Holidays are a time when many of us will overeat and indulge on heavier foods than we are used to eating.

This will lead many of us to experience heartburn and acid reflux.

Heartburn and acid reflux are fairly common, and most of us assume that it’s caused by having too much stomach acid.

Spoiler alert!

It’s more commonly a problem of NOT ENOUGH stomach acid.

Our chronically stressful lifestyles are indeed the biggest culprit but, stress doesn’t result in more stomach acid, it results in LESS stomach acid.

Have you heard that our nervous system is comprised of two opposing systems?

We have the “Fight or Flight” sympathetic system and the “Rest and Digest” parasympathetic system.

When we are in a stressful situation, our “Fight or Flight” system dominates. Our body’s resources are rushed to our muscles, heart, lungs, and brain so that we can stay alive and keep ourselves safe.

In a stressful situation, whether we’re feeling physical or emotional stress, the last thing our body needs to worry about is digesting that egg sandwich we had for breakfast.

So instead of sending resources to our stomach, or prompting our digestive juices to flow, or signaling our stomach to churn so we breakdown our food, our body sends our resources elsewhere so that we can tackle more important things like survival.

Now we have an egg sandwich in our stomach with very little stomach acid or churning happening to help us break down the sandwich.

The sandwich sits in our stomach much longer than it should, waiting to be digested. The sandwich begins to ferment and causes irritation and inflammation of our gut lining.

It’s this inflamed lining that burns when our body finally releases stomach acid.

A low stomach acid environment also leaves us open to an opportunistic bacteria called H. Pylori.

This guy likes it when we have a less acidic environment in our gut.

He decides to set up a home in our gut lining and has the ability to further reduce the acidity in our stomach in order to keep it habitable.

H. Pylori creates more irritation and damage to the gut lining.

There are other reasons we can experience heart burn including structural issues, excessive bloating and constipation, foods that create gas and pressure, and poor eating habits.

Whatever the root cause of your heart burn and acid reflux, it isn’t TOO MUCH stomach acid.

However, we are told this is our issue so we try to reduce the pain by using an over-the-counter antacid or acid blocker, or even a prescription.

The problem is, we further reduce our acidity every time we take one of these and continue to exacerbate the real problem.

So the ONE THING that you need to STOP DOING is…

Taking ANTACIDS or ACID BLOCKERS.

Of course, I wouldn’t suggest that you stop cold turkey because you don’t want a large increase in acidity that will continue to burn your already inflamed stomach lining.

You want to focus on healing the gut lining first while tackling an H. Pylori infection (if present), and slowly increasing acidity to improve digestion.

While doing this, you also want to work on better eating habits and reducing stress, particularly around meals.

I help my clients tackle their heartburn and reflux with this exact approach.

We do a complete symptom and system assessment and complete a functional gut health lab to see what’s going on under the hood.

Then I provide you with a specific nutrient and lifestyle protocol, and plenty of coaching and support, to help tackle the root cause of your issue so that you never need to feel the burn or take another antacid again!

Are you ready to get rid of your heart burn or reflux once and for all?

Do you know someone who is struggling with this issue?

Start by booking a discovery session with me here to discuss your health concerns and goals, and learn how Nutritional Therapy can help you extinguish the burn and reclaim your health!

Cheers to a wonderful Holiday!

Heather Glenn, FNTP, RWP, HHC

PS ~ Remember to chew your food thoroughly, this will help you digest and usually helps reduce the quantity of food you'll eat.