Hey, guys, Dr. Axe here from draxe.com.
Today, I'm going to talk about natural remedies for low stomach acid.
The truth is, your stomach must be acidic and highly acidic to break down the food you're
consuming and for proper absorption.
If you have acid reflux of any type, GERD, heartburn, if you have a condition like leaky
gut or inflammatory bowel disease, even most skin issues today, or a lack of certain nutrients,
those are all major warning signs that you have low stomach acid.
So you actually want to naturally balance the pH of your stomach.
I'm going to talk about the top five steps and natural remedies you can take and follow
to naturally improve your stomach acid and improve your digestive function.
Again, these are great ways, especially if you have acid reflux, these are great natural
cures and remedies.
So number one thing you can do to start to balance this pH in your stomach is take apple
cider vinegar right before your meals.
I would take one tablespoon and just a very small thing of water.
Apple cider vinegar is a great thing to do.
It's a great natural remedy because apple cider vinegar has a very low pH in balance
with your stomach.
That's the number one remedy.
By the way, one of the thing oftentimes I'll add to my apple cider vinegar before a meal
are digestive bitters.
You can get a little tincture of digestive bitters.
Those are also great.
In fact, bitters have been consumed for thousands of years right after meals or before meals
to improve your digestion.
Number two thing you want to start taking to improve your stomach acid are digestive
enzymes.
I would get a good digestive enzyme blend and do one to two caps right before your meal.
You could even take that with the apple cider vinegar.
Digestive enzymes will help you fully break down those nutrients.
If your stomach acid is too high, that will actually not allow you to break down the food
you're eating, so you must get plenty of enzymes.
That's not something you should have to take the rest of your life, but it is something
you should take for a time until your stomach acid balances out.
That's number two.
Number three thing you may consider if you have stomach acid is HCL with pepsin.
That's hydrochloric acid with pepsin.
Now, hydrochloric acid is naturally created in your stomach now.
That is really the main thing that creates that very acidic environment to break down
food.
But if you're deficient in hydrochloric acid, in stomach acid yourself, that's not going
to allow you to fully digest and break down things like protein, which over time, can
also cause a condition called leaky gut.
So you want to do everything you can to heal and repair your gut.
So again, HCL with pepsin is a great thing you can start taking on a regular basis to
really help heal your GI tract, to help fight things like acid reflux, but again, to help
improve stomach acid.
Now, the trick with HCL is you typically want to take that while you're under the care of
a physician or start off with one capsule.
By the way, you only take HCL with pepsin if you're taking protein during a meal.
So again, if you're not taking protein in a meal, you don't want to use it.
If you're getting quite a bit of protein in a meal like chicken or beef, you want to take
HCL.
When you get warmness in your stomach that means you're taking enough.
You need to back it down.
Some people need one, some people may need to take up to nine capsules of HCL with pepsin.
The fourth thing you can do to improve stomach acid is take Manuka honey.
Manuka honey is a specific type of honey out of New Zealand.
This honey has antimicrobial properties.
One of the things that can happen is people can develop things like SIBO.
That's small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and the wrong type of bacteria in the stomach.
One of the best things to take, you get this Manuka honey.
Just take a teaspoon a day or a teaspoon twice a day.
It can actually help in healing stomach ulcers and it's also great for low stomach acid.
Then, my last thing here is a lifestyle tip.
It's not just the natural remedies.
Those four things will help, but there are a few other things you want to do to help
heal your low stomach acid.
One of those things is chew your food.
So often we're in a race through life and we don't take time to chew our food.
Chew 30 times and then swallow.
That's my challenge to you.
By the way, if you've ever watched a little kid, they chew about 30 times.
So make sure your food is totally chewed.
That can help your stomach acid.
Also, eat smaller meals.
If you're eating very, very large meals, you're not going to allow your body to heal.
That's an issue.
Then, the other thing is, try fasting or intermittent fasting, whether it's a bone broth fast, a
vegetable juice fast or intermittent fasting.
Really, part of your body healing is letting it recover.
If you're continually eating food from morning to sundown every day, your body doesn't have
time to recover and heal.
So doing some fasting is another great way to help balance out stomach acid.
So remember this, you need stomach acid.
It's good for you.
You want balanced levels.
If you follow those home remedies to heal low stomach acid, I know you're going to see
results fast.
If you want to learn more tips on how to improve your digestive health, then hey, you can subscribe
to this YouTube channel.
Also, you can check out draxe.com.
I've got some great articles on how to heal leaky gut, heal stomach acid, and some free
e-books you may be interested in downloading there for more advice.
Hey guys, this has been Dr. Axe with how to naturally heal low stomach acid.