Posted 8/3/2010 5:53 AM (GMT 0)
There's an official test, which I haven't had, called the Heidelberg Gastric Analysis. You can read a bunch of info about it at http://www.phcapsule.com/ . There's a lot of info there about how the pH of your stomach is very important in digestive health
I would love to have this test, however, I ended up doing things trial and error. I took Zantac and then Protonix for many years (my old GI determined I needed these due to a red spot in my stomach). After I started SCD in December 09, I quit taking them and was fine. But around January this year, I started having episodes of bloating after I ate, feeling like food was just sitting in my stomach, stomach pains, and heartburn. When I saw my new GI, she wanted to start me on acid blockers again, but did an endoscope first. Found a red spot in my stomach again. Since I have hypothyroidism (that my doc won't treat Grrrrrr), and low stomach acid is a symptom of that, I wasn't convinced that too much acid was the problem. I asked my GI if I could try Betaine HCl, and she agreed. It was kind of scary the first time I took it, since I pictured a giant hole burning through my stomach. The first night I took it, my stomach did feel a little warm. I haven't had that warm feeling since then though, and I quit having heartburn. I only take one pill with dinner, because that's the only meal that have meat. I think I might experiment taking more to find my optimal dosage (when you feel a burn, you back down to the last dosage that you felt good with). They say that over time, you can even retrain your stomach to produce more acid, and eventually be able to stop the pills.
But if you could get that Heidelberg test, that would be awesome! You would know exactly how high or low you acid was, and then could medicate accordingly. I also just found this self test that you can do: http://www.drdebe.com/stomach-acid-assessment.html . Looks safe and easy, since you just drink baking soda water and time how long it takes for you to burp (fast burps = high acid, no burps = low acid).
Last but not least, here's a little quiz you can take to find out what your chances are of having low stomach acid: http://altmedicine.about.com/library/weekly/bl_quiz_hypochlorhydria.htm . One thing I found really interesting was it's relation to anemia. If you have low stomach acid, you're body can't properly absorb iron.