Hello again everyone:
Here is more on what can happen with low stomach acid:
Because stomach acid is the first step of digestion, low acid levels can result in undigested food that will leave the stomach and pass into the intestines where they will ferment and rot. Proteins will putrefy, carbs will ferment and fats will go rancid. This can lead to irritation and inflammation of the intestinal lining and increase the normal permeability of the gut lining and create what is known as ‘leaky gut’.
A ‘leaky gut’ is a hyper-permeable gut. This is important because 70 to 75% of our immune system lines the intestines, and when a hyper-permeable gut allows entry of undigested food particles as well as bacteria or whatever came along with the food we ate, it can result in an immune activation that can be seen with food sensitivities, intolerances or allergies. These reactions are all inflammatory and thus bathe the body in an inflammatory marinade, and this includes the brain. This inflammatory soup can aggravate or cause many conditions, from arthritis to migraines to fatigue to rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions to brain fog and more.
Furthermore, undigested food can lead to a condition called dysbiosis whereby we have accidentally fertilized the less beneficial bacteria of our gut, and then when these bacteria begin to dominate the more beneficial types, we experience lower abdominal problems such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation and the system wide bathing of inflammation resulting in joint pain, skin issues, headaches, fatigue, autoimmune conditions and more.
Bottom Line: in the next newsletter, we will cover a bit of the neurology of gut problems, and then in the last installment (Part 6) we will go over more steps that you can try at home.
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