitamins and enzymes than the food began with. Enzyme-rich foods have many benefits including [2]: Increase digestibility of food we eat Boost immune system Increase alkalinity; neutralizing pH levels Provide a healthy balance of friendly flora in the gut (Learn more about your microbiome in my other blog posts ) Tone the colon and help with elimination Control cravings for unhealthier foods Eliminate toxins and undigested wastes in the body In the “old days,” people use to ferment all kinds of foods through pickling, canning, pasteurization and added salt. Nowadays, however, large scale fermentation has lost many of its nutritious benefits due to the need for speed to get the product on the shelf as fast as possible and as cheap as possible. The only true fermented foods you will find are sauerkraut, kombucha, yogurt and kefir, beans, wine and beer, some meats (such as salami and pastrami), legumes and nuts (such as tofu, soy sauce and miso), sourdough bread, and various kinds of vegetables [3]. Fun facts about sauerkraut: The Germans “stole” it from the Chinese! Sauerkraut (probably not labeled as such for the Chinese, but the same recipe) was one of the main foods for those who built the Great Wall of China. Genghis Khan brought it to Eastern Europe during an invasion. It also contains high levels of vitamin C, and sailors often took it on long journeys to prevent scurvy.
How can we best keep blood sugar stable? Do what our body is designed to do – use fat for energy. Our species did not survive the Ice Age because of vanilla coffee lattes and cheesecake. Throughout most of our history, we ate a diet that was likely 50-70 percent fat. Look at the old family photo albums, specifically pictures of people in the first half of the 1900s, before we had so many processed foods. You won’t see many fat people--in fact, most look darn skinny. If they lived on the farm, they ate lots of eggs, meat, milk, and vegetables out of their own backyards. “Diet foods” were non-existent. Heart disease was almost non-existent. Our metabolism is designed to work much better with fats better than with sugar. Fats provide the slow and steady fuel our body likes to use for energy. Think of fats as a slow-burning log on the fire. One log (i.e. one meal containing fats) lasts for hours. Starchy carbs, on the flip side, are like kindling. You constantly have to throw more twigs (chips, pasta, bagels) to keep the fire burning. The first step is to know your sugars by reading the labels, and then avoid said sugars as much as possible.
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Omega-3 and Omega-6 are considered “essential” fatty acids because they cannot be produced by the body--we get them from the food we eat. They are biologically active upon ingestion, which means the body utilizes them right away and cannot store them up for later. They are essential because they help with both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses.
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