Why You May Actually Want Stomach Acid

According to Wright & Lenard, around 44% of the U.S. population suffers from heartburn at least once a month and around 7% experience it weekly. That seems pretty significant that many people are suffering from this pain and discomfort after eating their meals. Have you ever thought to wonder why that number is increasing and what is actually the root cause? When you think of heartburn, acid reflux, indigestion and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), I’m sure you think of too much stomach acid causing this discomfort, right? It seems to make logical sense. That’s what I thought prior to investigating more into the research and findings.   Common treatment or relief for reflux distress is the use of Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI’s) and other antacid medications, which essentially reduce stomach acid over a continued period of time. This method of treatment is somewhat of a band-aid like approach that isn’t getting to the root cause of the symptoms, but just a temporary reduction of symptoms with the dependence on medications. There are other solutions out there, and in my opinion, more effective. 

So what exactly IS stomach acid and what purpose does it serve? Stomach acid is essential for our digestion process. Stomach acid contains HCL, which is a digestive fluid secreted by stomach parietal cells that breaks down dietary proteins we consume through our diets and food.  We know that we lose stomach acid as we age, which also correlates with increased heartburn rates among the older population. So given this, why aren’t teenagers complaining of heartburn and acid reflux more than grandpa or grandma since they have more stomach acid? Makes you think. Inadequate stomach acid is correlated with a host of issues, some that were extremely surprising to me. 

Some common issues that can be associated with low stomach acid (or HCL) include: 

• Heartburn

• Acid Reflux

• Malnutrition - through not having enough stomach acid to help us break down and absorb our vitamins and nutrients from food

• Anxiety, depressive symptoms

• Leaky Gut symptoms

• Poor digestion and related symptoms (gas, constipation, diarrhea, undigested food in stools)

• Allergies

• Bacterial overgrowth

• Asthma

• Weak hair and nails

• Autoimmune diseases 

• Certain types of cancers

• Skin diseases (acne, eczema, dermatitis, hives)

• Increased chance of getting osteoporosis 

 Stomach acid is needed to help prevent and maintain many different roles in our bodies and health. For one, it helps protect against foreign invaders/harmful toxins that we shouldn’t be consuming by having enough stomach acid to allow it to ‘clean’ or decrease them before moving along in our digestion. Another need for stomach acid is for the ability to break down foods to help us be able to absorb and digest the nutrients from our foods. According to Wright & Lenard (2001), when our stomach acid breaks down and empties out of our stomach, it triggers the secretion of hormones that stimulate the pancreas and gallbladder to release their digestive secretions/enzymes to help facilitate the stages of digestion to continue.  Stomach acid is crucial for digestion because if our pH in our stomach become too alkaline, it allows for disruption in the digestive process, lack of absorption, acid to move back up into the esophagus (the classic ‘acid reflux’ feeling), lack of hormone secretion and lack of neurotransmitters. Think of eating a burger and it going into your stomach. With having quality stomach acid, the food falls into the acid and is easily broken down and absorbed, which allows your body to move easily through the digestion process. 

When I learned about this phenomenon through my training, my mind was blown. I have never had acid reflux or heartburn luckily, but I definitely had some of the other symptoms - digestion related. I started supplementing with HCL & Pepsin with my meals for a couple weeks and noticed improvements and reductions in digestion distress and symptoms. Again, this isn’t something you have to become dependent on, but more so a short term aid to help with some symptoms you may be experiencing. It is also recommended that you have HCL when traveling or are in an increased stressful time. 

Ways to improve or increase stomach acid:

• Taking a high quality, HCL & Pepsin supplement

• Work on increasing ways to de-stress

• Chew your food thoroughly and slowly to naturally increase digestive enzymes

• Decrease sugar in the diet

• Decrease the consumption of processed foods in the diet

• Eat gut-healing foods such as fermented foods, probiotics, bone broth

• Drinking apple cider vinegar 30 minutes prior to meals to help secrete and stimulate stomach acid and enzymes

• Eating a nutrient-dense, balanced diet full of fruits, vegetables and fiber

A common place to start is the “HCL Challenge”. This involves starting with one HCL/Pepsin/Betaine capsule/supplement with a meal to help increase stomach acid and slowly increasing the dose each day. When you feel a slight ‘burning sensation’ this is an indicator that you reached your ‘peak’ amount of capsules/doses to be an adequate amount of stomach acid. For example, if you start this process and on the third day you try taking 3 capsules and notice that slight ‘burning’ sensation, you know that you will need to supplement with 2 capsules for a short period of time to help build up your stomach acid level. (Kines, K., & Krupczak, T. (2016)

References

Kines, K., & Krupczak, T. (2016). Nutritional Interventions for Gastroesophageal Reflux, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Hypochlorhydria: A Case Report. Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.), 15(4), 49–53.

Wright, Jonathan V., and Lane Lenard. Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You: Natural Relief from Heartburn, Indigestion, Reflux, and GERD. M. Evans, 2001.