This week I wanted to talk about the very common symptom acid reflux, and all the conditions associated with deficient stomach acid.  Yes, I said deficient.  There is a big misconception about acid reflux being an excess of acid, and a million products out there to try and decrease the acid.  Tums, zantac, prilosec, ect.  These are all targeted on decreasing the stomach acid production.  However, this is backwards to the way you really want to “treat” acid reflux and associated conditions, and here’s why.

Let’s think for a minute about the stomach.

The stomach sits in a pool of acid, it LOVES acid.  That is how it breaks down your food.  The stomach produces acid and other substances in order to break down your food.  In particular your proteins you eat.  Proteins take a lot of breaking down and need acid in order to digest them.  If your proteins that you are eating aren’t getting broken down, then they start to ferment in your stomach, which produces symptoms such as bloating, gas, belching, nausea, ect.  When the proteins aren’t getting broken down, the stomach acid starts to rise, because it isn’t being used, going up into the neck of the stomach into your esophagus, thus acid reflux symptoms.  Most individuals are actually deficient in the good acid and that is what is creating the symptoms, not too much acid.
What is good acid?  Your acid in your stomach has to be a certain pH in order to digest your foods.  Because of our horrible american diets, and very rarely because of a genetic deficiency in acid, the acid in your stomach starts to lose the ideal pH it needs.  The balance in our body that requires an ideal pH starts to decline, and you start losing the ability to digest your foods.

So what do antacids do?  They actually decrease the acid, and make the problem worse.  Most of the pharmaceuticals work by stopping the cells in the stomach that produce acid.  As less and less acid is produced, you usually become more reliant on the drugs, and just assume you can’t eat certain foods, like “spicy” foods because they cause the reflux.  It’s not the food, it’s your bodies inability to digest your food that is the issue.  With less acid comes less ability for your body to do that job.

When your stomach is at the good pH then it can digest all your proteins in your foods, and your body can actually use it for nourishment.  The symptoms will decrease, and overall your digestion will improve.
I usually start patient’s with a healing of the lining of the stomach and esophagus first, because of the damage chronic reflux can cause.  After the healing, I then supplement with either herbs that help to stimulate those acid cells again, or actually use HCL acid to help digest the foods until the stomach can get back to doing it’s job.  It’s very simple.

It’s also important to mention that a lot of individuals with acid reflux, or symptoms after eating can also have a subclinical hiatal hernia.  What is a hiatal hernia?  This is when your stomach starts to slip up into your diaphragm.  It’s very common, and very easy to relieve.  Normally your esophagus passes through the diaphragm, and the neck of the stomach begins right below it.  However, with weak diaphragm muscles, weak core muscles, and also some birth trauma, the stomach can slowly start to slip up further into the diaphragm.

There is a way to gently tug on the stomach to bring it down under the diaphragm safely, which for some can make a HUGE difference in their symptoms.  Some hernias are quite severe, and of course this technique would not be as effective.

For infants, acid reflux is becoming quite common.  This has multiple different causes.  One is become of the trauma to their cranium and spinal column from birth.  Second, is the trauma to the actual stomach itself through birth.  And third, can be food allergies that they are allergic to causing them to the reject the food.  This could be allergies from the mom’s breast milk, or more commonly from formula based products.

In pregnancy, acid reflux is a very common symptom late in pregnancy. This is because of the rearranging of organs with the growth of the uterus and baby, and the stomach can easily get crammed into the diaphragm and other spaces.  Chiropractic as well as essential oils can help to alleviate some of the pressure and reflux associated with this.

The stomach is the start of all your digestion, so even having gut health is dependent on actually being able to break down your foods.  Chiropracticly speaking, deficiency in the stomach and acid can also cause bilateral shoulder and rib pain, because it shuts off the pectoralis muscles.  So, it’s not just your digestion that can be affected by stomach inefficiency.  You can also have body pains.

I hope this cleared up some the misconceptions about acid deficiency and it’s associated symptoms.  It is very common with our sugar and carb rich diets to have the deficiency.  Some say, well I only get it once in awhile.  However, this is just a warning sign.  You possibly have other digestion related issues that you think are normal such as burping, gas or tiredness after meals, that are signs of inefficient acid.  The acid reflux is just the tip of the iceburg, and a sign that your stomach needs help!

Wishing you all a happy and health week.

Dr. Hamel