Five steps to curing your chronic heartburn / GERD

Thanks riverotter for your thoughts. I do need to say that on number 4...no one should taper ANY drugs without the supervision of their doctor. Also, on number 4...please, some people do need to keep their beds elevated, and keep with the other tricks. Everyone needs to use their own judgement on that. When it comes to number 3...the bad foods are not necessarily harmless to everyone. Again, people need to use their own judgement on that. Everyone reacts differently to everything, be it a diet, a drug, or whatever. So, when it comes to the foods thought of as bad, that too needs to be judged by each individual. Like you said, the above is free...but I just wanted to stress how everyone is different, and that how nobody should go off their drugs of any kind without the supervision of a doctor. Again, thank you for your suggestions...they are appriciated!

Riverotter,
I must say that you seem to have all the answers. You remind me of Tom Cruise when he scolded Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants for post-partem depression. He also assumed her condition was not real and all she had to do was think beautiful thoughts and she could control her depression.

Millions of people have heartburn everyday but that does not mean they have GERD. Everyone refluxes everyday but they do not have GERD. In fact, normal reflux is anything under 50 times a day according to GI doctors and their Demeester scale that they use to measure GERD. These episodes last only seconds and do no damage. I dare say that you may have episodes of heartburn but you do not have GERD. A chronic conditon where "something is wrong" that requires diligent medication to prevent serious damage.

I recently had a bravo test where they measured how much acid comes up into my esophagus while I had been off medication for 6 days prior to testing. I had 70 episodes of reflux most lasting 5 minutes or more and the longest being 37 minutes. I was not on drugs at the time and under no particular stress. I have a great family life with not alot of problems, praise God. The real cause of my GERD is that my LES muscle between my stomach and esphagus is weak and doesn't close and open properly or at the right times. And that is the reason people have real GERD or they have a hiatal hernia where their stomach is protruding into their esophagus which causes acid to leak around the hernia. Many times people have a lump in their throat because of acid refluxing into the throat.

You're insisting on dangerous measures for people who have real problems not imaginary. I'm happy you can create your own reality and just eat more forbidden food and your heartburn goes away. Most of us live in the real world. I hope you have a great day.

Sorry if I offended anyone. I agree that everyone who has GERD or heartburn has a medical condition. And I think it is a serious condition, a real condition. When folks go into doctors now with GERD symptoms, they are getting high powered tests, drugs and interventions.

The question we have to keep asking though is why is there a current epidemic of GERD in the US? Is it because LES failure has suddenly reached epidemic proportions or is something else at work? Is it not possible that crummy LESes are out there in millions of people who have no symptoms...we don't know. Could more aggressive treatment be making matters worse? This is one big science experiment and we are the guinea pigs.

The other question to ask is how our minds and bodies work together...I think it is misguided to go to a doctor for a chronic condition and not at least think about our emotional lives at the same time. My doctor for example listens to me for about 30 seconds, growls (he has no bedside manner) and writes a prescription for some strong medicine. Is this effective medicine?

Anyway, I am not saying it is in your head...you have a real condition...but it may be linked to your emotions. (For the curious, do some research on how headaches and backaches are being treated these days...there is tremendous turmoil and disagreement among various camps of doctors...the psychological origins ones are disputing the physical origins ones and vice versa...)

In the end, I am just offering an alternative to the largely unsuccessful treatments and unhappy results I read about on this forum. Nothing worked for me, but the mind-body approach did work. After posting a year ago, several people tried this method, it worked and they later thanked me...so I'll keep trying.

riverotter

Hi Riverotter,

Thank you for your post.  I have evidence that eliminating stress may alleviate GERD.  I have daily LPR, despite taking PPI's.  In March, '08, I was scheduled for the esophyx procedure.  Two weeks prior to the procedure, my husband and I went on a short vacation.  I had absolutely no LPR while we were on vacation, despite my drinking coffee daily and eating "trigger" foods like tomato sauce.  Two days after I came home from vacation, the LPR symptoms started up again.  I went ahead with the esophyx procedure, and unfortunately, it did not relieve my symptoms (I had the procedure 8 weeks ago).  Interestingly, there appears to be an anatomical reason for my LPR, since my surgeon told me that my valve was "flat" and therefore, not functioning normally.  He said that he recreated my valve, using the esophyx device, but obviously, it didnt help me.  I am surprised that I felt well on vacation, given my defective LES valve.  I can only conclude that stress is a major contributor to my symptoms.  I have a great deal of anxiety, due to numerous health problems in my immediate family. 

Can you possibly be more specific about what type of mental excercises one can perform to get into a relaxed state of mind?  Is there a particular website I can check out or CD that I can purchase?

Thank you!!

roseanne99:

You asked if I could be more specific....so here are a few ideas. You said that you felt better on vacation...in this approach that would say that your mind and body felt "happier", so they did not feel the need to "send" you any symptoms...(I know this all sounds a little crazy, but bear with me)....when you got back form vacation, your mind and body got mad or upset per usual and per usual rather than letting you feel all that upset, it sent you symptoms to "distract" you from the unpleasant or scary feelings...so your symptoms return and you are miserable again.

But never fear, you can overcome this and rather fast. I would try sitting quietly for say 30 minutes and think about anything that could be upsetting you...think about job stress, family stress, childhood stresses of long ago and just be in those feelings...make notes if you like...you might try imagining a door marked "anger" or "sadness," and try opening the door and walking in...this can be very powerful, so be careful....at the same time, tell your body that you are OK with those feelings existing and that you don't need a distraction symptom...you should feel a palpable sensation of something letting go or stopping...so the technique is not just relaxing or exercising or getting a massage to relax, it is doing conscious work with these topics in mind...

I also like to picture the affected area (stomach, e.g.) and ask it to talk to me...why is it upset?

Once you get the feelings going...and have waited a few days or a week, you should start to feel physically better, perhaps feel that any inflammation is going away, etc. Then to complete the treatment, you will then have to reduce the drugs (under doctor supervision perhaps) and other symptom related things that you do...why?...well because the symptoms will try to overcome your remedies, so remedies are counter-productive...they trigger the brain to produce more and stronger symptoms to continue to get your attention...I found that after a few days of meditation, I could decrease my meds and then slowly stop; slowly I had a beer and ate some chocolate and did other no-no stuff...my body got to the point where it would refuse to produce any more symptoms...why should it? there was no point....now of course if I ate ten hot dogs I would get a stomach ache like any normal person and I had to get sleep to stay healthy, but if I felt a twinge of symptoms and reached for a no-no beer rather than my pills, it really sent a strong message to my body that I was back in charge and that the game was over

An analogy would be if you had the flu and after you got completely over it, refused to get out of bed or go back on normal foods...babying your body at that point would actually slow recovery...you would get stuck in a sick zone...that is your body now with GERD...stuck in a sick zone that serves only one purpose, to distract you from the pain/rage of the stressful life you lead

By the way, if you have the ability to lead a less stressful life or make needed changes in your life (like quit a too stressful job) and know that, but refuse to act on that, that is not good...knowledge may stop the symptoms at first, but if you want long-term relief, go ahead and make the change...otherwise you are punishing yourself, which causes more internal rage...so the answer is not just the meditation, but the action of change that matters...

according to this technique, if something is difficult and you can't make a change, then all you need to do is to acknowledge it...if you are stuck in a bad job, but absolutely can't quit right now, that's OK...but when you CAN quit, you'd better do it or you'll hate yourself

if you are successful curing your GERD this way, symptoms may creep in from other parts of your body...your skin may break out or you might get headaches or backaches or allergies...your body is trying to fool you again another way...simply use the same technique to stop those symptoms, too

for more research on this, look up TMS...that is the clinical name for this healing technique

as I said, this all sounds rather crazy, but it has worked for a lot of people, thousands; it is not well known because it puts medical specialists and drug companies out of business, and it sounds wacky...normally I would hate this kind of approach but I was desperate and it worked : )

good luck...

riverotter

Erm, I have say I agree with Drakepoo13.

I think that offering this type of miracle cure gives people with chronic conditions false hope. Perhaps stress etc can increase the symptoms of an existing condition but I don't think any amount of "Positive Thinking" can cure my GERD.

I am not a stressful person and my GERD can flair up whenever it likes for no reason, the fact that you saying these things about GERD basically being a condition that is manifesed in the brain, is the type of thing that I think makes some doctors so indifferent to offering help with this condition.

Sorry for my rant but I don't agree, I'm not saying that for some poeple if they lead a very busy lifestyle then I'm sure if they slow down and relax then they will perhaps get some relief. But curing a chronic condition thru PMA is not something I can believe in.... If only it where that simple.

But what if your sphincter really does malfunction?  I mean what if it really is weak and acid leaks up into esophagus?  Thats not something you can control by thinking it away...i mean i dont know, i think if your gerd was brought on by stress, then reducing stress would be the cure, but if hyoru Gerd was brought on by a physiological factor like your LES really being weak and malcunctioning, then I really dont think reducing stress would benefit that much.  I think you have to find WHAT is causing it and tackle ot from there.  Not everyones GERD was brought on by stress.

-Lisa