Should I Take Digestive Bitters For Low Stomach Acid?
At-A-Glance
- Low stomach acid is not a common problem. In fact, in 25,000 acid reflux pH studies conducted in my laboratory, which tested acid levels in the stomach, esophagus, and throat, none showed low or no acid in the stomach.
- Rare diseases exist, such as Pernicious anemia associated with B12 deficiency, gastric atrophy, and low or no stomach acid, but the incidence is one per 4,000 people.
- Though there are more than 100 internet articles about low stomach acid, and it is full of snake oil sales and scientifically wrong ideas … and low stomach acid is one of them. It is not a thing!
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It is not difficult to understand how misinformation is spread in the world today. It seems to me that it is a combination of articles on the Internet that claim to be scientific, plus the distortion of information on social media.
There are many articles on low stomach acid, its symptoms, its diagnosis, and its treatment. The thing is that low stomach acid is just not a thing; it is rare.
Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disease in which the stomach is attacked and becomes atrophic, producing no acid. This disease is associated with B12 deficiency and iron deficiency. It occurs in 1:4,000 people. And there are other causes of low acid, but like pernicious anemia they are uncommon.
Taking data from peer-reviewed scientific literature, I estimate that one person in 1000 has low stomach acid. I went into Pubmed and searched for “low stomach acid,” “hypochlorhydria,” and a variety of related terms and came up with almost nothing. When I searched for terms like incidence and prevalence of hypochlorhydria or achlorhydria, nothing came up.
I pioneered ambulatory 24-hour pH monitoring, in which we placed acid-measuring probes in the stomach, esophagus, and throat. It was using this technology that I learned all about respiratory reflux, formally known as LPR.
In over 20,000 pH studies, performed over a period of almost 5, when the stomach was tested, every one had normal stomach acid at pH 2 or lower … most at pH 1 or lower. This is not the kind of “negative” data that one publishes, however, it makes it obvious that low acid or no acid in the stomach must be very very rare indeed.
Stop taking acids like HCL, acid stimulators, and/or eating acidic foods and beverages like lemon and apple cider vinegar. Read the article on Pepsin, as it will explain why a low-acid diet is important for you who have acid reflux. Don’t worry, you have plenty of stomach acid. Oh yes, if you had low stomach acid, bitters might be helpful, but …
Low stomach acid is not a thing … forgetaboutit!
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