The Effects of Stress on Stomach Acid
Understanding the need for stomach acid is a critical concept that needs to gain momentum as an important topic because stomach acid is imperative to our health and the way that digestion functions. Digestion is a top to bottom process meaning that it begins with the thought of eating food. Then moves to the function of chewing eat bite 20-30 times to fully prepare the body for digesting food. At a very basic level we are impairing digestion almost from the start by eating in a sympathetic state. This means that we need to slow down and chew, chew, chew our food. Meal times should be spent as a family as a way to connect with each other. It shouldn’t be rushed.
Proton pump inhibitors (PPI’s) are prescribed and over the counter medications (OTC) that are used to reduce the amount of stomach acid a person has and they change the chemistry of the body. Chronic stress lowers the pH of stomach acids which in turn puts a person at risk for opportunistic pathogens. Without proper pH levels of stomach acid, we start to see an increase in disease.
A large portion of the population feel as though they need prescribed or OTC medications to lower and neutralize stomach acid in order to control symptoms. These drugs do not work towards fixing the root of the issue. Instead, they will further complicate the digestive system creating systemic issues that create long term symptom’s that lead to disease.
The acid suppressing drug industry makes around $7 billion dollars a year. Forty four percent of the population believe that they suffer from heartburn. When the truth is that over production of stomach acid is quite rare. Heartburn isn’t caused by having too much stomach acid; it is caused by not having enough stomach acid. The other thing to consider is that even the smallest amount of stomach acid making its way into the esophagus would be painful and if it happens often can cause damage to the esophagus. A lot of times this happens because the LES is weak and opens when it should be closed so that stomach acid cannot get to the esophagus.
Often indigestion stems from needing more stomach acid so that the body can send out the correct signals for bile and HCL to aid in digestion. Without HCL, bile and stomach acid the body cannot breakdown food properly and more so cannot breakdown proteins when pepsin isn’t called into action. Thus, leading to many vitamin deficiencies that can eventually lead to disease. There is a connection between improper pH and/or not enough stomach acid and autoimmune diseases. We are now seeing a rise in both digestive dysfunction and autoimmune diseases relating to the digestive system. Now, correlation does not equate causation but the link is fascinating. Yet, this is a part of the puzzle that doesn’t seem to be discussed very often in the medical community. At least, in my experience with my husband and myself when dealing with our autoimmune diseases. Proton pump inhibitors seem to be just another band aid to overall symptoms and not part of treating what is happening inside a person’s body. They help alleviate symptoms while long term use may have very serious health outcomes.
There are many ways to improve digestion by using nutrition, supplements and reducing stress. Paying attention to food allergies and intolerances which are also stressors is important. By using digestive bitters, digestive enzymes, HCL, pepsin and several other options to naturally help with stomach acid production and are soothing. I feel that this is something that more doctors need to be made aware of, especially those working specifically in the gastrointestinal field considering that many autoimmune diseases (Celiac, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s) have a connection to low stomach acid that is worth knowing about. Improper pH and amounts of stomach acid add to the allostatic load (stress) that is person is under and decreases the immune function that stomach acid has. Stomach acid is supposed to be able to kill pathogens so that they don’t make us sick.
Stomach acid is an important function of both the digestive and as part of the immune system in a non-specific way. If you want to start somewhere fix your stomach acid.