Hypochlorhydria Test – to see if I was producing sufficient stomach acid to digest my food properly
I had to stop the Zantac for 5 days before this test, which believe me wasn’t easy, as my heartburn issues soon returned but I persevered and the result for this test came back as follows:-
My result 860 pg/ml Reference range 930 – 2050 pg/ml
So I had low stomach acid, then why did I get heartburn, well my thoughts on it are this. The contents of your stomach have to reach a certain level of acidity before the sphincter will open and allow it to pass through to the next stage. So was my heartburn, the result of my stomach’s last ditch attempt, to get up to that acidity level, so the sphincter would open ?
If you think this is happening to you, you can help increase the acid level in your stomach by drinking Vitamin C with your meals, either effervescent tablet, or for example orange juice, apple juice, etc. Just make sure it’s not a ‘juice drink’ as this would contain extra sugar (not good!).
Regards
Barbara
(UK)