Needs A Remedy For Acid Reflux
I visited my doctor yesterday, and he told me that I have acid reflux and he prescribed to me aciPhex I was reading the side effects of this prescription, and I really do not want to take this medication. Do any of your readers know of any natural alternatives for acid reflux disease?
Thank you,
Michael
I made an error above (aside from my horrible punctuation): actually, it’s worse than that with oats, as oats can be contaminated in the field by wheat! This made no difference to my symptoms (I tolerated a tasteless bowl of oatmeal well, and what I didn’t eat was well tolerated by my cat–go figure), but someone with celiac sprue cannot risk consuming any gluten whatsoever.
Some people find their acid reflux can be controlled by making dietary changes. For me, removing wheat allowed me to eat acidic foods without reflux symptoms. Other people with reflux consume wheat with no problems. Overeating, tight clothing, and visceral fat (fat in your guts, ie belly fat) can contribute to your symptoms. Head+neck elevation while sleeping has shown promising results. The active ingredient in Prilosec (available as a generic OTC in the United States) is usually well-tolerated with no major risks for short-term use. The problem is that for many, the reflux symptoms will return.
Please keep in mind that NOT treating your acid reflux puts you at risk of serious disease, including esophageal cancer (which can be fatal).
I am currently putting myself through an elimination diet. Suspected antagonists are eliminated from the diet, then added back in one by one. Usually a period of a week is used for each phase. Rather than using the standard challenge/elimination diet (which is used for suspected food allergies in children), I followed my gut (heh) and removed wheat, rye, and barley. If you suspect lactose intolerance, you could try removing dairy from your diet. (Of course, lactose intolerance can be treated by consuming lactase, available under brand-name LactAid, with dairy.)
It is completely possible to have intolerances or allergies to pesticides, industrial pollutants, even GMO proteins (I suppose), but it may be most fruitful to do a challenge diet with the most common food intolerances or allergies, keeping in mind that the foods that bring out GERD symptoms may be somewhat outside this paradigm, ie it could be bran flakes, tortilla chips, or something totally different in your case, rather than immediately jumping on second-order or quite frankly extremely rare chemical sensitivities. For example, the literature reveals that some people react badly to naturally-occurring salicylates in food. (It’s not technically even an intolerance, but rather a drug response.) There is always a chance you are having a super-rare problem but I think it’s best to rule out the usual suspects first.
Pay attention to what you are eating. Then, eliminate all the foods you suspect of causing your reflux from your diet. If your symptoms go away during this period, you can introduce one by one foods that you had eliminated (the challenge). If you start having symptoms (sometimes it takes up to 3 days for symptoms to return, hence the week for each challenge), then you can considered this food to be a confirmed contributor to your acid reflux and you should avoid it. HINT: it is much easier to accomplish the elimination/challenge if you are able to cook all of your food from scratch and try not to use to many confusing mixed foods like condiments. This isn’t the end of the world if you have a stovetop and microwave. Or someone to cook for you. If you try to eat restaurant or convenience foods you may run into trouble because you don’t know what’s been mixed in it. For example, some hot dogs contain lactose. Soy sauce contains wheat gluten. Cheap chocolate is extended with peanut meal. Vegetarian fake meat is a mix of what-not which may even contain egg whites. Plus the issue of cross-contamination in the factory. Celiacs cannot buy most brands of oats because they are contaminated with wheat dust in the factory. Of course, allergy sufferers or people with celiac sprue are many, many times more sensitive to food contaminants than someone with a simple intolerance. (Fortunately for the rest of us!) But the point is, you will certainly have trouble interpreting the result of a challenge/elimination diet if you don’t actually know what you’re eating.
Good luck.
Avoid physically cold foods and raw foods. The exceptions are salads with vinegarette dressing or sushi eaten with wasabi (both have the coldness counteracted).
Also avoid soft drinks.
Both liquid chlorophyll and pineapple every day will promote a healthy digestive environment.
Even organic apple cider vinegar every day might help.
My coworker had great success with all natural Optiflora. It’s a two-product system which includes Probiotic (Bifidus & Acidophilus…microflora) + Prebiotic (FOS…food source for microflora).
Also, helpful is Stomach Soothing Complex. It contains pepermint ginger, peppermint powder, anise powder, fennel powder, pepermint oil and ginger powder.
Bread and pastries made of wheat flour have a tendency to give bad acid reflux. So does raw garlic. If you eat this regularly (and people usually eat bread), you might consider eating rye or spelt bread for a week and feel the difference.
This is due to genetically modified wheat and it’s much better to keep off it. Some people don’t react at all, some react badly.
I stopped having acid reflux the day I went over to spelt bread.
All the best to you!
This is what I did to reduce my acid reflux:
* elevate the head of your bed (by about one of two inches) so that your head is higher than your feet when you sleep Keeps acids from going up and out of your stomach.
* with meals, drink room temperature water with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. Helps with digestion.
As Lisa has already said, intolerances to wheat can produce acid reflux…Lactose intolerance can also cause acid reflux, alternating bouts of constipation & diahorrea and will also lead to a compromised digestive system thus laying the groundwork for a body which is extremely susceptible to developing nose, throat, sinus, ear, bronchial, bladder and other infections as well……. Other symptoms you may be suffering from are mucous in the stools, bloating and cramping, digestive troubles such as constipation, belching and burping, gassiness and wet f*arting (sorry, no other way to say it), ribbony and stringy shaped bowel movements or rabbit pellet shaped movements are all symptoms of lactose intolerance.
Basically allergies to certain foods such wheat and milk and dairy will produce all these symptoms because your digestive system has been compromised by it’s inability to digest that food ………. You need to pinpoint the culprit here and eliminate all dairy milk products for a couple of days and note how you then feel …….. this includes foods such as milk, yoghurt, ice cream, cheese (although cheese is extremely low in lactose and you may still be able to tolerate it), cream etc.etc.etc. if that makes no difference, try eliminating the wheat for a few days also……eat organic brown rice or quinoa instead.
please ensure that you take a calcium supplement containing vitamin D3 as they both rely on each other for effective absorption and increase your intake of non dairy calcium rich foods as calcium is essential for healthy bones, teeth and for heart health and also for a healthy digestive and neural system…………… do you also have problems with headaches and migraines, insomnia and irritability and moodiness and even achy bones ?? If so, this is because your calcium intake is being hindered by the lactose intolerance ♥
foods rich in calcium are ~ leafy and green vegies, sardines, salmon, tofu, organic nuts and seeds, peanuts, walnuts and sunflower seeds (ensure all nuts and seeds are organic to avoid pesticides, preservatives & sulfites which may disrupt effective digestion) kale, broccoli and collard greens.
Also ensure that you are drinking loads of fresh filtered water on a daily basis as being a bit dehydrated would only further stress an already compromised system …………. ;0)
Antacids are only at best bandaiding the situation by temporarily resolving your symptoms ~ their main function is to alleviate the reflux by neutralising ALL the acid in your stomach, that’s a Bad thing because you need stomach acids such as hydrochloric acid to Digest your food ………. hence, the next time you eat your symptoms recurr because your stomach acids are diluted and useless and the source of the problem ……. Low Stomach Acid has not been addressed………. Increase your stomach’s production of hydrochloric acid by eating more foods rich in magnesium ie ~ leafy and green vegies, fresh cold water fishes such as tuna, sardines and salmon and by pinpointing foods to which you are allergic……. you really do need to try to resolve this problem from the source as acid reflux is NOT an ongoing problem if you deal with it at its root cause ie ~ effective digestion.
Take a good quality probiotic powder supplement before your main meals also as this will help with the digestive process by encouraging the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract, it will also help maintain optimal intestinal pH, which, in turn, helps with complete digestion…… probiotics will increase the absorption of minerals, such as calcium, magnesium and sometimes iron too….. they also produce some of the B vitamins, including biotin, niacin, folic acid, pantothenic acid, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6…… the B vitamins are essential for healthy neural, digestive and immune system functioning.
hope this helps u
peace 2 u