Has anyone read The Heartburn No More book?

Ailie,

I have not heard of this system but I would really check it out well as there are many scams along with the really good sites on the web.

Take Care
Kitt

Wow, thanks for telling me this. Did you undergo ERCP for stones in the duct? My dr thinks there is a stone left behind and I'm to have my 2nd ERCP 2/25. My GERD symptoms aren't like some I've heard other people have. I am able to sleep thru the night, I never burp up any bad-tasting stuff, though I burp a lot, Mine is during the day, I have had a few weeks of relief on Prevacid, but have been in constant burning pain for over a week now. It is in my chest, upper and middle abdomen and sometimes I get twinges of pain where my gallbladder was, and burp a lot with anything I eat (I'm eating small amounts of low fat food every few hours - that's what I did right before my surgery). The pain has gotten worse mid-abdomen in the last week but Dr said that was normal. Do you take anything for it? My dr said medication will not work because of the stuck stone and not to expect it to. He implied once I get the stone or blockage out I will be fine. Though from reading these messages I wonder... If you have any ideas please let me know. I have lost weight - at least 20 pounds - since all the odd symptoms started in September. This burning I have now is the worst it's been and I still have to wait 20 days for the ERCP!

How did they extract your stones if they were outside duct? Did you have the open surgery? Yes I've been sipping warm soup - even warm water helps a bit, and been eating low-fat, avoiding choc, caffeine, alcohol, sugar doing all the right stuff. However, at this point it's getting worse and new symptoms developing. So I have to be optomistic the ERCP will find something. I had an ultra sound today and they told me dr will have results in 3 days so I will call him next week and keep my fingers crossed something shows up. However, I've been told these ultra sounds of liver, etc do not usually show things very well. At least I feel like I've done something - hate having this run my life. That aloe-vera juice does not taste very good either - but I may check out Aloecure - I'm willing to try anything at this point. Thanks so much for the info - this is so dreadful to go through alone. I feel terrible for my husband and boys - I've literally been feeling awful since September (with a few weeks where I was fine in December), and this has to be hard - especially for my younger son (age 11).

Hi Ailie,

Well, I bought a bottle of Aloecure last night and tried it. Wow! Despite what the box says--it tastes nasty. Still, within 15 minutes my stomach calmed down. The gas went away, the pain went away. I took 2 servings yesterday and 1 today. So far, I have no pain. I know I still have the GERD because I still woke up with the acid taste in my mouth. The main difference is that the pain and gas appear to be either gone or under control. I still feel discomfort if you press on my abdomen between the navel and the breastbone. I will try it for a week and see how things go. So far today, I have not needed the extra ppi so I guess that's something.

Marburg

I take 2 Protonix 40 mg (1 morning, 1 at noon) and 2 Zantac 150mg (1 at dinner and 1 before bed) along with Carafate (1 tablet an hour before each meal). Last night, I didn't need the Zantac at bedtime. Today I've only taken the Carafate. So far no pain. I do still feel a bit of acid in my throat (mainly I could taste it when I woke up) or if I press on my abdomen, but no pain and very little gas.

I kind of wondered if I had a blockage. When I had a hysterecomy last summer they had to do a lot of repair work on my bladder and my colon was in the wrong place. The doctor said she had to completely realign the colon. Since then, my GERD has been a thousand times worse than I ever had it and I felt like something was getting stuck in my stomach/intestines/colon above my belly button and in the lower right side. The lower right side always got better after passing gas. The upper part would get better if I didn't eat or had only a few bites. Today, I was able to eat an entire meal. So, I'm really hoping the Aloecure will continue to help me.

Can't hurt to try the Aloecure (just don't breathe when you drink it--taste is horrible).

I also had a lot of adhesions from by gallbladder surgery which they had to repair my hysterectomy which could be a contributing problem. I got the Aloecure at Walgreens, you can also Google Aloecure and get their website.

The carafate is helping some, but you really have to take it 1 hour before eating (and 2 hours away from any ppi or antacid) or 2 hours after a meal. It is supposed to coat the stomach to help it heal.

Last night I had reflux pretty badly. I drank 2 oz of Aloecure and it was better but not gone so I went ahead and took it again and now I feel much better. I think it's just helping to coat the stomach but I'm not sure.

I started taking "Heartburn Free" two days ago. I actually feel worse but maybe that is expected at first. It contains orange peel extract which has Limilin(sp?) in it. I keep burping up orange flavor. Has anyone tried this. It seems odd because oranges are acidic. Carol

Betten-Aid is something for heartburn made from digestive enzymes and probiotics. I heard a radio commercial for it yesterday. I don't know if it's available in stores but it's on the internet. Made by Homefirst products. I don't know if it will help me, but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

I've never heard of Acid Gone. I will check that out. This is so discouraging. I've been on Zegerid for a few days now - I thought I was feeling better, but today it's vack to terrible burning mid-abdomen and chest. I ate potatoes today - maybe that did it?? It's so hard dealing with food - sometimes I think the food I'm eating has nothing to do with the pain (if I believe the dr it's the missed gallstone). Do potatoes cause anyone's symptoms to get worse??

See I'm starting to think what I eat has no bearing on the GERD. Sometimes I'll eat something one day and be fine, the next day eat the same thing and be miserable. Apparently there is some partial blockage in the common bile duct and dr. said until that is cleared I will have burning - that can't be cleared up by meds or anything. I guess I hope he's right. I just wish I didn't have to wait until 2/25 for the ERCP. I'm still going to look into Aloecure and BettenAid and any other more natural cure I can find, because this burning problem may very well still be here even if they do clear a blockage (many people have GERD after gallbladder/gallstone removal).

I'm still trying to find Aloecure. I've been to several Walgreens and they've never heard of it. I have about 2 weeks to go til my next ERCP. I'm on Zegerid which seems to be helping more than Aciphex. I have a constantly burning stomach, but at least I'm not burping all day and I can eat small amounts of food with no problem. I just hope the ERCP actually solves this problem!

Re: Heartburn No More -
Yes I've got this book. I haven't read it thoroughly but I've gone through most of it. It's basically a standard naturopathic diet with some tips of appropriate supplements (herbs, vitamins, digestive enzymes, etc). I trained as a nutritional therapist, so I recognise what their approach is. Despite my training I haven't been able to get rid of my GERD though! Basically if your problems come from bad diet (chips, coke, coffee and pizza!) then of course changing your diet may well help. My difficulty was that my diet was already OK, apart from a small amount of coffee. To follow the instructions in Heartburn No More would have been very difficult for me as I am already wheat, gluten and dairy free due to allergies - diet wise I have no place left to go (well OK I could give up chocolate totally, but then I might not be nice to live with........)

I tried some of the tips in the book - the apple cider vinegar was a nightmare, gave me a lot of pain. The honey made no difference. The other tip to eat only soft (nothing scratchy to the LES) food for a few days wasn't easy to implement - I had a go but I have small children so not easy doing any major diet changes, but I tried the soft food thing for a few days - didn't make any difference to my symptoms. At the time a lot of my symptoms were side effects of Omeprazole - but I didn't know that then. (Now I'm just on Zantac).

A strict naturopathic diet involves having very little red meat, no alcohol, no coffee, no tea (which most of us have given up on anyway), no processed food, lots of fresh veg and a moderate amount of fruit, no grains except for rice and corn and no sugar or salt, preservatives, additives etc. It's hard work, but not impossible. If you could do it for a month you'd know by then if it was helping or not and you'd then be able to reintroduce some foods. If you're up for some hard work diet wise then Heartburn No More is a good example of a naturopathic diet, but basically the message is that you're going to have to do this for quite some time in order to get better. Personally I just couldn't face it because my diet is already so restricted and fruit and veg tend to give me symptoms rather than relieve them - simple dry crackers that soak up acid make me feel much better than apple does!

NB: I tried the orange oil supplement and it made me feel worse. I keep adding to the list of things that make me feel worse - there is not one single natural thing I have found that gives any kind of quick relief, though I have a few left yet to try!! I take DGL which doesn't make me feel worse but it doesn't seem to be hugely helpful either. I wanted to try aloe vera but couldn't find one in the UK that doesn't have sodium benzoate in it - I bought some capsules instead but then I read that they don't work cos they don't coat the LES?

Hope that's helpful. Like I said, I've trained in nutritional therapy so you'd think I'd be able to fix myself - but no can do! So I feel like a failure in that respect!