Unlike popular belief, heartburn and reflux is not caused by too much stomach acid. Whatever amount of acid you do have is just coming up causing:
In Chinese medicine, we call this counterflow Stomach Qi. Instead of your stomach energy descending, it is ascending. But why?
Your stomach is like an oven. It “rottens and ripens” its content, breaking down your macronutrients into micronutrients to be absorbed. When you invite a lot of cold into your stomach – cold drinks and food – you damage your stomach’s metabolic function and force it to work harder to warm itself back up.
“Your stomach prefers 100-degree temperature soup”
Your body recruits your Yang Qi (your core metabolic activity and heat) to warm your stomach back up. Over time, you can damage your Yang Qi, creating a more systemic metabolic cold leading to sluggishness and weakness.
You can have too much heat in your stomach from what you ingest – spicy food, greasy food, and/or alcohol – or heat that is within your digestive tract from an overgrowth of microbiomes or an infection.
Your food can have difficulty assimilating for many reasons:
The Wood Element organs are the liver and gallbladder. The Earth Element organs are the spleen and stomach.
When the liver’s energy is aggravated, the emotional manifestation is frustration, irritability, and anger. These emotions further stagnate your liver’s energy, which is supposed to expand outwardly in all directions. Instead, it overwhelms your digestive organs just next door, disrupting their normal qi movement.
When the digestive tract experiences chronic disruption, it uses up a lot of resources and presents as a substance deficiency.
No matter which pattern of disharmony is presenting, your digestive function weakens, which can cause:
The foundation of addressing any symptom is to balance lifestyle influences:
You could also target your pattern of disharmony:
| Stomach Cold | Drink warm or hot drinks Eat warm foods Use ginger, cloves, or cinnamon |
| Stomach Heat | Drink room temp drinks Avoid spicy and greasy foods Avoid alcohol |
| Food Stagnation | Eat smaller meals Avoid dense foods like red meats Prioritize walking after eating |
| Wood Overacting on Earth | Avoiding eating while stressed Take a few deep breaths before eating |
| Stomach Yin Deficiency | Avoid spicy foods Prioritize foods with a white interior |
Conventional doctors are focused on reducing your symptoms by reducing your acidity. They suggest you:
Antacids like Tums and Rolaids quickly neutralize your stomach acid with calcium carbonate. Note that it can cause or aggravate constipation.
Magnesium in the carbonate form also neutralizes stomach acid by converting it to magnesium chloride. Note that this can cause loose stools.
Proton Pump Inhibitors turn off your acid production, which is dangerous since acid is what kills potential pathogens in you ingest and stimulates the digestive process.
Calcium or magnesium carbonate are both effective strategies in the moment to make you more comfortable, but they are not a long-term strategy. Minerals are cold and can anchor your Stomach’s Qi, but they are also cold which will damage your stomach’s metabolic heat. They also do not address the underlying why for your Counterflow Qi.
The best treatment strategy is to treat your pattern of disharmony with a Chinese herbal formula.
Treating the correct pattern of disharmony is the most targeted approach to addressing your Counterflow Qi. Once the pattern is determined, this base formula can be modified by an experienced herbalist to address your specific presentation.
| Stomach Cold | Ding Xiang Shi Di Tang |
| Stomach Heat | Qing Wei San |
| Food Stagnation | Bao He Wan |
| Wood Overacting on Earth | Xiao Yao San |
| Stomach Yin Deficiency | Mai Men Dong Tang |
Since a weakening of your digestive function causes your stomach acid to reduce, increasing it will help improve your digestive function and reduce any overgrowths.
There are many products that can increase your stomach acid right before a meal:
RACV contains acetic acid and beneficial bacteria. It mildly reduces your stomach pH by producing hydrochloric acid (HCl). It is a great option to also help regulate your blood sugar, help with weight loss, lower your cholesterol, reduce high blood pressure, and improve your skin.
This is another way to gently product HCl. It is a great option when you are also looking for a healthy way to rehydrate and provide minerals. It has the same molecular concentration as your blood plasma and is used in the Wholistic Health Path detox phase.
Digestive bitters contain bitter herbs and essential oils which support bile flow by activating your bitter receptors. This is a great tool when you have difficulty with fats and prone to:
The strongest treatment tool to increase your stomach acid is using a product that contains betaine HCl with digestive enzymes. The amount of HCl and type of enzymes can vary quite a bit. The product I recommend in the Wholistic Health Path – Repair Your Digestive Tract phase also contains:
Note that you should not use HCl if you think you might have an ulcer which often presents as burning stomach pain.
Insufficient stomach acid reduces digestive function and allows for bacterial overgrowth and pathogens to occupy our digestive tracts. It is a component of most chronic health conditions that have developed over time. Therefore, one of the best treatment tools you can use to maintain good health is to optimize your stomach’s acidity.
Whether or not you are just treating your heartburn-reflux, or following the Wholistic Health Path, optimizing your stomach’s acidity once a year is a good health maintenance strategy.
Step into Action
| Treat your heartburn-reflux naturally | Optimize Your Stomach’s Acidity |
| Improve your diet and lifestyle | Sign up for the Cleansing Lifestyle Program |
| Determine your pattern of disharmony | Schedule a Personalized Consultation |