Today I'm going to talk about five signs you may have low stomach acid, so stay tuned.
Hey there, if you're new here, my name's Amanda Malachesky.
I'm a certified functional nutrition health coach and a digestive and allergy detective.
I help people figure out how to eat not to trigger their symptoms, so if you'd like more
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Stomach acid is absolutely key for optimal digestion, but how do you know if yours is
low or not?
In today's video, I'm going to share five signs that your stomach acid may be low, that
you may not be aware of.
I have seen supporting stomach acid work wonders for people's digestion, and I have these kinds
of conversations with my clients every day, so I wanted to give you a window inside.
So let's get started.
So how can you tell if your stomach acid is low?
Here are five signs that may indicate that you need to support your stomach acid.
Sign number one is that you have low iron, or you've been diagnosed with anemia from
your healthcare provider.
Our blood needs to carry oxygen to all of the cells in our body, and iron is key to
this capacity to carry oxygen to ourselves.
Symptoms of low iron include feeling fatigued or physically exhausted, having pale skin,
and also feeling short of breath.
So if you suspect that you might have low iron, you can talk to your doctor about getting
a test for iron or a comprehensive blood chemistry panel, or a CBC, which includes the markers
hematocrit and hemoglobin, which can give you a clue about your iron status.
Or you can request a test for ferritin, which is the storage form of iron in your blood.
And if any of these tests indicate that you have low iron or you're anemic, this can be
a sign that you don't have enough stomach acid, because stomach acid is essential to
help iron be absorbed in your stomach and digestive system.
Sign number two is low vitamin B12.
And this one really goes hand in hand with the iron, because vitamin B12 is also absorbed
with the help of stomach acid.
Blood levels of vitamin B12 may appear sufficient on a serum B12 test, but there's another lab
test called LDH, which stands for lactase dehydrogenase, that you can ask your healthcare
provider to order.
And if this test is out of range, it's a really clear indicator that you are low in vitamin
B12.
The older you get, the more likely your stomach acid is to decrease, and so it's also really
common for older people to experience low vitamin B12 levels.
Vegetarian and vegan diets can also lead to low vitamin B12, because the diet is naturally
low in vitamin B12.
And these diets also, for some reason, tend to decrease stomach acid, so you kind of have
a double whammy there.
So if you're a vegetarian or a vegan, or you're over 50 and you're feeling kind of fatigued
and sluggish with things, it might be worth having your healthcare provider order an LDH
blood test for you, and to consider increasing stomach acid support.
Sign number three is if you have chronic constipation.
So stomach acid is one of the things in our digestive system that helps move food through
our digestive system.
It helps operate the various sphincters and flaps of skin and openings that help encourage
things to move through our digestive system, and it encourages your body to release your
natural digestive enzymes and bile, which also helped move things through your digestive
system.
So if you're constantly and chronically constipated, this could be a sign that you need to support
your stomach acid sign.
Sign number four is if you have pale colored poop.
Sorry to talk about poop, but poop can actually give us a lot of great information about what's
happening in your digestive system.
So if you have pale stools, this tells you that your gallbladder isn't releasing bile
adequately.
And the digestive system does so partly in response to fat in your diet, but stomach
acid is also part of the trigger system that tells your body to release the bile as food
comes by in the small intestine.
So if you have continuously pale stool, this can be a really important indicator that you
need a little bit more stomach acid support to encourage your body to release bile.
It's the bile that gives your stool the darker brown color.
Sign number five is heartburn or reflux.
So contrary to popular opinion, heartburn and reflux are actually an indicator that
your stomach acid is low, and this is because adequate stomach acid levels in your stomach
help make sure that the sphincter that's located at the top of your stomach and at the bottom
of your esophagus stays closed.
When stomach acid levels drop below a certain level, it's more likely for that opening to
become a little lax and open up so that you can regurgitate a little of your stomach contents,
and that's why you get that burning sensation in your esophagus.
So if you have frequent heartburn and reflux, this can be a very clear sign that you may
need to increase your stomach acid.
There's a few additional signs that can indicate a need for stomach acid.
And I just thought I'd mentioned them here.
One is having frequent bouts of food poisoning or other kinds of gut infections.
Another one is the feeling of food sitting heavily in your gut after your eat.
This can be a sign that it's not moving through really well, kind of back to our point about
constipation and the need for stomach acid for that.
And a third sign, or really it's a diagnosis is if you are hypothyroid.
A significant percentage of people who are hypothyroid are documented to also have stomach
autoimmunity, and may have low stomach acid.
So if you're someone who's been diagnosed with hypothyroidism supporting your stomach
acid is an especially good idea.
What about you?
Do some of you have these signs of low stomach acid?
Tell me about it in the comments.
So I hope this video helped you think about whether or not you have low stomach acid,
and helped you understand some of the signs that could tell you that you may need some
stomach acid support.
If you need a little bit of additional support, figuring out how to include stomach acid support,
you can check out my earlier video called how to increase stomach acid for digestive
health.
If you're ready for some professional help supporting your digestion, there's two main
ways I can help you.
The first is that you can download my free guide called Roadmap to Gut Recovery.
It includes the tools and the process that I use to help my clients improve their digestive
health, and you can do this too on your own to get started at least.
And so you can head over to confluencenutrition.com/roadmap to grab your own free copy of that, and I'll
be sure to leave a link for that below this video.
Or, if you've already tried a lot of different solutions and you're ready for some more personalized
one-on-one support, I encourage you to schedule a free 30 minute assessment session with me.
In this session we'll talk about what it might be like to work together, and I'll give you
an idea of what your next best steps are likely to be for your unique individual case.
You can schedule that by visiting confluencenutrition.com/contact, and I look forward to seeing you over there.
I hope that you have a better idea now of whether or not you may need some additional
stomach acid support for your digestive health.
And I encourage you to check out that earlier video if you need some more support with that.
And if you liked today's video, please like and share it with those of your friends or
family who you feel might benefit from it, and I look forward to seeing you next time.
Take care.