Supplements for Hashimoto's

Acid reflux affects nearly 20 percent of people in the United States (1). The premise of acid reflux is when stomach acid repeatedly flows back into your esophagus, causing a burning pain in your chest and throat. While tomatoes, spicy foods, and caffeine are commonly known to worsen acid reflux, gluten may also play a role in this condition for certain people.

In this article, we’ll discuss the relationship between gluten intolerance and acid reflux.

What is Gluten?

Gluten is the name for a group of proteins found in grains like wheat, barley, and rye. Gluten provides texture, retains moisture, and promotes elasticity to bread and other baked goods.

Everyday foods that commonly contain gluten include:

Pasta
Bread
Crackers
Cookies
Pastries
Cakes or Pies
Cereal
Beer

Because of its unique properties, gluten is sometimes used as an additive in processed foods like gravy, condiments (like soy sauce), and soup.

Celiac Disease and Acid Reflux

Celiac disease is a serious autoimmune condition in which a person’s immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of their small intestine after eating gluten-containing foods. This condition is fairly uncommon and affects just one percent of the population. However, experts suspect that many people remain undiagnosed. The primary treatment for celiac disease is a strict and lifelong gluten-free diet.

Many people suffer from acid reflux before receiving a celiac disease diagnosis. Unfortunately, we also see individuals with celiac disease who report acid reflux even after removing gluten from their diet. This is likely due to an unhealed digestive tract. While removing gluten will stop further damage from occurring, it’s crucial to prioritize a gut healing protocol to reverse prior damage and reduce inflammation.

Gluten Intolerance and Acid Reflux

Gluten intolerance (also known as non-celiac gluten sensitivity) is a condition in which a person experiences a variety of symptoms after eating gluten-containing foods, but does not have celiac disease or a wheat allergy. Symptoms of gluten intolerance vary and may include bloating, constipation/diarrhea, acid reflux, headaches, or skin disturbances. Gluten sensitivity is thought to affect up to 13 percent of the general population and may be more prevalent in women than men (2).

New research suggests that gluten may cause acid reflux in certain individuals with a gluten intolerance. For example, one study found a high prevalence of gluten sensitivity in people with severe acid reflux (3). An approximate 35 percent of test subjects reported an improvement in digestive symptoms while following a gluten-free diet. Interestingly, subjects with gluten sensitivity also reported an improvement in other non-digestive symptoms while on a gluten-free diet, like fatigue, joint pain, and headaches.

Gluten Elimination

The best way to determine if gluten is contributing to your acid reflux is to follow a short-term elimination diet. However, if you, or your health care team are suspicious for celiac disease, it may be recommended to test for celiac disease before eliminating gluten. Otherwise, the blood test used to screen for celiac can result in a false negative. We offer celiac blood testing at Root.

Remove all sources of gluten-containing foods for three to four weeks. You can tell if a packaged food item has gluten by reading the label and looking for wheat, barley, or rye in the ingredient list. A gluten-free label also confirms there are no gluten-containing ingredients in the product as the FDA strictly regulates these labels. After a few weeks, slowly reintroduce gluten-containing foods to your diet and monitor your symptoms. For example, on day one, you could test your response to one piece of regular toast.

Many gluten-free food items have poor nutritional value, are high in added sugar, and can worsen your acid reflux. If you decide to try a gluten-free diet, focus on eating whole and unprocessed foods that are naturally free of gluten like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean protein, and gluten-free whole grains (like brown rice, quinoa, and oats).

Other Causes of Acid Reflux

While gluten can trigger reflux in certain individuals, there is oftentimes a deeper root cause of this symptom. For example, an H.pylori infection is largely responsible for acid reflux. We can look for this bacteria with a functional stool test. Contrary to common belief, we also see low stomach acid causing acid reflux in certain individuals as well. Unfortunately, taking medications that further reduce stomach acid, like proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), ultimately worsen the underlying cause of these cases of reflux. We test for and treat these conditions in our functional medicine membership program.

Furthermore, one of our favorite supplements to recommend for heartburn relief is our Gut Health Rebalance powder. This supplement contains calming ingredients, like deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL), proven to lower inflammation and repair the digestive tract.

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What is Endometriosis?

Endometriosis occurs when tissue normally found within the uterus grows in nearby organs like the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and lining of your pelvis. This abnormal growth causes inflammation, scarring, and the formation of painful adhesions. Women with this condition can experience severe pelvic pain, heavy menstrual bleeding, digestive issues, and compromised fertility. A doctor, typically an OBGYN, may diagnose endometriosis with various methods like an ultrasound, MRI, pelvic examination, and in some cases, a minimally-invasive laparoscopic surgery to look for tissue growth.

Inflammation, genetics, and a dysregulated immune system are a few suspected causes of endometriosis. Plus, some studies have linked maternal exposure to environmental toxins, like dioxin, to endometriosis development (1, 2). Women with endometriosis also have a greater likelihood of developing autoimmune conditions like celiac and Hashimoto’s thyroid disease.

Functional Medicine for Endometriosis

Functional medicine takes a personalized approach by recognizing the interconnected nature of the body and identifying the unique factors contributing to your endometriosis symptoms. Let's explore some key elements of how we use functional medicine at Root to treat endometriosis.

Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Inflammation is a common denominator in endometriosis. We can lower inflammation throughout the body by using food as medicine. An anti-inflammatory diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and lean protein. However, depending on the individual, we may recommend a short-term elimination diet to remove potential food sensitivities like gluten, dairy, soy, and artificial sweeteners.

Here are a few tips to follow an anti-inflammatory diet:

Balance blood sugar levels by including a protein, fat, and fiber-rich carbohydrate with each of your meals and snacks.
Boost your antioxidant intake by aiming for 4+ cups of colorful, non-starchy vegetables per day.
Avoid or limit foods that may worsen inflammation like alcohol, added sugar, and caffeine.

Address Estrogen Dominance

Estrogen is a sex hormone produced by a woman’s body in fluctuating amounts throughout the menstrual cycle. Typically, women with endometriosis suffer from higher than normal amounts of estrogen. This is commonly referred to as estrogen dominance. We can identify estrogen dominance by using comprehensive hormone testing. Believe it or not, the best way to address estrogen dominance is by improving gut health. Imbalances in gut bacteria, known as dysbiosis, impairs estrogen metabolism and may result in estrogen dominance.

While specific gut protocols are individualized, we may recommend supporting gut health with supplements in our Gut Health Bundle. Likewise, we highly encourage those with estrogen dominance to eat a daily serving or more of cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cabbage. These vegetables contain a compound known to support healthy estrogen detoxification in the liver.

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Are you deficient in magnesium? It wouldn’t be uncommon, as nearly 50 percent of Americans fail to eat enough magnesium in their diet (1). On top of that, our stressful lives and other health conditions may deplete our body of this important mineral.

Magnesium is an essential mineral and electrolyte that we must obtain from our diet. It has over 300 functions in the body and plays a crucial role in hormonal balance. For example, magnesium affects thyroid function, estrogen detoxification, blood sugar, stress hormones, and more (2).

Magnesium is an important mineral that many women are significantly lacking. In particular, women with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) are 19 times more likely to have a magnesium deficiency. This is important because magnesium plays a key role in regulating insulin and glucose. In fact, having low levels of magnesium increases your risk of insulin resistance, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes.

Magnesium’s role in thyroid health is that magnesium is needed to make thyroid hormone. Studies have shown that replacing a magnesium deficiency lowers TSH (and improves thyroid function.)

Others at risk for magnesium deficiency include people who take certain medications like acid reflux medications or birth control pills, and people who have trouble absorbing magnesium due to gut health issues.

Are you getting enough magnesium in your diet?

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for magnesium is 400 milligrams (mg) per day for men and 310 mg per day for women (3). Magnesium is commonly found in nuts, seeds, legumes (like beans and peanuts), and leafy green vegetables. For various reasons such as poor soil conditions or the abundance of processing to our foods which strips magnesium from foods, it can be difficult to solely rely on diet for this mineral.

Although we always support a food first philosophy, we recognize that many of our patients may require additional magnesium in supplement form.

In this article, we’ll review two types of magnesium supplements: magnesium citrate vs. magnesium glycinate. But first, let’s discuss how to determine if you have a magnesium deficiency.

How do you know if you are deficient in Magnesium?

Symptoms of a Magnesium deficiency include:

muscle cramping, pain
frequent headaches or migraines
mood changes like anxiety or depression
insulin resistance (& craving sweets, especially chocolate)
low energy
PMS
trouble sleeping

How to Test Magnesium Levels

The most common way to evaluate magnesium levels is to order a serum (blood) magnesium test. However, this does not give us an accurate picture of your whole magnesium status, because only an estimated 1 percent of magnesium in the body is found in the blood (4).

Additionally, the body tightly regulates magnesium levels in the blood by pulling from stores in your bones and other tissues when dietary intake of magnesium is inadequate. This means that your blood levels will be the last place to show a deficiency. By this point, your symptoms could be very serious.

Subclinical magnesium deficiency, however, may be more common, affecting up to 30 percent of people (5). Subclinical means that your blood magnesium levels may appear to be normal even though you have an underlying magnesium deficiency (4).

A more accurate way to test magnesium status (and the method we prefer at Root Functional Medicine) is to look at the amount of magnesium in your red blood cells. This way, we can evaluate the levels of magnesium in your cells and identify subclinical magnesium deficiency before your blood values even begin to drop. A normal range for RBC magnesium is 4.2 – 6.8 mg/dL, however, it’s important to work with a functional medicine doctor to determine an optimal range for you. We offer testing for RBC magnesium as an individual test or as part of the Root wellness panel with an Access Membership.

Root Cause Panel

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