Page 74 - Fall2013

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Why Stomach Acid is Good for You (hydrochloric acid, or HCl). HCl is designed to
by Jonathan Wright, MD and Lane Lenard, “get things going,” so to speak. The very strong
PhD acid is supposed to start breaking things down to
M. Evans and Company a point where they can pass along into the small
intestine, the next stop on the digestion train.
Tums, Rolaids, Nexium, the purple pill: if Food isn’t supposed to remain in the stomach for
the endless stream of TV, print, and online ads very long. The HCl should be strong enough to
for medication to reduce stomach acid is any do its job, crank things up, and hand the baton to
indication, we are facing an epidemic of exces- the duodenum. When HCl isn’t strong enough, or
sive stomach acid. We are absolutely drowning there’s not enough of it to go around, food stays
in it and should ask our doctors for prescription- in the stomach longer than it should. Proteins
strength drugs to lower it. How else could we putrefy, carbohydrates start to ferment, and this
account for the fact that over-the-counter and pre- is what produces bloating, discomfort, and the
scription medication to treat heartburn, GERD, gas that “refluxes” back into the esophagus. So
and other forms of indigestion are among the top acid-reducing and blocking drugs are simply
selling drugs? Contrary to what we’ve been led to band-aids. They do nothing to address the under-
believe, Drs. Jonathan Wright and Lane Lenard lying cause. In fact, by merely suppressing the
argue that these conditions have little to do with symptoms and allowing the sufferer to continue
eating and drinking acidic foods and beverages, eating as before, they lay the groundwork for
or lying down too soon after a meal. The biggest slow-growing, long-term health complications.
factor in indigestion, they say, is not too much The authors pull no punches in calling pharma-
stomach acid, but too little. ceutical companies to the mat for their whack-a-
If this sounds illogical, it’s only because mole approach to treating individual symptoms
many of us are unfamiliar with the anatomy and and marketing yet more drugs for the conditions
physiology of our own digestive tracts. It makes the acid blockers eventually create: “Never lose
sense that too much stomach acid would cause the sight of the fact that pharmaceutical companies
discomfort we associate with indigestion, but a are not in business to cure diseases, but rather
quick primer on the digestive process reveals that to make money for their stockholders. Once a
rather than making our stomachs less acidic, we patient is cured, that patient doesn’t need to buy
want to make sure our stomach acid is plentiful any more drugs. But if his or her symptoms are
and strong. When it’s not, indigestion is only one suppressed, they may be ‘hooked’ on the drugs
among myriad conditions that result. The authors for life.”
give an A-to-V list of health complications that Strong stomach acid accomplishes several
are the direct and indirect results of insufficient things: it activates protein-digesting enzymes
acidity—everything from acne to vitiligo—and and helps us absorb vitamins and minerals like
The biggest if there were more common conditions with the calcium, zinc, iron, folate, and B . Wright and
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factor in letters X through Z, they would have included Lenard offer detailed—and shocking—explana-
indigestion, those, too. tions of the role of insufficient HCl in anemia,

How does reduced stomach acid cause osteoporosis, depression, memory loss, and other
they say, is indigestion? While food begins its mechanical conditions caused by deficiencies in these nutri-
not too much and chemical breakdown in the mouth (courtesy ents. Further, strong HCl destroys pathogens and
stomach acid, of chewing and salivary enzymes), the major triggers subsequent steps in the digestive cascade
breakdown of food starts in the stomach. Specifi-
that are signaled by the proper degree of acid-
but too little. cally, protein triggers the release of stomach acid ity. The authors explain that “normal stomach
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