Disclaimer: if you are taking an acid blocking drug, do not stop taking it without first consulting with your general practitioner

Do you have reflux? I would say about 75% or more of the patients that I see at the hopspital are on a medication for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). These medications suppress the production of stomach acid, thereby relieving the symptoms associated with GERD…..right? The problem is that often times (more often than not actually) the problem is not from an over production, but from not enough stomach acid (also known as hypochlorhydria)! So, this means you have reflux from too little stomach acid!

Here is how it works: when we eat a meal, we need stomach acid to be secreted to help break down the food into useable macro and micro nutrients. We also need a certain level of acidic pH to signal to the valve between the stomach and the duodenum to open up and move the food out of the stomach and into the small intestine to be further broken down and absorbed. When we do not make enough stomach acid, this valve does not get the signal (because the chyme in the stomach is too basic in its pH level). When the food does not keep moving on through the GI tract, it sits in the stomach and ferments. Sometimes multiple meals pile up and are in different stages of fermentation. This causes a level of discomfort that feels like reflux.

Ideally it should only take a few hours for the food to move through the stomach. Transit time for the average person should take 12-24 hours. There is an easy way to test your transit time: the poop transit test.

How to do the poop transit test:

• Eat 1 tbsp of some food that your body does not digest: white sesame seeds, corn, or activated charcoal
• Now watch your poop….waiting for these foods to show up
• When you see corn, white seedss, or a black stool then you know how long it took for that to make it through your GI tract
• If your transit time takes several days, there is more than likely something dysfunctional with your digestive function

So now you know how to test your transit time. Another test that is helpful to do is a test for your level of hydrochloric acid production in the stomach.

How to test your level of HCL in your stomach (the easiest and most inexpensive method):

• In the morning mix 1/4 tsp baking soda in 8 ounces of water
• Drink it
• Wait for 5 minutes, you should begin to burp
• If you don’t burp then your stomach acid production is probably low

The way this tests works (in theory, as it has not been scientifically proven) is:  by drinking baking soda and creating a chemical reaction in your stomach between the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and hydrochloric acid (HCL).  The result is carbon dioxide gas that causes burping (source)

Some symptioms of low stomach acid:

• Indigestion
• Gas/burping after eating
• Bloating
• Undigested food in your stool (transit test)
• Acid reflux symptoms
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Aversion to eating meat, or don’t digest meat well
• Nutrient deficiencies (from malabsorption)

Some lifestyle factors that may cause low stomach acid:

• Vegan or vegetarianism (less meat in the diet requires less stomach acid for digestion)
• High stress levels
• Bulimia

If you have reached conclusions from these tests that leads you to believe that you in fact have low stomach acid then you might want to consider supplementation.

My only disclamer is: it is not a good idea to start supplementing with HCL when you have known digestive disease such as ulcerative colitis, chronic NSAID use, or bleeding gastric ulcers. It is an acid and will aggravate these conditions.

If you do not have one of the above mentioned gastrointestinal conditions then here is what I have found to work: HCL supplementation. (where to find)

How to supplement with HCL:

• Take a few bites of your meal and then take 4 tablets of HCL. If you do not feel a sensation of “warmth” in your stomach take another pill, and another, and so on….until you feel the warming sensation in your stomach.
• When you feel the warm sensation, knock the dose back by one pill. If you noticed it with 7 pills, then your maintenance dose will be 6.
• Take this dose with meals
• Usually after a few months of supplementing, your body will start to increase its own intrinsic HCL production. Then you can decrease your dose until you no longer need to take it at all!
• You only need to supplement with HCL when you eat protein….so if your meal is just veggies you can skip it

Additional considerations:

• Pay attention to how you eat. CHEW your food, digestion begins in the mouth where your food is mixed with salivary enzymes. Also do not eat in a hurry or on the go (if at all possible).
• Don’t chew gum, it confused your digestive system and exhausts your digestive organs.
• You might want to start taking enzymes with meals if your pancreas is not producing the right amount of them. If your stomach acid is low then your pancreas is not getting the proper signals to produce enough enzymes. Supplement with high-quality enzyme’s until your HCL production is back in good working order. The supplement should be a good mix of: Lipases for fats, Proteases for proteins, and Amylases for carbohydrates. (where to find)
• Ox Bile supplementation, especially if you don’t have a gallbladder. This is essential for digesting fats properly. If you have floating poops that are light in color you are probably not digesting fats properly and might want to consider supplementing with ox bile. (where to find)

Do you take acid blocking medications? Have you ever tried HCL supplementation? I would love to hear about it in the comments below!

Resources: SCD Lifestyle, Mercola