Misterious Night hunger - can it be low stomach acid

Posted by renem97 @renem97, Jun 17, 2023

I have been struggling for the last 3 years with night time hunger.

This has been going on and off. I’m starting to understand what foods make me satisfied and what not, but in general it’s getting worse and harder to manage. Happens almost every day now.

During the day I eat normally, mostly healthy food. I have enough protein and fat in my diet, so I should be full long enough. The problem is, I get very hungry at night. I wake up at 3-5 am and I have to eat something or drink a hot tea, otherwise I just can’t fall asleep again.

For the last 6 months I have been experimenting with different kind of supplements and found out that things like aloe vera, apple cider vinegar and betaine help a lot. I have been using those before every meal and for a while everything was fine. But I developed sore throat, caugh and now it just hurts to swallow. So I had to stop using those supplements, because even though they help with the hunger (it take 650 mg of betaine before bed and everything is fine and I’m not hungry at all). But they burn my esophagus. Just after 1 month of aloe vera 3 times a day I had endoscopy done and the doc told me I have eosinophilic esophagitis, because I had burned esophagus and high eosinophilia (80).

He prescribed me PPIs, high dose - 40mg 2x a day. At that time I had my hunger issues under control but as soon as I started using the PPIs, they came back. I could be full after a meal, then take the PPI and in 15 minutes feel like there is hole in my stomach and it’s completely empty. So I stopped using those, but the hunger continues to this day.

My theory is this - I developed low stomach acid from PPIs (have been taking before), and betaine, ACV and aloe Vera get things back to normal. But for some reason they irritate my esophagus a lot. So I cannot use them anymore.

Please share your thoughts, I’m desperate. I can’t get any sleep, I’m usually awake every night between 3-5am, then not being able to function during the day. I had also colonoscopy, blood work - everything normal.

The main issue is the night hunger. Can it be low stomach acid or GERD? What are your tips?

If you need any more info, I will be happy to share

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Digestive Health Support Group.

jojo | @jord | Jun 22, 2023

I have Gerd and sometimes when I eat, pain goes away. You can have high or low acid or get tested for SIBO. People who take PPIs and H2 Blockers, like me, get Sibo. Tagement did miracle for my Gerd, but after two weeks I got Sibo si can't take them. SIBO symptoms are weird. They say if you have SIBO, you have lower ab bloating and paint. I did not. My symptoms were on upper GI and was tested positive. You can just go on Biotics and try it for 42-46 weeks see if gets better. Amazon sells them...FC Cidal and Dysbiocide.

vipmayo | @vipmayo | Jan 27 11:48am

Hello Renem97. I have identical IDENTICAL symptoms and can't figure them out. If you find this note, can you please e-mail me? Doctors don't help. I'm sure we can share a lot of info. THANK YOU.

vipmayo | @vipmayo | Feb 10 5:55am

In reply to @renem97 "Hi gboi, thanks for your response! Betaine HCL or ACV is always taken with a meal..." + (show)

@renem97

Hi gboi,

thanks for your response!

Betaine HCL or ACV is always taken with a meal so that’s not a solution when you already wake up. In that case I used to just eat oatmeal but that’s not good to eat in the middle of the night, so I switched to celery juice or tea. In case of oatmeal I could usually fall asleep almost right away, but the sleep wasn’t ideal with my body digesting as you can imagine.

For me it started gradually since I was around 17, when I started going to the gym and eat a lot of carbs, smoking and drinking, partying etc. at first it wasn’t at night, it was just a hunger. I didn’t care as I was just a stupid teenager back then. It was slowly progressing and at college I started waking up just a little bit earlier because of the hunger, and I also could not get satisfied from almost any food. But I still didn’t to anything to manage it. And here we are today. I would just like to go back in time and beat my younger self for being such a stupid person who doesn’t care about their health. 😂

I am visiting GI doctor, the performed colonoscopy, endoscopy and also that thing that they do with pregnant women (don’t remember the name). They told me I had inflamed esophagus but that seems to be from aloe Vera, betaine and ACV. It’s also a separate issue that doesn’t cause the problem we are talking about.

So regarding stomach, colon etc they said everything was okay. All these tests I had also 3 years ago with the same results.

It’s definitely something there, it just can’t be seen on the test.

Regarding SIBO - THANK YOU SO MUCH! I looked into it, and although I almost don’t have any symptoms of that, I do believe it may be part of the problem. The things like rice, pasta, asparagus etc have been always problematic to me. I am more hungry after I eat them than before. and they all seem to be triggers for SIBO, right? For the last week I have been eating very clean - just meat, leafy greens and a small size of potatos. And things are getting better! I found out that pea protein was also causing problems. I use that in my morning oatmeal. I can sleep through the whole night usually. The sleep isn’t ideal and I still feel the hunger, but I doesn’t wake me completely.

I’m sorry about your condition, believe me I understand completely. So many nights I just cried in the middle of the night, hating my body, feeling like total shit the next day because of the lack of sleep.

I hope you get better soon. Maybe the fasting could help, if you didn’t try? I know it sounds drastic but it did help me, I just messed up afterwards 😃.

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Hello, even thought this post goes a while back, i just discovered it. I have identical issues like you. Doctors don't help. Any progress since the last time? Please respond.