If you suffer from heartburn or acid indigestion, you know how important it is to avoid triggers that make you uncomfortable, even sick. The holiday season can make that difficult. With upcoming family gatherings and parties, not to mention the sweets you may encounter at work, it can be difficult to stick to your guns and take care of you.
To do that, there’s something you should understand about acid indigestion…
Pharmaceutical companies persuade the public to buy antacids for what their advertising calls “over-acid stomach.” But heartburn and acid indigestion symptoms are created because of low stomach acid, which causes incomplete digestion.
Incomplete digestion allows fermentation to take place. That produces the organic acids of fermentation resulting in gas and reflux. The body makes only one acid: hydrochloric acid with pepsin. Other acids that produce symptoms of acid reflux come from the fermentation process; they are entirely different from the natural stomach acid that originates in the stomach, and is needed for healthy digestion.
The fermentation process comes from undigested food caused by a lack of — or low — stomach acid. Antacids don’t know the difference between natural stomach hydrochloric acid and organic acids of fermentation from undigested food. They attack all acids. This is why there can be only temporary relief.
But there are a couple of natural remedies you can try to keep your digestive health on track.
As Dr. Michael Cutler notes, perhaps the most important, basic key to less heartburn is to simply chew your food better. That’s right, something as simple as inadequate chewing can mess with your digestive tract and send uncomfortable waves of acid upstream into your esophagus and mouth. Chunks of food that enter your intestines unchewed and too large result in the creation of extra gas (set off by the bacteria in the GI tract), putting excess pressure on all aspects of the digestive process.
For extra help with digestion, you can turn to L-glutamate, an amino acid (a protein building block) that stimulates the action of pepsin. Pepsin helps the digestive tract absorb and assimilate the protein in your meals. You should take L-glutamate with betaine hydrochloride (betaine HCL) to help retain the proper acidity in your stomach and intestines.
As a matter of fact, if you are plagued with heartburn, take betaine HCL at every meal. It will help your stomach dismantle proteins and reduce your chances of reacting to allergens in your food. It’s very inexpensive, especially compared to drugs, and there are no side effects.
Digestive enzyme supplements are also helpful. These enzymes insure that food is broken down into their component parts that can be absorbed through the intestinal walls.
When choosing an enzyme supplement, look for one that includes proteases to help with protein digestion, and lipase to help with fats. Amylase can also be included to aid in starch digestion.
Another easy way to prevent acid reflux is to eat fewer processed snacks. Processed food contains an overload of starches, sugar and damaged fats that complicate digestion. They contain few of the nutrients like fiber and enzymes that can help digestion.
Mild cases of heartburn can also be aided by a daily regimen of apple cider vinegar, which stimulates natural production of HCl in the stomach. Take one tablespoon in eight ounces of water. Honey can be added to help make the taste more palatable.
In the end, as with most health issues, simple solutions are usually the best.
