How I Found the Root Cause of My Chronic Abdominal Pain and Bloating After 10 Years

This has been a post almost 10 years in the making, my friend.

If you have chronic abdominal pain and bloating that leaves you miserable each night, I see you. I feel you. And I think I can help you. 🙂

It all started way back during my freshman year of college in 2014. I was having a lot of abdominal pain that, for a while, I thought was just needing to use the bathroom.

Nope.

After explaining my abdominal pain and bloating to my primary care doctor, she ordered an immunoglobulin G (IgG) blood test to see if I had any food sensitivities causing the symptoms. (Turns out these aren’t actually super accurate or helpful, but I didn’t know this at the time.)

These are the results from that IgG panel, indicating abnormal reactions to all foods tested except for cheese, of the mold type.

So based on those results, I was told to stop consuming anything with the top contenders, which were rice, corn, and coffee.

Coffee was no big deal since I didn’t drink it, but corn and rice?! It didn’t take me long to realize those two foods are in almost everything.

*cue me cutting out corn and rice completely from my life for 6 years and STILL not feeling better 😭*

But let’s back up a bit.

After a few months of eliminating corn and rice from my diet, I was still experiencing the painful abdominal bloating that left me doubled over in pain. The only relief I could find was lying flat on my back and riding it out until morning.

So my primary care doctor referred me to a GI doctor, who told me I have IBS and gave me an IBS medication to try.

And…. That still didn’t help.

So he ordered a colonoscopy and endoscopy, which I had at the ripe old age of 18. If you’ve never had a colonoscopy, the procedure itself isn’t bad. It’s the prep that’s horrid. Moving on.

The results from the procedures were disappointing, although informative. I’ll give ‘em that.

I was tested for celiac disease, which came back negative. The doctor found I have a hiatal hernia, which is when the top of your stomach bulges through an opening in your diaphragm. And I was told I have acid reflux.

So I was put on an acid reflux medication, despite me telling them I never experienced heartburn. And I didn’t experience heartburn until I started taking the antacid, so I quickly stopped taking it.

And there I was, back at square one. Except now I knew what it was like to be probed.

After dealing with the abdominal pain and bloating for a few years, despite my avoiding corn and rice like the plague, it felt like it was getting worse. There were stretches where I couldn’t go a day without that awful abdominal pain, so I did what anyone would do: I turned to Google.

And Google told me I had even MORE food sensitivities than just corn and rice.

At first I thought maybe tomatoes were the issue because of the acidity, so I cut those out. It seemed to maybe work for a little while, then the pain came back.

Then I cut out avocados because the high fat content could be causing digestive issues. And once again, only temporary relief.

Then beans, legumes, dairy…..

Is this all starting to sound familiar?

Could SIBO be causing chronic abdominal pain and bloating?

In 2020, I started seeing a Naturopath for the first time because my new insurance covered Naturopathic care. This is when things finally started to move in the right direction.

After running another food sensitivity test that showed even more problem foods, I continued to avoid corn and rice in addition to:

• Gluten
• Dairy
• Soy
• Eggs
• Almonds
• Coconut
• Green beans

After 6 months, I was able to reintroduce everything except for gluten and dairy, since those 2 can be triggering for Hashimoto’s Disease.

Once again, it was only temporary relief.

It was around this time I learned about SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth), so I asked my Naturopath if we could test for it.

Lo and behold, the results came back positive for SIBO.

We did a course of herbs like berberine to treat the SIBO, and a GI stool test confirmed the treatment worked and the SIBO was gone. And things seemed to get better again. I wouldn’t say the pain and bloating was 100% gone, but it was significantly improved.

But after going almost 2 years without eating gluten and dairy and not being able to eat my favorite foods (dairy-free macaroni and cheese is disgusting and nobody can tell me otherwise), I started to feel very restricted in what I could eat, and I eventually just said “fuck it” and started eating any and everything again.

At first, it was just when eating out or at an event. Never at home.

Then I started eating it at home as well.

And then I just started eating *whatever* I felt like, to the point my diet consisted of heavily processed and refined “food” and takeout for pretty much every meal.

And my symptoms came back with a vengeance.

This time, though, I started to notice a pattern to the abdominal pain, but I didn’t know what it meant. Every evening around 5pm, before dinner, the abdominal pain would show up and last the rest of the night. Looking back, it was the exact same timing when I was dealing with it all those years before.

I thought maybe throughout the day, I had built up so much of these foods in my system that my body isn’t able to tolerate that come dinner time, it was too much for my gut to handle.

And in a way, I was right. But not in the way I thought.

While trying to fix my iron-deficiency anemia, I learned I have low stomach acid. And through taking a Betaine HCl supplement before eating to increase my stomach acid, I noticed the abdominal pain went away.

It wasn’t lemon water first thing in the morning.

It wasn’t probiotics.

It wasn’t celery juice.

It wasn’t greens powders.

It wasn’t eating smaller meals.

It wasn’t a low-FODMAP or AIP diet.

It was low stomach acid this whole. freaking. time.  Yes, even when I had SIBO.

How low stomach acid causes chronic abdominal bloating

Hypochlorhydria is a condition characterized by low stomach acid, specifically low hydrochloric acid (HCl). Hydrochloric acid is the strongest acid the stomach produces and is crucial for digestion and immunity.

Hyperchlorhydria is when you have too much stomach acid, also known as acid reflux or heartburn. Many times, hypochlorhydria is mistaken for acid reflux, as poor digestion caused by low stomach acid can create gas bubbles that rise into your throat and burn. This most likely explains why the GI doctor thought I had acid reflux. It wasn’t from too much stomach acid, but from not enough.

Stomach acid is responsible for many digestive functions, including breaking down food, especially complex proteins; initiating digestion; activating digestive enzymes, which further aid in breaking down food; and absorbing nutrients.

Stomach acid is also crucial in preventing bacteria, viruses, and pathogens from food from wreaking havoc on our bodies by creating an inhospitable environment where they can’t thrive.

When you have low stomach acid, your body is unable to properly break down food and absorb nutrients. This leads to nutritional deficiencies, like iron-deficiency anemia, calcium deficiency, magnesium deficiency, B-vitamin deficiency, to name a few.

Furthermore, when you can’t digest your food properly, it has to go somewhere. And that somewhere is your digestive tract, where it ferments and can lead to small intestine bacteria overgrowth (SIBO).

And this, my friends, is what causes the severe abdominal pain and bloating 🎤 🫳🏼

Okay, so what causes low stomach acid?

• Atrophic gastritis, the result of chronic inflammation in the stomach. This is the most common cause of low stomach acid, where the cells that secrete stomach juices atrophy (weaken) and stop working. Causes include bacterial infections, autoimmune disease, and alcoholism.
• H pylori infection, a common bacterial infection that eventually decreases stomach acid, which can eventually result in the bacteria taking over since there’s not enough stomach acid to ward it off.
• Acid-reducing medications, such as antacids, H2 receptor blockers, and proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), as they were originally intended for short-term use. Long-term use can eventually cause the acid-secreting glands to stop working.
• Chronic stress. There is research to suggest chronic stress can inhibit the secretion of stomach acid.
• Zinc deficiency, as zinc is necessary for the production of stomach acid.
• Age. People 65 and older are more likely to have low stomach acid.
• Stomach surgery, particularly gastric bypass, can reduce stomach acid production.

As far as I’m aware, chronic stress stemming from my childhood and sticking with me through adulthood is the root cause of my low stomach acid. #adversechildhoodexperiences

Which explains why almost every time I was on vacation, the pain would also go away.

I think food sensitivities may also contribute to low stomach acid production, just based on my own experience stated above, but I haven’t found any conclusive research to prove that so take it with a grain of salt.

Regardless, I have found that no matter what I eat or how stressed out I am, taking Betaine HCl before I eat either breakfast or lunch (if I wait until dinner, everything builds up and ends in disaster) almost always prevents any abdominal pain and bloating later in the evening.

And on the rare occasion it does happen, I rub a couple drops of Digize essential oil on my abdomen and focus on taking deep breaths. I usually notice relief within an hour, rather than the next morning.

These are all supplement brands I know and trust, and the seller on Amazon is also trusted.

How to test for low stomach acid

I’m going to state the obvious here, which is to speak with your health care provider.

If they don’t listen to your concerns about possibly having low stomach acid, then find someone who will. I know it’s a lot of work having to find new doctors, but it’s worth it to have someone who listens to you.

It is your health after all, not theirs.

It’s also important to get to the bottom of why you have low stomach acid in the first place. If there’s an h. pylori bacterial infection running rampant, you need to get that fixed as soon as possible so it doesn’t cause more issues. And if your low stomach acid led to SIBO, you should probably definitely get that resolved as well.

With all that being said, my naturopath had me do a Betaine HCl “challenge” to determine if I had low stomach acid.

Essentially, you take 1 betaine HCl capsule (650 mg) prior to your largest meal. If you feel burning with one capsule, you most likely do not have low stomach acid. If you do not feel a burning sensation with one capsule, you will repeat this again the following day with 2 capsules, and so on until you feel a burning sensation.

As an example, if you start feeling a burning sensation after 3 capsules, then moving forward, you will take 2 capsules before your largest meal of the day to increase your stomach acid.

Because I am not a doctor, I do not recommend taking this supplement without the guidance of a health care provider, as they need to help you manage it.

And with that, I leave you with hopefully a little hope that blossoms into reality.