If you have hair loss or other skin and nail issues, you might be aware that stress, poor diet, thyroid issues, and certain medications can be the culprit.
But did you know that low stomach acid may also be causing you to lose hair and your skin and nails to suffer? Most people don’t like to lose their hair and want healthy nails and skin, so this post will hopefully “shed” some light on a new reason you may be losing your hair: stomach issues.
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Low Stomach Acid Symptoms Related to Your Hair, Skin, and Nails
Stomach acid is critical for food digestion, so if you have low stomach acid, you can’t absorb your food and nutrients properly. I wrote a detailed blog post about the signs of low stomach acid here. To quickly summarize, just about any physical symptom can be related to low stomach acid. A large reason that this is a problem is that the body can’t break down protein, without stomach acid, into the critical amino acids it needs.
Some of the common symptoms of low stomach acid include:
- Food allergies
- Bloating
- Diarrhea
- Hair loss!
- Brittle nails
- Skin breakouts
- Dry skin
- Dry hair
- Dull skin
- Dull hair
- Indigestion
- Food intolerances
- Nutrient deficiencies
- Fatigue
- Poor mood
Low stomach acid can lead to unhealthy skin, hair, and nails, but so many other health problems. Let’s dig into why this happens.
Low Stomach Acid, Hair, Skin, and Nails: The Connection
The stomach is very acidic for a good reason. This low pH, due to the large amount of hydrochloric acid produced in the stomach, helps to break down your food, especially protein foods, iron, zinc, and vitamin B12, into absorbable nutrients.
If you have low stomach acid (hypochlorhydria), this process goes awry. By leading to poor nutrient absorption, your whole body, including your hair follicles, becomes deprived of the critical fuel and structural proteins that you need. The result can be that your hair starts falling out. It can also lead to dull skin, unhealthy nails, and more. Low stomach acidity can also lead to lots of other problems, including the growth of unwanted bacteria and compromised immunity.
What Causes Low Stomach Acid?
In today’s world, there are many people who suffer from low stomach acid symptoms and don’t even know it. This is because modern lifestyles can contribute to an inflamed stomach. An inflamed stomach won’t make enough acid to digest food properly.
In addition, lots of health issues, including autoimmune diseases, digestive conditions, poor diets, medications, age, and stress. Many other conditions can also cause the stomach to be low in acid.
Here are some sobering statistics:
- About a third of Americans now struggle with some form of autoimmune illness or another which can lead to low stomach acid.
- People often mistakenly think that they have acid reflux when they have low acid levels.
Medications are a common culprit for causing low stomach acid. For instance, common proton pump inhibitors or antacids are also big culprits in causing low stomach acid production. These medications include pantoprazole, omeprazole, and more.
As you can see, just about anyone can be at risk for low stomach acid. This can lead to unhealthy-looking hair, skin, and nails. Low stomach acid often leads to hair loss.
Low Stomach Acid: How To Heal Your Hair, Skin, and Nails
First, and probably the most important way to help your hair, skin, and nails is to ditch processed foods as much as possible. This will help restore low levels of acid and fix many people’s natural stomach acid production. By doing so, you will also support healthy hair growth, glowing skin, and healthy nails.
This can take some time, however. If you want to try some natural ways to increase stomach acid, you can add some apple cider vinegar to your dishes or try other natural stomach aids like betaine HCL. Let’s discuss this some more next.
Betaine HCL Hair Loss Benefits
A simple supplement regimen to try for low stomach acid: adding betaine HCL to your meals, which is a natural type of acid found in foods. Betaine is a substance that is typically found in sugar beets (or sometimes grains), as the name suggests. It is attached to HCL to form an acidic version of betaine. Also referred to as trimethylglycine, betaine HCL has many health benefits. For example, betaine HCL increases stomach acid and thus helps improve the absorption of some medications. Research studies use doses of 1500 mg per day.
While more research needs to be done, it makes a lot of empirical sense to try betaine HCL if you suffer from low stomach acid. Thousands of reviews support the use of betaine HCL for this condition.
How to Take Betaine HCL Supplements for Hair, Skin, and Nails
The best way to take betaine HCL is to follow the supplement label instructions. Typically, this means taking betaine HCL right before the first bite of food at mealtime. If for any reason this doesn’t feel good, simply stop taking it, as the root cause of your hair loss may be for another medical reason.
And as always, make sure you check with your doctor first before trying betaine HCL. Remember: hair takes a while to grow, so it may take some time to see results from trying these tips. Other people have anecdotally used betaine HCL for conditions like acne, allergies, asthma, gallstones, dermatitis, indigestion, heartburn, GERD, hives, and vitiligo, according to Peace Health.
A word of caution: betaine has methyl groups in it, so if your gene tests show that you over-methylate, betaine HCL may not be right for you.
Supplements with Betaine HCL
A good supplement with betaine HCL is called Bile Nutrients from Seeking Health. It also contains other healing compounds for the gut like Choline, Magnesium, Glycine, Taurine, Dandelion Root, Burdock extract, Artichoke extract, Peppermint extract, Slippery elm, Marshmallow root, Milk thistle, Bupleurum root, and Ginger.
Digestive Enzymes May Also Help with Hair Health
Adding digestive enzymes can also be helpful for healthy skin, hair, and nails. This is especially true if you have had low stomach acid for a prolonged period. The imbalance can lead to low enzymes in the gut. Many betaine HCl supplements will also contain digestive enzymes, which is nice.
A good digestive enzyme to try is Pure Encapsulations Digestive Enzymes Ultra. Just remember to take it with food and with each meal, or else you won’t see the benefits. It helps to set a timer to remember to take it with your meals.
Other Nutritional Causes of Hair, Skin, and Nail Issues
According to medical information published in Nutrition in Clinical Practice, if you are low in almost any nutrient, you can have hair loss or changes to the texture or health of your hair, skin, and nails. Biotin gets a lot of notoriety for heling with hair regrowth, which can help, but it likely works best using a holistic approach.
Your body preferentially gives nutrients to critical organs like your heart and brain first before it lands in your hair, skin, or nails. Taking a broad-spectrum multivitamin and mineral can help fill in the nutritional gaps in your diet. Just be sure to choose a multivitamin and mineral supplement that is all-natural (free of synthetic folic acid or synthetic vitamin B6).
If you have been low in stomach acid for a while, the odds are that your body is also in desperate need of some vitamins and minerals. Remember, a lack of stomach acid causes poor absorption of many minerals and vitamins, including vitamin B12. If you are looking for a natural supplement, Pure Encapsulations has a great broad-spectrum multivitamin/mineral combination called O.N.E.
If your hair loss or skin issues are immune-mediated, another beneficial supplement to try is bovine colostrum. On a personal note, I have noticed that even though I have thick hair, taking colostrum has led me to have even thicker hair over time. My hairdresser even noticed that I have a lot of new hair growth after adding this supplement. It also helps my skin look much younger!
Summary of Supplements That May Help Hair, Skin, and Nails
To recap, here are some supplements you may want to consider if you think you have low stomach acid, or if you think your hair loss is related to low stomach acid, nutritional, or immune conditions.
- Natural multivitamins with minerals
- Bovine Colostrum
- Digestive Enzymes
- Betaine HCL
- Probiotics
Again, have that chat with your doctor or healthcare provider before adding new supplements.
The information on this website has not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration or any other medical body and is shared for educational purposes only. While The Healthy RD’s posts are backed by research, you are unique, so you must seek care from your own dietitian or healthcare provider. This post is not meant to diagnose or treat any conditions. Consult your doctor or healthcare provider before making changes to your supplement regimen or lifestyle.
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This is very essential to know. I’m having a hair loss right now, and sometimes my stomach hurts whenever i eat oily foods. I think I’m an acidic.
I’m sorry you don’t feel well! Always make sure to check with your doctor if you are having stomach pains.
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I stumbled upon it every day. It’s always exciting to read
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HCL Benefits
Thank you for this information. I basically have all the symptoms, constantly feeling fatigued or exhausted, constant constipation, pale colored poop (I’ve had my gallbladder removed in the past years but this is still a problem from time to time), and the constant acid reflux, indigestion and heartburn. I also sometimes see particles of my food in my stool. I will have a physical soon and I’m going to bring this up to my doctor, I’m just hoping that she’s willing to work with me.
I hope your visit with your doctor goes well! Perhaps ask about digestive enzymes as well. They can be really helpful for people with your symptoms as well.
This is crazy. I never would have connected those two things!