Trippin’ on Acid

The digestive system is the powerhouse of the human body.  No other activity inside your body requires more energy than that of the digestive system and consider the fact that it’s on call twenty four hours a day.

Now is the time to make a toast of gratitude to your gut!

We have been taught to believe if we have indigestion it’s because we have too much acid and thus we are prescribed anti-acid medications.  In reality, high stomach acid is NOT the enemy; low stomach acid is!  

The medical and pharmaceutical communities have perpetrated the myth that too little acid causes indigestion and their protocol is wreaking havoc on our digestive systems.

Anti-acids are one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the developed world.

Insufficient stomach acid inhibits the proper breakdown of food resulting in symptoms associated with indigestion: burping, a sensation of undigested foods back flowing into your esophagus, acid in the back of the throat or heartburn and coughing.

Your stomach depends upon high levels of acid to break down food and fight any foreign pathogens that might enter along with your food.

The propagation of PPI (Proton Pump Inhibitors, commonly known as anti-acids) as protocol for indigestion is a travesty of epic proportions.   Research shows PPIs alter the gut micro biome to the degree of inhibiting proper nutrient absorption with potential side effects to cardio vascular and kidney health.

Long term use of PPIs have shown to cause malabsorption of micro and macro nutrients.   Low stomach acid and stomach inflammation result in key mineral and vitamin deficiencies that result in compromised immunity causing risk of health concerns like auto immunity, metabolic and mood disorders.

Immunity resides in your gut so protecting and nuturing your gut has long term consequences impacting longevity and quality of life.  Diseases are not born overnight rather they are the result of long term habits that have slowly erroded your ability to protect itself.  

Seriously, think about this.  The food you eat today is either supporting a healthy future and diminished disease risk or a future riddled with the risk of health challenges and complications.   The cold truth is that there is a reward or risk to everything we put into our body.

I’ve heard it posited this way,  “you will either pay the grocer or the pharmacy, the choice is yours.”

Choose informed consent when it comes to your health.   How we metabolize food depends upon genetics, lifestyle and mental health factors.

After a particularly stressful period in my life, I started having symptoms of indigestion.  Following my physician’s direction, I started taking Prilosec.  Although the symptoms diminished directly after taking the medication, over time, my indigestion worsened and the list of foods that resulted in my indigestion grew.   Eventually I met a doctor who taught me how to repair my digestive system the old fashioned way.

I stopped taking Prilosec and started caring for my digestive system by eating foods that were initially gentle on my digestive system.  I also treated my gut with whole food digestive aides like lemon water, ginger, fennel and apple cider vinegar.  The result was remarkable.   My digestive symptoms diminished and eventually disappeared.

Let me pause for a public service announcement.  If you’ve been on a medication for years, let’s say decades, and you are no better off than when you started,  be curious about why you are on the medication and look for an alternative healing path.   There are viable options outside pharmacology.  Options that include nutrition, lifestyle, energy medicine, light therapy, yoga and acupuncture…to name a few.  The reality is that people are dropping long term symptoms like anchors from the above listed therapies.

If you are taking *PPI’s or have indigestion, I would stop taking the PPIs and eliminate foods that are challenging for you to digest.

1. Create a list of the foods that cause indigestion and write the resulting symptoms for each food.  By having a list, you are more likely going to avoid those foods because you have evidence that a particular food is not in agreement with your body.
2. Nourish your digestive system with foods that support a healthy acidic microbiome.   See my latest Vitality TV video on using lemon, ginger and apple cider vinegar.
3. Avoid these known to be inflammatory foods: sugar, dairy and gluten.  After you have cleared them out of your system,  introduce them one by one and notice how your body responds.   If you have a reaction like gas, bloating, coughing or scratchy throat, constipation, diarrhea or indigestion, you will want to avoid those foods.
4. Practice the following digestive rhythm:  Ingest, Digest, Rest.  Remember the energy required to digest your food.  Proper ingestion, breaking down of your food, absorption and elimination requires a time out for proper rejuvenation of the digestive system.  If you are grazing regularly, you have robbed your body of the rest required for efficiency and effectiveness.

 

 

 

Check out my Digestive System board on Pinterest.  

* Common PPIs Omeprazole, Esomeprazole, Pantoprazole, Lansoprazole