Never Use Acid Blocking Meds: Do This Instead

Individuals with low stomach acid typically experience frequent heartburn, acid reflux, burping, bloating, gas, and even nausea after eating.  It feels like your stomach is full of acid and your normal response is to take something to block or remove the acid from the stomach.  

THAT'S THE ABSOLUTE WORST THING YOU CAN DO!  And doing so will only prolong the problem and make it worse.  

In this podcast we'll explore why that is, what is causing your upset stomach and what you can do instead to remedy the problem instead of suppressing the issue.  

Stop Chasing Wellness is an online wellness coaching company founded by two Holistic Health Coaches, Gina and Kristin. Be sure to check out all of our offerings including our book, Stop Chasing Wellness; Create It, and our growing catalog of Hormone Specific coaching courses. All of our courses and offerings are designed to help you feel and live your best life in a simplified way that works for you. You can find Stop Chasing Wellness on Facebook and Instagram

Transcript

Hello friends, and welcome to the Stop Chasing Wellness podcast.
If you're here listening to this podcast, we believe it's because you value your health
and you may be looking for answers to help you live your healthiest life in a more simplified
way.
You may be dealing with your own health struggles or trying to help a spouse or child find a
better way to deal with their struggles.
Maybe you've just lost your way or you've gone down the rabbit hole of confusing, conflicting
information that's swirling all around you.
We've got you.
As certified holistic health coaches, Coach Gina and I, I'm Coach Kristin here, focus
our health coaching on the belief that what we put on our plate is a direct reflection
of what's going on in our lives.
This ranges anywhere from the quality of your social life and personal relationships to
your level of physical activity, and the overall health of your spirituality practice,
your career, finances, and education.
The foods you put on your plate are just one piece of this wheel that we call the circle
of life.
Before we introduce our guest speaker, we invite you to check out our website, StopChasingWellness.com,
to learn more about the wellness coaching programs that we offer, as well as to purchase
our book by the same name, Stop Chasing Wellness.
Our book is an overview of the pillars from which we teach.
We're so proud to share this with you and hope that you'll find it to be the catalyst
that you need to help point you in the right direction with your health and wellness goals.
And our online wellness coaching programs are done in a way that allow you to start
your program at a time that's convenient for you.
And Coach Jean and I are with you every step of the way to help guide and educate you and
help you make this your own personalized experience.
Our online wellness coaching programs are designed to teach you how and what you should
be feeding your body, as well as actionable steps to incorporate lifestyle changes that
support the health of your hormones and create vitality.
Basically, we teach you how to stop chasing wellness and learn to start creating it.
We have a growing catalog of hormone-specific coaching programs that we absolutely love,
and we know you'll love them too.
All right.
Hey, everybody.
Health Coach Gina and Health Coach Kristin here.
Today we're talking about acid blockers and why people take them.
As people start growing and getting a little bit older, maybe not always older, but sometimes
it happens with a lifetime of a certain type of diet, and that is what we call the standard
American diet, right, also known as the SAD diet.
It contains a lot of processed foods and things like that.
And over time, people start getting more heartburn and feeling like they have an acid stomach
is a word that you hear sometimes.
And they would turn to those acid blockers.
Well, let's dig a little bit deeper, Kristin.
And today we'll talk about why do they have the acid stomach?
Why do they have the heartburn?
Oh my gosh.
You were just talking a little bit about just age.
That's one of the reasons that they could.
It could be medications.
It could be autoimmune disease and diet.
Diet is a big part of it.
So I think we're going to spend some time today talking about diet.
At least I think that's something I want to touch on because I feel like that's something
that's highly preventable because I hear people say that all the time when people are around
me and they're like, you know, I have an upset stomach.
I need to get, you know, I've got a stomach ache.
Oh, I've got heartburn.
I need to go take a Tums or I need to go take a, you know, the we're talking about the proton
pump inhibitors they're called.
So it's any of those medications that are meant to block the production of acid.
Because when you have heartburn or an upset stomach, don't you feel acidic, right?
You feel that acid burn.
That's why it's called heartburn, right?
Acid indigestion.
It feels like it's acidic.
But I think what we need people to understand is that taking an acid blocking medication
is the absolute last thing you should do when you have acid indigestion.
It sounds counterproductive, right?
It sounds like absolutely that's what I need.
So that decreased stomach acid can come with aging.
It can come with things like caffeine or overeating or eating too fast.
Stress and medications, other types of medications.
In addition to the acid blocking medications, alcohol, and even some kind of surgeries that
might destroy those acid producing cells that we actually need in our gut.
And what happens there is we end up having less stomach acid, which causes more fermentation
in the gut, which causes more symptoms, which causes more medication.
And that brings us right back to the point that people need to understand.
Your stomach needs to be acidic.
We feel like it's too acidic.
I need to take a medication to stop the acid, but it is so imperative to have a proper acid
balance in the gut because too little stomach acid will cause other digestive problems.
When you're taking a medication, telling the gut to stop pumping acid out, it actually
stops the proper breakdown of food.
When we eat food, it helps us, basically when your gut is digesting food, by the time
it reaches the small intestine, it's supposed to be like sludgy.
It's supposed to be smushy.
The food is supposed to be digested.
This is the beginning part of the end result.
Well, that stomach acid works to break down the food and into those small particles, but
it actually activates enzymes in the stomach and helps break down and digest that food.
So that's how that process works.
And if we're depleting that acid even more, that food isn't getting broken down and what's
happening.
The proper vitamins and minerals either, because it's just whole food entering the intestines,
which it's not supposed to be like that.
So we're not absorbing things like calcium and magnesium and potassium, zinc and iron
B12.
And also when you're stopping the production of acid, it contributes to osteoporosis and
low vitamin D levels.
And then we take medications for those, right?
I've got osteoporosis, now let me take another pill.
So some of the symptoms that people might start identifying and just take a note, take
a note on how you feel after you eat.
Symptoms of low stomach acid production can include like bloating or distension after
eating, diarrhea or constipation, gas, hair loss in women.
That's also part of that poor gut health overall, heartburn, indigestion, malaise,
and a prolonged sense of feeling full after eating.
You're not feeling like that food is breaking down and passing through like it's supposed
to.
Those are so common too.
I think a big statement to make in regard to that is that people are so accustomed to
feeling like that very regularly and feeling like that's normal.
It's not, that is a sign that your body's trying to tell you something's not right.
Like pay attention to me.
So there's some things that we can do to actually counteract that feeling, right?
Some just things that we can do to light the digestive fire rather than stopping the stomach
from producing acid.
You know what?
Even before we get into the good news, let's talk about one more thing because we definitely
want to give all these tips and helpful things, but sometimes people feel like it's just easier
to take a pill, right?
Why do I want to go through all that when I can just take this pill and it's going to
make it go away instantly and make me feel better?
That's not, if you think about your long-term health, that just lessens the existing stomach
acid even more.
It causes things like Kristin said, nutrient depletion, all those vitamins, minerals, and
trace elements that you're not absorbing because you're taking a pill.
You're just, that food is going through a hole.
You're not breaking it down.
You're not absorbing that stuff.
Leaky gut, definitely you don't want those food particles passing through your gut lining
into your body.
It can cause stomach cancer.
Yeah.
How about that?
Who thinks about that?
People don't think about that.
That's pretty serious.
And then like you said, increase the risk of bone fractures, osteoporosis.
So that's all part of the bad news, right?
We went over the symptoms.
We went over what it is.
We went over the bad news.
Let's talk about SIBO too, real quick, because that's small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
So we were talking about how food's supposed to go into the gut and get in, by the time
it gets to the small intestine, it's supposed to be smushy, mushy.
And then when it's not digesting whole particles of food, it's entering into the small intestine
where it's not supposed to be in that state by the time it gets there and it causes SIBO,
which is small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which causes an abnormal overgrowth of bacteria
in the small intestine, just causes more inflammation.
You were talking about leaky gut.
That's what contributes to leaky gut.
Our gut wall is permeable, but we're not supposed to have whole particles passing through the
gut wall.
And that can happen.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So how can we support the gut?
How can we support our gut health a little bit better so we don't end up in these situations
and how we can turn it around and start working on healing this?
Well, so I think diet is a big thing.
We want to crowd out some of the inflammatory foods that are causing just things that can
cause that feeling of upset stomach, right?
Typical standard American diet, a lot of refined foods, a lot of dairy, a lot of refined sugar,
just too much gluten, a high concentration of conventionally raised animal proteins.
We want to kind of crowd those things out and crowd them out by increasing the amount
of whole foods that you're eating, the fruits and vegetables that give nourishment to our
body.
We can add more cultured foods to help heal the gut.
And those cultured foods, they're raw living foods.
They have enzymes that help that digestive process.
So think about your sauerkraut and not sauerkraut on the can, sauerkraut that you either make
at home, which most of us don't have the time to do that, but you can find sauerkraut in
the cold section or at your health food store.
Look in the cold section, or I know I got that big one from Costco, that big, they don't
have it all the time, but when they do, I always grab one.
It's always going to be in the cold section because it's a living food.
Yeah.
And it should be.
Like you said, not in the can.
Not in the can, not the stuff you find in the middle of the store.
That's just cabbage and salt in a can.
Yogurt.
I happen to like cashew yogurt lately.
There's different types of yogurts.
If you're going to use a dairy, make sure it's organic, pasture-raised, organically
fed.
So that's a healthier form.
You can also try like kefir, miso, tempeh, kombucha, which I make regularly at home.
I always have a joke going on my counter.
Of course you do.
Pickles, apple cider vinegar, and kimchi.
I've made that before too.
That's pretty good.
But just things that you can add in that will work on activating the health of that gut.
And that's really what we want.
We want an environment that's not hospitable for disease.
And all disease parts in the gut.
So when we're talking about acid blockers here as the theme of this podcast, but the
gut is it.
If we don't have a good, healthy, strong, robust gut, it's going to cause more problems
than just what you think of having a sour stomach or some heartburn.
Like you're saying, like people reach for the medication because they think that's
going to solve the problem.
But we're backing up into this and saying, you want to solve the problem by stopping
it from happening in the first place, right?
You don't want to put a bandaid on it.
That's not a cure.
Look into that.
Look at your diet.
What do you need to remove?
That's causing it to become acidic or feeling too acidic in the first place.
Um, you know, nurture the health of the gut by feeding it the, the probiotic rich foods.
And you also want to do things like avoiding, um, inflammatory toxins like alcohol.
Unfortunately, um, antibiotics are another, another one that contribute to poor gut health
because antibiotics, if you, if you need them, if you have to take them to kill an infection,
but they're also killing all the good stuff too.
So doing everything you can to build a healthy immune system so that you don't need antibiotics
is the goal, right?
And then also end saves things like, you know, Tylenol and ibuprofen, those things just cause
inflammation in the gut and they just directly weaken the gut lining.
Um, another thing that I love to do is just, we've talked about this before we even did
a podcast on it about homemade bone broth, how nourishing it is to the gut.
Yep.
Mm hmm.
So you know what, while, as we're going over this stuff, let's give some peace of mind
to our listeners because the gut doesn't heal overnight, right?
So what do you do when you're suffering through this?
What what's an alternative if we're recommending healing the gut and not getting wrapped up
in those band-aids, what can they do in the heat of a heartburn or that feeling?
What can someone do?
So one thing that I recommend is that people just take a, just a glass, an eight ounce
glass of water.
It's so that's not a big glass, right?
Just cup of water can be room temperature, um, can be warm, but we, we want it somewhat
warm just cause it helps to relax the gut, but add a tablespoon of the raw apple cider
vinegar and drink that 15 to 30 minutes before a meal.
If this is a frequent thing for you and you're frequently having heartburn, do this before
your meal cause it kind of sets the acid balance in the gut, but you can also do that after
a meal if you feel like you've got, if you're having some heartburn issues after a meal.
So yeah, instead of reaching for the drugs or you know, the Tums tablets, just do that.
I actually recommended this to a friend of mine a week or so ago and you could feel good.
I got to go home and take a Tums and I was like, don't do that.
Try this instead.
And she did.
And I was, I just love when I hear back from people and they're like, Oh my God, it worked.
She was so excited that it worked.
I was like, see, yeah, this is such a simple thing.
I mean the whole bottle of apple cider vinegar, that'll last you forever.
And it feels so bizarre, right?
Like if you, people don't realize it, I think that that heartburn is low stomach acid.
I think they feel like there's too much stomach acid, but the stomach acid is what we need
to break everything down.
So adding more apple cider vinegar or lemons or even grab that same, what did you, I think
you said eight ounce.
I would say a four ounce even just like a glass of water and put a pinch of baking soda
in it.
Yeah.
Some of that out.
So that can help too.
And then there's, there's the longer term things that you're should be working on to
heal the gut.
These are short term things that you can do in the heat of the moment, but if you don't
heal the gut, that's going to always keep happening.
But at least doing that with the apple cider vinegar and some warm water, if it prevents
you from taking those acid blockers, that is a huge step forward because those, I mean,
when people have, I know people that take them and when you and I in the past had been
on them years ago, I used to take Zantac before it was available over the counter and really
my life at that time, I was in my early twenties.
I was a young mom.
I was starting a career.
I had a lot of job stress, a lot of just life stress going on around me and I, it was stress
related for me, probably diet if I really went back and dissected it, but a lot of it
was stress related, stress affects the gut so much.
But once you start taking those, those PPIs, those proton pump inhibitor drugs that block
the acid, you have to keep taking them.
It just keeps making it worse and worse.
Those that drug never made me feel better.
I was never able to like stop take because it was like, oh, you're cured.
The goal of those drugs is just keep taking them forever.
Well, that's not the answer.
Yeah.
You want to get off those drugs.
You have to change diet.
You have to address stress.
You have to look at medications.
Yeah.
Lots of things you can do.
Yeah.
So think about chewing your food slowly.
How many people stop and really think about chewing their food instead of just shoveling
it in because you have to be somewhere in five minutes, sit down, relax, take a breath,
take a bite and chew your food.
Chew that food slowly and chew each bite thoroughly.
Your stomach does not have teeth.
It has acid, hopefully.
Hopefully it has acid.
Don't kill the acid.
The acid is your friend.
Yeah.
And not drink too much water with your meals.
Don't use too much.
Don't drink too much water while you're eating your meals.
That's another tip.
Yeah.
And I think that's a good one to point out because I think, especially as like a lot
of people that are strongly focused on weight loss, think that it's a really good idea to
drink a lot of water before a meal or during a meal because it's going to like make the
stomach feel full, right?
And so you're not eating all this food, I'm going to fill up with water.
Yeah.
It's just diluting your stomach acid.
Yeah.
That's not good.
Yeah.
These are good tips.
Yeah.
A good quality probiotic.
That's always a great thing.
And even digestive enzymes.
Great support.
Yeah.
Especially with age because as you age, it is normal for your acid production to slow
down in the gut.
So taking an enzyme, digestive enzymes a little bit before a meal, 15 to 30 minutes before
you're eating a meal can really help you digest and break down foods properly so that you're
not getting that acidic feeling.
I mean, if you have to take a probiotic and a capsule, that's fine, but I do feel like
we get better absorption by getting the probiotics through food instead of taking it with a pill.
And that's back to that list of cultured foods that we talked about before that are your
sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir, miso, tempeh, kombucha, pickles, apple cider vinegar, kimchi.
There's so many options to just stay out a little bit at a time.
If you have some sauerkraut, you could just take a couple of forkfuls in the morning and
just get that down or any time a day.
But normally I always have mine with my breakfast.
I think sauerkraut's a hard sell for some people.
You either love it or you hate it.
I love it, but yeah, if you don't like it, it's a hard one to force people to get that
one down, but there's other options.
All right, let's talk about the prebiotic resistant starches.
Oh, those are good.
So your prebiotic resistant starches are...
So I think everybody gives potatoes a bad rap, but I love that like just eating a cooled
like white potatoes, just let them cool for a little bit.
I love that like in a potato salad, everybody shuns out like it's something bad.
Makes me happy to know that a cooked, cooled, even if it's slightly cooled, white potato
is a good prebiotic resistant starch, which is so good because it's good for the blood
sugar.
You're not elevating your blood sugar.
What are some other ones?
Plantains are big, but we don't need a lot of plantains in the United States, but you
can get them.
They're pretty available.
How about chickpeas and lentils and white beans?
I like all of those.
Yep.
I love those.
Yeah.
And you can also get the unmodified potato starch, like Bob's Red Mill sells it and just
add that into things like even smoothies or juices or just sprinkle it into foods.
Maybe ask, you know, to thicken something up, right?
Yeah.
The soup.
Yeah.
But that helps to give you a good balance of some healthy bacteria in the gut.
Because again, we want to feed the gut.
What about those digestive fires, lighting those digestive fires?
You talked about that earlier.
What does that mean?
I don't think people hear that too often, so why don't you talk about that a little
bit more?
I don't know if Gina puts me on the spot.
We want to stimulate acid production in the gut by doing the things that we had talked
about.
So having your tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar in eight ounces of warm water, 15
to 30 minutes before meals, it's just, that's a way to light that digestive fire.
So when you're having low stomach acid, you've got heartburn, you've got acid reflux, burping,
gas, bloating, even feeling nauseous after eating.
So that's a sign that you do not have the digestive fire.
You want to light it by, a good practice is to start that with the apple cider vinegar.
And you can even start your day with a glass of warm or room temperature water with some
fresh lemon or lime juice in it.
And how does that feel?
That sounds counterintuitive again, doesn't it?
So you're thinking you're putting more acidic things in your body, but actually that lemon
and lime is very alkaline to the body, but it's helpful for that gut health.
Yes, very alkalizing.
And actually very refreshing when you do it.
And that might be more appealing to people than the apple cider vinegar, but that's just
a good way to start the day out.
So if you're somebody who typically is struggling with and you're feeling acidic, just make
it a habit to start doing that every day.
And if too much lemon is too much for you, just back off, put a little bit in and work
your way up to a little bit more.
Awesome.
Thank you for that.
Yeah.
I think that's a great place to start just by doing those couple of things.
Just keep it simple and yeah, we can help.
I would just know, I mean, it's such a common thing.
There's many of you out there that are in these shoes that are struggling with this.
Let us help you reach out.
We are happy to help you.
Yes, absolutely.
I know there's a big market out there for those, for those drugs and there's a reason
for that.
And every time I see him, I'm like, the drugs are not the answer to the problem.
We have to address the problem.
Right.
So hopefully this helps.
Hey, if we can keep just like one person off of those drugs, I'm just happy.
One person listens to this and just says, no, then we have done our job.
That's right.
All right.
I think we're done.
Are we good?
I feel like we are good.
All right.
We are good.
All right.
Everybody soon.
Friends, thank you so, so very much for joining us today.
We know this podcast was full of amazing information and our wish is that this somehow blesses
you in some kind of way.
We would love for you to share this podcast with your friends and family.
So others may learn about this important topic.
As you listen to the podcast, we know you must've been thinking of others that need
to hear this.
When you hear that calling, it's no coincidence.
Please share the podcast with them.
We pray that this podcast will help more people to feel the confidence needed to begin their
healing journey and to take their health to the next level, reach their goals, learn about
nutrition and lifestyle choices so that we can all reach the goal to live a long, healthy
and happy life.
Thank you.