reflux

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You Don't Have to Live With Heartburn or Acid Reflux

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I recently wrote a blog post How to Naturally Support Digestive Function where I discussed natural ways to help support the start of your digestive process and your body’s stomach acid production. For some people, these strategies can be very helpful, but for those suffering from heartburn and/or acid reflux, we usually need to take a few steps back. Most people think that heartburn and acid reflux are “normal”.  While these symptoms and conditions are typical, they are actually NOT normal and a functional nutritional therapist (like me!) can help you to heal your digestive tract and determine the proper supplementation to improve your hydrochloric acid production, overall gut health, and ensure that your symptoms resolve for good. 

Let’s start from the beginning. Stomach acid (also known as hydrochloric acid or HCL) is a necessary part of the digestive process and not only allows us to digest our food properly, it is our body’s first line of defense against all kinds of pathogens.

There are many reasons why our bodies don’t produce the amount of stomach acid needed for optimal digestion. Age is definitely a factor, but other factors include alcohol consumption, a diet high in processed foods, nutritional deficiencies, and more. When stomach acid production is too low, the pyloric sphincter – the valve that releases the broken-down food from the stomach into the small intestine – doesn’t want to open. This leads to food sitting in the stomach for much longer than intended and if it sits too long, the stomach eventually sends the food back up the way it came, forcing its contents back up. Ironically, because the food has been sitting in stomach acid, it burns when it comes back up the esophagus.

Heartburn

In simple terms, heartburn is caused by too little stomach acid. This may be shocking to some as conventional wisdom has taught us that it is too much stomach acid that causes these symptoms. If you are taking acid blockers or proton pump inhibitors (PPI), you likely know that these medications lower the acidity in the stomach, so when the food starts to come back up, you don’t get the burning sensation. This doesn’t fix the problem or even the root cause of why it is happening, the acid blocker simply masks the symptoms of a bigger issue. The way to eliminate heartburn is to actually increase the amount of stomach acid produced by the stomach. This may seem radical, but it is true!

Whether or not you are taking a PPI to quell your symptoms, it is important to work with a practitioner to eliminate your heartburn or reflux before it becomes a bigger issue because. Low stomach acid is linked to many other problems and symptoms including nutritional deficiencies, food sensitivities, stomach pain, gas, bloating, constipation or diarrhea, parasites, or dysbiosis of the gut farther down the line. When stomach acid is too low, the body won’t be able to digest and utilize the nutrients in your food to its maximum ability – which leads to those nutritional deficiencies, overgrowth of harmful bacteria and inflammation, and “leaky gut” or intestinal permeability. Healing your gut and enabling your body to produce the stomach acid that it needs can truly improve your health.

Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as just stopping the PPIs or taking HCL. You first need to heal your upper gastrointestinal tract with gut-healing nutrients and dietary changes, slowly wean off of the PPIs and then slowly bring back up your HCL in a safe manner with specific nutrients and supplements. Whether you are on a PPI and are looking to get off of it or are experiencing these symptoms regularly and want to get your digestion back on track I can help! Feel free to set up a FREE discovery call with me here.

If you are struggling with these symptoms, but are not currently on a PPI, here are three strategies to begin the healing process. Keep in mind, it still might be worthwhile to seek out help from a skilled practitioner.

  1. Practice mindful eating. This includes eating in a calm, relaxed state. You’ll want to sit down, take some deep breaths before eating, chew your food well and slow WAY down.

  2. Reduce the inflammation in your esophagus with healing foods and teas like slippery elm or Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat, bone broth, and pure aloe vera juice.

  3. Track your food intake and reduce your triggers for some time to give your body a chance to heal. They may include spicy foods, acidic foods, refined sugars, chocolate, coffee, and alcohol.

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