Supplements – Mama Guts

My Updated Supplement List

April 12, 2023May 3, 2023 Theresa

I will be updating this list overtime but get enough people asking that I thought I’d start little by little. As I buy my supplements I will update them here with links to Amazon. If you have an account with Fullscript, that is the better place bc they are delivered from the actual companies, but if you are not able to set that up with your Integrative or Naturopathic doctor, Amazon is a convenient alternative.

For Digestion Optimization

HCL with Pepsin and Gentian Bitters – breaks down your food into parts the body can use. The bitters help your body create more HCL on its own. I also recommend you take it with Zinc. If you have low HCL you likely are low in zinc too or not digesting it well. Supplementing will help stop the vicious cycle.

Pancreatic Enzymes with Pancreatin further breaks down and helps your body actually digest the protein, fats, and carbs properly. Which then help it pull the nutrients out as well.

Ox Bile – absolutely essential to anyone with a missing gallbladder, a sluggish gall bladder, or a sluggish liver. This will help you digest your fats you absolutely need for energy, hormones, and absorption of essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins.

Dandelion Tea- helps your liver produces smooth flowing bile so you don’t get the gall bladder issues that lead to removal and fat digestion issues.

Probiotics and How to Take Care of Them!

Klaire Labs Complete Probiotics – highly diverse in strain and billions of the bugs you need. Take one a day before bed.

Amy Myer’s Leaky Gut Revive – heal the damage to your gut lining from eating inflammatory foods, taking ibuprofen, and all the other crap with do to ourselves in this day and age.

Metamucil – quick and easy to way to make sure you get extra fiber in your day. This is not to replace a diet rich in cruciferous veggies or leafy greens. But a great addition to it. 🙂

Butryic Acid- this is actually a postbiotic and essential for your microbiome. If you don’t digest beans well or dont’ eat them often, you likely need this. (take it in capsule as they are kinda stinky).

Farmacy not Pharmacy, General Gut Health, Supplements, Uncategorized

Why Your Probiotics May Not Be Working

January 10, 2019January 9, 2019 Theresa

A lot of people hear how important probiotics are to gut health. And it’s true! Our lifestyle and diet has not made it easy for our guts to nurture and grow a healthy microbiome. So supplementing with probiotics can help incredibly with digestive issues, anxiety/depression, allergies, autoimmune issues, and more. However, they can be pricey and when some people I hear complain that they didn’t notice an improvement from taking them, I can see why many quit after a short trial. Don’t do that!

What we forget is that one of the reasons why our lifestyle and diet doesn’t make it easy for a healthy microbiome to flourish in our gut, is that we don’t feed the bacteria in our gut what they need to multiply. Our diets are rich in protein, refined carbohydrates, and fats, but not enough in specific types of carbohydrates our gut flora love and need to survive.

So we spend thirty to sixty dollars a month on probiotics and within a couple of days those billions of bacteria die off before they had a chance to make a difference.

So what are we not eating enough of? Prebiotics. And these are made up of primarily undigestible carbohydrates. These are the carbs that do not get digested in your upper intestine so they make it to your lower intestine where are your bacteria are supposed to grow and thrive.

Those bacteria get hungry, but sadly, pizza, hamburgers, and even many salads are already digested by the time they make it to the lower intestine, which means that those bacteria are starving. And just like any living creature, if they don’t get the food they need to survive, they will die.

So what do we need to eat in order to feed our microbiome from our probiotics? We need inulin, fiber, pectin, flavanols, and fructooligosaccharides and polyphenols.

Prebiotics have one or more of the indigestible carbohydrates from the list above and come in the form of some common and not so common foods. I’ve compiled a list here for you to use and make sure to include a few forms of these prebiotics every single day.

Roots and Tubers:

chicory root (drink like coffee)
potatoes
yams/sweet potatoes
yacon, konjac, hicama, and burdock roots
jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)
garlic
onion
parsnips and turnips
celery root

Some Fruit:

blueberries
unripe/green bananas
plantains
apples
mangos
papayas
Pulp from ripe, in season, organic fruit.
Figs (technically a flower!)
dried dates and figs

Some Veggies:

celery
leeks
dandelion greens
seaweed
spinach
asparagus
radicchio
Belgian endive
Cruciferous veggies (cooked if you have IBS)
Leafy greens

Some grain:

hulled barley
oats
wheat bran

Seeds:

chia/flax seeds

Fungus:

Mushrooms

Some Nuts

Pistachios
Walnuts
Macadamias
Pecans

Other Starches

Shiratake noodles
other non-grain “pastas”
Some Sauces/Vinegars/Oils
lemon juice
vinegar
Italian balsamic vinegar

So go ahead and sprinkle some flax seed on that spinach salad, add a yam to your dinner, and don’t forget to flavor up that meat with some garlic and onions. Your probiotics will thank you and you just might start noticing them really work to help you with regularity, reduced anxiety, reduced bloating and gas, and overall wellness.

On the days when you don’t have time or the circumstances don’t lend yourself to any real amount of prebiotics. You can also supplement.There are a few great prebiotic supplements out there from trusted companies like Garden of Life and Doctors in the wellness community including Dr. Gundry, Dr. Lynch, and Dr. Tobias.

Farmacy not Pharmacy, General Gut Health, Supplements

8 Ways to Fight Infection Without Antibiotics

December 21, 2018December 21, 2018 Theresa

Antibiotics are an amazing scientific discovery that have saved countless lives. I’m so glad they exist and believe that when there is a real need for them, they are a God-send.

But the sad truth is, they are over-prescribed by doctors. And between antibiotic usage, the S.A.D of most people in the western world, and the stress of American life–our gut and therefore our bodies and minds are paying the price.

Just one bottle of antibiotics kills enough good bacteria in your gut that it takes an entire year for a healthy gut to recover from it, and that is not quite completely.

And that’s a healthy gut.

So when it comes to taking antibiotics, you really need to be careful about jumping the gun and opting into that as a first resort for infection. Make it a last resort unless you have something that is deadly if not used. Here are some ways to prevent infection and what supplements to take if you fear one starting to develop.

Prevention #1- Keep Your Gut Healthy in the First Place

First off, I will say that you can be preventative in general of upper respiratory infections that lead to needing antibiotics often times by doing two things– keeping your gut healthy will keep your immune system strong will help. This means staying on a probiotic regimen is necessary to keep your microbiome count diverse and abundant. The more diverse and the more abundant the better. My three favorites include Seeking Health’s Probiota 12, Dr. Mercola’s Complete Probiotics, and Modere’s Probiotic Support (Tastes amazing and perfect for kids).

Prevention #2–Eliminate Allergens, Which Can Lead to Inflammation and Infections

Eliminating allergens from your life including foods that you are allergic too, is key. And I don’t mean allergies that make you go into anaphylactic shock. Obviously that, but food allergies can show in other ways too. I’m talking about the foods that cause bowel issues, or nasal congestion and inflammation in your body because that causes complications that lead to infection.

I used to get 1-3 upper respiratory infections a year that lead me to get antibiotics. This was a common issue that to me was normal. And I even prided myself in the fact that I only needed to go to the doctor 1-3 times a year.

It wasn’t until I got off dairy and wheat that I noticed, I didn’t get those upper respiratory infections anymore. I saw a D.O who took an allergy panel on me and told me that if I stayed away from those two foods, I probably wouldn’t have any more issues. That it was caused by congestion that turned into bacterial infections. Sure enough, she was right. The only antibiotics I have had in the last 8 years have been a bottle of antibiotic eye ointment for a bad case of pink eye my usual natural remedy couldn’t get rid of.

But in the case that you do get a UTI, a bad cold, a possible sinus or ear infection, or some dreaded pink eye– here are some ways you can get on top of it so you don’t need to get on antibiotics. Definitely Put These in Your Medicine Cabinet and cold-kits.

Elderberry Extract–– Now this is more of a natural anti-viral. But a lot of viral colds can turn into a bacteria-ridden infection if they are complicated by allergies or are not cleared up so bacteria starts collecting in the congested areas. This is very preventative. It will help you get over a cold or flu much faster and prevent you from getting an infection. I personally prefer the droppers with concentrated elderberry and no alcohol over other tinctures and syrups. They have to be carefully made so it is safest to buy them rather than make your own from elderberries.

Colloidal Silver– This stuff is amazing! It is a natural antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial positively charged mineral that attaches to the cells of these bugs and destroys them. It is not safe to use it all the time or in large quantities but with the recommended dosages, it is safe and incredibly effective. I prefer Sovereign Silver brand because their’s is 98% positively charged as well as use the tiniest particles available to make it easy to absorb and eliminate. I use it in my kids ears when they have ear aches, sniff it up my nose when I have a cold that I don’t want to turn into a sinus infection, and even in my eyes when I have gotten an eye infection. You can get it as a nasal spray and as a dropper and I always have one of each in my medicine cabinet. They now have one with dosage best for kids! Woohoo! I’ve used it on cuts and on ingrown toe nails.

Oregano oil — in concentrated form, oregano oil has natural antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-fungal, and antiviral effects. Many of my friends swear by it for their yeast infections, UTI’s, colds, flus, and more. You can can take it in capsules or straight from a dropper! Studies show that it is particularly great for gut health as well, reducing inflammation, ridding the body of candida, and helping ailments such as colitis.

D-Mannose— This is my go-to for UTI’s. It is a type of sugar that is in cranberries that has an amazing ability to prevent bacteria like e-coli from sticking to the walls of your urinary tract and causing infection. E-coli is the number one cause of urinary tract infections. So it is a great first resort if you notice the early stages of one coming or if you are prone to them as part of your regular preventative routine. If you don’t notice a difference in a day of taking D-Mannose, try the Oregano oil before heading to the doctor for those antibiotics. If you catch it early, you can get rid of it within a couple of days.

Garlic and Garlic Oil–– Not only does garlic add flavor to your food, but it also has incredible anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Swallow the garlic toes whole or in concentrated form in capsules for cold fighting strength, or drop the garlic oil in your ears for an ear infection. I like to alternate between garlic oil and colloidal silver for ear infections. My kids find instant relief since they are the ones more prone to them.

Manuka Honey– Honey has been used for centuries as a natural anti-biotic, with incredible benefits on bacterial skin infections. But Manuka Honey has had the most of the reputation for such medicinal qualities. You can not only eat it straight and raw, but you can also buy skin creams with it. But it has been known to destroy MRSA and prevent/treat strep throat and other staph infections.

If you are good about keeping your immune system strong and allergies to a minimum, you are already well on your way to reducing your need for antibiotics. But if you are getting sick or catch the beginning stages of an infection, these are excellent natural remedies that will help you get well, and keep that gut flora vibrant.

Sources

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-434/elderberry

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/colloidal-silver#benefits

https://www.verywellhealth.com/oregano-oil-health-benefits-89490

https://chriskresser.com/the-high-price-of-antibiotic-use-can-our-guts-ever-fully-recover/

General Gut Health, Supplements

Start Healing Your Gut with These 4 Changes

December 6, 2018February 17, 2019 Theresa

When chatting with people and sharing my story, I often hear this question: Where do I start with healing my gut?

Chances are it needs healing because if you are a normal American living a typical American lifestyle– you have damaged it.

You’ve been over-sanitized, over-stressed, over-stuffed with inflammatory foods, and over-prescribed with antibiotics and pharmaceuticals covering up the issue and not resolving the root of the problem.

And you may have the symptoms to prove it:

Depression/anxiety
IBS/Crohns
Food Allergies
AutoImmune diseases
Diabetes
Thyroid Issues
Obesity
and more…

I truly believe that gut health is foundational for all health. And gut issues are the root of most health issues.

The road to healing our gut can be long, depending on how much and how long the damage has gone for. But no matter the circumstances, the same three or four first steps are essential. The rest will depend…

The first piece of advice I give all my friends and acquaintances who ask me is this….

Stop Eating Wheat and Dairy!

This is the simplest, least complicated change you can make in your diet. Once you have that down, then you can up the ante and go on a Paleo-type diet which is best for healing the gut. You get rid of legumes, sugars and starches as well for a good 30-60 days at least and significantly increase your leafy green intake. Ideally you want to make this an 80/20 lifestyle for yourself if you don’t want to regress.

Until then know this-wheat and dairy are the most common inflammatory foods and often times the main staple foods of most Americans. I could write an entire paper on wheat alone. But I’ll share the gyst for wheat and dairy right here.

If you have gut issues, gluten will most likely exasperate it.
The US mandated that wheat products be enriched back in 1998. Enrichments include synthetic vitamins like folic acid in it, which a large population of people cannot breakdown.
Dairy is something most people’s bodies have a hard time breaking down. We were not meant to eat a lot of dairy in the first place.
When we have gut issues, we can become extremely sensitive to the dairy protein A1 and for some even A2, as well as the inflammatory effects on our gut.

Trust me, I know that when you hear this, you might want to cry, but there are tons of great recipes and alternatives to both and while it can be a difficult transition if you love these foods, you will feel better and it will get easier! Eventually you can work them back in small amounts on occasion without consequences. Here is a great book with lots of recipes to make your life easier if coming up with meal ideas without wheat or dairy is a challenge for you.

Increase Your Stomach Acid and Digestive Enzymes

If you have symptoms of gut issues, chances are you have low stomach acid and low digestive enzymes.

Low stomach acid is by far one of the most common triggers for other gut issues that happen further down the line due to it’s effects. Stomach acid sanitizes your food, breaks down your proteins, breaks down your vitamins and minerals so you can absorb them, triggers your gall bladder to kick in and digest your fats, and triggers your gut to get into digestion mode. If your body is not doing those things, you can wreak havoc in your gut and in your health.

You can learn more about how low stomach acid leads to other gut issues here as well as how to test your self to see if you have low stomach acid. Then if you have the symptoms and took the test to discover you are low in the stomach acid, start supplementing with Betaine HCL with pepsin with your high protein meals, but start at the lowest dosage and work your way up to your optimal level. I go over this process in more detail in that same article above.

Also begin taking a good digestive enzyme. Enzymes that help us digest our food occur naturally in raw veggies we eat. Unfortunately with our modern diet, these get cooked out or are absent, making our stomachs depleted of the digestive enzymes needed to break down the various carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and sugars in our food. So if you are not eating raw veggies at the beginning of every meal….take some enzymes. I take a full spectrum one because my gut issues are enough that I need help digesting everything.

With HCL and digestive enzymes, you will notice an improvement in your digestion right away. And may even notice an improvement in your other symptoms long term, like anxiety or depression.

Next..

Do a Cleanse on Your Gut

Prepping your gut for what is next can be helpful to get it moving in the right direction. A cleanse will get rid of anything your sluggish gut is holding on to, and trigger your liver and kidneys to start releasing toxins. When your body holds on to toxins, its hard to heal. Make sure you are not already sick when you do this as your body needs to be ready to get rid of the toxins. A cleanse will also help your body get ready to shed fat if your gut issues have lead to weight gain that won’t go away.

I like to regularly cleanse to keep my body healthy all year long. I use a great 3-Day Gentle Cleanse you can do every month if you want. Do this after about 10-14 days after you have gone wheat and dairy free.

Finally….

Rebuild Your Microbiome with ProBiotics

A healthy microbiome is essential for a healthy gut. But sadly, this microbiome for most Americans have been starved and killed by modern American practices. C-section births, antibiotics, over-santization, and low stomach acid from stress and nutrient deficiencies have lead to a plethora of people with a scarcity of good-bacteria in their gut.

You want a variety of different species in your gut and you want a lot of them. That variety and amount helps you store nutrients, use sugar, regulate your appetite, and control your weight as well as reduce inflammation, make serotonin and melatonin, and keep your gut communicating properly with your brain.

If you have a lot of food and seasonal allergies, you will want to start with low-histamine variety which are high in bifidos. This is the one I give my husband. It has a variety. I would take 1-3 of these everyday with food.

If you don’t have an abundance of allergies, you can handle the larger variety and that’s a good thing. They are good for you as long as your body hasn’t build antibodies to histamines like so many have. I alternate between these Seeking Health’s Probiota 12 and Dr. Mercolas’s Complete Probiotics to make sure I get a good spectrum of probiotc in my gut. I also have them autoship every 90 days so I don’t miss and stay on track.

And by the way, you should stay on probiotics if you have gut issues. Just one bottle of antibiotics takes a year for your gut to recover from with probiotics. So count every bottle of antibiotics you’ve taken over the course of your life, consider all the other issues, and recognize this is essential.

The only people who should not follow this step are those with SIBO. Check out this article for symptoms of SIBO. If you have symptoms, you may want to take this test first to confirm. If you test positive, then kill the over-growth of bacteria in your small intestine before you start adding more bacteria in your body. You need your bacteria in your large intestine, not your small intestine. Until SIBO is killed, the probiotics will only make it worse.

Next Steps…(Not in any particular order)

See a naturopath and get some stool, urine, and blood tests to see the details of what is going on with you (This is worth every penny!)
Go all the way with Paleo with lots of veggies and prebiotic food
Possibly go on a FODMAP or LECTIN Free diet/lifestyle if your gut is still having issues or you have an autoimmune disease (Plant Paradox is a great Resource) .
Exercise!
De-Stress!
Drink lots of filtered water
Drink Bone broth daily
Take Fish Oils and L-Glutamine
Replenish Your minerals
Get Your Vitamin B’s in and Folate
Read Dirty Genes
Read Plant Paradox or if you don’t care about all the science behind it and just want to do it and get results check out his Quick and Easy version here and the cookbook with 100 recipes!
Get Genetic Testing

I’ll write more on these next steps needed to replenish your body with the nutrients it needs to thrive, and eradicating the triggers that complicate and prevent your body from doing its job.

If you are struggling with depression or anxiety, there’s even more I will share. But regardless of what you are struggling with–these 4 steps are what I’d tell anyone with gut issues to start with.

Summary of What to Get to Complete Your First 4 Steps:

Against the Grain

Plant Paradox Cookbook

Betaine HCL with Pepsin

3 Day Cleanse

Seeking Health Probiota 12, or Histaminix

Dr. Mercola’s Complete Probiotics

You can also get a great starter pack for your gut health here.

Supplements, Uncategorized

Could Low Stomach Acid Be The Cause of All Your Issues?

November 21, 2018December 21, 2018 Theresa

I’m Finally a Believer

Have you ever waited to do something and then once you did, you thought–why didn’t I do this sooner? That is what happened to me this last week.

I have had a few others who also have gut issues tell me to take HCL (hydrochloric acid). But all I knew was that they claimed my belly wouldn’t hurt when I ate food if I took it. But I had already managed to figure out ways around the belly ache thing for much of the time. Stay away from dairy and wheat (for me are huge triggers), super fatty foods unless I take ox bile, take digestive enzymes when I eat the occasional slice of bread or cheese (usually I stay away), and load up on the veggies. And it has helped so much. But I have not gotten rid everyone of my symptoms from my IBS even when I’m super strict.

If anyone has IBS or knows about it, not only does one have unexplainable and sensitive gut that gets “irritated” easily, it also causes either constipation or diarrhea or switching between the two. I use to suffer from severe constipation. That is actually what started my health journey after my first son was born (by C-Section)…my usual digestive issues became exasperated and I was finally diagnosed with IBS and a rectocele. After making all the positive health changes, that issue has dissipated but has changed to more the other side…not extreme, but definitely in that category.

Well when another well-informed friend of mine who is further along in her gut health journey shared with me that it low stomach may be what is triggering all my other issues, I finally decided to try this HCL and I cannot believe how immediate I noticed the effects. Not only did my belly not hurt after eating a protein meal that day, but the next morning, I actually for the first time in years, had a healthy looking bowel movement. I know this is now just the beginning. And can’t wait to see what else improves overtime.

Ok so what is so darn special about HCL, how does it connect to stomach acid, and why might you have it?

First– You need stomach acid!!! Human stomach acid is made of HCL. We need to have a P.H of less than 3.0 in our stomach for healthy breakdown and sanitation of our food. Remember learning about acids and bases in grade school? If our stomach acid is more base or alkaline it will be a higher P.H. If it is more acidic, the number will be lower P.H. When we have stomach acid with a P.H higher than 3, we create a domino effect that wreaks havoc on the rest of our system.

If you stomach doesn’t break down your food the way it should, it puts more work on your intestines and organs making them tired and worn out.

If your stomach acid doesn’t kick in, it doesn’t signal your other organs like your gall bladder that you have food in your system and so they don’t work at creating bile to break down your fats.

If your stomach acid is low or absent, your body cannot absorb key vitamins and minerals like boron, b12, b6, zinc, calcium, magnesium and more. Without these vitamins at sufficient levels your body cannot perform the way it was designed, struggling to have energy, detoxify properly, and more– including, ironically–creating stomach acid!

If your stomach acid is not high enough, it can’t kill the bad bacteria that highjacked your food, leading to an imbalance of beneficial bacteria in your gut (more on that later).

If you have undigested protein and fat in your bowels and vitamin deficiency essential for your body to function exasperated by the imbalance of good bacteria in your gut to further breakdown the food–you get inflammation.

Inflammation in the body often is accompanied by inflammation in the gut. When you are constantly inflamed in your gut, it cannot do its job, which not only includes digesting your food to bring your body the right nutrients it needs to thrive, but it can not make serotonin for your brain and body so you can feel calm and happy.

Neither can it wrap and dispose of hormone byproducts and waste so you don’t become hormonally imbalanced. The chronic inflammation also leads to the intestinal lining and cilia to separate or open up, leading toxins and such in your bowels to enter your blood stream, and spread inflammation to other areas.

Chronic inflammation is the root of almost all disease including autoimmune symptoms and diseases like food allergies, IBS, Crohns, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, diabetes and more.

If you suffer from any of the following, you may have low stomach acid:

Food allergies
Chronic constipation or diarrhea
Anxiety and/or depression
Hormonal imbalance
Autoimmune illnesses
Chronic yeast infections
Acid reflux (yes! It is not often caused by too much stomach acid)
and more!

Believe it or not, low stomach acid and its many effects are VERY COMMON, especially with the American S.A.D diet and our stressful lifestyles and medications we take. Honestly, it seems like everyone I talk to seems to have something autoimmune happening in their body. It is an epidemic.

These symptoms only exasperate your stress and your body’s energy levels which then make it more difficult for to make stomach acid–so the crazy cycle continues and we treat individual symptoms instead of starting at the cause–which in all likelihood could very well be low stomach acid.

So What to Do Next to Stop the Crazy Cycle?

If any of this resonates with you, I highly recommend you try some HCL.

As a note–see a doctor for guidance or do not take HCL if you are high-risk: According to Dr. Wright, author of the powerful book, Stomach Acid is Good for You, these include:

People that are “high risk” shouldn’t take Betaine HCL without supervision. You’re high risk if you’re consuming any anti-inflammatory medicines. Examples of those are: corticosteroids, aspirin, Indocin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) or other NSAIDs. These drugs can damage the GI lining and supplementing with HCL could aggravate it, increasing the risks of bleeding or ulcer.

If you don’t fit the above at-risk type, then try it out!

How Do you Know if You Have Low Stomach Acid For Sure?

If your stomach doesn’t burn when you take Betain HCL with a protein-based meal two times in a row, then you’ve got it and should consider supplementing.

There are other methods you can use to figure out if you have low stomach acid, but one is expensive and the other is not always accurate. This is a sure fire thing. No different than–to see if your belly ache is due to hunger, eat a meal and see if the pain goes away. You know?

There’s a lot of research on this, but the easiest way to figure it out is to spend the 10 bucks and buy a bottle of HCL. I bought 200mg capsule bottle of Betain HCL with bitters in it and a larger dose one as well (650mg) which included bitters to stimulate our own acid.

Don’t be concerned that you are doing something wrong if you keep going up to high amounts. According to Dr. Wright, the average dose of HCL needed for those who suffer from low stomach acid is 3,250-4,550 mg per meal!

But if you want to be conservative, take for 3 days just one 200 mg capsule with each meal where you are eating protein. If your belly doesn’t burn after the first two meals with the HCL, then you have low stomach acid. After 3 days, go up a capsule. Take 400mg with each protein-based meal. Keep following that order until your dosage causes your belly to burn. If you get that, take a teaspoon of baking soda and it will alkalize the acid right away so your belly won’t hurt. Otherwise it goes away after about 15-30 min.

Then you know you need one dosage less. Right now I’m at the 600 stage and my belly is still doing fine. So I’m going to switch to the 650 capsules next and then go up by 650 mg capsules from here until I find the optimal range. Or I might need to use both the high and low to get the number right.

But here is the coolest part…

HCL Supplementation Does Not Have To Be Forever

Once your body is doing what it is supposed to because you stopped the crazy cycle, eventually your stomach will produce more of its own stomach acid and you can down on your dosages.

My good friend who struggles with all sort of autoimmune issues started out with the average range and after getting her diet straight and nutrient intake, within a few months she has gone down to just one 650mg capsule! She is so excited! You should also see an improvement in your autoimmune issues, digestive issues, emotional issues, and more.

Just remember–age, stress, poor diet, vitamin deficiencies in essentials like zinc and vitamin b, infections from pylori bacteria, and bypass surgery can all lead to low stomach acid.

So if you fit any of the above, you may find that you will continually need to take some range of HCL as a supplement. Listen to your body and see what works.

You can help your body start the healing process to produce its own stomach acid by taking HCL with bitters in it. The bitters will stimulate your own stomach to create acid and in a sense “wake it up” from its slumber to start remembering to work. This could take longer for some if their stomach hasn’t been doing its job for a long time.

Thankfully HCL is super cheap and therefore, a supplement that is not too much of a hassle other than just remembering to take it. And remembering to keep a bottle in your purse or a few capsules in a baggy in your wallet for when you eat out.

Now to clarify– while low stomach acid may be the cause of your ailments, it is not a one-fix answer to all your answers either. Just like family dysfunction–having the culprit stop its abuse can help. But the victims need to heal as well so that all can function well from there on out. Taking HCL may very well stop the crazy cycle. But don’t let this stop you from healing your gut and the rest of your body from its damage with the proper diet, vitamin and mineral intake, lifestyle changes, and flora intake. When you take care of the rest as well, you allow your body to function optimally, making its own HCL so you can reduce or stop supplementation.

Let me know in the comments if you tried this and found benefits.