I'm currently scratching my head trying to work out how to get some acidity into my stomach without actually ingesting anything, as this solution is out for me due to duodenal ulcers and chronic gastritis, which is in a permanent flare up. PPIs have been pushed by various doctors which of course made me much worse as alchloridia due to PA is the source of this. I found some advice online which I'm going to try and thought I'd share:
Don't drink at least half an hour before and after a meal.
Eat your protein first as you have a greater concentration of acidity as you begin to eat.
Chew thoroughly.
Use pink himalayas salt.
Use DGL (licorice)
Try ti gong (a meditative type of exercise which contrates on balancing the body)
Try accupuncture
In addition to this I'm trying essential oil therapy, eating smaller meals and have just managed to persuade my GP to give me a Vit D3 injection every 3 months. No idea how much of this is 'out there' but to be honest weatern médecine has done nothing but make me worse and even my gastroenterologist supports a more 'naturopath' approach.
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expatkerry
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If you have achlorhydria due to PA then none of that advice will do anything to increase levels of stomach acid to any significant degree. Some of them, like pink salt, cannot possibly make the slightest difference. Most of them are totally wrong.
Why do you think you have achlorhydria? If taking something acidic with food causes ulcers then you don't have too little acid.
If drinking acid causes pain, then anything that can increase the amount of acid in the stomach must also cause pain. Or not actually increase stomach acidity to any useful degree.
I don't want to increase my stomach acidity dramatically, I'd like to do this very gradually in the hope of improving my situation slowly. Hence my interest in a more gentle approach. After years of living with these problems I've come to the conclusion that there is no quick fix or magic pill. Perhaps lifestyle changes are the answer. Its just my opinion which I'm entitled to, I don't expect everyone to agree with me.
The science is great to a point but if it doesn't work then it's worth trying other things, isn't it?
The science says 1 B12 jab every 3 months is going to fix us all but reality isn't like that and until the science and medical professionals open their minds and start listening, there are lots of us who need to SI much more frequently to get better.
I don't care a jot if my jabs are nonsense and it's all a placebo - if it works for me, it works!
Yes, I don't have Helibacter pylori. I have had my microbiome analysed and I have commensal bacteria in the wrong place, ie: the small intestine. Only sufficient levels of stomach acidity could change this situation, antibiotics have decimated my good bacteria so that's out.
Your gastroenterologist must have measured gastrin. It's the best way of telling if you have achlorhydria. In combination with a test for MEN1 mutation it can also be a good indicator of Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome (90% of people with ZES have peptic ulcers).
I remember my gastrin levels were very high 6 years ago and the doctors began looking for a neuroendocrine tumour which I didn't have but I don't know if I've had a Men1 test. At the time the gastrin was put down to my atrophic gastritis
I have the problem. First I tried to get my stomach flora in better order , as it gets really upset if the acidity is low . Low/ no acidity ((Hypochlorhydria/Achlorhydria , enables bad bacteria to grow instead of being eliminated by the acidity .. I took a course of a water based probiotic called Symprove ( Unfortunately expensive) That helped . Then I tried drinking diluted Organic AppleCider Vinegar , before meals . Chewing very thoroughly is definitely important . Also small meals more often help,
If it’s really bad , then Betaine Hydrochloric acid capsules with pepsin can be very helpful .( Amazon.uk) when taken with meat protein . Fish is easier to digest. You have to see how much to use by trial and error .
You can do a simple test at home to find out if you have low/no stomach acid . It is the bicarbonate of soda test for stomach acidity . It just involves drinking a glass of water mixed with bi-carb . Google it .
I have to say that I have really gone off meat since having the problem . Fish is my first choice of protein , as it doesn’t seem require the amount of acid that meat does to get digested .Minced beef is certainly easier to digest than a steak I’m sure that the right diet helps . But unfortunately Achlorhydria is a neglected subject , and it’s definitely down to finding one’s own way around it . A modest multivitamin and mineral tablet would also be good to take .
Same here. I use aromatherapy alot. Little and often also suits me. Didn't know about not drinking around food. I eat liquorice (Australian soft) raising vit D helped my headaches I'm sure. It's 73. Took an age to raise levels
Thanks for the reply, I think with alternative therapies it's good to be open minded, and lots of them have been the subject of serious medical studies. You can only try it for yourself.
Definitely. Too often do we have to battle with grumpy people with closed minds in the form of medical professionals and other ignorant people around us who don't understand that there are different ways of finding solutions.
wedgewood is always lovely and helpful as are so many people here like Nackapan.
Do you take large amounts of NSAIDs? If not, how does your gastroenterologist explain duodenal ulcers in the absence of any stomach acid or H. pylori infection?
Achlorhydria itself will not cause duodenal ulcers.
I don't take NSAIds. There are a small percentage of patients who develop duodenal ulcers but don't have pylori (it's in the literature). My 16 Yr old son also has the problem, and no pylori. The only suggestion put forward by my gastroenterologist and a leading professor here in France is that my extreme dysbiosis is the cause. They are also at a loss as to how to treat me as the lack of acidity is part of the problem.
Thank you, I think that's the essence of what people are trying to do here, sharing what works for you or just putting suggestions out there when people have reached a brick wall. Let's be honest if we want negativity we can go to any doctors surgery 😊
Hi expatkerry, I think organic cider vinegar with the mother (most supermarkets now ) is the best. So it is a probiotic as well. But you have to start off slowly a tiny amount at a time and build up. I have cider vinegar and /or lemon juice with every main meal now. I don't mix with water as that dilutes the stomach acid to start with ! Don't have a drink until well after half hour after a meal unless red wine. I buy organic dried mint (waitrose) or pick fresh from the garden, making mint sauce with the cider vinegar and a touch of honey - goes with most meals - I just ladle it on. Or lemon juice with salad but you have to build up v gradually. Can you eat pineapple or a little pineapple as natural digestive enzymes. Or see if you can tolerate Rochway Papaya leaf tea or the Papaya fruit tea. The leaf tea is far nicer. Just make like any other tea. Pour on boiling water and let it stew for a few mins.
Honey is also supposed to be helpful for reflux/heartburn.
Dr Michael Ash speaks of the benefit of cooked apple with peel on everyday - to heal leaky gut lining. So just cook your own apple sauce with peel on - no sugar obviously - eat with salad or main meal. I also bake apple with peel on in a pudding basin , thinly sliced , sprinkle with a few berries and cover lightly in a slice off the block of Biona organic creamed coconut, chopping it fine and a drop of water. bake 175c for 30 mins. spoon into melted 85% dark chocolate and you have the most healthy delicious filling meal. Apple is supposed to be really good for reflux /indegestion/ healing gut lining re the pectin if youcan tolerate.If all you try doesn't help then you need to start again with your microbiome organisms
See Professor Natasha Campbell McBride work / book and the GAPS diet. don't need to stay on for long. Basically eating nothing but bone broth for a few days, then easily digested stews . You are starting afresh with microbiome, the gas producing bacteria die off or retreat back to the colon where they should be and you eventually start eating to establish/grow and feed healthy gut micro organisms. Think: you are eating to feed your microbiome not yourself. They run your life , your health and brain so influence your tastes. Bread and wheat, grain flour is just refined sugar that digests rapidly and spikes insulin. 1 teasp of sugar depletes the 1st line of defence of your immune system, your white blood cell activity for hours. 1 slice of toast is equivalent to 12 teasp of sugar. Milk without the fat (fat soluble vitamins) is mere sugar water with added hormone disruption.
Re vitamin D - make sure it is D3 not lab created synthetic D2. And see Dr Hollis (30+ yr research on vit D) It is Essential vit D is taken daily. If not getting a good dose from the sun that day - must supplement . Liquid vit D3 drops. Dr Hollis in his you tube dosing presentation has a diagram a few mins in. Vit D used by organs and immune system has a half life of 24hrs which is why it needs to be taken/made every day. This form of vit D does not go to the liver to be bound but is directly absorbed into cells. Still have your injections but get your daily dose . (I use Natures answer 4000iu per 2 drops. - dependant on your blood level of vit D (ought to be around 150mmol or more if have a health problem) you may need to be taking many thousand iu per day to get your level up as well as your injection Despite what you may think your immune system uses your vit D up. Your blood test level is just a snap shot in time. Standard dose for a healthy person to retain their measured level is 4000iu per day. I know a clinician if feels is coming down with a cold or been exposed to possible germs will take 25000iu for a few days to help the immune system.
Also, everyone needs to take vit K2mk 7 (note it is not K1 ) it is a fat sol vitamin that most people have a deficiency of . Mk 4 is made by bacteria so in fermented fats such as butter /cheese and made in your gut if have the right bacteria species. for K2Mk 7 best to take a capsule (fermented food source) or eat Natto , fermented Soy which tastes vile and why most people take a supplement. You especially need to get enough K2 Mk 4 and 7 if taking vit D. Your GP if like most will never have heard of. It's crucial (was only discovered in the 1990's so not long enough ago to have filtered through to practitioner knowledge in most cases) See Kate Rheaume Bleue's book The Calcium Paradox: the little known vitamin that may save your life x
I tried Betaine hcl and found I could not take it due to past gastritis caused by NSAIDs. I am currently trying digestive bitters which are supposed to help increase the production of stomach acid and improve digestion naturally. They seem to be helping. I also use cider vinegar with the mother and drink lemon juice with honey for breakfast.
I use camomile, but not the teabag version which is tasteless. I buy the dried flower heads which are bitter tasting and extremely soothing when my gastritis flares up.
Perhaps Kefir might help to increase your good bacteria, it represents a natural option which is fairly easily made or can be bought in the supermarket. There are lots of youtube videos describing its properties and how to make it.
Thanks for replying, sadly I've tried every option for increasing my good bacteria including the very best probiotics shipped under refrigerated conditions to no avail. A gastroenterologist wrote an interesting article recently about how some patients react badly to probiotics, his theory is that the probiotics are feeding the bacteria which is in the wrong place ie: the small intestine, causing further distress. Also, probiotics can only be effective after the inflammation has gone down, which I'm trying to address at the moment.
Just a thought, since you seem to have issues with your small intestine. Have you ever researched SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth)? I had it for years and developed PA from it. I struggle with stomach acid issues as well. Now trying a supplement called MegaGuard by Microbiome Labs here in the States. It is for balancing stomach acid and might be helping me. I only started 5 or 6 days ago.
This is interesting, I had a breath test which was so high the doctors thought it was more likely that I had malabsorption but sibo was possible. So they gave me rifaximin and I was worse after 😕 I'm going to check out the Mega guard, thanks
Very interesting...I did not realize that the breath test could make them aware of malabsorption, which is what I have, in the small intestine. My immune system makes an antibody that stops the absorption of B12 in the small intestine, which led to the PA. I was on Rifaximin for 18 months one time. Sounds hideous I know but it was the only time I felt ok. Finally doing better with the stomach issues after 12 years of hell. It all started with food poisoning.
When a family member had really bad nausea and feflux and was unable to eat ti the point of being on the verge of being tube fed. I made salty chicken bone broth. Then added a bit of rice. Tiny portions every 30 mins. Almond milk was really useful too. I haven't the science behind it. Something my grandmother told me. (Broth) I do hope something helps you soon. TC
You sound like me! It's the timing of the rise in hydrogen levels that helps with a malabsorption diagnosis from a breath test. Your reply gives me hope I'm on the right track (after 10 years of what you rightly describe as 'hell').
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