Latest / Love Your Gut / Ep. 108: Why You’re Still Constipated: The Low Stomach Acid Connection No One Talks About
Transcript
- 0:03Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
- 0:05Dr. Heather Finley: I'm your host, Dr.
- 0:06Dr. Heather Finley: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
- 0:10Dr. Heather Finley: I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.
- 0:21Dr. Heather Finley: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
- 0:25Dr. Heather Finley: And now I'm here to guide you.
- 0:28Dr. Heather Finley: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
- 0:33Dr. Heather Finley: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
- 0:36Dr. Heather Finley: My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.
- 0:43Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
- 0:48Dr. Heather Finley: You are in the right place.
- 0:50Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the love your gut podcast.
- 0:55If you've ever felt like food just sits in your stomach like a brick, then this episode is for you.
- 1:02This also is for you.
- 1:03If you eat and within an hour or two you're bloated, you're burping, maybe you feel overly full after meals, maybe you have reflux.
- 1:12You're constipated no matter how much magnesium you take, or maybe your iron or ferritin keep dropping and you can't figure out why.
- 1:21If that's you, there's a really good chance that one of the biggest missing things on your journey is stomach acid.
- 1:29Now, I know stomach acid doesn't sound that exciting or sexy, but honestly, it might be one of the most important and overlooked parts of digestion.
- 1:40That I don't see a lot of people talking about because so many women are taking magnesium, fiber, probiotics, greens powders, digestive teas, all the things, and nobody has ever stopped to ask, can your body actually break down?
- 1:57Absorb move food well in the first place because the thing is, if digestion is weak at the very top, you can keep throwing all the glutamine at your problems, all the probiotics, immunoglobulins, you name it, and still stay stuck.
- 2:14You maybe you're taking magnesium for constipation.
- 2:17You have to have stomach acid to break down and absorb minerals.
- 2:22It may not actually be doing what it needs to do.
- 2:25You could be eating iron-rich foods or taking iron supplements, but if your stomach acid is low, your body may have a much harder time.
- 2:34Actually extracting and absorbing the iron, and this is one of the bigger patterns that we see in women who especially feel like they're doing everything right, but they're still bloated, they're exhausted, they're backed up, they're confused.
- 2:48So that's what I wanna walk you through.
- 2:49In today's episode, we're gonna talk about what stomach acid actually does, how to know if yours might be low, why this matters so much for bloating and constipation and reflux, and even sibo.
- 3:02And then why this could be one of the biggest missing pieces if your gut doesn't feel better.
- 3:08So let's zoom out for a second and I wanna talk about what stomach acid actually does, because that's what's gonna set the stage for everything that we're gonna talk about in the rest of the episode.
- 3:20So I like to describe stomach acid, like an ignition switch of digestion.
- 3:26If your ignition turns on smoothly, then your digestive system or the whole system is gonna run the way that it's supposed to.
- 3:34If that ignition.
- 3:36Is weak or struggling to turn over.
- 3:38Everything downstream starts to feel off.
- 3:40Now, this happened to me a couple weeks ago.
- 3:42I was in California on spring break and I went to take my daughter to lunch and the car wouldn't start.
- 3:50So we had these jumper cables and we're trying to jump the car, and then it was this portable jumper cable battery situation.
- 3:58The battery wasn't working on that, and so the car.
- 4:02Like at first it wouldn't even click on.
- 4:04Then it kind of started and we had to give it some time to charge back up and then finally it, it struggled, but the car actually started.
- 4:16Now my biggest fear, of course, was that we would get to the place we were going and then have the same issue.
- 4:22So you drove around a little bit to let the battery charge, but all that to say this is the same way with your digestion, you.
- 4:29So it might not even be turned on, so nothing is working.
- 4:34Or maybe it's like kind, it's clicking, starting to turn over, but the whole stream isn't working.
- 4:42Or maybe you just need some time to drive around a little bit and get things moving again.
- 4:47So stomach acid is what kicks off the entire digestive process, and it's responsible for a lot of things.
- 4:53But the first thing that I want you to think about is protein breakdown.
- 4:57So meat, eggs, collagen, plant proteins, all of these things rely on stomach acid to be eat.
- 5:02Properly broken apart, and this matters because you have to be able to break down protein, to extract amino acids and all the different things that you get from protein.
- 5:13Protein is so supportive for your metabolism, your hormones, your blood sugar, even your energy.
- 5:19Stomach acid is also essential for absorbing nutrients.
- 5:23We're talking about iron B12, zinc, magnesium, calcium, so there's actually a connection between stomach acid and B12, stomach acid and iron issues, stomach acid and osteopenia, osteoporosis because of calcium.
- 5:39So if your stomach acid is low, you might be eating really well or taking supplements, but your body may not be able to extract and absorb those nutrients efficiently, which is where you end up with low energy, brain fog, et cetera.
- 5:53The third thing is that stomach acid helps to turn the rest of digestion on, like the analogy that I just gave you.
- 6:00Once food hits your stomach and acid is present.
- 6:05It is gonna send signals to release other enzymes, bile, pancreatic support.
- 6:11So basically if stomach acid is low, it then affects the rest of digestion.
- 6:16So your entire digestive cascade is underperforming your stomach acid.
- 6:21Interestingly enough also.
- 6:23Acts as a protective barrier.
- 6:24So it's gonna help neutralize bacteria and microbes coming in with food.
- 6:29So when it's low, things are more likely to survive that normally wouldn't think of parasites.
- 6:36Pathogens, h pylori infections, that low stomach acid can make the gut environment more vulnerable to imbalance over time.
- 6:45This is why.
- 6:46Maybe you're the one that always gets food poisoning and nobody else does, or you're the one that gets sick when you travel and nobody else does.
- 6:53The last thing that I wanna touch on today is that stomach acid helps to prepare food to move through the GI tract properly.
- 7:01When food is broken down, well, it moves through more smoothly, but when it's weak, then that process gets really heavy.
- 7:08So when you think about all of that together, you can think about it like a domino effect.
- 7:13Stomach acid is really that first domino, and if that first domino doesn't fall, everything downstream.
- 7:19Your enzymes, bile, nutrient absorption, motility.
- 7:22All of that can start to feel off, and this is why you can be doing all the right things and still be dealing with bloating and constipation and low iron and reflux because your system was never turned on in the first place.
- 7:37So let's talk about some signs of low stomach acid, because that's where things get a little bit interesting.
- 7:44A lot of people hear low stomach acid and assume that it would feel like not enough acid, but ironically, low stomach acid often doesn't feel like not enough.
- 7:53It often actually feels like.
- 7:55Too much.
- 7:56You might have reflux, you might have fullness, you might have burping, bloating, food, backing up, constipation.
- 8:03This is why it often gets missed, especially when it comes to reflux, because most people aren't thinking, oh, my stomach acid is low.
- 8:10That's why I'm having reflux.
- 8:11They're thinking, oh, my stomach is sensitive.
- 8:14I guess I just can't tolerate that.
- 8:16I guess maybe that's giving me reflux when sometimes the issue is that food is just not being broken down.
- 8:22Well, so some signs that we wanna look for, number one, bloating after meals, especially if you feel bloated pretty quickly after eating.
- 8:30Not just like I'm bloated by bedtime, but more like I ate in an hour later, I'm bloated.
- 8:36This can be a sign that food is just sitting there and not breaking down.
- 8:39Well.
- 8:40Number two is burping.
- 8:41This is a big one.
- 8:42Frequent burping after meals can be a clue that food is lingering in the stomach longer than it should.
- 8:47It's fermenting more.
- 8:48It's creating that pressure upward, and the gas has to go somewhere.
- 8:53Number three would be fullness or heaviness after eating.
- 8:56So if you feel overly full after would be a normal sized meal for most people.
- 9:03Or maybe you say things like, I feel like I have a brick in my stomach, or I just feel so heavy the food is just.
- 9:08Sitting there that can absolutely point back to low stomach acid or just sluggish digestion reflux or heartburn.
- 9:16This is the one, like I said, that surprises a lot of people because we're often told that reflux means too much acid and then you're prescribed a PPI, making the issue worse.
- 9:26In many cases, it's actually tied to poor digestion and poor stomach emptying.
- 9:30So when food sits too long and that pressure builds up, that can create symptoms that feel like reflux or burning.
- 9:38So yes, sometimes reflux is not because you have too much acid, it's because digestion is weak and food is just backing up.
- 9:48You can also feel like food is just sitting there.
- 9:50This is one of the most classic descriptions, nausea after eating.
- 9:54Not everyone will get this, but for some people, low stomach acid can show up as mild nausea, and then constipation.
- 10:02This is one that I really want you to think about because if digestion is weak at the top.
- 10:07The whole system slows down.
- 10:09So yes, constipation can actually be connected with low stomach acid.
- 10:15We see it all the time.
- 10:17This is one of the biggest reasons so many women are taking magnesium, fiber, MiraLax, probiotics, but they're still not going to the bathroom because your stomach has to fill with acid in order to empty.
- 10:30And that emptying is what helps with gut motility and clearing the bowels, et cetera.
- 10:37Another thing that you can look for is undigested food in your stool.
- 10:40If you're seeing food in your stool besides like chia seeds or thing like corn, um, then that can be a sign as well.
- 10:50And then low appetite in the morning.
- 10:52That's kind of sneaky because there it could be other things as well, but if you wake up and you just don't feel hungry, or sometimes breakfast feels hard, that can also be a sign that your digestion is just sluggish overall.
- 11:05Those are just some things to think about, like, okay, is this part of my story?
- 11:11In addition to what I mentioned at the beginning, like the protein, feeling harder to digest or just, I feel worse with dense meals or kind of that meat aversion, avoiding heavier foods, low iron situation.
- 11:24Okay, so you might be listening thinking, well, I have like eight of those symptoms.
- 11:29That doesn't automatically mean that stomach acid is your only issue, but it does mean that this may be a really important piece of the puzzle that has been overlooked.
- 11:39And honestly, it gets overlooked a lot because the symptoms are often treated as random separate issues, right?
- 11:46Take this for your reflux.
- 11:48Try this food elimination for your bloat.
- 11:51Try this.
- 11:52Fiber for your constipation.
- 11:53Try this iron supplement for your iron when in reality they all may be tracing back to the same weak point in digestion.
- 12:02So I wanna just connect the dots because stomach acid becomes really relevant when you have a lot of things going on, especially when you have.
- 12:11Constipation or other iron issues, et cetera.
- 12:15Usually it's normal if you're bloated or constipated to think about the bottom of digestion.
- 12:21So you're thinking like fiber, your probiotics, your colon, your stool, your water, your magnesium.
- 12:28And while those things can definitely matter, food has to be broken down well at the top of digestion, or the body's gonna have a much harder time moving it all the way through.
- 12:38And that's one of the big reasons that you might be stuck is because of that weak point in digestion at the top.
- 12:45So your system isn't working, it's like an assembly line.
- 12:48Your stomach acid is one of those very first stations, and if that station is understaffed, then the rest of the assembly line gets backed up.
- 12:56So when stomach acid is low, a few things can happen.
- 13:01That protein doesn't get broken down.
- 13:03Well, that is what leads to that heaviness, that fermentation, that signaling, like I said, gets weaker.
- 13:10Another piece is that bile and digestive support can be weaker, so you might have more trouble breaking down fat.
- 13:17Lubricating the digestive process or just keeping things moving.
- 13:21And then a big one, especially if you're constipated and bloated, is food is more likely to ferment.
- 13:27We don't want a ton of excess fermentation going on.
- 13:31When food is just sitting there fermenting, it's creating gas that upper GI bloat, lower GI bloat that discomfort.
- 13:39So if you're bloated, distended, constipated, all at the same time, that's just showing that whole system is possibly congested and then motility is gonna be sluggish.
- 13:51This is a big one.
- 13:52Digestion is inefficient from the beginning.
- 13:54Your gut is gonna have a harder time moving things all the way through.
- 13:57And that's why constipation is so much more complex than just eat more fiber or drink more water.
- 14:05Because yes, while those things can help, we also have to make sure that your food is being broken down correctly.
- 14:11It's kind of like trying to push a traffic jam through the gut, right?
- 14:15You have to be able to clear the traffic jam versus just like.
- 14:19Adding more cars to the pile up or fixing what's actually slowing down the roads.
- 14:25That's a big piece of what we're gonna do with our clients is like, get things out of the way, get things broken down.
- 14:31How do we stimulate bowel movements?
- 14:33How do we get motility to move?
- 14:34And that's where minerals can be really important too, because if your digestion is underpowered, you may not be breaking down and absorbing nutrients the way that you think you are.
- 14:45That's a common question that I get from clients or potential clients is well, why would I need a mineral supplement if I eat a really healthy diet?
- 14:53Well, if you have GI issues and you're not actually extracting nutrients from your food, you're needing a lot more of a nutrient and dealing with possible deficiencies over time.
- 15:06So you could be taking magnesium, but if your digestion is weak, your body's not using it well.
- 15:11And the same goes for any other nutrient, not just magnesium.
- 15:14Could be B vitamins or sodium zinc.
- 15:17These are all gonna be nutrients that help with energy and digestion and even your nervous system.
- 15:23So we have to be able to absorb well and then we can end that really frustrating cycle of why am I stuck?
- 15:31Now I wanna talk about something that I know many of you are dealing with, which is low ferritin.
- 15:37You might feel exhausted, you might feel foggy, just not like yourself, even though you're doing everything right.
- 15:43And that's, this is another piece where stomach acid plays a really big role.
- 15:48And it's something that we see a lot because we have a lot of women that come to us that say like, I've been on Iron Ivy, iron, I've been on Supplemental Iron, I've been taking beef liver, I've been eating red meat, vitamin C.
- 16:00And their ferritin either barely moves or temporarily moves, and it's so frustrating because you feel like your body's just not responding.
- 16:09So here's the piece to connect here.
- 16:12You could be eating all the iron rich foods or even taking iron, but if your digestion is weak, absorption is going to be a struggle.
- 16:19In fact, we were just reviewing this yesterday on one of our clients and she has been dealing with low iron.
- 16:27She's so exhausted having trouble getting through the day.
- 16:31She's like, I think I just need to go get an infusion.
- 16:33And while I don't know, possibly an infusion might make her feel better.
- 16:37It's interesting because her iron labs are actually pretty good.
- 16:42It's her gut.
- 16:44You look at her GI map and her.
- 16:47Digestive markers are so poor, which makes a lot of sense.
- 16:52It's like, okay, you're inputting all of this, but your body's not even breaking it down.
- 16:56So the biggest thing, although not a quick fix, is how do we actually get your body breaking down nutrients, Allah, iron in this case so that then it can move it and transport it and store it as ferritin and help relieve your hair loss and fatigue and, and all the things.
- 17:15So stomach acid is going to help release iron from food, so you're eating steak or any iron containing food, and your body actually has to break that food down to access any minerals like iron inside of it.
- 17:28It.
- 17:29It's also gonna help with the absorption piece and then gonna support that transport of iron utilizing iron building hemoglobin when it break, when your body is actually using stomach acid to break down protein.
- 17:42So sometimes low ferritin isn't just oh, you need to increase your iron intake.
- 17:47It's okay.
- 17:48How do we actually get your body to extract and absorb what is there?
- 17:54I want to shift also and talk about SIBO or just bacterial overgrowth.
- 18:01This is where low stomach acid can also play a role in the gut environment more broadly.
- 18:08Because stomach acid, while it does help you digest food, it's also part of your body's protective barrier.
- 18:16So the analogy that I often use is your body's bouncer.
- 18:20It helps decide what gets through, what doesn't, what should have been handled before it moves deeper through the digestive.
- 18:27Okay, so when stomach acid is low, that protective barrier becomes weaker, meaning that more microbes are able to survive.
- 18:35So things that normally wouldn't have been easily handled in the GI tract may have an easier time getting through.
- 18:42Food is more likely to sit in ferment leading to those.
- 18:45Symptoms like gas and bloat that we talked about, and the gut environment is easier to disrupt.
- 18:50And over time, that can make it easier for the digestive system to become more imbalanced.
- 18:56So you end up with bloating and SIBO and overgrowth patterns and recurring symptoms.
- 19:02So I wanna be clear, that does not mean that low stomach acid is the only cause of sibo, or that if you have SIBO, you automatically have low stomach acid because it's a lot more complex than that.
- 19:15But low stomach acid can absolutely be one of those terrain pieces with the gut that often gets overlooked.
- 19:22And so it's a really helpful piece of the puzzle when especially you've done like repeated treatments or you're like, why did my gut become such a hospitable environment for sibo?
- 19:34Why does this keep coming back?
- 19:35Same thing with fungal overgrowth.
- 19:37Supporting digestion, especially stomach acid helps.
- 19:40So much with fungal stuff and is often a very much missed root cause.
- 19:46So why does this get missed?
- 19:48This is a big question that a lot of our clients get.
- 19:54Asked.
- 19:55Most people are never taught to think about digestion from the top down in gut practitioner, which is my practitioner training.
- 20:02That is the framework that we use is top down digestion.
- 20:06We're taught in school to think of our symptoms in isolation.
- 20:10So if you're constipated, you're told magnesium, MiraLax, fiber.
- 20:15If you're bloated, you're told, cut out dairy and gluten, try this probiotic, blah, blah, blah.
- 20:19Reflux.
- 20:20You're told just.
- 20:21Take this PPI if you're told, if you have sibo, take this antibiotic.
- 20:26And the problem is that sometimes those things can help temporarily, but if your digestion is weak from the very top, you're gonna do all these things and still feel stuck.
- 20:36And that is such an important thing to understand because a lot of women start to internalize that as like.
- 20:43I've tried everything.
- 20:44Something's wrong.
- 20:46Maybe my body's just difficult, maybe I am gonna be like this.
- 20:50And a lot of the times that is not the case.
- 20:5399.9% of the time, that's not the case.
- 20:55It's that the sequence of digestion is off.
- 20:59And that's one of the biggest patterns that we see in our clients is nobody has ever helped them rebuild their digestion From the top down, nobody has ever explained how.
- 21:11Is your body actually breaking down food?
- 21:13How is it absorbing nutrients?
- 21:15How is it signaling digestion?
- 21:17How is it preparing food to move all the way through?
- 21:20So if you're listening to this and thinking, okay, this sounds a lot like me, what should I actually do?
- 21:26The first thing I wanna say is, the answer is not just randomly taking a bunch of battan HCL, that's not the goal.
- 21:34In fact, that's my last choice when it comes to stomach acid.
- 21:40We want to ask the question, why did digestion get weak in the first place?
- 21:44Because stomach acid is usually not the only root cause.
- 21:48It's showing something else.
- 21:50Is your body under stress?
- 21:52So it's turning off digestion.
- 21:54Is it under resourced and depleted?
- 21:56So it doesn't even have the minerals to make stomach acid.
- 22:00Stomach acid is hydrochloric acid.
- 22:02It requires minerals to be made.
- 22:05Um, it also could be something more upstream even.
- 22:09Salivation is really important, being in a fight or flight state and rushing through eating so.
- 22:15Where I would start.
- 22:16If this sounds like you is number one, slow down when you eat.
- 22:19This sounds basic, but it matters so much.
- 22:21If you're rushing, multitasking, standing at the counter, I'm guilty of this with kids stressed, scrolling, distracted.
- 22:28Your body is much less likely to fully turn digestion on.
- 22:32I also want you to chew your food so well, 20 times applesauce, consistency, however you wanna think about it.
- 22:40Chewing is one of the most overlooked parts of digestion, digestion.
- 22:44Doesn't start in your stomach, it starts in your brain and in your mouth.
- 22:48So if you are inhaling your meals, swallowing large bites, that makes stomach acids job even harder.
- 22:55You wanna stop eating in a stressed or activated state.
- 22:59This is really huge.
- 23:00If your nervous system is in fight or flight, digestion is gonna get deprioritized.
- 23:05So take a couple deep breaths, sit down, pause before the first bite.
- 23:09Step away from work or chaos.
- 23:13I also want you to notice how you feel after things like meat or eggs or protein shakes or heavier meals.
- 23:21Do they energize you or do they leave you feeling heavy, bloated, nauseous, or overly full?
- 23:26That can be really useful information.
- 23:28That doesn't mean don't eat those foods.
- 23:31That means probably pair some stomach acid support, even something simple like digestive bitters with those heavier, harder to digest meals.
- 23:39I also want you to consider whether reflux meds or antacids may be a part of the picture.
- 23:44For some people, long-term use of acid reducing support is going to be a big trigger for downstream digestive issues.
- 23:53That doesn't mean that you should stop anything abruptly without guidance is not medical advice, but it does mean that this is worth looking into, especially if you notice that your GI issues got worse, or maybe SIBO started after starting antacids or reflux meds.
- 24:10And then zoom out and ask what may have weakened digestion in the first place.
- 24:16This is where some deeper work comes in.
- 24:18Chronic stress burnout, postpartum depletion, mineral depletion a head injury, low vagal tone, h pylori, long-term undereating dieting history.
- 24:28Honestly, this is where so many of our clients have this light bulb moment of like, oh, wow, this actually didn't happen randomly.
- 24:36My body has been under resourced for a long time.
- 24:39Or, this really did start after I started PPIs.
- 24:43Or this did really start after a.
- 24:46A bad car accident where I had a, a concussion, et cetera.
- 24:50It's really helpful to connect those dots so you can stop blaming your body and actually really understand what's going on and what it's asking for.
- 24:59I hope that this episode made a lot of things click for you.
- 25:03I just want you to know that you're not crazy for feeling like your body hasn't responded the way that you expected.
- 25:10You're not failing because nothing has worked.
- 25:13You might just be missing some important pieces of the puzzle, and stomach acid could be one of those.
- 25:18We have to restore the ability for your body to digest and absorb and mood move food well from the very beginning.
- 25:26And then everything else starts to work a little bit better.
- 25:29So this is one of the biggest reasons that so many women stay stuck with constipation and bloating for years because they're focusing on food and food elimination and probiotics.
- 25:42And supplements without realizing that the problem is much higher up.
- 25:48So that is what I'm going to teach you in even more depth on my upcoming training on April 19th.
- 25:55If you are doing all the right things, you're still constipated, you're bloated by the end of the day, no matter what you eat.
- 26:02Your symptoms started after food poisoning, a stomach, bug, travel, pregnancy, postpartum, a stressful season.
- 26:09Maybe you've tried lo fodmap that didn't really solve the issue.
- 26:13You feel like you've done all the normal recommendations.
- 26:17I'm gonna walk you through a.
- 26:19Step by step why your constipation is not a fiber problem.
- 26:24The root causes that we see.
- 26:26How to actually find relief long term instead of being stuck in this cycle of trying something, getting a little relief, stalling out, trying something else.
- 26:36If you're ready to stop guessing, you want to understand this, make sure you register for the training.
- 26:41I will put the link in the show notes.
- 26:43I would love to have you there, and I'll see you next week on the next episode of the Love Your Gut podcast.
- 26:49Thanks for joining.