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Tags: acid, causes, gerd, heartburn, hypochlorydia, low, myths, reflux, stomach
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I know so many people with this, including my husband, and they do say the antacids give relief, so I’m never sure what to say to that. My son had horrific reflux as a baby, which can also be food allergies (which he did have). I wonder if he also has abnormal stomach acid.
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These drugs are also very hard to get off. I was on them for a year
and it took me 6 months to get weaned. I did very low carb paleo + ACV
shots after every meal, but it was still pretty unpleasant. The
impetus for me was that I acquired chronic salmonella, which isn’t
exactly garden variety food poisoning for a 20 year old. I think the
very low carb was important to starve hydrogen producing bacteria
(Hyperlipid talks a bit about this
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2008/08/helicobacter-and-hydrogen.html)
I think it’s clear in my family at least, where most of us have GERD,
that it’s probably not GERD, but another more recently elucidated
illness called Eosinophilic Esophagitis, which is linked to an allergy
to gluten. No gluten, no heartburn for us.But based on the most recent research, it seems like scientists are
moving away from GERD= low acid to a model where all GERD is caused by
immune system dysfunction. It will probably take a decade for most
doctors to get the memo though…Perhaps allergens attack the acid producing cells or perhaps a high
sugar diet unbalances your gut flora by allowing some hydrogen/methane
producing bugs to go cray. The antibiotics they give you “just in
case” of H. Pylori infection probably make things worse by altering
the gut flora even more, probably allowing the inappropriate bacteria
to proliferate further. -
Great post. I regularly get my clients to take the HCL test, originally promoted by Charles Poliquin, which will determine exactly how deficient in HCL they are. This helps GERD no end by allowing us to provide the optimum dose of HCL – it is there for a reason!
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Great info. I, myself, was diagnosed many years ago with GERD. Two years ago I had an upper endoscopic procedure that confirmed the problem as well as a hiatal hernia (common) and some esophageal damage. I had been taking loads of these acid blockers for all these years and frankly there were of minimal benefit. And to think of the literally thousands of dollars I’ ve spent on these expensive and dangerous drugs. Fortunately, I’ve been completely off them for a few months now.
Although I’ve yet to take HCL (will check it out), I decided last November to change to a low carb diet. I consume very little grain or sugar but lots of fat and protein. Guess what? After a month or so, I noticed that my symptoms began to disappear! I knew I was on to something. I started reducing my dosage of meds to half, then realized that I no longer needed them at all. When I have ocasional heartburn, I will take an Alka Seltzer for heartburn and that takes care of it.
I can’t tell you the relief I feel physcially and emotionally. Last year I read that these proton pump inhibitors prevent the absorbtion of key nutrients and create deficiencies. One of the most troubling is calcium and the resulting higher fracture rate in older women. They also prevent the absorbtion of many B vitamins including B-12 which I have been taking sublingually now for a couple of years. I rue the day the ENT doc. told my my “cough” was a symptom of reflux and put me on prilosec. I found out a year and half ago that really I had asthma….runs in my family.
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This series is very timely. I’ve been suffering from increasing problems with heartburn/GERD for 1.5 years – but I’ve already been mostly LC for 6 years and have recently been going more “clean”/paleo, so I’d be interested to see if your hypothesis covers my situation. About to undergo an upper endoscopy to see if there are any structural problems to be found. Would absolutely love to get off the meds and fix the root cause if I can. Richard Nikoley linked here with a list of what he advises for getting PPI-free quickly. Staying away from the Scotch will be tough, but I’m willing to try if the evidence you present is convincing!
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I don’t see what causation declining stomach acid has with indigestion, reflux and GERD. Age does correlate with postural decay, and postural improvement causes a reversal of GERD. I suggest that the actual cause is mechanical- the pressure on the stomach being caused by slumping and excessive sitting. The acid is then pushed up into the esophagus. Simple, and hard to sell a drug for.
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My wife had “acid reflux”, and began taking HCL w/pepsin with her meals. It helped a great deal in preventing the symptoms from occurring. However, it wasn’t until we began eating a grain-free, low carb diet that the need for HCL went away. Now she never has the reflux episodes.
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I never had GERD per se but had some really bad stomach problems I misinterpreted as food poisoning until they didn’t go away. My chiropractor diagnosed low stomach acid and gave me HCl/Pepsin and poof! I was normal again. But that was in 2000 and I still have to take it every time I eat. I hope you’re going to address ways to restore the ability to produce stomach acid normally again. I gather from the comments above that a low-carb or low-grain diet is recommended, but I’m an athletic person and my experiments with low-carb diets have been disastrous. It’s very clear I need carbs to function, so I hope there’s some other solution.
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The prevailing theory is NOT that typical GERD is caused by excessive stomach acid. Rather, the prevailing theory is that poor lower esophageal sphincter function allows those with normal stomach acid to experience GERD. Since it is more difficult to control LES function (all known techniques involve tweaking neurotransmitters, as the LES is ennervated by the Vagus nerve, leading to significant side effects), controlling stomach acid, which brings symptom relief, is considered superior. The reason young people don’t have more GERD is simply that they have superior LES tone. Older people, on the other hand, lose LES tone (for unknown reasons) and thus experience more GERD.
There is room to debate the side effects of acid suppression, but your article doesn’t do that. Instead, it seems you are arguing against a straw-man by claiming that doctors and Big Pharma think that hyperacidity causes GERD. -
To Jae:
If your initial efforts to go LC were a problem, that may be an indication that you do need to give up sugars and grains. These are truly addictive! If you need more energy calories, use starchy veg as opposed to bread, pasta, cereal. etc. Even if whole grain, they are still highly processed, man-made foods. Also, nearly all grains contain anti-nutrients like gluten, phytates and lectins that cause all sorts of digestive issues among them, GERD, Leaky Gut, IBS, etc. Once you detox from grains and sugar, I think you’ll feel better in the long run.To Daniel;
I don’t think the author was trying to create a “strawman” by saying that too much acid causes GERD. On the other hand, can there by any doubt that the profits from these acid blockers drive Big Pharma sales? Let’s face it, like so-called “high cholesterol”, GERD was a medicalized disease that “needed” a pharmceutical solution. -
Chris,
Thanks for the reply about low-carb. My experiment was several months on Atkins, so there was plenty of fat, but I grew incredibly stiff and fatigued till I could only hobble when I tried to run, and when I went back to my normal diet it took several months for the stiffness to wear off. It was awful. Regarding anti-nutrients, I have celiac disease and no matter how careful I am about gluten my acid problem doesn’t improve. I eat almost no processed foods, of course, because of avoiding gluten. So this is still all not quite adding up for me personally, but I’d like to get to the bottom of it so I’m looking forward to reading what else you have to say.
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