I wrote Rich Van K an email about heartburn and decided to continue the discussion online so everyone can benefit. Here was my initial email to him and his reply.
rich,
may i ask for your help? my heartburn has been fierce lately. it may be due to eating too much sugar. so i'll stop. meanwhile, i'm looking over yr post of May 26, 2010, where you talk about:
1. doing the burp test to assess stomach acid levels (so i will do it tomorrow morning)
2. how "zinc deficiency could be a possible reason for low stomach acid production" (so i'll re-bump up my zinc intake to 50 mg per day)
3. that "If taking zinc and glutathione do not restore stomach acid levels, one can still use the approach of taking a hydrochloric acid solution orally (properly diluted so as not to damage the mouth, throat and esophagus, but to still be strong enough to help in the stomach) such as the product sold by Allergy Research Group. (Using a drinking straw and rinsing the mouth with water afterward will protect the enamel on the teeth.) Taking betaine-HCl is another possibility, but I have not been able to resolve the question as to whether the betaine in this supplement would speed up the BHMT alternative pathway in the liver and kidneys too much, at the expense of the methionine synthase pathway, which is partially blocked, and which the methylation cycle treatment seeks to speed up."
i'm just wondering two things:
a. do you still subscribe to this thinking (your above quotes)?
b. how would digestive enzymes help or hurt the goal of restoring stomach acid levels? would taking digestive enzymes be the same approach as trying a "hydrochloric acid solution/betaine HCI" approach?
thank you in advance for your thoughts. and for your original very detailed post from May 2010 (which i had saved on my computer).
best,
xxxxxxxx
______
On Apr 30, 2012, at 12:40 AM, rich wrote:
Hi, xxxxxxxx.
Sorry, heartburn is no fun.
Yes, it's important to find out whether it is due to insufficient stomach acid, which seems paradoxical, but turns out to be true in a lot of cases, and maybe most cases. So the baking soda burp test is what I suggest doing first.
Yes, low zinc is a possible cause, but in ME/CFS, I think that low glutathione is more probable as the cause, and it's necessary to lift the methylation cycle block to get glutathione to come up on a permanent basis. Liposomal glutathione may help temporarily.
The Allergy Research Group dilute hydrochloric acid, taken with each meal, would be my first choice for augmenting the stomach acid, until the normal secretion of it can be restored by bringing up glutathione with a methylation protocol.
Betaine-HCl is probably O.K., too, though it may boost the BHMT alternative methylation pathway too much. I'm still not sure about that.
Lemon juice would probably work, too, and some people have reported that apple cider vinegar works for them. I do recommend using a straw and flushing the teeth with water afterward.
Digestive enzymes might help by speeding up the digestion in the gut, so that the food mixture can move from the stomach to the gut faster. I think this motility can be slowed either by low stomach acid or by low digestive enzymes. I think that the way that low acid will slow motility is that normally the acid in the food mixture signals cells in the wall of the duodenum when it arrives there. These cells put secretin and cholecystokinin into the blood, and they signal the pancreas and the gall bladder to send in digestive enzymes and bile. If this message does not get sent well because the acid is low, then the digestion will be slowed down. So I think that's how these are related.
If you do both an acid booster and digestive enzymes, you will have a "belt and suspenders" approach, and hopefully that will help with the heartburn.
Best regards,
Rich
_________
hi rich,
thank you so much! a belt and suspenders sounds great.
BURP TEST: No burp came until 3 minutes after i took the baking soda and water. so i am low on stomach acid, clearly. (Here's a simple home do-it-yourself test: On an empty stomach, such as first thing in the morning, drink an 8-ounce glass of water, into which you have mixed one-quarter teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Time how long it takes you to burp. If you have not burped in 2 minutes, you have low stomach acid.)
GLUTATHIONE: i am hesitant. i have always reacted very badly to it (IM, IV, oral). each time i got very sick for days or wks from a small amount. i last tried it before gcmaf tho, so maybe i should try again. ugh.
METHYLATION PROTOCOL: sushi told me that you said the gcmaf protocol (gcmaf + nexavir + b12 shots; i've been on this 1 yr) helps lift the methylation cycle block and that while on it one (me!) does not need to be on the methylation protocol. is this true? (i am sure i asked you this just a few months ago, and you said i should still be on one of the 5 supps, the Solgar Folate/Metafolin, right?)
RE-SEND: can you please direct me to the most update methylation protocol? i have a version from March 2011 and i want to be sure i have the most updated version.
ACV or LEMON: you mention these below. do you mean i could take this with meals (instead of hydrochloric acid) or between meals? if you are suggesting them with meals, i'm confused, as both ACV and lemon are alkalizing, not acidic.
thank you again!
xxxxxx
________
rich,
may i ask for your help? my heartburn has been fierce lately. it may be due to eating too much sugar. so i'll stop. meanwhile, i'm looking over yr post of May 26, 2010, where you talk about:
1. doing the burp test to assess stomach acid levels (so i will do it tomorrow morning)
2. how "zinc deficiency could be a possible reason for low stomach acid production" (so i'll re-bump up my zinc intake to 50 mg per day)
3. that "If taking zinc and glutathione do not restore stomach acid levels, one can still use the approach of taking a hydrochloric acid solution orally (properly diluted so as not to damage the mouth, throat and esophagus, but to still be strong enough to help in the stomach) such as the product sold by Allergy Research Group. (Using a drinking straw and rinsing the mouth with water afterward will protect the enamel on the teeth.) Taking betaine-HCl is another possibility, but I have not been able to resolve the question as to whether the betaine in this supplement would speed up the BHMT alternative pathway in the liver and kidneys too much, at the expense of the methionine synthase pathway, which is partially blocked, and which the methylation cycle treatment seeks to speed up."
i'm just wondering two things:
a. do you still subscribe to this thinking (your above quotes)?
b. how would digestive enzymes help or hurt the goal of restoring stomach acid levels? would taking digestive enzymes be the same approach as trying a "hydrochloric acid solution/betaine HCI" approach?
thank you in advance for your thoughts. and for your original very detailed post from May 2010 (which i had saved on my computer).
best,
xxxxxxxx
______
On Apr 30, 2012, at 12:40 AM, rich wrote:
Hi, xxxxxxxx.
Sorry, heartburn is no fun.
Yes, it's important to find out whether it is due to insufficient stomach acid, which seems paradoxical, but turns out to be true in a lot of cases, and maybe most cases. So the baking soda burp test is what I suggest doing first.
Yes, low zinc is a possible cause, but in ME/CFS, I think that low glutathione is more probable as the cause, and it's necessary to lift the methylation cycle block to get glutathione to come up on a permanent basis. Liposomal glutathione may help temporarily.
The Allergy Research Group dilute hydrochloric acid, taken with each meal, would be my first choice for augmenting the stomach acid, until the normal secretion of it can be restored by bringing up glutathione with a methylation protocol.
Betaine-HCl is probably O.K., too, though it may boost the BHMT alternative methylation pathway too much. I'm still not sure about that.
Lemon juice would probably work, too, and some people have reported that apple cider vinegar works for them. I do recommend using a straw and flushing the teeth with water afterward.
Digestive enzymes might help by speeding up the digestion in the gut, so that the food mixture can move from the stomach to the gut faster. I think this motility can be slowed either by low stomach acid or by low digestive enzymes. I think that the way that low acid will slow motility is that normally the acid in the food mixture signals cells in the wall of the duodenum when it arrives there. These cells put secretin and cholecystokinin into the blood, and they signal the pancreas and the gall bladder to send in digestive enzymes and bile. If this message does not get sent well because the acid is low, then the digestion will be slowed down. So I think that's how these are related.
If you do both an acid booster and digestive enzymes, you will have a "belt and suspenders" approach, and hopefully that will help with the heartburn.
Best regards,
Rich
_________
hi rich,
thank you so much! a belt and suspenders sounds great.
BURP TEST: No burp came until 3 minutes after i took the baking soda and water. so i am low on stomach acid, clearly. (Here's a simple home do-it-yourself test: On an empty stomach, such as first thing in the morning, drink an 8-ounce glass of water, into which you have mixed one-quarter teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Time how long it takes you to burp. If you have not burped in 2 minutes, you have low stomach acid.)
GLUTATHIONE: i am hesitant. i have always reacted very badly to it (IM, IV, oral). each time i got very sick for days or wks from a small amount. i last tried it before gcmaf tho, so maybe i should try again. ugh.
METHYLATION PROTOCOL: sushi told me that you said the gcmaf protocol (gcmaf + nexavir + b12 shots; i've been on this 1 yr) helps lift the methylation cycle block and that while on it one (me!) does not need to be on the methylation protocol. is this true? (i am sure i asked you this just a few months ago, and you said i should still be on one of the 5 supps, the Solgar Folate/Metafolin, right?)
RE-SEND: can you please direct me to the most update methylation protocol? i have a version from March 2011 and i want to be sure i have the most updated version.
ACV or LEMON: you mention these below. do you mean i could take this with meals (instead of hydrochloric acid) or between meals? if you are suggesting them with meals, i'm confused, as both ACV and lemon are alkalizing, not acidic.
thank you again!
xxxxxx
________