Tea reaction
In my previous post, I mentioned that to increase stomach acid level naturally, I’m taking Ginger-Lemon-Salt-Black Pepper tea three times a day and I can feel a little heartburn. Well, things went awry after that. The heartburn kept on getting worse. It was aggravated so badly that my throat started hurting from burps. When I would be empty stomach I would get mild but painful burn. If I would eat something, things would be quiet for while but would get really ugly soon. This went on for three days. I immediately stopped having tea. I found that stomach lining may get inflamed due to excess acid. To aid that, I took turmeric paste (that’s a tablespoon of turmeric with a little water). I also had to eat bananas to protect the stomach lining. Baking soda solution and drinking lot of water helped. Fennel seeds helped as well. I was really worried in the beginning. I thought the excess acid is going to burn an ulcer in my stomach. My BMs too went bad and I experienced severe indigestion.
Remission
But it started subsiding day by day. The heartburn was less the second day and today, the third I had only a warm feeling in the morning, which is gone now. I regret that I wasted three days of my recovery period because of excess black pepper and went through a terrible phase of heartburn. However, this episode has a bright side as well.
The bright side
Now, at least I know that I don’t have Achlorhyrida, total lack of stomach acid and lack of stomach acid production. A certain autoimmune disease, atrophic gastritis causes the immune system to attack the parietal cells and destroy it completely. These cells are responsible for secreting gastric acid (HCL) and creating intrinsic factor, which in turn is responsible for the absorption of Vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 plays a major role in making the stomach produce acid too. In short, if the parietal cells are damaged, a person can’t produce stomach acid ever. Hence I know the parietal cells inside my stomach aren’t destroyed yet. This is because black pepper stimulates parietal cells and asks it to produce more acid. I had black pepper in excess. My active and hopefully healthy parietal cells produced a lot of stomach acid as a response and I got terrible heartburn. And why is stomach acid production so important for me? It’s because I’m suffering from Hypochlorhydria which resulted in Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth which caused, bloating, belching, indigestion, nutrients mal-absorption and weight loss. If my stomach starts producing enough acid. The bacteria will stay where they belong and I will be able to digest the food properly.
Where from here…
But its a long journey ahead. I learnt that just by making the stomach produce lot of acid is not going to solve the problem. I need to take some steps for proper recovery:
1. Get more digestive enzymes: I found that if the stomach produces acid but the body has little or no digestive enzyme, it’ll result in indigestion and heartburn.
2. Get more nutrients: Vitamin B-Complex, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Zinc and Magnesium are responsible for stomach acid production. Triggering stomach with black pepper is very painful and unhealthy.
3. Reinstate proper gut flora: Good bacteria help absorbing vitamins, releasing bile and absorbing nutrients. Due to SCD, the bacteria population in my intestine is really low. I need to reinstate the healthy balance again for digestion to start working again.
My Struggle With SIBO 