Acid Reflux Remedies
"That Really Work"

Table of Contents
(click here)

Conventional medication treats the symptoms of acid reflux and not the disease itself.

Whichever way you look at it, the pain of heartburn and the complications associated with GERD, are all caused by digestive acid escaping from the stomach.

Therefore, the root cause of this malady is a weakened or malfunctioning lower esophageal sphincter (LES).

Strengthen the LES and you will cure your Acid Reflux Disease!

This sounds simple. However, effective acid reflux remedies take time and a lot of self-discipline.

What Causes a Relaxed LES?

Before going into detail, let us examine the causes of a weakened LES.

1. Hiatus Hernia:

   Studies show that the vast majority of GERD patients also suffer from a hiatus hernia.

   This is not surprising.

   The opening in a non-herniated diaphragm fits snugly around the LES and expands and contracts in harmony with the opening or closing action of this valve.

   In other words, the opening in the diaphragm contributes a percentage of the clenching force that prevents acid from invading the esophagus.

   In a herniated diaphragm, the opening is stretched, allowing a small portion of the stomach to force its way up into the chest cavity. This in turn, carries the LES upwards to the point where it is no longer surrounded by the opening in the diaphragm.

   This separation reduces the valve’s efficiency by twenty to thirty-five percent.



2. Drugs:

   The side effect of several types of drugs, including nicotine, causes the LES to relax and sometimes open spontaneously between swallows.

3. Trigger foods:

   These either cause the LES to relax or they force the proton pump to produce too much hydrochloric acid.

4. An injured LES:

Not surprisingly, a traumatized LES cannot perform at optimum efficiency.

In many cases, you don’t! With a little help from certain acid reflux remedies, Mother Nature will often do it for you.

Let me explain:

The human body constantly undergoes the automatic process of self-healing.

We cut our finger and it heals itself. We get a common cold and whether we treat it or not, it disappears in about a week. We suffer major illness or trauma and despite the use of wonder drugs and surgery, ‘nature’ does the actual healing.

Nature's "inner chemist" cures all, even many of the so-called ‘incurable’ diseases.

Mother nature also does a wonderful job when it comes to compensating for bodily injury or weakness.

For example, a newly blinded persons' sense of touch, smell and hearing all improve automatically to compensate for the loss of eyesight.

Similarly, in order to compensate for the loss of diaphragm support, Mother Nature progressively strengthens the ring of muscle that make up the LES.

This explains why a good percentage of hiatus hernia patients never develop GERD or excessive heartburn.

Unfortunately, not everyone respond to mother nature or to common acid reflux remedies.

If you happen to be one of the unfortunates, you may eventually have to resort to surgery, such as the Nissen fundoplication or one of the up and coming non-invasive procedures such as the EsophyX TIF Natural Orifice GERD Surgery.

----Sidebar----
Many sufferers engage in a relentless
Internet hunt for effective remedies, and
this is where interactive websites and
forums, such as our own Pay It Forward
section, play an important part.
----Sidebar----

First Step:

• Chocolate
• Peppermint
• Spearmint
• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Finally, if you are a user, get help and quit cocaine.

Second Step:

• Proton pump inhibitors (PPI’s). To avoid a rebound effect when stopping PPI consumption, start progressively reducing the dosages until you are able to quit.
• H2 blockers.
• Over-the-counter antacids -- A level teaspoonful of Arm & Hammer bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a half glass of warm water is an effective alternative (the body produces its own supply of bicarbonate as one of the natural antacid ingredients of saliva).
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s). These include the following:
  
  
  1. Aspirin
  2. Ibuprofen (Motrin and Advil)
  3. Naproxen (Alieve)… and some others.
  
  Tylenol (acetaminophen), is a safe alternative to NSAID's
• Bronchodilators
• Blood pressure medication
• Corticosteroids
• Muscle relaxants
• Anti-anxiety drugs (St. John’s Wart is a good substitute)
• Nitroglycerine

Third Step:

Fourth step:

Fifth step:

1. Alkalize your body - This is probably the quickest way to defeat acid indigestion.

2. Get into the habit of falling asleep on your left side. The LES is on the upper right-hand side of the stomach.

   Although you toss and turn during the night, falling asleep on your left side puts the stomach below the LES for an hour or two before you move, therefore gravity will prevent acid seeping past the relaxed nighttime LES.

   By the time you turn over, there will be less acid present as the digestive process would be fairly well advanced.

3. Reduce the size of your meals. Replace your 11-inch dinner plate with an 8-inch desert plate.
4. Eat the French way. Slow down, savor each bite; chew each mouthful thoroughly and learn to really enjoy your food. (Tip: Put your fork down between mouthfuls).
5. Have a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack.
6. Increase your fiber intake as an aid to digestion. Fiber is found in vegetables, fruit (with emphasis on bananas) and some grains.
7. Eat an apple a day
8. Cultivate the habit of taking a walk after your evening meal. Try it for two weeks; if the results please you, carry on for another two weeks. This way you'll automatically build a new habit without having to rely on willpower.
9. Move the time of your evening meal up so that you have dinner at least three hours before bedtime… In addition, put a curfew on after dinner snacking and don't have a bedtime glass of milk.
10. When lifting an object, flex your knees instead of bending at the waist to avoid the danger of inducing a hiatus hernia.
11. Avoid violent coughing spells. Try not to strain during a bowel movement; these activities will force the LES open temporarily.
12. Last, but not least. Drink at least 8 glasses of alkaline water a day and eliminate fizzy soda. Proper hydration will go a long way toward an effective acid reflux remedy program.

Raw Apple Cider Vinegar:

Vinegar, as a natural remedy, has been used for many centuries , from the early Chinese dynasties to the time of the ancient Greeks. D.C. Jarvis’ best seller, 'Folk Medicine', published in 1958, started the ball rolling as a precursor to acid reflux remedies in modern times.

Although there have never been any clinical studies on the effects of apple cider vinegar as an acid reflux remedy, it’s a well-proven, time-tested aid to relief.

There’s no doubt that it works for some people… but it doesn’t work for everyone. There’s only one way to find out if it’s your cup of tea (pun intended), and that’s to try it; there are no side effects, so you have nothing to lose:

Brew a mug of green tea with honey to taste, and add a teaspoonful of raw apple cider vinegar.

Get your supplies from a good health food store and make sure you can see some "mother" (sediment) in the bottom of the jar. If there’s no sediment, it’s distilled and it won't work.

Always shake the jar before making your cup of tea.

This wonder acid reflux remedy works best if it’s taken before every meal.

Aloe vera juice:

In addition, the juice also contains salicylic acid, which speeds up the healing of burns.

A spoonful of aloe vera juice dissolved in water and taken half an hour before meals is one of the more effective acid reflux remedies.

Taken regularly, it will help to heal an injured LES. Apart from that, aloe vera juice has a soothing effect on the stomach and is a wonderful digestive aid.

About half of the enzymes required by a healthy digestive system come from the foods we eat. However, heat and the very act of cooking tends to destroy enzymes.

Eating plenty of raw vegetables and fruit together with a plant based digestive enzyme supplement works well as an acid reflux remedy.

The secondary problem is that an injured gut will stop producing certain digestive enzymes.

A good strategy is to take measures to proactively heal the gut. A direct way to accomplish this is with digestive enzymes, which help for a number of reasons that have been proved clinically.

Once the gut repairs itself, the cells in the lining 're-grow' and your natural digestive enzymes start producing again. Thus many of the former problematic foods no longer cause heartburn.

Digestive Enzymes are available online and from reputable health food outlets.

Natural digestive aids and colon cleansers:

Aloe vera, beta carotene, senna pod, garlic, rosehips (all obtainable in health food stores), and acidophilus, are all helpful aids when it come to healing a damaged LES. Each and every one of them will contribute toward your acid reflux remedy program.

Acidophilus:

Acidophilus bacterium is found naturally in the human body and serves to protect it against parasites, bacteria and other harmful organisms.

Friendly acidophilus bacteria has been touted for its many health benefits and used for centuries in the preparation of various foods, such as sauerkraut, and yogurt.

When an acidophilus culture is blended into a sugar-rich environment, the bacteria consumes the sugar and turns it into various beneficial substances, including lactic acid.

These substances lower the pH of the foods and liquids, thereby creating a hostile environment for unfriendly microbes and parasites; this also helps to preserve the food.

Lactic acid is responsible for the characteristic tang one tastes in yogurt, kombucha, kinchi, kefir and sauerkraut, (these are all fine digestive aids).

With this in mind, adopt yogurt as an essential part of your breakfast or as a regular desert, you won't be sorry.

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References

• Enzyme Stuff - Digestion and Enzymes
• American Cancer Society - Acidophilus

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