The Uncommon Symptoms of Acid Reflux

You’ve probably heard these are signs of Acid Reflux:

• Heartburn - that burning sensation behind the breastbone that creeps up to your neck
• Sour liquid that you taste after it comes up the esophagus

What are the uncommon symptoms of Acid Reflux?
You might not consider the following to be from acid reflux or GERD, and they are usually explained away by other conditions:

• Chronic coughing or clearing your throat
• Sore throat
• Difficulty swallowing
• Asthma
• Wheezing
• Burping
• Nausea
• Lump in your throat
• Mucus in your throat
• Stuffy nose
• Plugged ears

 
Did you know that acid can travel all the way up into the eustachian tubes and cause a blockage? What!!?
 
Obviously, not all asthma or wheezing is acid reflux. I’m not saying that. Nausea could be a bug. A sore throat could be a sign of a cold. However, if the swollen throat is chronic, or the coughing doesn’t seem to go away, and the wheezing happens after a meal…. All that drainage in the morning that you’re coughing up from your throat or chest, or blowing your nose… Could be from the reflux from lying down all night.
 
As I sit here and write this, I am chuckling to myself because I am experiencing EXACTLY the same scenario I have walked 1000’s of clients through. I’ve taught this over and over, and here I am in the thick of it: ACID REFLUX. And guess what is curing mine? Shoot, I’m not supposed to use the word “cure” but I can if I’m talking about myself, right?
 
I am literally taking the same supplement I have been putting clients on for YEARS for acid reflux symptoms. Currently, I am not digesting because my thyroid is out of whack, which means I’m not making enough hydrochloric acid.

What happens when we don't make enough hydrochloric acid? 
When we don’t make enough hydrochloric acid, our meal sits in there and ferments, creating a bad acid, lots of gas, and so much volume that it creeps up the esophagus. It’s not that we have too much acid. Well, it is, and it isn’t. It’s that we don’t have enough of the GOOD acid. And we have too much of the harmful acid produced during fermentation.
 
When we sit down to a meal or eat on the fly, if we aren’t producing enough hydrochloric acid on our own, we have to take precursors to create more. Once we have enough hydrochloric acid to digest our food, the broken-down chyme moves into the small intestine more quickly, resulting in no acid reflux. I take at least 4 Zypan per meal, sometimes more if it is a more complicated grouping of foods. I’ve had clients take 8 or 9 per meal for a period of time while their bodies balance.

​What supplements alleviate acid reflux? 
Sometimes additional digestive enzymes need to be included, and a hiatal hernia should be checked for, which is just the stomach getting stuffed up into the sphincter between the stomach and esophagus.

But I can’t tell you how amazing Zypan is for correcting acid reflux/GERD and other digestive issues. Often, that hiatal sphincter issue can be due to sluggish digestion, pushing everything up.
 
There is always the possibility that you are among the <1% who actually produce too much hydrochloric acid, but that is pretty rare. I’ve had maybe 2 people in 13 years of practice who didn’t need something like Zypan for their acid reflux.
 
If you don’t test for Zypan, other similar options include Betaine hydrochloride or HCL Plus.
 
Digestion and absorption are the keys to healing the body's organs and systems. It all starts in the gut. Health starts in the gut. Disease starts in the gut. Autoimmune starts in the gut. But that’s a discussion for another blog – actually, I think I’ve already written that one!

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Connie J. Kelly
Nutritional Health Practitioner

Naturopathic Health
B.S. MedSci, NHE, FBWS
(Natural Health Educator)
(Functional Bloodwork Specialist)