Dr. Tabatha Barber explains why heartburn often stems from low stomach acid, not excess. Acid-suppressing drugs like Nexium and Prilosec can worsen the problem and create dependence. Slowing down while eating and restoring proper digestion addresses the root cause.
What has happened over the past 15, 20 years or whatever is that Big Pharma has really made gazillions of dollars on this whole idea of heartburn because you're making too much stomach acid. And here's the problem. You're not making too much stomach acid. You're actually not making enough in most situations. And taking the medications like Protonix, Pepcid, Nexium, Prilosec, that is supposed to suppress acid production is actually making your situation worse and making you dependent on those medications. So what's really happening? So normally when you eat food, you want to do it in a slow, relaxed state, right? So that your brain has time to realize that you're actually putting food in your mouth, you're digesting it and putting it into your stomach. Because your stomach needs time to create and release pancreatic enzymes and digestive enzymes and acid from your stomach. And so the acid and the enzymes start to work on the food that your mouth has already started to digest, digest by chewing. That type of process releases amylase and a little lipase as a digestive enzyme, and then it goes down to the stomach and it keeps working. So you need that acid to help that process, especially with protein. Protein like, you know, a steak or something like that. It takes a lot to digest that. And so you need to have adequate stomach acid levels to make that process happen. What happens often is that we'll eat too quickly so that our body, our stomach, doesn't have time to even know to make that acid. By the time we chew it twice, swallow it halfway whole still, and it's in our stomach already. It's about slowing down and eating, but it's also about what's living in our gut. And. And when we don't have enough acid, the food sits in our stomach longer. Right? So I don't know about you, but I hear it from patients all the time. I just feel like food is stuck. I just feel like it's in my stomach too long. It doesn't want to leave. I just get bloated as soon as I eat, and I feel horrible. I get really tired after I eat. These are all symptoms of low stomach acid. And so that food sits in your stomach always lot longer than it should because it hasn't been yet digested enough for your intestines to accept it. And so it just sits there, and that causes reflux into your esophagus, the tube from, you know, your mouth to your stomach. And so that anything in your esophagus that shouldn't be there, like, undigested food or any stomach acid that feels like heartburn. And so what's really happening is that the food is sitting in your stomach. It's not being digested because of low stomach acid. It's eventually being swooshed back up into your esophagus, and your esophagus is feeling irritated. And so you have this complaint of heartburn. And so you get on this medication to suppress that symptom instead of addressing, why is that symptom happening? Why am I feeling heartburn? It's because you're not digesting your food in an efficient manner and getting it out of the stomach into the intestines to keep going. And so that's the key. The key is to get you digesting and moving that food along.
