Health Video

Heartburn: It’s not about your heart and usually not about too much acid either. (video)

Published April 21, 2008 | By Dr. Tim Irving DC, MS, LMT

Heartburn is often mistakenly labelled as GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disorder (or disease). For some time now, HCL or hydrochloric acid has been falsely deemed the culprit. Clinically, I, and many other functional medicine doctors have found that patients with heartburn often have too little HCL, this is known as hypochlorhydria. HCL is needed for proper digestion of proteins, absorption of critical nutrients like vitamin B12 and Zinc and is also needed to signal the pancreas to secrete its enzymes that are necessary for the further breakdown and absorption of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.

At Optimum Function in Portland, Oregon, I have put together a series of functional medicine programs that investigate and treat functional conditions like “heartburn” through nutritional and natural avenues of treatment. Click Here to find out more

I recently participated in a 5 month functional medicine program created by doctors Dicken Weatherby and Ron Grisanti. There was a lot of clinical discussion on this topic and Dr. Weatherby has put together an excellent video explaining why heartburn is often mistakenly associated with too much stomach acid.

Here it is: