The Importance of Stomach Acid

We recently explored our esophagus and our stomach in my Your Body is Yours to Know cohort - especially looking at the benefit and importance of stomach acid and the ways that the world around us and our life experiences can decrease our stomach acid production. One of the key ways our body knows to tighten the muscle between our esophagus and stomach is in response to the acid levels in the stomach. So, when our stomach acid levels are inadequate, we are more likely to have reflux occur. This goes against the standard belief system in the Western medical and pharmaceutical models that tell us, “When you feel reflux, you want to suppress your acid levels.” This can be true in some people - when you take that acid blocker, the body communication of reflux (stomach acid coming into your esophagus and upper throat) goes away.

Because the acid level is lowered by taking acid blockers, it could decrease the risk of damage to your esophagus. However, the medication will not stop the stomach acid from coming up into our esophagus. Unfortunately, in lowering our stomach acid we are also impairing the body’s ability to effectively break down our foods, especially our proteins. It’s something to think about and explore. If you work with me one-on-one and this is something we haven’t talked about in person, feel free to bring it up when we next connect. It can also be a conversation with your medical provider about how to transition from using an acid blocker to not needing to. There are a variety of tools in that regard. Most naturopaths and functional & holistic medical providers will have that information and be able to support you around that.

We really went in depth around this topic as well as the ways we hold our body around mealtime. Are we moving with stress around mealtime or are we inviting spaciousness to sit and be calm? This is what best supports our body to be ready to process our food and break it down into the nourishment we are asking it to be.