How Antacids Can Make People
Sick
Many of you are familiar with Daily Health News contributing
editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, and his vast knowledge of naturopathic
medicine, in particular the area of digestion. During years of
working with Dr. Rubman, I have come to realize how critical
a healthy digestive system is to our overall health, and on the
flip side, how many seemingly unrelated ailments, such as hives,
allergies and even arthritis, are linked to digestive challenges.
And so, Dr. Rubman and I have decided to bring digestion to the
forefront, with a monthly feature that focuses on how to meet
digestive challenges and, perhaps even more important, ways in
which we can improve our digestive processes before something
goes wrong. As a naturopathic physician, Dr. Rubman emphasizes
natural approaches and solutions to digestive concerns in preference
to conventional high-tech drugs and procedures.
Our first chat concerned one of our favorite topics -- the common
antacids and how their overuse can make you sick in seemingly
unrelated ways.
EXCESS STOMACH ACID: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Antacids -- drugs that relieve heartburn by decreasing levels
of stomach acid -- are among the best-selling drugs of all time,
pulling in billions of dollars in windfall profits for pharmaceutical
companies. Who among us hasn't heard the dire warnings about
the perils of "excess stomach acid"? Yet as Dr. Rubman
and I have pointed out, we need stomach acid to activate pepsin
and to digest the food we eat. True excess stomach acid is a
rare condition. As such, these warnings are really about selling
a product that most of us don't need, and which may be harmful,
cautions Dr. Rubman. In his view, they are "hucksterism" and "much
ado about nothing."
What is being marketed as excess stomach acid is really acid
produced at the wrong time, explains Dr. Rubman. He told me that
there are two phases to stomach acid production...
• Digestive phase. When you have a meal and food enters the stomach, stomach
acid is produced to help dissolve the food and extract the nutrients you need
from it.
• Quiescent phase. Between meals, when the stomach is empty, normally there
is little or no stomach acid. The intestinal tract needs its rest, too.
SERIOUS HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF ANTACIDS
While the concept of "excess stomach acid" owes more to the fertile
imagination of Madison Avenue than to reality, consumers are blithely popping
antacids like candy, with little or no regard to potentially serious health consequences.
Make no mistake about it, all drugs, including antacids, have side effects.
According to Dr. Rubman, antacids decrease or even eliminate vital stomach acid,
and stomach problems actually develop because of too little -- not too much --
stomach acid. He shared some of antacids' potential health consequences with
me...
• Intestinal gas, bad breath, skin rash. Antacids enable people to eat
foods they shouldn't eat. Perhaps you make it a point to avoid foods like fried
chicken or cheeseburgers or french fries, because you get a stomachache afterward.
This is your body communicating the message that these foods are not good choices.
Enter antacids, which mask the body's normal reaction to greasy, fried foods
and allow you to eat them with abandon. Bad idea, says Dr. Rubman. By permitting
you to consume foods that would otherwise "disagree" with you, these
drugs are doing a tremendous disservice. Your stomach may feel better, but evidence
of the body's digestive discomfort is bound to emerge elsewhere -- for example,
with intestinal gas, bad breath, a skin rash or worse.
• Asthma, Crohn's disease, stomach cancer through nonsterile foods. Stomach
acid is not just for digestion. Its ability to kill the vast array of microbes
we ingest along with our food is actually one of the body's major defenses against
disease, and the use of antacids weakens that defense. Food that enters the stomach
is not sterile, and acid protects the stomach lining and the rest of the gastrointestinal
(GI) tract from microorganisms that enter the body with food. Germ-killing stomach
acid normally destroys many of the disease-causing microbes such as bacteria,
yeast, mold and viruses on contact. When you dilute or eliminate stomach acid,
you are no longer killing those germs, but allowing them to thrive in your digestive
tract. The result can be bacteria colonizing the stomach, the immune system fighting
back with an inflammatory response, and resulting damage to stomach cells (including
those that produce stomach acid). According to Dr. Rubman, this can contribute
to diseases ranging from asthma to gastritis to Crohn's disease to stomach cancer.
• Increased cholesterol. The liver needs protein to create HDL "good" cholesterol.
However, antacid use decreases the body's ability to thoroughly digest protein,
which in turn reduces its ability to make HDL. Instead, with less quality energy,
the liver produces LDLs, "bad" cholesterol, putting people at risk
for heart disease.
• Acid reflux disease. Antacids can backfire and lead to more instead of
less heartburn. When there is not enough stomach acid to properly break down
food, the lower esophageal sphincter may weaken and make reflux and heartburn
more likely to occur.
A BETTER WAY
Fortunately, Dr. Rubman offers safer, non-toxic, natural alternatives to antacids...
• Chew food thoroughly. The more you break food down in the mouth, the
more readily it can be digested as it passes through the rest of the digestive
tract.
• Eat less-frequent meals. There's a school of thinking that small, frequent
meals are best. Not so, says Dr. Rubman. The most energy-efficient way to eat
is with several balanced meals daily, in between which you let your stomach rest.
• Limit fluids with meals. The more water, juice or other fluid you consume
with meals, the more you dilute stomach acid and the more work your stomach has
to do, explains Dr. Rubman. He recommends that you stop drinking one-half hour
before meals and refrain from drinking for at least one hour afterward.
• Have a bite of kimchi. This spicy, fermented Korean cabbage, used as
an appetizer or snack away from the main meals, changes the chemical balance
of the digestive environment (the effects are actually quite complex -- alkaline
would be a bit of an oversimplification), so viruses have trouble taking hold.
Sauerkraut accomplishes the same thing.
• Watch food combinations. What you put together in your meal influences
digestibility, notes Dr. Rubman. In particular, he advises against combining
simple carbohydrates (such as sugar, white flour products and white potatoes)
with highly saturated fats (such as red meat, processed meats and dairy products).
A tough-to-digest meal, such as steak and mashed potatoes, is not moving anywhere
for one and one-half to two hours, meaning that microorganisms have that much
more time to infiltrate the stomach, particularly if stomach acid production
is insufficient. It's also a good idea to use fruits as an appetizer 15 to 20
minutes before the meal rather than as a dessert. Eating fruit after a complex
meal may allow the fruit to stay in your stomach long enough to start fermentation,
which can exacerbate the problems you have. For more on food combination strategies,
Dr.Rubman recommends Diet for a Small Planet (Ballantine) by Frances Moore Lappé.
• Take digestive enzymes. These proteins help break down foods into nutrients
your body can more readily digest. Remember that both aging and stress tend to
decrease stomach acid levels. Dr. Rubman's favorite is DuoZyme by Karuna. Other
suggested digestive aids: Hydrochloric acid supplements, gentian lutea and Gastri-Gest
(Priority One). These are all best prescribed and monitored by your ND.
If you must on occasion take antacids, do not take them for longer than 14 days.
Better yet, Dr. Rubman recommends a natural remedy such as a half-teaspoon of
good old-fashioned baking soda in a glass of water.
The bottom line: In general, any time you mask the normal processes of the body,
you get into trouble. Antacids can conceal the symptoms of serious problems or
allow the infiltration of illness. If, instead of taking antacids, you pay more
attention to what and when you eat, chew food thoroughly and limit fluids with
meals, you will be amazed at how much better you feel, says Dr. Rubman. Once
again, the answer often lies in taking better care of yourself rather than taking
a pill.
