If your Medical Doctor has told you that you suffer from Gastric Reflux (GERD) realize that digestion is not something that was well taught at medical school.
Most MD’s think the problem is too much (hyperacidity) stomach acid. But most often the problem is actually not enough acid (hypoacidity.)
Americans spend more than $13 billion on acid stopping drugs each year. This expense might be justified if antacid drugs were actually curing heartburn and GERD. But just the opposite is true. Not only do these drugs fail to treat GERD, they will make the underlying condition worse.
Tums and other over-the-counter or prescription medications do work, and they do treat the symptoms. But they do no treat the cause. Stopping digestion, by lowering acid even more, is not the answer. When you lower acid even more, and undigested food hits your intestine, that creates a burden to your guts that sets you up for candida formation and leaky gut. That means you have the wrong kind of gut bacteria growing out of control and undigested proteins and other food components are transferring across the gut wall into the blood. This is a common cause of allergies, inflammation, acne, rosacea, skin rashes, and a compromised immune system.
Improving the stomach acid response, and improving digestion, makes your stomach happy, relieves symptoms, and is very important for your over-all health.
So, if you suffer from acid reflux or heartburn, reach for hydrochloric acid tablets and digestive enzymes. Take a couple of each with each meal and see what happens. If you still suffer with digestive discomfort, let me know. Rarely there is more of a sort-out needed. But most often you will find your digestion greatly improved.
As people age, they lose more stomach acid, although that may be because the standard American diet is a great burden on digestion. Avoid combining fruit with protein, eliminate sugar, coffee, alcohol and breads and pastas for a few days, and see what happens with your digestion.
Lightly steamed vegetables are good for your digestive tract. Chew animal proteins well and don’t drink too much water with your meals. And don’t drink anything BUT water with your meals, and see how that affects your digestion.
Your life-line, the route for getting nutrients to your blood and cells. is through your digestive tract. Most people would not pour Kool-Aid into the gas tank of their car, but they may think nothing of pouring garbage into their mouths.
Naturopaths are very well trained to treat the entire digestive process because it is one of the vital keys to long-term health and strong immunity, feeling great and looking the best you can. It also will help you to lose weight.
If your stomach bothers you at all, come see us. Don’t suffer, but get the root problem fixed.