Hydrochloric acid plays an essential role in healthy digestion and disease prevention.
Also salt has been given a bad rap and it is the major leading cause of many problems, none of which you are told about by your doctor. Salt your food until it tastes good, your stomach needs this salt to perform the duties of breaking down your food.
Salt from chips, doritos etc., do not count, we are talking about good salt containing iodine and has minerals in it like Celtic Sea Salt, Real Salt (brand name)
People often talk about “acid stomach” being a bad thing. To tame a burning belly, they might drink milk or chug Pepto-Bismol and blame the fiery feeling on too much stomach acid.
But rather than needing to decrease the amount of hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach, many people actually need to increase it. It turns out that HCl is a potent sterilizer of all kinds of contaminants due to its highly acidic pH. Outside your body, HCl is actually potent enough to burn a hole in your carpet!
HCl’s Role in the Body
HCl is your body’s front line of defense against hostile gas-producing bacteria and parasites, so low levels of the acid make us more susceptible to infection from salmonella and other bugs in food and water.
In addition, lower levels of HCl lead to malabsorption, poor assimilation, and ineffective distribution of essential nutrients, such as sodium, iron, calcium, and magnesium. Fifteen minerals, eight essential amino acids, and numerous vitamins depend on HCl for their absorption into the body.
For example, no matter how much calcium you take in supplement form, if your stomach acid drops too low, taking those supplements won’t help prevent osteoporosis. Lowered levels of HCl can also lead to an underfunctioning liver and pancreas, a deficit of potassium (essential for the heart), and the formation of boils, abscesses, and puss.
Sadly, our levels of HCl may be declining at the very moment when we need HCl most. Medical professionals have long believed that stomach acid production declines by half after you reach age 40. But based on the work I’ve done with thousands of people, I think we need to revise that thinking. A lack of stomach acid has become much more widespread, and these days, I believe more and more people—most people, in fact—suffer from this condition.
One overriding factor in our national HCl shortage is stress.
We’re all gulping down our food, eating irregularly, drinking large amounts of fluids with meals, swallowing air when we’re eating, and taking in way too much food at one time.
These kinds of stressors slow down our secretion of stomach acid. The popularity of low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets has also made the stomach acid problem much worse. The large amount of protein in such a diet overwhelms your HCl production. Your body can’t produce enough HCl to break down the protein. Consequently, you end up with undigested food, indigestion, and constipation.
In addition, if you drink too much water—especially cold water—while you eat or within two hours of eating, you disrupt your stomach acid function. Or if you don’t chew your food enough, your diet lacks vitamins A and B or zinc or iodine or salt, you have medical X-rays, you drink chlorinated water—and the list goes on and on.
Dozens of factors may decrease your valuable stomach acid and can leave you with gas, bloating, acid reflux, heartburn, constipation, and diarrhea—and sometimes even worse symptoms.
Is Your HCl Low?
Are you experiencing any of the following signs of low HCl?
- A sense of feeling full, almost as soon as you start eating
- Belching and bloating
- Gassiness
- Nausea and vomiting
- A loss of your taste for meat
- Heartburn and burning in your stomach
- Sour taste in your mouth
- Bad breath
- Chronic yeast infections
- Weak nails
- Rectal itchiness
- Hoarseness and laryngitis
- Rosacea
To find out if you have adequate stomach acid, try this home test. (Don’t try it if you have ulcers or a pre-ulcerative condition.)
- Take an HCl (betaine hydrochloride) supplement of 500 to 550 milligrams and 150 milligrams of pepsin with your next meal. (Note: HCl shouldn’t be taken simultaneously with anti-inflammatory medications like Indocin, Butazolidin, aspirin, or Motrin.) I recommend HCl+2, the supplement I created for my own clients. (It also contains bile acids for healthy fat digestion, so you get a double whammy of digestive help.)
- Observe how you feel. Extreme warmth signals that you have sufficient stomach acid and means you should discontinue the supplement or cut back the amount.
- If you experience no relief from your digestive problems, or feel no pain or warmth, double your HCl dose at the next meal.
- Continue adding an extra dose per meal until you feel warmth. Caution: Don’t take more than five tablets at a time.
- At succeeding meals after you reach your limit, take one less than your maximum with food.
- After three to six months, try reducing your dosage.
While many, if not most of us, suffer from a lack of stomach acid, certain people are more susceptible to declining levels, such as those who suffer from:
- Gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD)
- Deficiency in protein, calcium, magnesium, or iron
- Immune disorders
- Arthritis
- Hives
- Osteoporosis
- Hepatitis
- Gallbladder disease
- Lupus
- Vitiligo
Following a healthy diet, like the ones in my books “The New Fat Flush Plan” and “Radical Metabolism” is a huge step toward buttressing your lagging HCl production and helping to ban your gut grief. To help your system get the HCl it desperately needs, I recommend supplementation as part of your basic daily protocol.