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August 25, 2013
Acid Reflux
Hi ,
Have you ever had that stabbing burning pain in your stomach after eating? Sometimes it can be so bad you double up in pain. The burning might climb up into your throat and you may even taste the burn. This burn is a chemical burn caused by the acid that should be staying in your stomach getting past the valve at the top of your stomach and into your throat. While the stomach lining is made of special cells that are able to withstand the incredibly high acid levels from the stomach acid secretions, the cells lining your food passage to the stomach are not protected from acid. The heartburn feeling is a real burning of those tissues by the acid. If it goes on too long, it can actually burn a hole in the passageway creating serious problems.
So what is going on? Why is this acid going up into your throat where it doesn't belong? The common misperception is that your stomach acid is too strong or that you have too much of it. This is completely false. In fact the real problem is exactly the opposite of this - your acid levels are too weak or not strong enough. This confuses most people. If the acid is too weak, then how could it burn? Well, normal stomach acid is super strong, like 5000 times stronger than lemon juice. So if the acid strength drops 90%, it is still 500 times stronger than lemon juice - plenty strong enough to cause lots of grief.
The valve at the top of the stomach, the pyloric sphincter, is sensitive to the strength of the acid. It closes tightly when the acid levels are strong and gets looser when the acid levels drop - loose enough for the weaker acid to wash up into the throat and cause burning. This actually serves as a warning to you to stop eating. Your body is telling you that you are not able to sterilize and digest your food.
Sterilize? Yes, the first job of your stomach acid is to sterilize the food you are eating to kill any harmful bacteria that are in the food. One of the main reasons we hear about so many food poisoning outbreaks these days is because so many people have poorly functioning stomachs that are not able to properly sterilize the food.
The second job of your stomach acid is to ionize the minerals in your food so that your body can absorb them - such minerals as calcium, magnesium, and so on. If you do not have enough strong acid in your stomach to ionize your minerals, you end up deficient in those minerals and your body can not function right. Initially your body will steal the minerals it needs from the minerals you have stored in your bones. Over time this causes osteoporosis. A much earlier sign of low mineral levels is muscle cramps. You need calcium and magnesium to control muscle contraction and relaxation.
The third and probably most important job of the stomach acid is to start the process of protein digestion. Proteins are incredibly long molecules that fold back and forth onto themselves to form complex shapes that are the building blocks for everything in our body. Stomach acid unfolds these complex shapes so that the enzymes in the next stage of digestion, in the small intestine, can snip the long chains into tiny pieces the intestines can then absorb. The intestines are not supposed to absorb the big whole protein molecules. If it does, your immune system will attack these foreign proteins because they do not belong inside us. Normally the intestines only let tiny snips of protein, called amino acids, into the bloodstream.
If your stomach does not do its job of unfolding the proteins, then the enzymes cannot break down the protein into amino acids. Not only will you end up with a protein deficiency, but a situation where bad bacteria will thrive on the undigested protein. You end up feeding the wrong type of gut bacteria - bacteria that will harm your health. This is called dysbiosis. This happens when your stomach does not produce enough strong acid to do its job.
An extra problem most people are not aware of is that the burning that is happening in the throat when you have heartburn from not enough acid also happens as your food comes out the other end of the stomach and moves into your small intestine. Here your pancreas is supposed to neutralize the stomach acid with bicarbonate juice so the enzymes can do their job. But if the acid level is not strong enough, the pancreas does not get the message to neutralize the weaker acid and this acid then burns the small intestine. These burns may form an ulcer, but more commonly they partially destroy the lining of the small intestine causing the gut lining to become leaky. The nasty bacteria that grow on undigested protein also contribute to this process. Chronic heartburn is a signal that you may also have a leaky gut.
All kinds of trouble happen when you do not have enough of the strong stomach acid you need. Sometimes this problem causes the stomach lining itself to become inflamed because of the bacteria, fungus, and viruses that can grow on the unsterilized food. When this happens, the stomach lining can now get burnt by its own acid. The most common bacteria that cause this is called H. pylori. Over 50% of the population has it to some degree. Checking for H. pylori is therefore the first diagnostic test that should be performed in a patient with frequent heartburn. The most accurate test for H. pylori is a breath test performed at a lab. But because it is so common, I find it easier and cheaper to simply treat for it with an herbal product called HPLR I have in the office.
Unfortunately, this is not what is done in most doctors' offices today. The lack of understanding of the physiology involved has most offices giving patients drugs to stop stomach acid production. While this may be necessary for up to two weeks to let an inflamed stomach lining settle down, it should not be used any longer than that. Hopefully what I have explained about the vital nature of acid production will convince you not to use acid blockers. They may stop your symptoms of burning by eliminating the acid all together, but the cost to your system is too high to try to live without proper stomach acid production.
Just to be fair there is one condition where acid blockers are necessary - a nervous condition in which your stomach produces acid at odd times even though there is no food in your stomach to digest. So if your heartburn comes even though you have not eaten, then you are stuck with having to take the drugs. In those cases we have to supplement the acid levels orally when you eat proteins.
A couple years ago I reported in my newsletter that Consumer Reports warned that heartburn drugs can cause dangerously low magnesium levels. In articles on bone health I have written I discussed how heartburn drugs cause osteoporosis.
Heartburn newsletter
Osteoporosis newsletter
The real issue is to deal with the cause behind the low acid production. If the problem is a stomach infection, then that needs to be dealt with. The most common reason however is simply age. Once we get past the age of 40 - 45 our acid production begins to decline. Mother Nature is telling us that we have had our children so we no longer need to eat as much. It helps to eat much smaller meals to reduce reflux. Often however, we need to find another way to raise our stomach acid levels when we eat. There are herbs that will increase stomach acid production such as gentian. But the most direct method is to simply take hydrochloric acid tablets (betaine hydrochloride) with any meal that contains protein. Consume any mineral supplements in this same meal so they will be ionized. In the office I use tablets that contain both herbs and hydrochloric acid - HCL prozyme. This is a real lifesaver for many of my patients.
Stomach acid is not an option. You must have it to be healthy. If you are getting reflux, GERD, or just good old-fashioned heartburn with meals, then you actually need more acid, not less. This is easy to do and the health benefits are huge.
Yours in health,
David
Ultrasound Physical Therapy
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How to find us -
Our address is 9725 Fair Oaks Blvd.
Finding the new location is very easy. Coming from highway 50 up Sunrise Blvd, you turn left and go up a block. We are on the right hand side - the building just past the Subway Sandwich shop. If you are coming down Sunrise from the Mall area then just turn right on Fair Oaks Blvd and up a block on the right.
If you are coming from the Roseville area you could come down Sunrise Blvd, but that is a long trek. It is probably shorter time wise to come down Auburn Blvd - San Juan Ave like you have been for the Sunset
office, but instead of turning left at Sunset, keep going straight 3
more lights to Fair Oaks Blvd and turn left. Go down 2 lights to New York Ave, go through the intersection, and immediately turn into the turn lane once the center divider ends. We are on the left.
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~ Chinese Proverb
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~ Bede Jarrett
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Stem cell research is pretty amazing, but this on tops the cake - growing teeth from urine. Cells that are sloughed off into the urine from the linings of our kidney pathways are harvested and coaxed into becoming stem cells. Now this is obviously a lousy way to generate stem cells, but they wanted to prove they could, so they did. The stem cells were implanted into rats where the body then made them into new teeth. The teeth were not as strong as normal teeth, but what do you want from urine?
"He who angers you conquers you."
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About Dr. DeLapp
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Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years. He began experimenting with medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis. In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education. Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic. He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice.
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health.
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities.
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth. The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework. Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.
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