Low stomach acid is one of the SIBO causes. Even though most of my SIBO is gone, I believe that it returned mainly due to low stomach acid. Problems don’t go away with drugs and medication unless we fix the underlying problem, and this is why I am such a huge believer in functional and preventative medicine. Today I’m beginning a 3-part series starting with 33 ways to tell if you have low stomach acid.
Tomorrow I’ll share with you the test I do at home (and you can easily do as well) for determining whether or not you have low stomach acid. And Thursday, I’ll give some other ways to naturally improve stomach acidity.
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What is Low Stomach Acid?
Low stomach acid, also called hypochlorhydria, is when the body doesn’t produce enough in order to break down proteins into essential amino acids and nutrients the body needs.
While studying at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I learned that HCL converts or activates pepsinogen to pepsin which digests proteins. HCL decreases as we age. Despite the fact that the drug industry tells us stomach acid is a bad thing, it is not. In fact, stomach acid is needed in order to break food down. The amount of stomach acid we have decreases as we age, and so oftentimes people will go to their doctors, tell them they are experiencing acid reflux and they will be given an antacid and sent along their way. The antacid, of course, only reduces stomach acid even more, masking a problem and causing a harsh ripple effect.
But how do you know if you have low stomach acid?
It’s actually fairly obvious.
33 Ways to Tell if You Have Low Stomach Acid
Click HERE to save these 33 ways to tell if you have low stomach acid!
- Diarrhea
- Gas
- SIBO
- Bloating
- Acid Reflux
- Leaky Gut Syndrome
- Headaches
- Low white blood cell count
- Your body has a hard time digesting meat
- Excessive burping
- Heartburn and GERD
- Nausea after eating
- Undigested food in stools
- Chronic Fatigue
- Adrenal Fatigue
- Allergies
- Weight gain
- Diabetes
- Autoimmune diseases, in general
- IBS
- IBD
- Reduced liver function
- Candida
- Hair loss
- Iron deficiency
- Chronic intestinal infections
- Hypothyroid
- Acne and eczema
- Ulcers
- Brittle nails
- Malnutrition – because you aren’t absorbing essential nutrients
- B12 deficiency
- Gallstone risk
Beyond just symptoms, there is a way you can test on your own for low stomach acid. See you tomorrow when I share more.
Xox,
SKH
You will heal. I will help.
This is so true. I believed this has been the cause of my problem.
This sounds like me, I have a lot of the symptoms you mentioned and I’ve had thought I had acid reflex which I take medicine for. So I would like to hear more about this Low Stomach Acid. Plus my bowels are irregular.
taking PPIs actually makes low stomach acid worse over time! try the HCL challenge to see if you have it