Polski
After I discovered that my problems with the lack of smell were caused by a simple zinc deficiency, and that skin can heal eczema on its own after replenishing GLA and magnesium, I thought that I now my life would be idyllyc for decades to come. Soon, however, I found out that although with an increased dose of zinc my sense of smell returns quite quickly, when I stop taking it, I lose it again after some time. Why??
Why do I have chronic deficiencies of zinc and other nutrients?
I was looking for an answer for a long time, and no one could explain it to me…
However, one day I went to an osteopath with horribly numb legs and suspected pressure in my loins after and accident, and she looked at me and said: ‘it’s not the loins – it’s the stomach!’
Stomach??
Look lady, my legs go numb a lot, but I have zero problems with digestion!
However, on second thoughts I realized that after each pill I feel sick, that my belly is still swollen for no apparent reason and it won’t flatten, and that in the evening I can still feel what I ate for breakfast…
Hmmm, ok, maybe. Osteopaths tend to discover strange connections inside a person, but they are also strangely effective. And this osteopath has never let me down. Maybe I should give her theory a chance?
I don’t like salt, it’s true, so maybe I don’t have enough digestive juices.
I wanted to find out with a baking soda test but I didn’t have the courage – so I decided to simply try lowering the pH of my stomach and see if anything improves. Since I was already acquainted with the literature, the first thing I did was salt and water. A terrible mistake! I hate salt, and my stomach hates it even more. Even at low concentrations, it reacted with pain, cramping and nausea. I put salt (the Himalayan variety) out to pasture. What’s next?
Acidifying the stomach with natural vinegar
I made apple cider vinegar and soon started drinking it on an empty stomach. At first it hurt, although not as much as with salt, I was also a bit nauseous but I decided to hold out for at least 2 weeks.
After a week I was no longer nauseous and soon my stomach stopped hurting.
I like clarity and I don’t like to wait long for the effects so I might have used too much of this vinegar and a bit too early. Today I would be smarted and go easy – I would start with a teaspoon of vinegar per glass of water, drink it half an hour before each meal and gradually increase the concentration as my well-being improves: when you stop feeling sick, it is a sign that the concentration can be increased a bit. As a rule, however, I would not exceed the dose of 2 tablespoons of vinegar per glass of water and 4-6 tablespoons of vinegar per day.
Apart from that I would listen to myself and adjust my actions accordingly.
A stomach that is very low in acid will suffer during acidification.
It can be safely assumed that in a poorly digesting stomach there are erosions in the mucous membrane, without acid control bacteria and fungi run rampant (including the natural flora of the stomach, i.e. h.pylori, which should by no means be fought with antibiotics), there may even be ulcers.
When using any methods of lowering the pH of the stomach, it is important to keep this in mind and act carefully so as not to make it worse, especially in the case of ulcers, which first need to be cured wisely.
Now I drink water with vinegar on an empty stomach and I drink this isotonic drink throughout the day
Because life is life and you won’t always be able to drink vinegar before eating, I’m not afraid to drink it during a meal. After all, I am adding acid to acid, right? 🙂
I used to connect the idea of drinking vinegar only to a story from the book ‘Gruby’ by Aleksander Minkowski, in which a boy drinks the whole bottle at once to kill himself. Not very encouraging 😉
However, since I started drinking water with vinegar, literally everything got better: my stomach retreated under my ribs, the nausea stopped, I had the general impression that I was slightly losing weight, my sense of smell and the condition of my hair improved.
Betaine HCL
Everything was fine until we went though an antiparasitic therapy with Zentel – I took a lot of it and after one of the doses my stomach literally stopped working. My stomach swelled up as if it wanted to burst, my legs went numb so much that I wanted to crawl, I felt dizzy and horribly, horribly nauseous. Vinegar didn’t help, even in strong concentrations, so I decided to reach for something stronger, namely hydrochloric acid in capsules, i.e. Betaine HCL. Betaine is taken during meals with a high protein content and the dose is increased gradually, waiting for a feeling of heat in the stomach, which indicates the effective and maximum dose at a given moment. In my preparation this dose was supposed to be about 6 capsules. I kept increasing until, trembling, I got to 11 capsules and decided that this game was not for me. No matter how you slice it, I am swallowing real hydrochloric acid and I wouldn’t want to suddenly discover that I overdid it and burned my esophagus or half of my digestive system.
Vinegar doesn’t work, acid doesn’t work, I feel terrible – what now??
Bentonite treatment
Desperate and without many expectations, I started a thread at a Canadian naturopath’s FB group, where I am a member, and he quickly responded to try bentonite: half a teaspoon per half a glass of water on an empty stomach and before going to sleep at night (the dose is built up gradually up to 2 teaspoons per glass – it’s best to prepare the clay several hours earlier to make it stronger).
I had a supply of clay, so I could start right away and I immediately noticed an improvement: yes, I did feel nauseous, but the pain disappeared on the first day of treatment. Then my stomach retract to hide under my ribs again, and after a week or two, I no longer fest nauseous. Finally….
A healthy stomach is the basis of health
Why is it so important to have a healthy stomach? Because in the stomach proteins are broken down into smaller molecules. If too large, undigested proteins get into the intestine, they cause intestine inflammation. Inflammation of the intestine increases its permeability, which not only impairs the absorption of nutrients, but also allows unwanted substances to penetrate straight into the bloodstream. It is therefore possible that such undigested proteins circulate in the blood and spread inflammation to various parts of the body. It is not the proteins themselves that are the culprit, but the inefficient functioning of the stomach. That is why I am strongly convinced that the you should alway start by restoring a state in which you do not have to eliminate anything normal from your diet, in which neither gluten nor milk is harmful, because neither of them has ever been the real cause of hypersensitivity.
What if it turned out that intestinal inflammation, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, and food intolerances are caused by too high pH of gastric juices? What if it turned out that by improving protein digestion you also improve the condition of the intestines, increase the absorption of nutrients and decrease hypersensitivity to proteins?
We know such stories.
So let me repeat: the stomach mainly digests proteins – the digestion process consists in breaking down proteins into the smallest possible molecules so that they can safely go to the small intestine, where fats are broken down.
The correct pH of digestive acids is 1-2.5 and they are one of the most corrosive substances in the world – apparently one of the reasons why autopsy tables are made of steel is because spilled stomach contents can burn everything they touch. We carry something so incredibly corrosive right inside us, from birth to death, and we’re fine – it’s absolutely unbelievable!
The condition of the intestine and the condition of the skin
As a side note: the pathologist I have already quoted, Dr. Wallach, claims that the condition of the skin reflects the condition of the intestine.. So if someone suffers from eczema, they may suspect that their intestine is in equally poor condition. So this topic is worth looking into and so is trying to eliminate all irritating and inflammatory foods from your diet for some time, detoxifying the body (magnesium baths, saunas, deworming, rinsing the intestines and liver) and giving the mucosa a chance to heal. I also wholeheartedly recommend consuming appropriate fatty acids (e.g. my beloved evening primrose oil), which provide the body with material to rebuild cell membranes.
In summary, I will only say that my stomach pH rises after a long time of non-acidification and I don’t know why this happens. Maybe it’s because I’m not a fan of salt, maybe there is a different reason I have yet to discover. Surely it all has something to do with my recurring calcium deficiency, probably also because of my rather chaotic lifestyle and the fact that I take poor care of myself. I would like to believe that once you fix something, it is enough, but I don’t think that’s the case. After all, you can’t ever get enough sleep. Or enough food. Or air to breathe.
However, I know for sure where my chronic zinc deficiency comes from – if my digestions if poor, so it my absorption.
A vicious circle.
That’s why since I started making and drinking vinegars, everything started to improve for me. When I forget about vinegar for a few weeks, nausea, swelling and pain start to reappear. Then, after facepalming, I have to say to myself: “Mom, take care of yourself!”, reach for bentonite again and drink the vinegar solution on an empty stomach. After about a week, it improves again and all I need is to sip my standard isotonic drink throughout the day to keep make this state of well-being permanent.
Symptoms of potentially low gastric juice levels (hypochlorhydria):
–heartburn
–nausea
–burping
–bloating
– burning sensation after meals
– reflux (hoarseness, sore throat)
– skin problems, including mycosis
– lack of appetite for meat (especially in vegetarians and vegans)
– lack of appetite in the morning (still undigested dinner)
– uncontrollable appetite (the body has problems with absorbtion so it keeps demanding nutrients)
– regular presence of undigested food in the stool
– anemia that won’t respond to iron supplementation
– overgrowth of bacteria (H.pylori) and fungi (Candida)
Heartburn as a symptom of deficiency in digestive acid sounds like an oxymoron, but it is one of the first symptoms. In such a situation, it will not do as much harm as drugs that neutralize the pH of the stomach. If you are uncertain about the diagnosis, you can try doing a home test for stomach pH, and as a last resort, schedule a gastroscopy.
Possible health consequences of excessive stomach pH (inefficient digestion):
– food allergies and intolerances (hypersensitivity to all kinds of proteins)
– inflammation in the bowels (irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis)
– gastrointestinal cancers
– inflammation of the thyroid gland, including Hashimoto’s
– excessive increase in the number of parasites in the body
– susceptibility to food poisoning, rotavirus, etc.
– deficiencies of trace elements, vitamins and fatty acids, which lead to a whole range of diseases and ailments called civilization diseases
Real vinegar
You can increase the acidity of the stomach with any type of vinegar, but it is best to do it with unpasteurized vinegar, because the stomach is not only HCl, but also enzymes and bacteria, which are supposed to die in the pasteurization process. For this reason, of course, I decided to take it even one step further and when I make my vinegars they have as many enzymes and bacteria as possible by using honey – also a novelty for me – instead of sugar. 🙂
Honey is a treasure chest: in the fermentation process, glucose disappears from the solution, but all the good stuff (minerals, vitamins, bacteria, enzymes) remains!
The most complicated process that I have tried is multiple fermentation in which after each subsequent round of fermentation, the vinegar is enriched with a double portion of nutrients from the fruit and a double portion of honey.
The vinegar of all vinegars is ratafia, which is fermented for many months to create the essence of aromas, flavors and richness of the whole summer.
In this post, I describe them in a bit more detail: https://anna-bee.com/en/blog/real-homemade-vinegar-summer-encapsulated-almost-for-eternity/
PS
Swedish herbs
Since the shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot and the vinegar manufacturer forgets to bring them home I’ve been neglecting myself again recently. My stomach is swollen, I am still nauseous and food poisoning hits me hard on average once a month. Restoring the health of my stomach with vinegar (for a better healing effect – vinegar with aloe vera) will take a while again, but to speed up and alleviate this process, I was recommended Swedish herbs. I quickly bought a ready-made solution from the pharmacy, which has a scary list of ingredients, but seems to be soothing. The optimal solution is to buy a mixture of herbs and create a pure tincture yourself to avoid poisoning yourself as much as possible with the filth from the pharmacy.
Mine is macerating – if it helps me, I’ll let you know.
And here you can get our awesome home-made vinegars based on honey