There is an idea that GERD, Heartburn, and Acid Reflux are caused by too much stomach acid, and idea pushed heavily by pharmaceutical companies who make quite a bit of money from antacids and acid blockers.

But while these give a temporary solution, in the long term they actually make the problem worse.

This is because it’s not high levels of stomach acid that cause acid reflux and GERD, but the exact opposite — too little stomach acid. In fact, there is no research at all showing high stomach acid to be a cause.

The ability to fully digest and absorb protein determines your body's ability to maximizing muscle gains and fat loss. It also affects your energy levels, hormones, inflammation, and overall health.

So, understanding exactly how digestion works and how to keep it, or get it, working properly is very important.

Let’s look at this.

Athletes come into the clinic with the goal of improving their health, athletic performance, or body composition. Since I’m an athlete myself, I enjoy helping them, and their results are always of great interest to me.

Athletes often face problems with injury and recovery. They’ll say, “I’m getting injured more often. I don’t seem to have enough energy to perform, and my recovery time is too long.” Many of these athletes lack adequate amounts of amino acids, and their bodies can’t keep up with the demand that is being put on them. When we add Perfect Amino to their programs, they notice a dramatic difference.

Since taking up running 14 years ago, I’ve been considered a masters (those over 40) runner for nearly 9 of those years. I was a little late to the game by taking up the sport at almost 35. When I turned 40, it was like being reborn. Not only was I entering a new age group, I was entering a whole new world of awards and respect.

Some races offer a separate category of “age-graded” results which makes it fun to see how older athletes stack up against those in their younger years. One of my favorite masters results is when 98-year-old George Etzweiler won the 2018 Mount Washington Road Race age-graded category and the prize money that comes with it. As of this writing, George is 101 years young and still running!

The following is adapted from The Search for the Perfect Protein, chapter 6.

While most protein products are marketed toward men and bodybuilding, the protein problem affects women in many specific ways. These include osteoporosis, hormone deficiency, beauty concerns such as sagging skin and wrinkles, loss of muscle mass, and problems during menopause.

We’ve established that inadequate protein intake can cause devastating results. A lack of nutrition along with environmental toxicity are the reasons for the poor health we experience today. Never before in human history has the human race suffered from epidemics like diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s, ALS, osteoporosis, obesity, cancers, Lyme disease, chronic fatigue, and countless other problems.

We’ve also established that an inability to digest enough protein contributes to the increase in health issues and disease. Patients come into the clinic, and we discover they haven’t been eating or digesting well; they’re toxic because they’re unaware of what they’ve been putting into their bodies, or what they’ve been exposed to.

The following is adapted from The Search for the Perfect Protein, chapter 4.

As we’ve already discussed, access to clean protein sources is only one part of the problem; it must also be properly digested. This is a complicated process that requires a healthy gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which, unfortunately, many people lack.

You must absorb enough essential amino acids per pound or kilogram of body weight because the protein we need is made from aminos. Like it or not, animal proteins are the best natural source of essential amino acids for our bodies to function optimally. Vegetable proteins, on the other hand, have mixes of essential amino acids, but they are lacking in one or two—they don’t nourish as well as animal protein. In other words, the level of amino acid utilization is poor. The bottom line is that our body is an animal body, and it needs proteins from animal foods to maintain its lean body mass.

The following is adapted from The Search for the Perfect Protein, chapter 3.

Between 2.5 million and ten thousand years ago, Paleo-lithic Era man obtained much of their protein from game, fish, and eggs. At that time, animals roamed free and pollution wasn't a concern, so the overall nutritional health of humans was at a high level. If we still ate food like our hunter-gatherer ancestors did, there would be no need for protein or vitamin or mineral supplementation.

Several common myths surround protein and its importance in our lives. This chapter offers insight into the problems created by these myths and how to approach solving them.

You may think there’s nothing wrong with this statement, but one look at this amino acid utilization chart shows us that they are most definitely not the same. The chart shows the substances and foods people consider to be sources of protein and their utilization rates based on amino acid profiles.

Growth Hormone (GH or HGH) is a key hormone that helps us build muscle and burn fat.

Your muscles are made of cells that have been fused together into muscle fibers. And on the outside of these fibers are things called satellite cells.

When you work out you damage cells in the muscle fibers. To fix this, your body releases Growth Hormone, Growth Factors (other hormones) and Testosterone. These tell the satellite cells to start replicating to both repair and replace damaged cells in the muscle, and also to add more cells, increasing the muscle fibers in size.