Less Stressed Life: Helping You Heal Yourself #187 Why PPIs are the worst thing for gut health since stress with Christa Biegler, RD
In this weeks episode, I discuss the prevalence, problem and a proposed solution to over usage of PPI medications. I dig in and questions the why and why nots as well as explaining details of how PPI’s affect us.
Key Takeaways:
It’s estimated 15 million Americans use PPIs or proton-pump inhibitors.
"Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) are members of a class of medications whose main action is a profound and prolonged reduction of stomach acid production." Some names you might be familiar with are Nexium, Prilosec, and Prevacid. PPI's are used to heal ulcers but also, often prescribed generally for complaints of heartburn, bloating, and indigestion. Sometimes they're even used prophylactically with other medications.
Problem with over usage of PPI's:
Good digestion begins with good stomach acid. HCl (stomach acid) is responsible for breaking down your food along with ensuring an acidic environment in the stomach to protect your body against "bad" microbes and/or microbial overgrowth. Chronically low stomach acid opens you up to a world of gut imbalances and pathogens that cause food digestion issues that may later create food sensitivities and maybe a feeling of “heaviness” or “bloating” when eating certain foods because they aren’t being properly digested.
Often when prescribed, PPI's are serving as a band-aide and not addressing the root causes of the problem. You must address the root cause in order to heal.
Mentioned in this episode:
- https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-drug-safety-communication-clostridium-difficile-associated-diarrhea-can-be-associated-stomach
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23927671/
- https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-drug-safety-communication-low-magnesium-levels-can-be-associated-long-term-use-proton-pump
- https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0124653
In my private practice, I help people with gut, skin, and energy issues, by taking them through a root cause approach process that addresses all of these potential causes of heartburn, GERD, or indigestion and reviews the need for PPIs in order to help them get off medication and on to reducing symptoms to uplevel their life, health and happiness.
Check out our resources, including a new guide on “how to heal your gut” or book a call at
Personalized functional medicine with Christa Biegler:
http://www.lessstressednutrition.com
Less Stressed Life Podcast:
http://www.lessstressedlife.com
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