Educational Article: Hydrochloric Acid, Proper Digestion, and Acid Reflux?

Stomach acid is essential in maintaining a healthy digestive system, it allows the body to break down protein, activates enzymes, releases vitamin B-12 into your body (supporting balanced mood), and most importantly it helps sanitize food in stomach before it enters the colon, this helps maintain balance of microorganisms and flora in the colon.

If you suffer from occasional heartburn indigestion do not take stuff that shuts down your stomach acids! It’s there for a reason! Contrary to popular belief, excess stomach acid is not the problem in most cases of heartburn. In fact, it is a lack of stomach acid that most often causes the condition.

Why is that? That is because too little acid in the stomach can causes food to putrefy and expand into the esophagus, causing heartburn indigestion.

Before turning off your stomach acid, try taking supplements that help maintain a healthy level of acidity in your stomach.

Question: How can I get Heartburn when I have too low stomach acid?

Answer: Because often the acidity of the stomach is too low to digest and sanitize the food you eat. This causes the food to putrefy, form gas and eventual expansion into the sensitive part of the esophagus. The esophagus is not designed to tolerate acid. Acid level of 5pH is too low for the stomach but painful for the esophagus.

We don’t guarantee you will get rid of your occasional heartburn or indigestion by taking our supplements as in rare cases people get heartburn sensations because they produce too much acid already. In this case discontinue use of our product. If this product does not work for you please talk to your health professional. If you need to reduce your stomach acid level, try Balanced Bicarb Antacid.

Facts on Hydrochloric Acid:

The human requirement for vitamins, minerals and other nutrients remains relatively constant throughout adult life. Unfortunately our ability to properly digest food and absorb vital nutrients declines with advancing age. Surprisingly, one of the most common age-related causes of impaired digestive function is the reduction of hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach (Fig. 1).

Advice for Vegetarians:

Can you eat too much of the healthy stuff?

Many people believe that the more alkaline food is the better. Yes! Green is good, but can you overdo it? Problems can arise if your stomach is too alkaline! Your stomach digests food at 1 or 2pH. Perhaps that is why many cultures eat acid forming foods, Indians eat tart and sour tasting foods with every meal. Mexicans prepare dishes with limejuice. The French of course drink red wine. Traditional Icelandic diet includes meat marinated in sour and fermented milk products. Traditional cultures have a knack for increasing acidity in their diet. Standard American Diet (SAD) does not; it’s sweet and salty.

Does alkaline food causes you an immediate bowel movement after most meals or the opposite -- constipation? Chances are that your stomach is too alkaline. Alkaline stomach can cause spontaneous bowel movement and diarrhea.

Natural Answers to Serious Problems:

The problem with antacids is they can cause calcium-based kidney stones, chronic diarrhea, low blood pressure, breathing problems and osteomalacia (brittle bones). The good news is you can banish your acid reflux with natural methods starting today. Just follow these simple suggestions and you won’t have to use expensive drugs that may cause other health problems.

Eat soft foods for two days

For a period of two days or so you should prepare your body to heal your esophagus from any prior damage that may have been caused by excessive acid in the past. To do this you’ll need to stop eating crunchy foods such as nuts, crackers, toast, popcorn, cookies and breakfast cereals. Crunchy foods make heartburn worse by scratching your lower esophageal sphincter. You can help heal this part of your body by eating only soft foods for two days.

Avoid spicy and acidic foods for two days

Spicy and acidic foods can aggravate your esophageal sphincter and cause heartburn. To prevent this, stay away from these foods, as well as alcoholic and carbonated drinks.

Stop smoking If you smoke, you should stop for at least two days. The chemicals found in tobacco cause your esophageal sphincter to relax, contributing to more acid and fumes leaking into your esophagus. We highly recommend that you quit smoking altogether.

Limit coffee intake

Cut back on your coffee consumption to one cup per day. You might find that coffee gives you pain, as it does for many others. Cutting out coffee for a few days will help heal your esophagus. If you can’t quit drinking coffee, drink a glass of water after each cup to cleanse your throat from any acidic residue.

Drink water after every meal

After every meal, wash down your food with a tall glass of water. This has many benefits besides how it helps prevent heartburn. This should be done from now on, as part of your daily routine. Water is good for your body, and is helpful in maintaining optimum overall health. Water helps to cleanse the esophageal sphincter so it closes up tighter, not allowing gases and acid to leak up into your esophagus, causing pain.