I know that may sound like a strange title regarding digestive health especially if you’re experiencing too much acid, as in reflux, or GERD, but let me explain.

Symptoms of reflux, gas, bloating, and distention are often associated with too much acid, and the treatment of choice for millions is to reduce the acid production with an antacid or proton-pump inhibitor (PPI).  Symptomatically this works to ease the discomfort, but the issue will never be resolved with this method.  Why?  The short answer is that NOBODY has an antacid deficiency!

When people take an antacid, they temporarily will make their symptoms better, but in the long run they are setting themselves up for worse digestive health and other potentially serious health issues.

Consider these facts:  stomach acid secretion naturally declines with age; people with acid symptoms tend to be on average, a bit older, and tend to get worse as they age.  If acid symptoms were actually due to too much stomach acid, kids and teenagers would be most commonly affected while our parents and grandparents would be acid-free.

So what’s really going on here?

What’s actually happening is too little of the ideal stomach acid, hydrochloride or hydrochloric acid (HCL).  When our reserves of HCL become insufficient, we have trouble digesting our foods especially foods that are generally harder to digest foods.

When foods are not digesting well from a lack of HCL, food stagnates in our stomach far too long and eventually starts “off-gassing” waste acid (due to the rotting and fermenting of our food) such as lactic acid.  This is the “too much acid” we experience as we have acid reflux, gas, bloating, etc.  It’s too much acid as a result of too little of the ideal acid.

When people supplement their rich foods with an antacid, they will relieve the symptoms temporarily, but will typically get worse and worse.  While the waste acid is reduced, unfortunately so too is our ideal digestive aid, HCL.  This will lead to a vicious cycle leading to less HCL production, more rotting of our food, more dependence on an antacid to make you feel better, and so on.

Another HUGE reason you want to correct the HCL deficiency is that HCL is not only our main digestant, but is also our main antimicrobial (from potientially contaminated food).  The American food industry is unfortunately in such a sad state, rampant with harmful bugs like parasites and nanobacteria.  If we have sufficient levels of HCL, our food would never make us sick.  However, being deficient in HCL also means that we are very vulnerable to “food poisoning,” which if you really stop to think about is actually a parasite.  If a parasite is not thoroughly treated right away, it will actually live and feed off you, slowly killing you by wreaking havoc on your digestive tract.  This is a very common undiagnosed epidemic.

How about a REAL solution!   Treat fire with (a different kind of) fire

To get the root cause of the issue dealt with, you’ll want to correct the deficiency by taking betaine hydrochloride with your meals.  This will not only help you digest you food better (less rotting of your food = relief of your symptoms) but it will also replete your HCL level.  You’ll be able to absorb and assimilate your nutrition much better.  Having your antimicrobial back can also mean better oral health—less plaque buildup, propensity for cavities, and better breath.

To determine HCL doses, consult with a practitioner well-versed with HCL supplementation, because getting it right is the tricky part.  Some people need three capsules a day, some people need 15 or more, some people can’t handle HCL right away and the mucosal lining of the stomach may need repair before people can handle it.  Frequently people’s symptoms may get worse with these people.  That doesn’t mean that they don’t need HCL, they desperately do, but they just need some more repair work (especially if they’ve had an ulcer) before they can take HCL.

Krentz K, Jablonowski H. In:  Hellemans J, Vantrappen G, eds. Gastrointestinal Tract Disorders in the Elderly, pp. 62-69. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone: 1984.

Wright J.V., Lenard L. Why Stomach Acid is Good For You, pp. 18-22. M. Evans of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.: 2001.