Apple Cider Vinegar… For Acid Reflux? 🍎🍏

Hello Health Champions. A lot of people are taking  apple cider vinegar to help with weight loss  

and insulin resistance but is it okay to take  it if you have things like heartburn or GERD?  

Today I want to make sure we get that totally  cleared up. Coming right up. Hey I'm Dr.  

Ekberg. I'm a holistic doctor and a former Olympic  decathlete and if you want to truly master health  

by understanding how the body really works, make  sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell  

so you don't miss anything. GERD is an acronym  for Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease and if you  

look it up you'll probably see something like the  following. 1. It's when acid enters the esophagus.  

So the esophagus is your food pipe it's where the  food comes down when you swallow into the stomach  

and if acid is in the stomach and it flows back  into the esophagus then that can cause heartburn.  

That is correct. Second thing you'll probably hear  is that the LES or the lower esophageal sphincter,  

which is this little muscle right here, if it's  not closing then that allows the back flow of this  

acid. And that is also correct. The third thing  you probably hear is that it's because there is  

too much acid in the stomach and that is just  not correct because most people don't have enough  

acid. There is something called hypochlorhydria,  which simply means - Not enough of hydrochloric  

acid and that is extremely common. Your stomach  is supposed to contain or produce something called  

hydrochloric acid which puts its pH at a very  low level. So if the pH is between 1 and 3, which  

it's supposed to be in the stomach, that puts it  right down here at the bottom of the scale. It's  

right above battery acid and this is because  the acid is there to help you digest protein.  

It's there to kill pathogens. A lot of pathogens  will enter through your digestive tract and if you  

have a high enough level of acid that will  kill them off. It's also there to help you  

absorb minerals and some vitamins like B-12 that  can only be absorbed appropriately in an acidic  

environment so if you don't make enough acid then  this stuff isn't going to work. Now if you have  

a normal amount of stomach acid this is what's  supposed to happen. Your pH stays between 1 and 3.  

And this low pH; it signals to the body to  close this lower esophageal sphincter to prevent  

the back flow. Then you're going to digest  protein in a timely fashion. You're going to have  

mucus to protect the stomach. The stomach  produces mucus that acts like a barrier  

against the acid and then if everything is  working, the food, the protein is going to move on  

through to the small intestine after about  two to four hours and in the ideal scenario  

everything works. But here's what happens when you  have hypochlorhydria - when you don't have enough.  

Now your pH is going to be much higher,  somewhere between four and six and now this  

is not going to provide the proper signals  to close that lower esophageal sphincter so  

it might remain partially open. You're also going  to have a slow and incomplete digestion. It's not  

going to happen in a timely fashion. The food  is going to be in the stomach much much longer  

and this is going to allow the stomach content  to reflux - gastroesophageal reflux disease - and  

this is going to severely irritate the esophagus  because the stomach has this mucus on the lining  

but the esophagus doesn't have any of that. So  that's why the esophagus gets very very irritated  

when it gets acid and now you experience the  symptoms of heartburn or GERD. Now if this goes  

on for some time you can develop something called  Barrett's esophagus. So they send down a little  

scope and take pictures and now they see that  these cells lining the esophagus don't look  

like normal healthy esophageal cells anymore.  They're starting to change and at first when they  

change it's called metaplasia - changing growth.  And if this goes on for a really long time then  

they change into something bad called dysplasia  which can eventually lead to cancer. What are  

the symptoms of hypochlorhydria, of not having  enough acid. Well interestingly the first one  

is heartburn. The sensation of too much acid  is because you don't have enough. Another thing  

that can happen quite a bit is that you just  don't have any appetite for meat. Your body is  

very intelligent so if you can't produce enough  stomach acid to break down meat, your body is  

going to tell you don't eat it because it's going  to cause problems if you can't break it down. Gas  

and bloating irritable bowel syndrome again if you  can't digest the food properly in the early stages  

it's going to cause problems down the road. Thin  hair and nails these are all made from proteins so  

if you're not breaking down food and utilizing  protein then you can't make the tissues that  

you want. Leaky gut is very very common and as a  result you often have food sensitivities and you  

can also start developing autoimmunity. In women  it's very common to have hair loss associated  

with it and in general you're going to find  multiple nutritional deficiencies because if you  

can't break down food then you can't absorb all  your proteins, your amino acids, iron, minerals  

vitamins etc. On top of the symptoms there  are some conditions associated with this  

and lupus systemic lupus erythematosus  which is an autoimmune condition can happen.  

Thyroid issues most of which are autoimmune as  Hashimoto's. Psoriasis which is not just a skin  

condition it's an arthritis it's an inflammatory  arthritis it's also an autoimmune condition.  

You can have lots of allergies asthma eczema  gastritis osteoporosis because bones are mostly  

protein. And you can also have pernicious anemia  because you need that stomach acid to absorb  

B-12 and make blood cells so what causes  hypochlorhydria why doesn't the body make this  

well hypothyroid when the thyroid slows  down everything slows down including the  

production of hydrochloric acid you can also have  a stomach bug called h pylori helicobacter pylori  

which is a nasty bug that gives you ulcers but  also convert some of your acid into base so it  

basically wrecks your stomach acid you could also  have taken too many antacids and this is what  

we're going to see in every store there's just  yards and yards of antacids because people have  

so much of these problems and then they think that  oh if I just take an antacid I solve the problem.  

No you calm down the symptom temporarily but by  taking that antacid you're setting yourself up  

for all of the problems all the conditions that  we talked about on the previous slide. Stress  

is one of the most common cause stress causes  everything have you noticed well it's because with  

stress your body shifts you have your fight  flight system and your feed breed system  

your digestive system so when you're in a fight  flight mode whether you're running from a lion  

or you're just worrying about the bills or the  last rude person that you should have told off  

in a certain way. Either way it's stress whether  it's real or imagined danger and your body is  

focusing all its resources on the outside and  when it does that it turns off everything to do  

with digestion and that's why stress is associated  with all digestive issues there is also a strong  

association between increasing age and a lowered  production of hydrochloric acid and that's just  

because most people as they age they degenerate  it doesn't mean that age has to cause that  

if you stay healthy if you maintain your body  remember use it or lose it then you can still  

reach a quite advanced age and not be degenerated  unfortunately once you have one or more of these  

they tend to feed each other in a vicious cycle  and that's what makes this problem kind of  

tough to get out of sometimes so now that you're  starting to understand more about how the stomach  

and the digestive system works you can see how  apple cider vinegar could actually be beneficial  

that its pH is 2.5 so it's right in that range of  what the stomach needs to be when you're digesting  

protein and even though it seems counterintuitive  to some people that it feels like you have too  

much acid why would you add more it actually  works if you understand what we just talked about  

so apple cider vinegar adds natural acid to the  system and it helps improve the signaling to close  

that lower esophageal sphincter to prevent the  backflow and it helps your digestion overall  

now what about taking apple cider vinegar if  you already have GERD or heartburn well it is  

quite safe and most people are going to find  that it improves the GERD it's going to go  

away or it's going to diminish significantly 90  - 95 percent of people in my office that we put  

on either apple cider vinegar or a digestive  supplement called betaine hydrochloride which  

is basically just stomach acid in a pill. The  vast majority get better now if you already have  

some irritation if you have an ulcer or you have  gastritis if it's just really raw and irritated  

then you may notice that it feels a little  worse if you take that apple cider vinegar or  

the betaine hydrochloride and that just  means you're not quite ready for it yet so  

you need to start with some soothing digestive  enzymes you need to take some digestive aids  

that do not have the acid component in it and  then later when your digestion improves then you  

could try again. Always remember that you don't  want to treat the symptom you want to address  

the root cause you want to heal the body you want  to reduce the stress you're going to give your  

body the proper nutrients. Now I understand  if you have an extreme case of heartburn that  

you probably want to take some antacids you might  want to take some Tums but realize that it's not a  

solution it will cover up the symptoms but if you  keep using it it will set you up for that vicious  

cycle and make it harder and harder for your body  to function so always address the root cause.  

If you enjoy this video and you want to learn  more about how the body works and how to get  

truly healthy check out that video. Thank you  so much for watching I'll see you next time