Modern Myth

The Myth of Acid Indigestion

Fact:  At least 90% of you suffering from "acid indigestion" and/or "acid reflux" are in reality suffering from too little stomach acid. Ninety plus percent. You read that correctly. Too little. I have yet to meet a patient with too much stomach acid.

"How can this be?" you ask.  "It feels like too much acid, and the TV commercials tell me it's too much acid."

Here's how it works:  When you eat a meal, the stomach is designed to produce strong acid to begin the digestive process of proteins.  When there is too little stomach acid, the food sits too long in the stomach undigested, and begins to ferment and rot.

It is the acids of the fermenting and rotting food that cause the feeling of acid indigestion (and can eventually cause ulcers).

Sufficient stomach acid is also the signal to the top of the stomach to close, the small intestine to open up, receive the stomach contents, and begin the next phase of digestion.  Without enough stomach acid, the stomach contents escapes in the other direction, causing the symptoms of acid reflux or heartburn.

  

What happens when antacids are taken for this condition?  It makes the burning stop …but the problem worse.  It would be like putting a piece of duct tape over the oil light in your car when it comes on and thinking you've solved the problem.

Antacids stop the digestive process and the partially-digested, fermenting, and rotting food is forced through the rest of the digestive tract.  (The same is also true of the acid stoppers like Zantac, Pepsid AC, and especially Prilosec and Prevacid.) 

Minerals cannot be digested without a strong acid medium in the stomach.  Antacids and acid stoppers create an alkaline condition in the stomach.  It becomes impossible to digest calcium and most other minerals. Therefore... chewable antacids for extra calcium is useless and a waste of money.

As this condition continues, the digestive tract becomes weaker and weaker, as well as increasingly toxic.  You are also not digesting and absorbing the nutrients from food.

Loss of the ability to produce sufficient stomach acid, and all the consequences of this, is the first step in developing all kinds of degenerative diseases.  However, the connection that this is an underlying cause of disease is seldom made.

The real solution is simple!  There are cheap, natural, effective ways and supplements to assist digestion and help your body to repair its own digestive ability.

Trust me, I'm a doctor! :) 

If you'd like, contact me for a consultation on effective, natural ways to improve your digestive health. Or get a head start by filling out the Symptom Survey here.

Dr. Marie