Low Stomach Acid: The Hidden Cause of Bloating, Acid Reflux & Chronic Gut Issues

Do you feel bloated no matter what you eat? Struggle with acid reflux, heartburn, constipation, reoccurring SIBO, food sensitivities, or indigestion? Low stomach acid could be the missing piece. 

In this episode, we explore how low stomach acid contributes to chronic digestive symptoms and what you can do to support healthy digestion naturally. 

We'll talk about how it impacts nutrient absorption, hormones, thyroid health, energy, gut bacteria, and why simply taking probiotics, digestive enzymes, or doing a parasite cleanse isn't enough to create lasting results.

In this episode, you'll learn:
• What stomach acid actually does and why it's essential for digestion
•  Signs and symptoms of low stomach acid (including bloating, acid reflux, burping, and food sensitivities) 
• The connection between low stomach acid, bloating, acid reflux, SIBO, Candida, parasites, and food sensitivities
• Why chronic stress can reduce stomach acid production
• The role of digestive enzymes and bile in healthy digestion
• The most common root causes of low stomach acid
• Simple, natural strategies to support healthy stomach acid production and improve digestion

If you've been told to simply eliminate more foods or rely on symptom-managing supplements, this episode will help you understand what's happening beneath the surface and why supporting your digestive function is key to long-term gut healing.

 If you're tired of living with bloating, acid reflux, constipation, or other chronic digestive symptoms and you're ready to uncover the root cause, learn more about working with us here or send me a message on Instagram - @nourishedway

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's tired of feeling bloated after every meal!

Interested in working together with functional lab testing? Check out my 1-1 program here. 

Click here to join The Period Protocol (option to add 1:1 session)

If you have questions, let's chat! You can contact me on Instagram or by email at info@thenourishedway.ca 

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is not individual or medical advice. Please consult your physician or healthcare provider regarding any medical conditions or treatment plans.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Nourished Wave Podcast. In today's episode, we are diving into all things stomach acid. So we're going to start by talking about why stomach acid is so important for your digestion and your gut health. I'll share symptoms that I see in clients that tell me they have low stomach acid. I'll talk about the most common root causes, and then we'll go over some natural solutions that you can start today or tomorrow to help you improve your body's production of stomach acid. I work with hundreds of clients every year, and low stomach acid is something I see in the majority of my client cases. The majority of my clients who are dealing with chronic digestive issues have low stomach acid. And not only that, stomach acid also tends to have a lot of downstream effects in the body, meaning it can cause problems in other areas of the body because it impairs nutrient absorption. So when we're not digesting our food and absorbing our nutrients properly, we're going to see lower energy levels. We're going to see symptoms start to pop up with our hormones, with our thyroid, with our cycles, with our periods, with our skin. These are all really common areas where I see low stomach acid impacting the body that are not directly associated with the gut. So in my protocols, improving the body's natural production of stomach acid is always something that we focus on. Okay, let's dive in. So stomach acid is a digestive juice that our bodies naturally produce, and it has two main functions. The first one is breaking down our food and extracting the nutrients so that we can absorb and use those nutrients. The stomach should actually be an acidic environment. This is especially important for breaking down proteins. Stomach acid, along with pancreatic enzymes or digestive enzymes, might be a more familiar term for you. Break down protein into amino acids. And these amino acids are extremely important for hormone production, detoxification, immune function, and tissue repair throughout the entire body. Breaking down those proteins into amino acids is one of the main jobs that stomach acid has. Now, digestion starts in the mouth. When we smell our food, when we chew our food, our stomach should start to produce acid. And when that food gets to the stomach, the ash acid breaks it down so that it can be properly digested. When stomach acid is low, food is going to sit in the GI tract for longer than it should. So we end up with pieces of undigested food sitting in the gut that are going to ferment, then bacteria is going to feed on it. Those bacteria give off gases, and then you end up with a lot of bloating, gas, indigestion, and irregular bowel movements. I want you to think of putting a big handful of frozen pineapple into a blender and not putting enough liquid into the blender before you make your smoothie. We've all done this. What happens? The fruit and the little bit of liquid spins through the blender, the engine is revving, and it sounds like the thing is going to explode, and you end up with this really thick smoothie that you have to eat with a spoon, and you've got chunks of frozen pineapple in there that hurt your teeth, and it's just overall not an enjoyable thing to be sipping on. It's the same thing in our gut. So when we don't have enough stomach acid, we're going to have these chunks of food sitting in the gut. So of course, we're going to be bloated. We're going to be really uncomfortable. We're going to feel six months pregnant. By the end of the day, we're going to have to switch to our loose pants at 6 p.m. Because there's just so much inflammation and bloating in our gut. Even if you're eating healthy meals, we're going to experience this bloating because that food is not being broken down. And it creates this domino effect because when there is undigested food sitting in the gut for longer than it's supposed to, bacteria and yeast, like candida, start to feed on it. And then these microbes overgrow, which causes more bloating, more inflammation, more problems of bowel movement, skin issues, etc. The second function of stomach acid involves our immune system. So stomach acid plays a really important role in our immune defense. It is actually your body's first line of defense against bacteria, things like H. pylori, strep, staph infections, against parasites and viruses that we naturally encounter in our environment. We come in contact with these microbes all the time from our food, from drinks, from interactions with other people, from surfaces we touch. And this is normal. We don't live in a sterile world, but stomach acid plays a really integral part of our immune system by acting as a barrier, a protective barrier between our bodies and the outside world and these microbes that we naturally encounter. So stomach acid essentially keeps those microbes from making their way into the GI tract where they can start to overgrow and cause us a lot of symptoms. An analogy I always use with clients is stomach acid is like the bouncer at the club. I say this as someone who has not been to a club in a very, very long time and probably never will find herself in a club again. But when you're at a club, you've got a bouncer at the door and they are screening people before they come in. When pathogens, bacteria, et cetera, enter the GI tract, stomach acid should kill them off, just like the bouncer at the club shouldn't be letting anyone in who might cause problems. When that acid is low, the body is going to be more susceptible to these microbes surviving the stomach and making their way into the small and large intestine because the bouncer is not doing his job. And then those microbes continue to grow and they cause us a lot of digestive symptoms. I see a lot of people going online and buying a parasite kit because an influencer told them that they should be doing a parasite cleanse or they think that they have candida, so they're doing a candida cleanse. These are just not going to be effective long term if the root causes of why those microbes were able to grow in the first place isn't being addressed. So low stomach acid is it's not the only root cause, but it is absolutely one of them. If you just kill off these microbes, but you're not looking deeper at why your gut was a hospitable environment for them to survive, meaning why was your gut a good place for them to grow? Those microbes are just going to come back at some point. The same goes for SIBO. I see a lot of SIBO with my clients. There is a very strong connection to low stomach acid and SIBO. I see it coming back 99% of the time after antibiotics because the gut environment is still favorable for bacteria to overgrow in the small intestine. With antibiotics, we've just killed off the bacteria, but we haven't fixed why that bacteria was in the wrong location in the first place, because the bacteria should be in the large intestine, not in the small intestine. I see this also with H. pylori. So when people are using antibiotics, and this is not to hate on antibiotics, antibiotics are life-saving, but they should be used for life-saving situations. And when they're being used for something like SIBO or for an H. pylori infection, but we're not actually addressing why we have that issue in the first place, those issues are going to come back. I do use antimicrobial supplements in my client protocols. So when we run stool testing and we see that things are overgrown, so this could be strep bacteria, staph bacteria, H. pylori, candida, parasites, or if someone has SIBO, we will absolutely target those with antimicrobial herbs, which are like natural antibiotics that don't destroy all of the good bacteria in the gut as well, or you know, antifungals if we're dealing with something like candida, because we have to eradicate those things from the gut. This is called the removal phase of a gut protocol. This is a unnecessary step when there is already an overgrowth, especially when those microbes are causing issues. But if you're just buying a parasite cleanse or a candida kit or, you know, taking antibiotics for a bacterial infection like H. pylori and hoping these are going to heal your gut, it is more than likely going to be a short-term solution at best, because it's only addressing one piece of the puzzle. Food intolerances are something I see with a lot of clients as well. And this is very common with low stomach acid. When we have undigested food in the gut, this can trigger an immune response if the gut is leaky when it's permeable. So if you've heard of the term leaky gut, this happens when the lining of the gut, which is just one cell thick, becomes leaky. So I think it think of it as having little gaps, little spaces in between. We can get this partially digested food moving out of the gut and into the bloodstream where the immune system is going to flag them, and then we end up with an intolerance or a sensitivity. Food sensitivities are not the root cause, they are a symptom of deeper imbalances, and most of the time they can be reversed. My goal is always for clients to be eating as many whole foods as possible by the time we're done working together, because when the gut is functioning properly, it digests all whole foods without symptoms. I actually had three clients just this past week reintroduce gluten and dairy because we have fixed the environment in their gut. We have balanced their microbiome, the bacteria in their gut, and we have got their gut functioning properly. So they are digesting their food, breaking down their food, and absorbing things properly without all of the inflammation that comes with leaky gut and without having this partially digested food sitting in the gut and fermenting. This is why I don't use food sensitivity testing with clients, because not only is there a lot of discrepancy about how accurate these tests actually are, they don't tell us anything about why someone is reacting to foods. Real whole foods, including dairy, which is a really common sensitivity, should not cause reactions. And when they do, we need to look deeper at how your gut is functioning. We need to look at your microbiome to see what is not working properly in the digestive process. Okay, so to recap, stomach acid has two main functions. It breaks down food so we can absorb nutrients, especially proteins, and it protects us from potentially harmful microbes by acting as our guts bouncer or our gut's security guard. On stool tests, I see a lot of low digestive enzyme output. There is a marker on the stool test that I use with clients, which tells us how well their pancreas is producing digestive enzymes. And when someone is not making enough of those, this makes it even more challenging for them to digest their food. And I will very often see low stomach acid and low digestive enzymes together. And there is a connection here. So stomach acid kickstarts the entire digestive process. It signals the pancreas to produce enzymes that act similarly to stomach acid. They help us to break down our food. This is why so many people will supplement with digestive enzymes, because while it is a band-aid essentially, it does help to break down food. So it's going to relieve some of those digestive symptoms that happen when our gut is not actually breaking down that food. Digestive enzymes can definitely be a helpful short-term solution, but we still want to be addressing why the body isn't producing enough on its own and support your body to do what it is naturally designed to do. And it is naturally designed to digest your food, to make stomach acid, to make digestive enzymes so that you can break down your meals and not feel bloated, not feel tired after you eat, not have skin reactions, and have normal, predictable bowel movements every day. Bile is another really important digestive juice that our bodies make. It is produced by the liver and then stored in the gallbladder. And stomach acid signals bile release from the gallbladder. And we need bile to break down fat. So we need stomach acid, we need digestive enzymes, and we need bile. We need all three of these gastric juices to properly break down our food. Stomach acid really starts the entire digestive process. So we can supplement with digestive enzymes, which might help, you know, minimally or temporarily. But when I'm working with a client, we are taking a total top-down approach, meaning we are identifying where things are not working properly in the digestive process. And then we support the entire system to work optimally because your body is literally designed to break down your foods without causing you any symptoms. Okay, let's talk about some signs of low stomach acid. So these are things that I see with clients when this finely tuned digestive process isn't working properly. So number one is going to be bloating no matter what they eat. So when clients tell me they are bloated, whether they eat a cookie or they eat a salad, they look six months pregnant. By the end of the day, they have to unbutton their pants or get looser pants. I know that they are dealing with low stomach acid. Other symptoms are burping after meals, feeling full very quickly, having irregular bowel movements. So this can be constipation because food isn't breaking down well. So the movement of food and waste through the GI tract slows down. It can also be loose stools. It can be urgent bowel movements, or something I see often is people are going to the bathroom. They might be going every day or they're going five or six times a week, but they don't feel like it's complete. They're kind of having rabbit pellets as their bowel movements. Next is undigested food in the stool. So this really points to low stomach acid and low digestive enzymes. Feeling tired. So this might be feeling tired after meals or just feeling fatigued all around. So remember, if we're not making enough stomach acid, we're not absorbing our nutrients. And what do we use nutrients for? Energy, right? We're going to have fatigue if we're not absorbing our nutrients. We can also see a lot of brain fall. Low iron is also very common. So remember, stomach acid breaks down our food. If it's not doing that properly, we can have nutrient deficiencies. And iron is a nutrient that we need to absorb from our food. We can have other uh deficiencies as well that are going to affect our energy levels, our hormones, our thyroid. So that's the whole piece of what happens in the gut doesn't stay in the gut. We can have these downstream symptoms showing up. Now, most people think of acid reflux being caused by too much acid in the stomach. It is usually, not 100% of the time, but usually caused by low stomach acid. And whatever amount of acid is in the gut gets pushed up into the esophagus. And this is why we get reflux. We'll talk in a minute about why the standard treatment for reflux, which would be acid blocking medications, makes it worse most of the time for most people in the long run. Next one would be feeling nauseous after supplements. So if we don't have enough stomach acid and we're trying to break down capsules, this is not going to feel good and we can get nauseous. Then we have recurring SIBO, we have parasites, candida, stomach acid should be killing these off before they have a chance to overgrow in the gut. So if I run a stool test and I see a lot of things that are flagged, I see a lot of things that are overgrown, I know that we are dealing with low stomach acid because if we had enough stomach acid, I wouldn't be seeing those things showing up on tests. We need to address each step in the digestive process when we're helping someone fix their digestive issues. If we only support one area, if we're only taking a digestive enzyme or we're only taking a probiotic, this isn't going to lead to long-term healing. It's not going to lead to optimal gut health because it skips over really important parts of the process. An elimination diet isn't going to heal your gut. A 30-day parasite cleanse isn't going to heal your gut. It's not going to fix your symptoms long term. We have to go deeper than just eliminating trigger foods or just killing off what shouldn't be there. Okay, let's talk about five of the most common root causes of low stomach acid. Number one is going to be chronic stress. And I know what you're already thinking. Yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don't know. I want you to understand a little bit of the science behind this. So many people are stuck in a state of fight or flight, and I can deeply, deeply resonate with this. This means their bodies are thinking more about survival and less about digesting food. We ideally want our nervous systems to be in a rest and digest state when we're eating. It's it's literally in the name, right? We're digesting food. When we're in this state, our bodies are ready for nourishment. And the signaling from our brain to produce those digestive juices and move our food along the GI tract is more likely to happen the way that it is supposed to when we are in that calming state. When we are in that fight or flight state where we have chronically high cortisol, our body shifts attention away from digestion. It goes into pure survival mode, and we're going to produce less stomach acid and less digestive enzymes. This also ties in with eating in a hurry, shoveling food down, always eating on the run. When we're doing this, we are going to be missing signals from the brain to produce those digestive juices. When we cook our food, when we smell our food, we start to produce stomach acid before we even take a bite. We also need to be slowing down enough to chew our food well. We want to be breaking our food down in our mouths before we even swallow it. And when we chew our food, we actually stimulate the production of enzymes in our saliva. I always ask my clients how fast they eat. And nine out of 10 times they say that they tend to eat quickly or that they multitask while they eat. So they are sitting at their desk, they are answering emails, they are scrolling on their phone, they're in the car, they are, you know, standing over their countertop, shoving a meal down their throat. And these habits can really impact digestion. Now, I just want to point out we absolutely don't have to be perfect. We can do these things here and there without a problem, and our bodies will carry on and digest our food as they're supposed to. But this, if this is your daily routine, it can definitely be contributing to suboptimal digestion. Clients usually notice an improvement with bloating and with constipation when they just slow down at their meals and make sure that their food is well chewed. Then we have mineral deficiencies. So we need nutrients to make stomach acid, nutrients like sodium, potassium, zinc, and B vitamins. And tying into the chronic stress piece, these nutrients are quickly depleted when we're stressed. So it's all connected. I always include a focus on mineral replenishment in my gut protocols because they are just so important for good digestion. Then we have number four, long-term PBI use or acid blocker. So this is the standard treatment for acid reflux. Or if someone has indigestion, they tend to take a lot of Tums, over-the-counter antacids, or something like omebrazole. These medications work by reducing stomach acid. They really are a band-aid if you have reflux or indigestion. And sometimes we need medications like this. If they are, you know, really affecting your quality of life. If those symptoms are really intense, you absolutely want to be useful utilizing those medications, but they are not a long-term solution. We don't want to be taking these long term. We don't want to be popping tums all the time. There is definitely an increased risk of nutrient deficiencies and microbial overgrowth in the gut with these medications because they suppress stomach acid production, which is going to lead to those deficiencies. And really, we're just killing off our gut's bouncer when we're taking. Those medications long term. Number five is H. pylori infections. So H. pylori is a common gut infection that neutralizes stomach acid. We see a lot of H. pylori on stool tests.

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pylori will thrive in the gut when stomach acid is low to begin with, and then it further depletes levels. So this is a really good example of why a true root-cause healing approach needs to address what's currently out of balance. So for example, if we have an H. pylori overgrowth, we need to eradicate that H. pylori. We need to kill it off. And then we also need to address the underlying causes of why that overgrowth happened in the first place so that it doesn't come back. Because who wants to do a full gut protocol to have things come back in six months or a year later? Okay, let's talk about some of the natural ways that you can support your stomach acid, your overall digestion and gut health. And then we'll talk about some testing that I recommend if you are dealing with chronic digestive issues. I hope that overview wasn't overwhelming for you. I know it was a lot of information, but I hope it did give you some clarity around what's causing your digestive symptoms. There is always, always a reason for our symptoms. Nothing in the body happens at random. It just requires peeling back the layers to figure out what's going on. It involves running the right testing and supporting the gut environment and digestive function rather than just continuing to remove foods and taking a million supplements to manage symptoms. In terms of testing for low stomach acid, there's not a lot of options, but we can get a really good idea of what's going on based on feedback from the body. So that list of signs and symptoms that I went through gives us really valuable clues about what's going on. We also use functional stool testing like the GI map. So we can see patterns in those results that connect with low stomach acid. So when we're working with clients, we're connecting all of these dots and then creating a plan to correct things at a foundational level. So really addressing each step in the digestive process. Okay, so you're probably wondering where you should start if some of those symptoms resonated with you. If you're like, yep, I have quite a few of those and you suspect your stomach acid is low. So this is going to sound too simple, but one of the easiest ways that you can support your digestion is to slow down at your meal times and chew your food properly. So this means stepping away from your desk at work as often as possible, taking a proper break, even if your lunch break is 10 minutes for you to eat your meal. I want you to drop your shoulders, relax your eyebrows, take a few relaxing breaths, three to five breaths through your belly before you eat. This really primes your body for digestion. It tells your brain that food is coming and it helps your body get out of that fight or flight state and into that rest or digest state where the body is ready for nourishment. Ideally, we want to chew our food 20 to 25 times per bite until it is applesauce consistency. I will be honest, I still have to remind myself every single meal to chew my food properly. And I talk about this all day long. Your teeth are like blades in a blender. They break down your food. So this makes it a lot easier to digest once it gets to your gut. Smelling your food and chewing your food actually accounts for 25% of gastric secretions. Gastric secretions meaning enzymes, bile, and stomach acid. So slowing down and chewing your food, although for a lot of clients, it is the hardest thing in their protocol because we're just so primed to go, go, go and continue to work through our to-do list and just move from one thing to another. But this is a free and really easy way to support your digestion. It just takes time to retrain your muscle memory if you are used to you know eating super quickly and just shovel, shoveling your food down. In the summertime, or if you live somewhere where it is warm all year, get outside for your meals as often as you can. You are more likely to slow down, to eat mindfully, you know, when you're eating your meals. Being outdoors has also been shown to reduce cortisol. Along that note, as well, we ideally don't want to be multitasking while we're eating. This is going to happen from time to time. There are days when, you know, I am eating in the car on the run somewhere, or I am eating while I'm at my computer, but I try really hard to make those few and far between. Because if we are multitasking, if we are responding to emails or reading emails or, you know, on the go, it's really hard for us to be mindful of our eating. It's hard for us to be relaxed when our brain is somewhere else and we're not going to be chewing our food properly. Something else you can do to support that stomach acid production is have a little bit of apple cider vinegar before your meals. So about a tablespoon and a third of a cup of water. Drink that before you eat. I always advise clients not to drink a ton of liquids around their meals. So, meaning, you know, we don't want to be having a full glass of something with our meals because that can actually dilute those gastric juices. But having a little bit of water with some apple cider vinegar can be really supportive. I also love digestive bitters before meals. I use these with a lot of my clients. So you can get those in a little tincture with a dropper that you just put in a small amount of water, or you can get them in a spray that you just spray under your tongue. They don't taste very good at all, but the bitter herbs in those products help to stimulate those digestive juices. Then we want to be focusing on a whole foods diet. So eating mostly whole foods, never striving for perfection, but eating mostly single ingredient foods, getting some good sources of minerals into your diet. So have a good source of sea salt or Celtic salt that you can sprinkle on your food. We use sodium to make stomach acid. We want good sources of potassium, zinc, and B vitamins, really prioritizing foods in your diet that are rich in these nutrients. And if you're like, okay, Danielle, I have done this and I am still struggling with my gut, it's time to look deeper. And this is exactly what we do with clients inside our one-on-one program. We run functional stool testing or functional testing, including stool testing, um, and HTMA, which is hair tissue mineral analysis. And these tests really help us to uncover what's going on beneath the surface with your gut and with your overall health. If you've been in my world for longer than a minute, you know that I believe we cannot achieve anything with our health if we are undernourished. So this means no restrictive food protocols. I want you eating as many whole foods as possible. When we are working with clients, we are prioritizing getting them eating enough, balancing their blood sugar, and teaching them how to properly nourish their bodies for optimal gut and overall health. If this feels aligned with the type of support that you are looking for, you can connect with us and learn more about the process through the link in the show notes, or feel free to send me a message on Instagram and I will go over those details with you. Thanks so much for tuning in and I will see you on the next episode.