Got GERD?

October 1, 2018

If you suffer from GERD, chances are you have been told, at some point, to take a PPI like Prilosec or Prevacid to reduce your stomach acid. But GERD, contrary to what many conventional doctors believe, has actually been shown to be due to too LITTLE stomach acid, rather than too much.

Stomach acid production tends to decrease as we age, yet cases of heartburn and GERD tend to INCREASE as we age -- if GERD was caused by too much stomach acid, we would see the opposite pattern.

A typical GERD story might go like this:

1. Your body can't digest food well (any food, but mostly carbohydrates) because you aren't producing enough stomach acid.
2. The bacteria in your gut that should be kept in balance by normal levels of stomach acid are now allowed to flourish and become overgrown.
3. Those bacteria feast on the poorly-digested foodstuffs and release gas in the process.
3. That gas builds up in your abdomen and the pressure of it causes your lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to open up at inappropriate times.
4. That opening of your LES allows the little stomach acid that you DO have to creep up into your esophagus, causing heartburn and GERD.

Although PPIs will reduce your symptoms, they're not solving the problem at all. They're actually making it worse, because they reduce your stomach acid even further, exacerbating the problem. But please never just stop taking PPIs cold turkey -- you have to wean yourself off slowly and under the care of your physician.

So what can you do if you have GERD?

1. You can try eating a very low carb diet -- the fewer the carbs there are, the less the bacteria can ferment. I would recommend sticking to 50-100 grams of carbs per day.

2. You can try taking HCl with pepsin to help you digest your food more fully. NOTE -- do not take this if you're already taking any sort of anti-inflammatory meds.

3. You can try taking Swedish bitters -- this will also help you break down your food a little better.

4. Don't drink more than a few sips while you eat -- that will dilute your stomach acid even further.

5. You could do a stool test to see if you have a bacterial infection or overgrowth which could be contributing to the problem (H. pylori is famous for causing GERD). And then treat that, if you do have something.

6. Add probiotics in to your daily regimen in the form of fermented food like raw sauerkraut or raw pickles (Bubbie's brand is raw). Those will increase the amount of good bacteria in your gut. A condiment-sized portion per day is enough.

There are more options, but these are the easiest ones to try. For more on the subject, I would highly recommend downloading Chris Kresser's free eBook.