Digestion & Gut Health 101- Low Stomach Acid
Digestion & Gut Health 101 - Low Stomach Acid
Let's get started on why so many of us are affected by digestive issues. I discussed some symptoms in my last post. I know for a long time, I was dealing with bad digestion, and I came to think that the symptoms I experienced were "normal." Well, I am here to say they are not!
I am digging into digestion and looking at root causes of bad digestion, starting with LOW STOMACH ACID
Many of us are affected by this and have no idea! A lot of us have the symptoms, but believe it to be too much stomach acid, think heartburn.
So what causes low stomach acid?
-stress
-not enough if the correct nutrients to produce it
-too many grains in the diet
-chlorinated water
-antacids and other meds
-gastric bypass surgery and other stomach surgeries
-H.Pylori
-smoking
-age
Why is sufficient stomach acid essential for proper digestion?
To start, without an adequate amount, our bodies do not know when to open the stomach to pass food onto the small intestine. This means food sits in our bellies and ferments; this causes symptoms such as gas, bloating, and acid reflux. When it finally leaves the stomach, the pH is not correct, and this causes none of the next steps of digestion to activate. These next steps are the gallbladder releasing bile to help digest fats, and the pancreas releases enzymes to help digest food. Low bile causes poor fat digestion and malabsorption issues. And with no enzymes to breakdown food properly, nutrients cannot be absorbed in the gut. Thus the process of fermentation continues and becomes toxic, causing stress on the liver. Also, when food ferments, it feeds our harmful bacteria! When these bad guys flourish and they will as they are being fed, there is gas and bloating, and this is when damage to the intestinal wall happens. (AKA leaky gut, that's for another post). Now we have a case of more bad bacteria than good; this causes constipation and or diarrhea, leading to more burden on the liver and a cascade of issues, depending on if you are constipated or have diarrhea or both!
I think you can see how vital sufficient stomach acid is. The good news is, we can fix this!
If you think this is you, BOOK YOUR FREE DISCOVERY CALL TODAY!