A Healthy Stomach

Natural Stomach Health

By Casey Adams, Ph.D.

A healthy stomach the key to a healthy body. A healthy stomach means we’ll be getting better nourished—to train, build muscle and maintain endurance. A healthy stomach means our food gets prepared for maximum absorption. Imagine only assimilating a small portion of the many healthy (and expensive) foods and supplements we buy. Sadly, this is the case for many of us.

A healthy stomach also means the freedom from heartburn and ulcers. Some reports state that almost a quarter of us will experience heartburn at some point. Nearly one in ten of us will get an ulcer. Some say these reports are conservative, as many cases go unreported. Then there is indigestion. Most of us experience this occasionally, if not daily.

While we might assume we have one stomach, we actually have three. The first stomach is the mouth. This is where we masticate our food, liquefy it, and break down many starches. Under our tongue are salary glands. They produce amylase. Amylase is an enzyme that breaks down starches into simple sugars. This is why as we like starches. As we chew them, we taste the sugar.

Most of us hastily jam our faces with consecutive mouthfuls as if our plates were under threat of capture. We also tend to hold our breaths as we eat. This habit encourages a hasty chew and swallow, forcing unprepared food into an unprepared digestive system. Worse, many of us wash down our food before we even masticate it and begin the amylase digestive process.

Taking our time and chewing a little more liquefies our foods and mixes them with important mucus and enzymes. Chewing well also makes eating more enjoyable, and gives us a chance to work out our jaw and face muscles. The mouth also contains several parotid glands, located in the jaw behind the ears. As we chew, these parotid glands are stimulated, releasing T-cells into the blood and lymphatic system.

The trick to better mastication is to take some slow easy breaths while chewing; listen while chewing and talk after swallowing; and try not to wash our food down with a drink. Let our saliva and amylase liquefy the food. Swallow when it feels like runny mashed potatoes.

Drinking liquids while we eat dilutes the entire digestion process. Our enzymes are diluted and the stomach must work harder to absorb the water. By diluting important enzymes, we slow down their potential. This leads to less absorption and longer digestive times through the intestines. A sip now and again to rinse the palate is all we need.

The second ‘stomach’ is the esophagus. The esophagus is the staging area for our food. If we masticate our food well enough, our food will pass through the esophagus to the stomach within ten seconds. At the bottom of the esophagus is a valve called the esophageal sphincter. This valve lets food into the main stomach while keeping acid and food from backing up into the esophagus. An unhealthy sphincter doesn’t close tightly enough—causing heartburn as acids and food irritate the sensitive mucous membranes of the esophagus. If the food delivered to the sphincter comes in too fast and rough, strain will be put on the cricopharyngeus muscle. When this supporting muscle loses tone, the valve weakens.

This is not the only cause for heartburn. As food is dropped into the stomach, it undergoes intense churning and breakdown by the stomach’s digestive juices. Special glands intertwined among stomach cells secrete a mixture of biochemicals. This blend is composed primarily of hydrochloric acid, pepsin, rennin and a special mucus—made primarily of mucopolysaccharides. To varying degrees, the stomach also secretes lipase, a fat-splitting enzyme. The enzymes pepsin and rennin break down proteins, preparing them for intestinal assimilation.

Healthy gastric juice is critical. Its pH must range from about 1 to 3. Hydrochloric acid (HCL) is the main component for pH control. An acidic pH is critical to sterilize our food. Without enough HCL, we run the risk of allowing various unwanted bacteria into the stomach and intestines. One of these is Helicobacter pylori. Recent research has connected H. pylori overgrowths in the stomach to a majority of ulcers.

The common premise is that heartburn means too much acid in the stomach. The typical response is to take antacids. This may provide a short fix for those with esophagus sphincter leaks. For many others, antacids don’t help the pain at all. Here the sphincter isn’t the problem. In this case, antacids may make matters worse, because they drive the pH too high. When the pH is too high, our food won’t get broken down right. The enzymes will be compromised. The stomach and the rest of the body will be left open to bacterial infection.

Acid-blocking medications further exasperate the problem in many cases. While these may be helpful for temporarily easing pain or helping ulcers heal, they also can create the reduction of the very digestive juices we need to break down our foods for intestinal absorption. They also cut back HCL production, again allowing bacteria to grow.

As far as the ulcer-H. pylori connection goes, it would be interesting to see how many H. pylori infections occurred after a heartburn sufferer self-medicated with antacids and/or acid-blockers for a while.

Naturopathic doctors and an increasing number of medical doctors are now prescribing remedies that balance and even increase the stomach’s HCL production for their heartburn and ulcer patients. There are a number of natural substances that balance gastric juices; including cabbage juice, fresh ginger juice, and dandelion flowers. Betaine HCL is also often recommended. These all balance or stimulate gastric acid production. While it may seem odd to increase HCL levels in cases of stomach heartburn, this has a long history of success in traditional treatments.

The other problem that can occur is that the gastric secretions may have reduced mucus content. Mucus lines the stomach cells, buffering them from the harsh stomach acids. Sometimes a burning stomach is the result of too little mucus lining. This is often the case for those who do not drink enough liquids, or those who under greater stress. When the body is stressed, it focuses its energies upon muscle and nervous activity, depleting the resources of the gastric glands.

While antacids may help temporarily in these cases, they again cause the problems noted above. For healthy mucus lining, it is critical to hydrate enough—meaning 8+ glasses of water a day, because hydration is directly related to mucus secretion. It also helps to drink that water on an empty stomach. One of the best times to drink water is first thing in the morning before we eat and before we brush our teeth. Drinking on any empty stomach will not only hydrate the body faster—as the stomach directly assimilates water into the bloodstream—but it delivers mucus from the mouth and esophagus into the stomach. To increase our stomach mucus, we might consider sucking on a little sour fruit or pressing our tongue around our mouth to produce more saliva. Then we can swallow that down with or even without water. Doing this prior to a meal will increase our stomach mucus. Note that water should precede the meal by at least 15-20 minutes to allow for absorption. It also helps to relax and breathe, especially prior to and during a meal.

Several herbs are known to increase the production of mucus in the stomach. They include slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, ginger root, and licorice root. Taking a daily tea with these on an empty stomach can do wonders for the health of our intestinal lining. They’ll also help a sore throat.

With three healthy stomachs, we stand three times the chance to absorb our nutrients, right?

This is not intended to treat, diagnose, or prevent any disease. Consult your health professional if you have any symptoms.