When you were younger, eating your favorite foods was never an issue. But as you age you frequently notice a burning feeling or discomfort in your belly. So, what has changed?
Occasional indigestion, or upset stomach, affects one in four Americans. And the older you get, the more likely it is to occur.
Anyone can experience indigestion at any time, but certain individuals tend to be more affected – and age isn’t the only factor.
Those who eat too fast or too much during a meal, eat spicy, fatty or greasy foods, processed foods, sugar or carbohydrates like pasta and bread, or foods that contain a lot of acid, such as tomatoes, are more likely to complain about occasional indigestion.
And so are those who consume caffeine or alcohol, take certain medications, smoke or have a stressful lifestyle.
Unfortunately, this includes a lot of people. Maybe you, too…
What’s Behind Your Occasional Indigestion?
Indigestion can be caused by many things. And several situations can add to its frequency or intensity.
Sometimes, excess stomach acid gets blamed for gastric distress, but the truth is… you need stomach acid, or gastric juice, to properly digest your food.
In fact, researchers have discovered that many more people have a problem with too little stomach acid instead of too much. This is especially true for individuals with digestive issues associated with aging.
Because there are clues that point to low stomach acid, it may be possible to track down what’s causing your distress. How many of these signs of low stomach acid do you experience?
- Feelings of heartburn or reflux after eating
- Gas, bloating or abdominal pain after eating
- Feeling tired, nauseous or dizzy after eating meat or other protein foods
- Nutrient deficiencies, even though you’re eating a healthy, well-balanced diet
- Undigested food in your stools
- Food allergies, sensitivities, or intolerances
- Bone health issues
- Weakness, fatigue or cramps
- Headaches or cognitive issues
- Problem skin, hair loss or brittle fingernails
- Irregularity (occasional constipation or loose stools)
As you can see, the effects of low stomach acid can be far-reaching. Most people don’t associate hair, nail or skin issues or memory concerns with too little acid in their stomachs…
Do You Have Low Stomach Acid? Take This Simple Test
This five-minute test can provide additional clues about your level of stomach acid. While not accurate for everyone, the test is designed to provide a rough estimate of how much acid your stomach produces:
First thing in the morning, mix 1/4 teaspoon baking soda in 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of cold water, and drink it all. The combination of baking soda and hydrochloric acid in your stomach creates carbon dioxide gas, which should cause you to burp.
Using a timer or watch, time how long it takes you to burp. If it takes longer than three to five minutes for you to burp, you may have too little stomach acid. This test should be taken before eating or drinking anything, water included. For the greatest accuracy, repeat the test several mornings and average your results.
The Many Reasons for Low Stomach Acid Levels
So, what exactly is stomach acid, or gastric juice? It’s a combination of water, hydrochloric acid, pepsin and intrinsic factor.
The enzyme pepsin is what’s responsible for the breakdown and digestion of protein. However, for pepsin to become activated from its inactive form, pepsinogen, it requires the acid pH provided by hydrochloric acid.
If you have too little stomach acid – or, more precisely, not enough hydrochloric acid or pepsin – your digestion can suffer.
Not everyone produces enough of the components of stomach acid on their own. It’s estimated that more than one in five individuals suffers from low stomach acid production, or hypochlorhydria.
And for those over 65, that number rises to more than one in three because the secretion of both hydrochloric acid and pepsin naturally decreases with age.
One study even found that 40% of women over the age of 80 produce no stomach acid at all.
Other things can lead to low levels, too, such as a zinc deficiency or the overuse of antacids or acid blockers.
Many individuals mistake feelings of heartburn for excess acid, so they often reach for an antacid. If the real problem is low stomach acid, antacids only make the situation worse as they shut down your body’s secretion of acid.
More than 16,000 articles in the medical literature support this fact, too. Suppressing stomach acid doesn’t address the problem – it just temporarily treats the symptoms.
The Effects of Aging on the Stomach
Increased digestive discomfort and unease seem to be a part of growing older. And a major reason why, according to research, is because of decreased digestive enzyme activity.
A study of 206 healthy Americans, aged 18 to 98 years old, found gastric acid and pepsin secretion to be similar in both the younger age range, 18 to 34 years, and in the middle-aged group, ages 35 to 64.
However, in those over the age of 65, pepsin output was reduced by about 40%.
Compared to younger adults, older individuals have an increased gastric pH – not the ideal environment for optimal digestion. Pepsin activity begins to decline above pH 4.5.
According to researchers, low stomach acid is the primary age-related change that occurs in the stomach. The cells that produce stomach acid begin to die off.
But other changes occur, too. With age, your stomach lining becomes less resistant to damage, so what you might have tolerated just fine when you were younger can now be harder on your stomach.
All your digestive processes slow down as you age, including the rate at which your stomach contents empty into your small intestine. Because of these age-related changes, symptoms like irregularity and gastric upset become more common as you grow older.
Why You Need (Lots of) Stomach Acid
Your body relies on the secretion of stomach acid for many important functions, including…
- Assisting protein digestion by activating pepsinogen to pepsin.
- Helping to protect your stomach against ingested threats.
- Maintaining a healthy balance of bacteria in your small intestine.
- Promoting the healthy, normal flow of bile and pancreatic enzymes to support the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates.
- Helping with the absorption of minerals and nutrients, including vitamin C and B12, beta-carotene, iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium and folate.
When you have a lack of stomach acid, your digestion can suffer in multiple ways. You can’t adequately digest the proteins in your diet. Nutritional deficiencies are more common, too, especially with the vitamins A, B12, D, E and K as well as the minerals calcium and magnesium because you need stomach acid to absorb nutrients.
These vitamin deficiencies can affect your nervous system, and a deficiency in vitamins D and K, and the minerals calcium and magnesium, can lead to bone health issues.
Fatigue, weakness and cramps can also result from low stomach acid and so can occasional headaches and cognitive issues.
If you can’t properly break down and digest proteins, food allergies can arise. Your body can mistake undigested large proteins that leak through your gut as ‘foreign,’ and launch an allergic response.
Undigested food left behind in your gastrointestinal tract can ferment and lead to a gut bacteria imbalance that could affect the health of your small intestine.
Poor digestion due to low stomach acid can create gas bubbles that rise into your esophagus and throat, carrying stomach acid with them – leading to feelings of acid reflux. No amount of stomach acid in your esophagus feels good.
Women tend to experience the symptoms of low stomach acid more acutely, according to a study of 89 outpatients with low levels of stomach acid. The feelings of indigestion and gastric distress were significantly higher in female patients than in male patients.
Why Betaine HCL is Nature’s Answer to Low Stomach Acid and More
Betaine, also known as trimethylglycine (TMG), is a naturally occurring compound found in foods such as beets, spinach, quinoa, and wheat germ and bran. It was originally discovered in beets, which is the origin of its name – betaine.
It’s also found naturally in your body – produced from choline and from food sources.
Betaine is made up of the amino acid glycine, which has three methyl groups attached to it. Involved in methylation, betaine acts as a methyl donor and plays an important role in your metabolic pathways.
Derived from beets, betaine HCL is an acidic form of betaine that works much like hydrochloric acid in your stomach.
Different from betaine (TMG), betaine HCL provides the extra acid needed for optimal digestion, making it an ideal solution to low stomach acid. Studies show that betaine HCL effectively increases stomach acid when you need it most at mealtime. Best of all, it is fast acting.
Because it works just for a short time – an hour or less, timing is crucial. Any supplement containing betaine HCL should always be taken just minutes before your meal.
In one study on healthy individuals with clinically-induced low levels of stomach acid activity, betaine HCL effectively lowered gastric pH to levels ideal for digestion and was well tolerated by all subjects.*
Support for a healthy level of stomach acid for digestion isn’t the only benefit of betaine.
It may also help break down and remove unwanted fatty acids in your liver and may provide protective support for healthy liver function against toxins found in the food supply. Betaine assists the liver in processing and eliminating these harmful chemicals.*
Your Stomach Provides the Ideal Environment for Digesting Protein
As we’ve seen, pepsin, one of the components found in gastric juice.It is the primary enzyme that digests proteins in your food. It breaks the proteins down into smaller peptides and amino acids so they can be absorbed in your small intestine.
While digestion also takes place throughout your small intestines, your stomach provides pepsin with the ideal environment for the digestion of protein.
Cells in the deep layers of your gastric glands – chief cells – make, store and release pepsin in its inactive form, pepsinogen. This inactive form is important for protecting the lining of your gastrointestinal tract from the self-digesting effects of pepsin.
However, pepsin must have an acidic environment, a pH of about 1.5 to 2.5, to become activated. This is also the range for its greatest digestive power.
Hydrochloric acid, secreted by parietal cells within your stomach lining, provides the acidic conditions needed for the activation of pepsinogen into pepsin. Once pepsinogen is released under ideal pH conditions, it mixes with hydrochloric acid and is rapidly converted to the active protein-digesting enzyme pepsin.
Pepsin only works in your stomach under acidic conditions. In the intestine the gastric acids are neutralized to about pH 7 where pepsin is no longer effective.
So, it’s easy to see how low levels of hydrochloric acid (or worse, nonexistent levels), or too high gastric pH can prevent the activation of pepsinogen and the optimal digestion of proteins.
Which Is Better – Porcine or Fungal-Sourced Pepsin?
Some digestive formulas contain pepsin sourced from porcine – or pig – and others use pepsin from a fungal source. Which is more effective?
Animal derived enzymes must be enterically coated to protect them from acidity in the stomach. However, the capsule or tablet can break down, and when it does, the spilling of its contents can affect its performance.
Fungal enzymes, on the other hand, don’t need a protective coating as they are very acid stable.
What’s more, fungal enzymes work in either acid or alkaline conditions. Plus, they break down food quickly as soon as they dissolve in your stomach.
Research shows fungal enzymes demonstrate robust activity and actually improve macronutrient digestion.*
Sometimes, people question the safety of a fungal source and wonder if fungal-derived enzymes leave fungal material behind in the gastrointestinal tract. High-quality fungal enzymes are highly purified, so only purified enzyme proteins remain. No non-enzyme fungal materials stay behind in your gut.
Betaine HCL and Pepsin for Your Digestive Comfort
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No longer do you have to live with low stomach acid and the discomfort and unease it can cause.
Now you can have the best of both protein-digesting enzymes in one convenient formula – Betaine HCL and Pepsin. Because we use an outstanding source of fungal pepsin, you can be assured you’re getting the most effective enzymes for your digestive support.*
Designed to rapidly provide the enzymes and acidic conditions you need for optimal digestion, Betaine HCL and Pepsin is best taken a few minutes before you eat a meal containing protein.
Please note, as with any betaine HCL or pepsin supplement, we recommend taking the capsules intact and not opening and removing their contents.
Start Enjoying the Foods You Love Again, and Order Betaine HCL and Pepsin
Now, you can once again enjoy gathering with friends and family – and savor the foods you love most. By supplying the stomach acid components you need for optimal digestion, you no longer need to suffer with uncomfortable and troubling symptoms.*
Millions have found relief simply by providing their bodies with what they need most – an acidic environment for digestion to take place in their stomachs.
Whether it’s occasional heartburn, bloating, uncomfortable fullness after eating or any of the other common symptoms of low stomach acid, Betaine HCL and Pepsin may provide you with the support you need, too.
Order Betaine HCL and Pepsin today and see how it changes your life.