Nutritionally Speaking: How to Outwit Stomach Backups

Dear Dr. Meinig: From time to time a small amount of food from my stomach backs up into my mouth. Other than it tastes terribly, it doesn’t seem to bother me too much. Could you tell me why this is occurring and what to do about it. – B.H.

 

Dear B.H.: This is probably the result of a spastic pyloric valve or a hiatal hernia, but could be from a number of other causes. The pyloric valve is the junction between the stomach and duodenum. When the food in the stomach has been sufficiently digested and travels to this junction, the stomach acid causes the constricted muscles to relax, allowing the digesting food (chyme) to travel into the duodenum for the next step in the digestive process, in the small intestine.

It is sometimes said, when regurgitation occurs, that the pyloric muscles are overdeveloped. Over-constriction is the cause in some infants, preventing food from leaving the stomach in its travels to the intestines. In adults such tightening is probably due to faulty body chemistry.

These cases are more frequent when alkalosis, low calcium, and low hydrochloric acid levels are present. Micalosis frequently results from following high,fruit and vegetable diets. When stomach acid is low, the pyloric muscles fail to relax, but tighten instead, forcing the food back up into the mouth. When this happens, the acidic chyme can damage the teeth unless it is promptly removed by rinsing and tooth brushing.

Treatment of the constriction consists of reducing sugars, starches, potassium foods (fruit and vegetables), fats, and introducing rare meat or fish, buttermilk (with a little salt if salt is permitted). Hydrochloric acid supplements by mouth are often needed. Supplements of betaine hydrochloride or glutamic acid can be bought over the counter.

A hiatal hernia occurs when the stomach pushes up through and above the diaphragm. The tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach, the esophagus, opens into the stomach just as it passes through the diaphragm, the thin partition that separates the thoracic cavity with its stomach, intestines and other organs. When some of the stomach protrudes upward through this opening (or hiatus) in the diaphragm, one has a hiatal hernia. This is easily seen with X-ray studies. It is estimated that about 40 percent of the population have this condition, many of them without any real problems.

When there is heartburn or regurgitation, it can cause ulcers in the esophagus, as this structure does not have the stomach’s ability to produce mucus. It is the mucus on the stomach lining that prevents the acid from causing an ulcer there.

Those having symptoms should avoid acid stimulating foods and beverages such as coffee, alcohol, chocolate, fats, refined carbohydrates, anticholinergic drugs and smoking. As lying down makes it easy for stomach contents to flow back upward, it often helps to elevate the head of the bed about six inches. When lying down, it is wise to sit up quickly if you feel a “burp” coming.

Chlorophyll and comfrey supplements often reduce pain and irritation. A doctor should be consulted if medication is needed. Denis Burkitt, M.D., in the medical text, Applications of Clinical Nutrition, mentioned an interesting concept. He had noticed that a good deal of pressure is created inside the abdominal cavity when a person sits on the raised western toilet, and strains while evacuating his stool. He observed that third-world people who squat along the roadside, did not create neatly as much internal pressure; and—not only did these people have no hiatal hernias, but also, they seldom had hemorrhoids. While he attributes this partly to the higher fiber content of their food, studies have actually measured significantly high pressures when straining on the toilet.

Patients who are greatly troubled with this problem, may ponder the difficulty of his suggested remedy, carried out by placing one’s feet on the toilet seat rather than one’s rear and squatting rather than sitting on the toilet. This takes unusual balancing skill, and I don’t recommend it. However, a simple solution is to purchase a hospital bed pan and place it on the floor in the bathroom. Then by squatting down over it as our ancestors used to do one can avoid the excess abdominal pressure that causes the hernia. Patients who follow this procedure, along with changing from the refined foods that cause these hard stools, are delighted with the disappearance of their suffering from hernias and hemorrhoids.