Progressive Progressive Medical Center - 2019 | Page 18
TOO MUCH ACID?
TOO MUCH ACID? NOT NECESSARILY.
WHY NEXIUM AND
PRILOSEC MAY MAKE
ACID REFLUX WORSE
Y
ou probably already know:
heartburn is caused by stomach
acid backing up into your
esophagus. But what you may
not know is that it’s not necessarily too
much acid but rather acid in the wrong
place. When the pH of your stomach
is not acidic enough, food sits in the
stomach and ferments, producing gas.
This gas pushes stomach contents and
acid back into the esophagus when the
pH of the stomach is too alkaline. The
pH of the stomach should be 1.5–3.0 on
the acid-to-alkaline scale, with 7.0 being
neutral and 14 being the most alkaline.
like Prilosec, Nexium, and Prevacid).
These medications actually turn off acid
production completely. “PPIs are huge
moneymakers and, as a group, generate
the third-highest sales of all drugs sold
worldwide. This dollar [amount] is due
to the fact that once you begin taking
acid blockers, your doctor will probably
want you to stay on them indefinitely.
These medications are currently only
approved for 12 weeks!” - Dr. Agolli
PPI medications are often automatically
prescribed without actually testing the pH
of the stomach. Many times, you actually
need more acid to be produced to digest
neutral
If the pH of the stomach is, let’s say,
around 3.5–5.0 (still acidic, but not
acidic enough to trigger the next steps
in the digestive process efficiently), the
partially broken-down food doesn’t
move into the duodenum section of
the small intestine as needed. The
LES valve between the esophagus and
stomach can become weak, resulting in
acid backing up into the esophagus.
Since the esophagus does not have a
protective lining, even a 3.5–5.0 pH
is too acidic for the esophagus!
Conventional medicine’s popular
answers to heartburn are medications
called PPIs (proton pump inhibitors,
18
efficiently, thus eliminating heartburn
naturally! Plus, when your stomach acid
is turned off, you lose the ability to break
down proteins adequately (into amino
acids) and absorb minerals . . . which
can lead to many health issues! The truth
could be that you don’t have enough acid!!
This is actually the opposite of
conventional medical advice. At
Progressive our treatment provides
natural symptom relief for acid reflux
while addressing the real root cause!
For those who have been on a PPI for
years, there is another answer that brings
real healing long term and prevents a
host of other health related conditions.
Clues you may have low stomach acid:
• Bloating, belching, burning
immediately after meals
• A sense of fullness after
eating just a few bites
• Feeling as though food sits in the
stomach undigested for hours
• Indigestion, diarrhea, constipation
• Multiple food allergies
• Iron deficiency
• Acne
• Chronic candida infections
Conditions that may be associated
with low gastric acidity:
• Addison’s disease
• Asthma
• Celiac disease
• Chronic autoimmune disorders
• Chronic hives
• Diabetes
• Eczema
• Gallbladder disease
• Graves’ disease
• Hepatitis
• Hyper- and hypothyroidism
• Lupus
• Osteoporosis
• Pernicious anemia
• Psoriasis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
•
•
Rosacea
Sjogren’s syndrome
Testing your acid level is the
only way to know if you have
too much or too little acid.