Did you know that your indigestion may be a result of TOO LITTLE stomach acid? Find out why - BEFORE you reach for popular over the counter indigestion or acid relief remedies!While you may use antacids for heartburn relief or indigestion, they are not a cure for what causes these problems in the first place.
Contrary to popular belief, indigestion is usually caused by low stomach acid - also called hypochlorhydria- and it affects up to half of our population.1
Treatment that further neutralizes stomach acid can make your digestion worse.
Why Stomach Acid is Good For You
Stomach acid or hydrochloric acid (HCl), is a very powerful digestive agent, and much more important than you realize.HCl's important functions include:
- Breaking down proteins into the essential amino acids and nutrients your body needs in order to stay healthy.
- Stimulating your pancreas and small intestines to produce the digestive enzymes and bile necessary to further breakdown the carbohydrates, proteins and fats you eat.
- Preventing disease by killing pathogenic bacteria and yeast normally present in food.
Low Stomach Acid: A Vicious Cycle
There are two main consequences of low stomach acid:
- You become protein malnourished. When your stomach acid is low, you are not able to digest protein.
- Improper digestion of protein creates toxins in your intestines that can set the stage for illness and disease.
- Improper digestion of protein also creates acidic blood, since protein is by nature acidic.
- You become mineral deficient. As your blood becomes more acidic, it will look for minerals from anywhere in your body, in order to get your blood to its more ideal alkaline state. Acidic blood robs your body of minerals, even taking minerals from your bones (which is important to know if you want to prevent osteoporosis).
Once this vicious cycle has started, there is a cascade of consequences:
- You could eat plenty of protein and still be protein malnourished. This raises cortisol levels (stress or death hormone), thereby raising your blood glucose (blood sugar levels). Elevated cortisol adversely affects your behavior and temperment.
- Eventually, your adrenals become depleted (adrenal fatigue) and DHEA, the youth hormone, is suppressed, leading to premature aging.
Symptoms of Low Stomach Acid
Here are some of the common symptoms and disorders caused by low stomach acid1,3:
- Bloating, belching, and flatulence immediately after meals
- Heartburn (often thought to be caused by too much stomach acid)
- Indigestion, diarrhea, or constipation
- Undigested food in stools
- Acne
- Rectal itching
- Chronic candida
- Hair loss in women
- Multiple food allergies
- Iron deficiency
- Weak, peeling, or cracked fingernails
- Chronic fatigue
- Adrenal fatigue
- Dry skin
- Various autoimmune diseases
Increase Your Stomach Acid, Heal Your Digestion
Here are the 3 KEY ways to increase your stomach acid:
- Reduce or eliminate sugar. Replace mineral-depleting sugar and sweeteners with Stevia
- Add fermented foods and drinks to your diet. Fermented foods and drinks keep you looking and feeling healthy from the inside out. Some of our favorite fermented foods and drinks are:
- Cultured vegetables - a delicious, vitamin, mineral and probiotic-rich, raw, fermented food.
- Young Coconut Kefir - full of minerals and probiotics, this is a fermented drink you can easily make at home.
- Super Spirulina Plus- thought of as one of the "world's healthiest foods," the fermented spirulina in Super Spirulina Plus is a perfect protein and an almost immediate energizer anyone suffering with adrenal fatigue.
- Eliminate processed foods. Follow the 7 healthy eating principles of the Body Ecology Program
Whatever the reason for low stomach acid, we have another solution for you: Assist SI and Assist Dairy and Protein Digestive Enzymes.
Experiencing gas, bloating, belching, fatigue or abdominal pain? Assist your digestion with Assist SI Digestive Enzymes
Assist Dairy and Proteinsupports your digestion with plenty of HCL, which your stomach desperately needs in order to properly break down foods and assimilate nutrients.There is no reason to suffer the vicious cycle of low stomach acid. So start by healing the root cause and watch your energy and vitality improve, naturally!
WHAT TO REMEMBER MOST FROM THIS ARTICLE:
Did you know that indigestion could be caused by low stomach acid, which affects over 50% of the population?Using over-the-counter antacids can neutralize stomach acid and actually make your digestion worse, leaving you at risk for malnutrition and mineral deficiencies. The key to improving your digestion is in increasing your stomach acid by reducing sugar in your diet, eating healthy fermented foods and beverages, and cutting out processed foods. When you couple that with Body Ecology’s digestive enzymes, you'll be able to kick indigestion to the curb and finally have the health and energy you have been hoping for!PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS:
Sources:
- Stomach Acid Imbalance: Overview, Symptoms, Causes, Natural Treatments and Medicine
http://www.jigsawhealth.com/articles/stomach_acid_reflux.html - Adrenocortical function in experimental protein. PubMed 1979. malnutrition.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=109732&dopt=AbstractPlus
- Kennedy M.D., Ron, Hypochlorhydria. Doctor's Medical Library
http://www.med-library.net/content/view/177/41/
8 Comments
2 Billion people in the world [about the size of the U.S. population], reportedly, are iodine deficient. So they turn to digestive enzymes and HCL to supplement stomach acid, all the while iodine deficiency is one of the major root causes of low stomach acid. And the Environmental Protection Agency, which bans the dumping fluoride into the environment and classifies the toxic waste as an environmental pollutant, RECOMMENDS administering 1200 parts per billion of it into America's drinking water supply, socially sanitizing toxic waste pollution in the name of cavity prevention, which is a lie, it actually weakens the enamel of your teeth, causing pitting and staining [‘Dental Fluorosis’]. They endorse dumping the neurotoxin into your family’s drinking water, while the CDC warns those who handle the fluoride 'not to take internally.' Meanwhile doctors say it is now typical for people in their 30's to become deficient in their stomach acid, while patients are being prescribed 5-7 antacids daily to treat what they believe is heart-burn, when instead it is methane gas from undigested rotting food. The antacids only neutralize what little acid they have, making the problem worse, with more heart-burn symptoms, bloating, gas, and rotten breath, and worse, the well-fed person slowly starves from malabsorption and malnutrituion.
I take a daily multi-vitamin, purchased Iodized Salt
[threw out my old shaker], also Iodized supplements can be taken. In addition I threw out all bleached flour and bread made with bleached flour. I only buy bread that is made with unbleached flour.
Also, I ADVISE using Reverse Osmosis to filter Fluoride and Bleach out of your family's drinking water, and may GOD Bless you and your family richly and warmly, in Jesus' Holy Name.
“Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” 3 John 1:2
Iodine shown to remove toxins from the body such as bromine [bleach] and fluoride [toxic waste]
In Japan, the average ingestion is roud 13 mg daily from their diet high in kelp/sea-weed [13,000 mcg vs the FDA 150 mcg] and they have no ill side effects.
Iodine has been removed almost entirely from our diet [you can specificaly purchase Iodized salt, and you may receive up to 150 mcg's from a daily vitamin, but we may only absorb 25% of the daily vitamin, although it claims to give the public 100% of everything.
You can buy iodine supplem from a health food store. Avoid kelp that comes from Iceland or Norway, because kelp absorbs radiation and you want to be sure the waters from which kelp comes, has not been contaminated. Norwegian sea water contains elevated levels of 226Ra Radiation
Iodine from Alaskan kelp
http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp?id=VS-1370&sourceType=cs&source=FG&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=VS-1370
Read the whole article, here's a sample
IODINE IS VITAL FOR GOOD HEALTH
http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james37.htm
By Dr. James Howenstine, MD.
November 5, 2005
NewsWithViews.com
Lack of iodine is widespread in the United States today. For many years iodine was added to bread in generous quantities which prevented iodine deficiency. Each slice of bread contained 150 mcg. of iodine filling the whole days RDA of iodine In 1960 the average diet consumed about 1 mg. of iodine daily with bakery products accounting for about 75 % of the total. This quantity of iodine was enough to decrease the thyroid glands ability to absorb radioactive iodine and it was also sufficient to prevent excess release of thyroid hormone thus preventing many cases of hyperthyroidism (Grave’s Disease).
Forty years ago the food industry decided to remove iodine from baked goods and replace the iodine with bromine. Iodine and bromine appear similar to the thyroid gland and bromine easily binds to the thyroid gland’s receptors for iodine. Bromine, however, is of no value to the thyroid gland unlike iodine and it inhibits the activity of iodine in the thyroid gland. Bromine also can cause impaired thinking and memory, drowsiness, dizziness and irritability. This substitution of bromine for iodine has resulted in nearly universal deficiency of iodine in the American populace. Iodine therapy helps the body eliminate fluoride, bromine, lead, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum and mercury. Could this substitution of bromine for iodine have been carried out to increase diseases and thus create more need for pharmaceutical drugs?
Among the problems caused by iodine deficiency are:
• Underactivity of the thyroid gland produces fatigue. In rodents iodine deficiency leads to abnormal pituitary-adrenal function. The adrenal gland provides energy and stamina.
• When iodine no longer binds to thyroid cell membranes enzymes called peroxidases are able to damage these membranes and produce autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Hyperthroidism (Graves Disease). Researcher Dr. Guy Abraham has observed several cases of thyroiditis and hyperthyroidism that have been corrected by the simple replacement of iodine. For more than 100 years high doses of iodine have been known to benefit both underactivity (hypothyroidism) of the thyroid gland and overactivity of the thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism). Iodine therapy allows the sluggish thyroid gland to resume normal production of thyroid hormone leading to resolution of hypothyroidism. Provision of iodine stops the peroxidase injury to the thyroid membranes in hyperthyroidism which permits hyperthyroidism to resolve. Thus thyroid surgery for hyperthyroidism is no longer necessary.
• Several human organs need iodine but cannot absorb it until blood iodine levels reach high values (stomach, salivary glands). Most persons exhibit impaired production of stomach acid as they age. This impaired capability to produce adequate stomach acid may be a result of iodine deficiency as iodine promotes stomach acidity.
2) can low stomach acid victim have a acid reflux