DID YOU KNOW HEARTBURN IS FROM TOO LITTLE STOMACH ACID?

Most people ignore that heartburn is an important clue from their body that something is fundamentally wrong. Unfortunately many have been cowed by the advertising propaganda to rely on a drug that only suppresses the symptoms.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is what Americans think of as acid indigestion. What a misnomer! The pharmaceuticals love it because it provides for a trillion-dollar worldwide market for antacids. There are thousands of antacids under as many names.

The purple pill (Prilosec) was the first proton pump inhibitor. This means that it shuts down stomach acid production. If you take it for long enough, eventually it may even end your life with stomach cancer. The purple pill became the first drug ever to hit $5 billion in sales. As the patent ran out, Prilosec cloned itself with the launch of Nexium. We're talking profits and patents big time. Research started on Prilosec in the 1960s. These people know what they are after and have not a care for health at all.

Millions of people suffer from GERD when acid from the stomach backs up into the esophagus causing their heartburn. Some people experience it frequently and severely. "Acid indigestion" is very painful, and people are easily attracted to what they believe is the quick relief of antacids. Antacids and proton pump inhibitors block the first major step in digestion — better digestion being the real cure.

We are created with hydrochloric acid and pepsin in our stomachs to digest our food and provide nutrition to our bodies. Hydrochloric acid and pepsin are the basis of nutrition and health.

A shortage of acid

Stomach pH is very acidic, as low as pH 1 to 2, whereas the rest of the human body is about 7.3 or slightly alkaline.

"Acid indigestion" is caused, however, not by too much acid but by a lack or shortage of hydrochloric acid — something the marketers of antacids will never tell you.

There is a whole new world of relief from "acid indigestion" with simple steps I will show you in a moment. Of course, your friendly cardiologist will blow a gasket when he hears this, but he loves his ignorance.

Millions upon millions live a life of discomfort when they are so close to relief. If we kill our stomach acid with antacids, we will ultimately wind up with stomach cancer. The medical community is mostly ignorant of this.

Reflux and aging

The human stomach is an acid-producing machine and this acid is needed in the stomach for health. When stomach acid is cut off as with the purple pill, it greatly diminishes our primary defense mechanism against food borne infections and even degenerative disease, as cancer. Stomach acid is essential to digestion and digestion is basic to health.

And logically, the very group of people who lack stomach acid — age 55 and up — is the group most often suffering from GERD or acid reflux.

So this is to say that one can have acid reflux and at the same time have low stomach acid. It's where the acid is that leads us to believe that we have too much acid when we actually don't. Yes, pharmaceuticals know this only too well.

Now just why does acid reflux on the one hand and low stomach acid on the other cause such a problem with seniors?

The answer is that as we age, our biochemistry changes producing weaker signals for thirst and dehydration. Less hydration naturally expands the effect of stomach acid when it refluxes. We naturally yield to the hawkers of antacids and thereby compound our troubles.

Normal stomach acid is the chief factor in the elimination of waste and toxins. It cannot be overemphasized how important hydrochloric acid is in the gastric fluid.

When stomach hydrochloric acid is deficient or absent, grave results will gradually and inevitably appear in the human metabolism.

First of all, we will have an increasing and gradual starvation of minerals. Food is incompletely digested and failure of assimilation will occur. Then the septic process begins with all manner of general infections such as flu and pneumonia. Deficiency of normal stomach acid gives rise to a multitude of degenerative reactions and degenerative disease.

Because of the lack of hydrochloric stomach acid, a putrefactive (decaying) process occurs producing lactic acid. All the more hydrochloric acid is needed to neutralize other toxic acids as hydrochloric acid is the only normal acid in the human or animal body.

It is very serious business to stop the acid pump with the purple pill.

Instead we need to make doubly sure that we have adequate stomach acid. Adequate stomach acid is more than essential. It is vital to immunity and longevity.

This leaves us with the problem of acid reflux, especially with seniors.

Reflux cures

Since it is doubtful that few have too much stomach acid, it is certain that too many don't have enough.

• Take hydrochloric acid supplements, such as Betaine Hydrochloride, with meals — some use apple cider vinegar.
  
• Drink adequate amounts of clean, preferably distilled water, up to a gallon a day; even more if you can — you have to build up. Do not believe the "8 glasses a day" myth. No one knows where that came from. Drink to an excess of thirst to prevent reflux and also kidney stones!
  
• Get on a low carbohydrate diet especially eliminating sugar. Use Stevia, which is a zero on the glycemic index, as an alterative to sugar.
  
• Use an unsweetened yogurt or buttermilk for a probiotic.
  
• Avoid highly seasoned foods especially at night.
  
• Stay off of all antacids — instead use calcium lactate powder in some water. 

Finally, taking the simple and natural step of preparing a mixture of lemon juice with water to drink with all meals will eliminate the symptoms of stomach acidity and indigestion completely.

Lemons are anionic, and this helps them balance other foods you eat and aids in extracting energy from them. Lemons can replace the healthy, alkalizing minerals like potassium that processed, acidic foods and sodas leech out of you.

Yours for the truth,

Bob Livingston
Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter™