Advice for exercising with GERD? page

[Lex26]

Hey peeps,

Before I started exercising regularly, digesting paleo/primal felt fine most of the time. But when I started exercising every other day with strength training, slow moving and sprinting, my digestion of all of the protein I was eating really halted. I felt like my eggs or meat were just sitting in my stomach for too long and I often threw up a little or would completely lose my appetite for lunch or dinner. A little digging around indicated that I had GERD, which was flaring up. (I'd had many other times in my life like this when I would throw up after a meal because it just seemed like my stomach couldn't digest it.) Apparently the weight training and high intensity, all-out stuff was adding pressure to my stomach, which made it harder for me to eat food after exercise.

I'm trying to solve my low stomach acid, acid reflux problem with eating low-carb and supplementing with hydrochloric acid betain with pepsin. But I was wondering if anybody had any advice on how to exercise without impairing my digestion. I know exercising after eating is out, but if I can't eat right after exercise, when do I exercise? I only have time to work out right before breakfast and right before dinner.

[Primalest]

Hey, Lex26!
GERD is an issue near and dear to my heart, and I have been covering it a bit in my blog if you want to check the thoughts I have been having. I'll be posting a few updates in the next week!

I went off my PPI drugs (that I was on for a decade) about a week ago and have been supplementing with Betaine HCL to try to end my GERD. It has been an up and down process with a net up. I'll go more into detail about that in the next week or two on the blog.

I'm glad you're using hcl and pepsin; that's great stuff. Personally, exercising causes my esophagus to burn a bit, even if it has been fine all day. For example, a squat, by pushing down on your body, increases the internal pressure, causing stomach contents to slip up into our esophaguses, because they are weak. I just deal with it. I'm not going to stop exercising, and I suspect, over time, as I am better able to manage the disease with pepsin/hcl, my esophagus will become strong enough to keep this from happening. It sounds like you are also in the early stages of managing it with HCL and pepsin, so hopefully it'll improve for you too.

I'm honestly surprised by how closely your GERD seems to be related to exercise. I know when you exercise your body shuts down the nerves and machinery related to digestion a bit. Maybe yours just takes a long time to come back online. Eating before training is definitely a no for us, but it seems like you might have to avoid eating for a while after too. Personally, I switched from meat and sweet potatoes after exercise (while I deal with the GERD) to a protein shake with some hcl/pepsin, since it's easier to digest and get through the stomach quickly (pure whey). You might try that, or you might try simply fasting for an hour or two after exercise, while you make an effort to relax. I think Mark mentioned once that causes a growth hormone spurt or something like that.

Good luck with the gerd!!!

[Lex26]

Thanks a lot for your advice! I'll be checking up on your blog for more of it. The HCl is definitely working - I just hate how big those 600 mg pills from the Vitamin Shoppe are! Right now I'm taking three before the meal and one afterward. There are different theories on when it's best to take them - before, during, after - so I'm just rolling with my own version. I don't feel any burning, so it looks like I've got a while until my stomach starts making more of its own acid. This next week I'm going to go back to trying to exercise in the morning followed by breakfast with HCl. If my digestion still isn't working, I'll just suck it up and move strength training to late in the day - about 8 pm. I don't know what other time would work if I can't eat right before or afterward!

[Lex26]

Oh yeah, sidenote on my indigestion this last week: One of Mark's posts this week said that more estrogen or other hormonal fluctuations can exacerbate GERD symptoms, so that was going on too, I think. Count yourself lucky for not having to deal with that! Maybe I'll just have to make sure during certain times of the month that I need to take it easy on the strength training.