Why Asthma is Not a Lung Disease: Breathing Problems and The Uses and Benefits of Betaine HCL

By Daniel Ares

Just a short while back, I was dysfunctional. I needed a walker around the house. I couldn't bend. I could barely move. Short of my eighties, I now "knew" what it was like being near the end, near dying. When you are old, the idea of dying is a frequent visitor.

I was wrong. Whatever was wrong with me is today also wrong with much younger people. The modern world does not do us favors in some ways, I have learned--and it is human ingenuity at fault. I am writing about that too, among other things.

Some of the subjects discussed in this book in lay language:

Asthma

Allergies

Digestion

Back pains

Skin issues

Acid Reflux

Sleep Apnea

Autoimmunity

Fungal infection

Perhaps the information in this book will also help you, your loved one, or a friend, back to better health and functionality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644241653

Book preview

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Why Asthma is Not a Lung Disease

Breathing Problems and The Uses and Benefits of Betaine HCL

Daniel Ares

Copyright © 2018 Daniel Ares

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2018

Revised 2021

ISBN 978-1-64424-164-6 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-64424-165-3 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To Deborah, Tamar, Ariella, who in my imagination are still kids, although much smarter and more opinionated than they used to be.

I owe a debt to a whole lot of people. That some are mentioned here does not necessarily mean that they share the opinions expressed in this book. That some are not mentioned here is only due to my limitations.

I want to thank my good friend Irwin Seidman who was at any time ready to patiently listen to my ideas in this book and offer me comments. Over lunch, of course, as Irwin is at his best over a big meal. Wish I could eat as well as him, girth and all. When he was three years old he was three times my age. This seniority is still in effect.

I want to thank Chuck Wilson, my good neighbor and friend, who by some sort of mysterious workings gifted me the delightfully literate and insightful book The Territorial Imperative by anthropologist Robert Ardrey from which I gained important ideas and excerpts.

I want to thank James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, whose important insightful and revealing book gave me perfect confidence that synthesizing from the opinions and knowledge of a mix of a great many people, degreed or not, approved or not, may actually be a sound thing to do.

I want to thank Professor Amir Erez, my erudite nephew, for pointing out to me that, in my writing, I bore through logic sequences which makes it appear that I am jumping to conclusions. But he had it a bit wrong, actually: the path to these conclusions are a bog that I all too often first plunge into and sink in before I reach air again, and it is this reaching that I frequently fail to describe. It redoubled my efforts to fill in and clarify the sequence of my thoughts, of my learning. Probably not to his full satisfaction.

I want to thank authors Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Lane Lenard, Ph.D. for their important book Why Stomach Acid Is Good For You. It alerted me in 2001 to the critical importance of Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) in our bodies. In later years it came back to my attention after supplemental HCL scooped up and tossed to the sidelines all my evolving medical difficulties bar none, the single cure for many medical diagnoses.

I want to especially thank the many deplorably intransigent lay and professional individuals and organizations that do not toe the line and post their contrary experiences, know-how, and knowledge on the internet, free for the taking. From them, and their frequent flashes of brilliance, I learned much. They are kindred spirits.

Again, thank you all.

This book is available from:

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Itunes

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disease/id1455867058?mt=11

The trailer for this book can be viewed at:

https://youtu.be/J3HFEkNwAgk

If it is your pleasure, a positive note on an internet platform will be appreciated.

PREFACE

Just a short while back, I was dysfunctional. I needed a walker around the house. I couldn’t bend. I could barely move. Short of my eighties, I now knew what it was like being near the end, near dying. When you are old, the idea of dying is a frequent visitor.

I was wrong. Whatever was wrong with me is today also wrong with much younger people. The modern world does not do us favors in some ways, I have learned—and it is human ingenuity at fault. I am writing about that too, among other things.

The litany of the things that were wrong with me was long if you’d not just blame it on aging as our culture is erroneously wont to do. Here are a few:

Back problems, breathing problems, digestion problems, muscle spasms, fungus, arrhythmia, and general dysfunctionality.

At eighty-three, these problems are gone, not thanks to my conventional doctor, but thanks to many doctors, scientists, and experienced patients, who care enough to post their knowledge on the internet. I am now fully functional. I do not have the physique of a young person, but I suspect from people’s comments, and what my doctor once blurted (he was against what I was doing—how this could be is also part of this book), that I do better than some. I do my own yard work again and shovel snow.

What I did, only a minority of medical professionals in their independent clinics will recommend today. Most professional recommendations of this sort can be found only on the internet. It used to be very popular, a magical new inexpensive approach, but since then, I believe, it has been systematically weeded from most medical teachings. If you read my book, I am sure you could think of many reasons why this is so. It is still a valid therapy, and there are many testimonials on the internet by professionals and patients who were helped by it.

I am not a doctor. I am not recommending what I do: I just present it as my experience, and I back it up with information from more than three hundred and fifty professional internet sites. If you want to try some of the things described in this book for yourself, that’s entirely up to you. But what I did for myself turned me back into functionality: I made a U-turn at the gates of Valhalla. It won’t miss me for now, I think. Newcomers are never lacking and it keeps its gates open. It is patient.

My thinking touches on a lot of subjects which I razed by on the way to telling you my story; medical politics, obedient minds, and how the dogmas of modern medicine in some ways defeat its declared purpose. I gave you lots of references to supporting lay and professional sources on the internet. Here are some of many conditions I investigated. The information I found dramatically benefitted my health and may do the same for you:

I give you examples and a considerable number of opinions from the scientists and doctors themselves, and medication statistics that may surprise you.

In this book, I am telling you how exactly I turned my health around and keep myself functioning. I believe that a lot of it may give you ideas of how you could perhaps attempt to do so for yourself. As an outgrowth of having learned how to do this, I also pose the bigger questions: How is it possible for society to throw away one of the greatest cures ever with impunity, and why the doctors who know better are in the minority? I pose this question by means of pointing to opinions and experiences of hundreds of medical professionals, scientists, and experienced patients who position themselves on the internet because they find no official outlets. I give you over three hundred references, and they are only a very small part of what’s available

By way of doing this, I pose a lot of practical questions that perhaps you may find a way of answering. Some are, why is it so easy for the social instruments on which we depend to let us down. What are the mechanics to make this possible? And in the process I had to relearn why wise teachers and the moral philosophers of most creeds always tell us that humanity is far from perfect. And in modern times, we are more exposed and more vulnerable than ever!

The distressing part to me is this. After a hundred and fifty years of modernizing and modern medicine, people in similar situations should not have to accidentally find their own medical solutions after orthodox care failed. With the cost of medicine in the United States alone at about three trillion dollars a year, or about $9,000 a year per adult and child, lots of my thoughts, and lots of my investigations, are about why we are on our own on this.

In case you prefer them, this book found its way to lots of statistics too. For example, what is the national cost of asthma? How much hydrochloric acid does the body produce? How many people have an autoimmune disease? How much do people eat? How many hospitals are there? What is the economic burden of backache? How much does Cuba spend on medical care for similar results to ours? How many HCL pills does it take to reach a certain acidity level? What was world population at the time of Hippocrates? What percentage of drugs are definitely useful according the U.S. government? (Certainly not all—not even half! And I give you the unassailable source for this information.) And lots more.

By way of commenting on the medical culture, I wrote about things which liberally also reflect on our nature in general. By 2021, much of it was evidenced in the shifting underpinnings of our social order.

While the internet references are an important part of this book and provide some credibility to my monologue, there is no avoiding changes in the enormous internet database. Individual internet sites may change or go away. This, however, is not a critical issue. The same and similar data can be found in the thousands of locations on the internet approximately 150 billion (printed) pages and growing. Should one of the provided addresses become inaccessible or defunct, one can find similar confirming data on other internet sites. The content of the numerous provided excerpts will guide the reader who wishes to look for similar information on other internet sites.

I hope you’ll find this read interesting and useful.

Yours truly,

Daniel Ares

A word about the nature of this book

This book has a mixed descent. It is neither a purely technical book nor a pure stream of consciousness creation but has elements of both. It is not as carefully planned as a purely technical book would be, and that is on purpose. I delved into a subject matter which I was studying while writing about, just as I did when writing technical books about computers: a subject at a time. At the same time I freely reflected on thoughts which occurred to me while studying the matter, which is a violation of technical book etiquette, if you don’t mind giving them personality.

In this manner I had reached the personal conclusion that objective science and medical science are frequent strangers. They are not of a similar genre. Much of formal medical thinking cannot be understood without being aware of its historically persisting autocracy and persona awe underpinnings. They were integral to its religious seminary origins and I believe they remain a cardinal component of the modern medical culture, superseding objectivity. It is the reason why my medical and social comments are so tightly linked. A huge surprise to me. It is not what I expected starting out, having been assured throughout my life that medicine is all about pure science.

There are repetitions in this book and they are purposed: many parts of the text were written to be independently read. The book so lends itself to browsing. This structure affords the occasional readers a more-complete picture of my propositions regardless where they start, and the repetitions will not be seen by readers who so use the book.

This book might present new ideas or altered orientations for some readers. Such do not always immediately adhere like the ball in a self-stick toss game. It sometimes takes a few mentions with altered wordings and orientations for new or altered ideas to stick, whether agreed with or not. The repetitions will give the contiguous reader for whom this information is new or different a more relaxed reading, without the need to always go back and forth to reaffirm an understanding.

I am aware that I sometimes hop through a loop to state a conclusion. While trying to go back and fill in, I am certain I did not find every instance because my neurons are perfectly comfortable with it and do not see a missing link. I ask for your indulgence.

The nature of a book, such as this one, cannot always be exactly described. It may have matured to unbidden complexity for some, be self-evidenced for others, or be contradictory for yet other observers. People are free to see it with differing eyes and to different depths, but the conflicts are hard to resolve.

It is a microcosm, a fractal, of our general state. Our opinions are a personal thing, but because they are so numerous and so differ, based on how we came about our ideas, we more easily scramble things than align them.

Here is what Kurt said to Ylith the Methi, implying, with a bit of elucidating on my part, that even with all we know, with our best minds guiding us, we are in sum dealing with things proximately, even haphazardly, evidenced, I think, throughout this book:

We all—being mortal—deal in models of reality, in oversimplifications. (From Brothers of Earth by C.J. Cherryh, a DAW softcover, October 1976, Page 175)

Hinting that much of human knowledge is fleeting or imperfect. If you are a conservative medical professional, and acknowledge this, be forewarned. Where it comes to the expressions of Asthma and Hydrochloric acid, immunity and autoimmunity, the greater chance is that some of the information in this book, although backed by hundreds of references, contradicts everything you have ever learned or believed about these matters. If you are not in the frame of mind for this, be advised.

CHAPTER 1 PRELIMINARIES

1 BEFORE YOU START READING, KNOW THIS

This book refers extensively to websites. Please note that none of it is meant as medical advice on my part. The information referenced on the internet should be read in the context suggested by the sites’ owners.

The author encourages the reader to read the numerous referenced internet sites. Whether they agree with the thesis in this book or not, they all have information that can be of value to the reader. They are all the products of people who work hard and smart at what they do. The reader may just find the exact desired information missing in its portfolio of knowledge.

In the text, there are minimal internet address notations in the form of (Ref.) aaaa.bbbb.com. The complete address may be found in the nearest following list of references.

Should you decide to follow up on any described or implied medical procedure, I suggest that you do so with the support of a licensed medical professional who is familiar with the treatment in which you are interested and who agrees with your medical preferences. This kind of doctor may know about things that you have not thought of that might be a good choice for you.

None of the information in this publication is meant to replace the advice of a doctor qualified to treat your complaints.

1.1 Book Structure

This publication is divided into three chapters:

Preliminaries (Sections 1–4)

HCL and its ramifications—including asthma (Sections 5–9)

The human stage (Sections 10–15)

I refer to the smaller parts of this book like so:

Section 1

Segment 1.1

Par. 1.1.1

1.2 If You Have Crohn Disease Or Inflamed Mucosal Barrier Read This First

Damage to the lining of the digestive tract, the mucosal barrier, is usually symptomatic of Crohn Disease. If you have any sort of stomach lining or digestive tract ulceration or inflammation, I think it is prudent to consult a doctor qualified to treat this condition and who agrees with your medical preferences before using Betaine HCL. You also may find the information that Dr. Sircus provides on his site useful at: (Ref.) drsircus.com/.

1.3 If You Have Asthma Read These First

This book is not only about asthma. If you are mostly or only interested in reading about asthma, these areas are where most of this information is located:

Segments 9.3, 4.1, 5.1, 5.4, Paragraphs 6.2.1, 6.2.2, Segment 15.2, Paragraphs 15.4.2, 15.4.3, Segment 15.5, Section 7.

However, asthma usually does not come alone. It has frequent companions. You may just find as much information on those. For example: apnea, GERD (acid reflux,) other digestive issues, back pain, fungus, allergies, high blood pressure, and other such classics. Why are any of these conditions frequent partners? It is a good part of what this book is all about.

1.4 What This Book Does Not Deal With

Consider that his book makes no attempt to discuss medical matters that are not in the common grasp and access of just us lay persons. If any hint of complexity arises, it is not the intent of this book to discuss it. The reader would be better off discussing such things with a medical professional who agrees with the reader’s preferences and is qualified to deal with its concerns. Below is just a small sampling of such situations, and following, some defined concerns as in Segments 1.5 and 1.6.

1.4.1 Genetic Disorders

There is no intent in this book to infer an understanding of genetic disorders. There is no intent in this book to discuss genetic disorders.

1.4.2 Specific Autoimmune Disorders

While the author expresses in this book a general mistrust in the proliferation of autoimmune disorders, there is no attempt whatsoever to opinionate on or discuss specific such definitions that are, at this point in time, in the province of scientific investigation. If some disorders that happen to carry such a definition are discussed, the author does so only within the context of a common lay manifestation of these disorders. Some professional internet sites that fed the author’s data, however, are pointed out.

1.4.3 Exceptional Disorders

The discussions in this book are meant to engage only a normal population that may suffer from commonplace medical conditions but not from exceptional disorders such HIV, diabetes, genetic issues, or occupational complications.

1.4.4 Motility Issues

The stomach’s muscles perform the function of chewing the food into a mush. Some people have problems with this process, causing digestive difficulties. This book does not deal with this issue.

1.4.5 Gastric Ulcers

Gastric Ulcers is an ulceration in the stomach lining protections and it can be caused by bacteria and various medications. It is not discussed in this book.

1.5 Take A Reasonable Precaution

This book frequently refers to Betaine HCL. The following internet site deals in detail with HCL: (Ref.) scdlifestyle.com…stomach-acid/. On this site, Author Steven Wright suggests a reasonable precaution regarding the intake of Betaine HCL:

People that are high risk shouldn’t take Betaine HCL without supervision. You’re high risk if you’re consuming any anti-inflammatory medicines. Examples of those are: corticosteroids, aspirin, Indocin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) or other NSAIDs. These drugs can damage the GI lining and supplementing with HCL could aggravate it, increasing the risks of bleeding or ulcer.

1.6 Having Breathing Difficulties?

It is prudent to ensure that breathing difficulties are not caused by heart issues before you venture on your own. Also, according to Dr. F. Batmanghelidj, author of "The Water Cure," asthmatic symptoms can be caused by not drinking enough water. Better find out.

1.7 Notes

I have not contacted any entity referenced in this book and do not obtain any economic benefit from any of the entities referred to in this book.

In this book, college and university are used interchangeably.

I have used wording to bypass the expressions he, she, or he or she unless this specific mention is indicated. It dodges gender differentiations, but it also means that some of the language may be objectionable to purists. My apologies.

In the text, there are minimal internet address notation in the form of (Ref.) aaaa.bbbb.com. The complete address may be found in the nearest following list of references. Every internet address has been verified. If you view this file electronically, your data base may not properly transpose to the right place when you click on it. Should this happen, copy and paste the address to your search engine.

In this book, conventional and orthodox refers to the established medical culture and is differentiated from the alternative or parallel medical movement. A general test for the different treatment modalities is whether they are covered by insurance or not.

The art in this book is from BizArt™ by HEMERA

1.8 Mentions And Excerpts

The author will not challenge any reasonable mention or excerpt given in good faith. Read Segment 12–1, Standard of Trust.

1.9 About Personalized Language

The author elected to use personal rather than inanimate language when talking about the body, much as computer technicians do when they talk about computer behavior. It simplifies language usage and idea transfers.

1.10 In My Opinion

I repeat this and similar phrases frequently in this publication. I am not an authority and do not represent myself as such. I am, however, a technical writer with many years of experience in the computer field and am accustomed to dealing with facts coming from the source. A technical writer has the freedom to choose the sources when they are multiple and examined. The information in this book is backed by over three hundred and fifty authoritative sources and opinions of my choice, all referenced. Just reading those may add a lot to your knowledge base.

Opinions should never be permitted and doled out only by authority. Our reality, however, via aggressive public disapproval apparatuses, is getting very close to doing just exactly that. This is enabled by a prevailing peoples’ culture which to a great extent accepts—due to habitual obedience to a political, religious, ideological, or another knowledge cult—that authority has a lock-hold on truth. It confines intellectual stimulation, so crucial to a healthy civilization, to narrow and narrowing channels.

I hope that you will independently like some of my personal ideas, compliant or not, as intellectual triggers. The only authoritative materials in this book are in the excerpts from authoritative and professional sources on the internet. This includes persons who authorized their personal stories on this public stage, sometimes bringing to light a truth few formal sources dare to discuss.

1.11 Referring To Anti-Acids

In this book, the term anti-acids is used to refer to all medication, true anti-acids or not, that are used to ameliorate heartburn and stomach discomforts that also:

Modify digestive juices,

Neutralize digestive juices,

Affect or block the manufacture of digestive juices,

By any means prevent HCL from helping the digestive process.

1.12 Reflux, Breathing, Hiatus, And Sphincter

If you have reflux and breathing problems, both, this might be a reason:

The diaphragm is a muscular wall separating the chest cavity from the abdomen,

The diaphragm has an opening for the esophageal pipe (the esophagus) to go through to the stomach. It allows chewed food to enter the stomach. This opening is called the hiatus,

The lower esophageal sphincter is a valve located between the esophagus and the stomach. It is positioned at the diaphragm level. It prevents the stomach from pushing predigested food back into the esophagus.

Sometimes the top of the stomach pushes up through the hiatus and that is called a hiatal hernia. It can have the dual effect of causing acid reflux due to a weakening of the sphincter, and breathing problems due to upward pressure on the lungs. In some cases, a chiropractor can take care of it. In severe cases, such as damage, medical intervention may be required. If your condition is slight, however, the internet provides several methods for self-treatment.

1.13 May I Recommend A Read

If you are interested in some of the history of the use of Hydrochloric Acid (Betaine HCL) in medicine, you might be interested in this material on: (Ref.) 108.85.96.209/askdrt/…pdf

This forty-one-page publication is rich with information that today’s medical professional is probably not much exposed to. It seems to have been written for the general reader and the professional. It gives a clear insight into the language skills insisted on by the educational system and the clarity expected among educated people a hundred years ago. It is immensely interesting.

Sometimes going back to the beginning clarifies matters that have gotten obscured over time by too many explanations. The heading material of this publication is:

Hydrochloric Acid Therapy

Its Role in Overcoming Infectious and Degenerative Disease

A Series of Articles by Medical Pioneers in Hydrochloric Acid Therapy

Degenerative Disease and Its Etiology

By Walter B. Guy, M.D., St. Augustine, Fl. (1930 Publication)

1.14 References

http://drsircus.com/general/crohns-disease-real-causes-natural-treatments/

https://scdlifestyle.com/2012/03/how-to-supplement-with-betaine-

hcl-for-low-stomach-acid/

http://108.85.96.209/askdrt/Downloads/Hydrochloric%20Acid%20Therapy.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121339/

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15851-gerd-non-

cardiac-chest-pain

2 PREMISES

There are three things about the living human body that everybody can agree on.

The first is that it must have a livable environment. Today’s environment is not as nature alone would have provided. It is not certain that we understand how this affects human health. It is not certain that the human body is properly equipped to survive in good health in today’s artificially affected environments.

The second is that the human body has to have a healthy immune system. There is, I believe, a consensus of what to include in the immune system, with some variations. A lot of the variations are about how much detail one wants. Whether to include the digestive system appears contentious.

The third is that food matters. Ancient people may not have been able to talk about the first two, but this third was basic to the conduct of everyday life. Food meant life. Good food meant good life. The words environment and immune system were probably not in their intellectual lexicon, but the cultures that survived had just about perfect knowledge of how to feed the young, the old, and the sick, and what good food did for health. Healthy cultures evolved to believe what their eyes could see, what they saw that did harm, and what they saw that did good—and they observed it for many generations and learned from it.

It proves that not all knowledge is scholastically obtained: colloquial wisdom has substance. I am not a scholar. I believe, recognizing a reality, that scholarship has the power to misrepresent as well as improve knowledge and this is a source of scholastic conflicts and social upheavals. It is also the reason why there are two substantially conflicting medical cultures: the established and the alternative. The importance of Hydrochloric Acid (Betaine HCL) as discussed in this book is one of the more important stones of contention, I believe, and it is a boulder.

2.1 The Alternative Medicine Idea Of HCL

Hydrochloric acid (HCL), the stomach’s digestive juice, is given by some alternative experts credit for constituting 70–90 percent of the immune system. While I have not found a mention how that number is arrived at, it is probably the result of a common observation. Nothing in the body would function as intended or even survive without an efficient digestive system. Without it, the nutrients that the body needs for survival cannot be available. Even the immune system itself will not be able to function properly when starved. It may even malfunction and manufacture bad parts.

HCL is a major facilitator of good digestion. I, therefore, accept that HCL and good digestion are the first layer of the body’s immune response system. The second immune layer consists of the specialized immunity tools discussed in Segment 2.4.

Sometimes a simple profound statement can deliver more scientific truth more convincingly than any number of reputed heavily notated brainy studies.

Note the flagged "—and our health in general—":

…it is easy to forget a painfully obvious fact: Acid is in the stomach because it is supposed to be there. Acid is not some nuisance substance the stomach uses to punish us for enjoying peperoni pizza. Acid plays a variety of vital roles in the digestive process. Without it, our digestive health—and our health in general—is doomed to suffer.

(From the book: Why Stomach Acid is Good for You—Natural Relief from Heartburn, indigestion. Reflux & GERD by Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Lane Lenard, Ph.D., Page 37, published by Evans, 2001)

2.2 The Orthodox Medicine Idea Of HCL

I have not found HCL mentioned in orthodox medical verbiage as associated with the immune function. The idea that HCL is a component of the immune system appears to be entirely a notion of the parallel medical world.

Until very recently, the closest conservative mention that I found about HCL versus the immune system described HCL as helping the immune system. Consequently, when conservative medicine talked about the medical treatment of the immune system, it appeared to not have encroached on digestive issues at all. In that way, it did not appear to acknowledge the role of HCL in immune system complications. Perhaps, things are changing, however. In a very recent remake of its internet presence, WebMD included the digestive system in its immune complex. See (Ref.) webmd.com/…immune-system.

2.3 Components Of The (First Layer) Immune System

Alternative sources on the internet present information that demonstrates that the T-Cells, manufactured in the lymphatic system and a key part of the recognized immune system appear to depend for their functionality on the presence of HCL, a key part of the digestive system.

On the internet, one can frequently find a scholarly discussion of immune system problems that does not touch on digestion or HCL. This research often starts at the T-Cell level (Par. 2.4.3) without any discussion of the sick environment in which they may have been produced and trained due to a sick digestive system. In my opinion, investigating T-Cell functioning independently from HCL functioning could be meaningless.

According to some sources, all of the immune system components that all agree on, those that constitute the lymphatic system, depend on HCL for proper operation. Scientists are free to define the digestive system as not part of the immune system without contradicting any broadly accepted reasoning. But it is incontrovertible that an immune system cannot function properly without a healthy digestive system. The two cannot, therefore, be logically considered separately when discussing the immune system, without the risk of arriving at a disjointed notion of how the immune system operates, or how it can be helped, in my opinion.

This is another reason why, in this book, the digestive system with HCL is considered the first layer of the immune system.

(Ref.) draxe.com:

…The digestive system interacts with all other body systems—this includes the nervous, endocrine, and immune system.

2.3.1 But Beware: You Can’t Have HCL Without Zinc

It appears that the body cannot produce HCL if there is an insufficient supply of zinc. It is broadly acknowledged on the internet that partaking of zinc is known to improve appetite and digestion. To a lay person like myself, this immediately suggest a connection with HCL, but the chemistry of it is beyond this book, so I’ll let some internet sites speak for themselves. In all cases I recommend that you read the entire referenced entry for your edification.

(Ref.) micronutrients.com/

…It’s important to mention that HCL production is a major expenditure of biological energy.

…Of these minerals, zinc and sodium are both responsible for the production of HCL.

(Ref.) branchbasics.com/

Zinc is critical for the production of HCL. You can increase your zinc intake through whole foods. Pumpkin seeds are the most concentrated, non-meat food source of zinc. Most foods that are high in zinc are animal foods

(Ref.) clinicaleducation.org/

…However, another reason is nutrient deficiencies. Low levels of the mineral zinc and vitamins B1 and B6 can also contribute to low levels of stomach acid.

(Ref.) reclaimyourhealth.com.

Zinc is necessary to produce carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme involved in gastric acid production.

(Ref.) kingswaycompounding.com

Zinc (30–50mg)—Hydrochloric acid production is dependent on zinc. Zinc also enhances immune function, prevents infection and promotes healing. Food sources; cashews, ginger, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, wholegrains.

The frequent independent mention on the internet of how zinc improves immune functions and digestion may also suggest that it does a lot of it via its effect on HCL production.

2.4 Components Of The (Second Layer) Immune System

A diagram of this part of the immune system can be found at (Ref.) www.livescience.com.

Were I asked where the second layer of the immune system is located, I’d point to the lymphatic systems as including most of it. (To remind the reader, in this book, the first layer consists of HCL and the rest of the digestive system.)

The former version of the WebMD internet presentation listed the immune system parts as follows. This version does not mention HCL or the digestive system. But a newer version at (Ref.) webmd.com/…immune-system does list the digestive system as part of the immune system.

The tonsils and thymus, which make antibodies.

The lymph nodes and vessels (the lymphatic system). This network of lymph nodes and vessels throughout the body carries lymph fluid, nutrients, and waste material between the body tissues and the bloodstream. The lymphatic system is an important part of the immune system. The lymph nodes filter lymph fluid as it flows through them, trapping bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances, which are then destroyed by special white blood cells called lymphocytes.

Bone marrow. This is soft tissue found mainly inside the long bones of the arms and legs, the vertebrae, and the pelvic bones of the body. It is made up of red marrow, which produces red and white blood cells and platelets, and yellow marrow, which contains fat and connective tissue and produces some white blood cells.

The spleen, which filters the blood by removing old or damaged blood cells and platelets and helps the immune system by destroying bacteria and other foreign substances.

White blood cells. These blood cells are made in the bone marrow and protect the body against infection. If an infection develops, white blood cells attack and destroy the bacteria, virus, or other organism causing it.

All of these interlocked immune system components reside within the lymphatic system as described in Paragraph 2.4.1, and seem to depend on good HCL levels for proper operation, Paragraph 2.4.5.

2.4.1 The Lymphatic System

This organ system appears to wholly consist of all the components universally considered part the immune complex, not including the body’s physical external defenses.

A good source of information on the immune system and the lymphatic system can be found at (Ref.) innerbody.com…lympov:

The immune and lymphatic systems are two closely related organ systems that share several organs and physiological functions.

The lymphatic system is also nicely described in (Ref.) science.jrank.org, a good resource:

The lymphatic system is the body’s network of