The definite post about treating the cause of reflux

Hi guys, how’s it going? First I’d like to introduce myself: I’m a German student and I’ve been suffering from laryngopharyngeal reflux since August 2007. I was prescribed Omeprazol (a proton pump inhibitor). This stopped my reflux completely – but only from a dosage of 8 capsules of 20mg a day! Then I found this article [ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_2001_Oct/ai_78900837 ] about the incredibly unhealthy impacts of hypochlorhydria (= low stomach acid which is often intentionally established by proton pump inhibitors). Proton pump inhibitors can cure reflux but damage the body in many other ways. I decided that I didnt’t want to take such a risk and stopped taking Omeprazol. My reflux came back 2 days later. I had to find other ways to cure it.
I bought the book “Why Stomach Acid is Good for You” by Jonathan V. Wright. This book changed my thinking about reflux completely. J. Wright almost only treats people who suffer from reflux. He claims that more than 90% of these people suffer from reflux because their stomach does not produce enough acid. Now this sounds totally paradoxically! However, it is easy to solve this paradoxon:

Acid receptors are found in the lower end of the stomach and they control the function of the Pyloric Sphincter. The Pyloric Sphincter controls how fast or slow the stomach empties. If the acid level in the stomach does not reach the right level, the Pyloric Sphincter will not open. The food is trapped in the stomach and will start to ferment. The fermentation causes gas and creates a different kind of acid that the acid receptors are not sensitive to, and the gas wants to go up. The stomach wants to empty, and the peristalsis will increase in an attempt to force the food out of the stomach. The sphincter at the top of the stomach is weaker then the Pyloric Sphincter and will give way first, letting the food and gas go up into the esophagus. This causes heartburn.
(this is a quote from a website which is unfortunately offline meanwhile)

This is extremely important for everyone to understand and has a lot of impacts! A lack of stomach acid is almost always the root cause of heartburn and other reflux diseases! Unfortunately less than 1% of all doctors know this. By the way this theory solves another paradoxon: older people suffer more frequently from heartburn although the stomach acid production decreases with age.

I spent a few more days on the internet (...)and finally found out that a lack of stomach acid is actually pretty easy to treat. You only need to take a few capsules of the micronutrients which are necessary for the production of stomach acid.
With treated I mean treated permanently. If you treat reflux by using proton pump inhibitors, you become dependent on them. You need to keep taking the capsules daily in order to prevent reflux from coming baack. Isn’t that perfect for this industry?! They make millions of dollars a year only because people don’t know better.
In most cases these micronutrients are Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin) and B6 (pyridoxine).

Case:
In 1994, I was diagnosed with gastro-esophageal reflux. Each experience would last from hours to days with no incidence of nocturnal occurrence. The typical symptoms experienced were bloating of the abdominal region (...)Since I have been taking niacin I have not experienced any reoccurrence of gastroesophageal reflux symptoms.
(source: http://www.orthomolecular.org/library/jom/2001/articles/2001-v16n04-p225.shtml)

I took a high dosage of these vitamins and within 4 or 5 days I had 80% less reflux.
These of you who don’t have a white coated tongue can stop reading now. Your reflux can very probably be treated just by taking high dosages of these vitamins (about 100mg/day and even more of the niacin). If your reflux only becomes better but does not fade, try the other B-vitamins. All of them are necessary for the production of stomach acid.


Now these of you who have a white coated tongue very probably suffer from a candida infection. Like I did. For some reason which I don’t completely understand, Candida is responsible for reflux. If this is the case, restoring the stomach acid production can increase your reflux but will not heal it completely. In this case it’s candida which is the root cause and has to be treated. I know there are hundrets of approaches to cure candida and I don’t want to discuss this. If you want to know how I cured it, feel free to write me. I don’t want to advertise any products here. I just want to say that it took me 6 months of candida treatment til my reflux was completely gone and 1 more month til my tongue was no longer coated. Now I’m completely healthy again.
I want to sum everything up: I had reflux due to a candida infection. Restoring my stomach acid production improved it but didn’t cure it until my candida infection was gone. If you don’t have a white coated tongue (which is one of the best indicators for a candida infection), you can very probably be cured from your reflux just by taking the vitamins which are necessary for the production of stomach acid. If you try this, you should not be taking proton pump inhibitors of course.
I’m very excited to hear your opinions and experiences.

Felf,

Thanks for the interesting info...

Can you expand upon the info regarding candida and what it took to kill it?


Thanks!

The diet probably didnt work for you because you were still eating carbs.  Potatoes turn into sugar and feed the yeast.  A strict candida diet is just green veggies and meat, no dairy, no cheese, no starches.  Yeast feeds on any type of sugar, milk sugars too - unless it is fermented such as in kefir or yogurt.  Threelac is no different than buying a really good probiotic.  I would suggest Primal Defense.  Threelac has sugar in it too and it is very bitter

-Gabbs

Felf,

I was diagnosed with Gerd a little over 6 years ago and thanks to your info and a little more research on the internet I just realized what started the disorder called GERD.
about 7 months before I was diagnosed with GERD i had a routine physical with blood-work. My blood-work came back very low in Folate and B-12...at the time my Dr. was concerned, but I wasn't. I felt fine and figured I would just make better food choices. (didn't last long...as I LOVE FOOD) about 7 months later I was diagnosed with GERD. I think genetics played a part as well as food choices throughout life.....I first experience IBS as a teen...and then various gastro-intestinal problems as the aging process took place. : - )


Sure would like to find a Gastroenterologist who researches GERD and does more than perscribe PPI's.

I has some questions about the low acid theory. I don't mean to dispute anything you say I am just trying to understand and hopefully end my suffering without taking a lifetime of harmful drugs.

If it is low acid causing the food to ferment and then produce more acid and gas, then wouldn't taking PPI's lower the acid further and worsen the problem?

I was taking parriet and it definitely helps my symptoms. Prior to the parriet I have experimented the low acid idea by taking ACV and at one time I took some acid, but I can't remember what. Neither of the acids helped at all. In fact it made matters worse.

I will likely give niacin a shot because I figure it can't hurt anything, but I would really like to understand this a bit more.

FelF

Thank you for your information and I am glad you have found something that is working for you.  However I would caution all members to remember that each person is different and what works for one may not work for another.

The sharing of information in this forum is a wonderful things as long as it remains sharing and members do continue to follow-up with their physicians before making any drastic changes in there treatment modalities.

From our HW Guidelines:

Use good judgement.  NEVER rely on information or opinions exchanged via the forums or chat rooms to replace necessary, personal consultation(s) with qualified health or medical professionals to meet your individual health or medical needs.  Remember that what's right or has worked for one person may not be what's right for you. 

Thank you,

Kitt

Somebody said...
Last night I was searching away trying to find a solution for me and I came across a post about how low carb diets help GERD. I have been concentrating on getting my UC under control by following various diets that I forgot about low carb. Now I read the simple test and it looks like they are recommending a low carb dinner, just meat and veggies, for that test. Is that correct?

Yes, you often hear about the success of lowcarb diets. However I don't have a clue why it improves heartburn.
I think it's just a coincidence that they recommend a low carb dinner for the test. The test is by Charles Poliquin, one of the world best strength-trainers. I guess he recommends meat because it contains much protein - he wrote the test for athletes.

Somebody said...
I also forgot to ask, what your diet is like? Do you eat carbs and anything else you want?

I don't eat any more sugar since I found out that I had candida and I will stick to that.

hi robray,

Since the B-vitamins are water-soluble, they are pretty save
I know that for vitamin b2, there are no known overdosages.
I think that I took 100-200mg / day in the beginning from all of them.
Please don't be surprised if your urine is yellow. That's a side-effect of vitamin b2 if the body doesn't completely absorb it.
And do you know about the flush you might get from niacin? Usually from a dosage of 200-400mg. Just don't be surprised. It's actually a bit funny :D

I'm glad you will try it, keep us up to date!

So last night I took my first B3. I knew I would have to start this stuff slowly, so I went with B3 first and then I will add the other B's later. I took 100mg of B3 after I had finished half of my dinner to make sure I had lots of food in my stomach. Then I continued eating and about one minute later I felt very strange. It is difficult to describe the feeling, but at first it seemed to affect my breathing, like a shortness of breath. I have a cold with a very sore throat that gives me a constant urge to cough so it could be due to that. A few seconds later my face felt very warm and I had a little bit of sweat forming. After about 5 minutes it passed, but I guess that was the flush feeling that is listed as a B3 side effect and FelF you had mentioned it. Actually, my GI mentioned it to me as well when I had asked him about taking B3. I am so glad I started with just 100mg. 100mg was the smallest dose that I could find. I was tempted to buy the 500mg dose.

My GI didn't really say to take the B3 or not, which is very typical. I then asked specifically whether B3 will affect my UC and he said no, so I took that as a green light. He looked it up in a book and it says the max dose is 4g per day. If the flush feeling increases with the dosage I think my head would turn bright red and spin around if I took that much!

I asked my GI about food digestion as well. I explained again that my food does not get digested and I don't think my stomach acid is doing the job. He said that you do not need stomach acid to digest food and that the digestion happens in the small bowel with enzymes from the pancreas. The reason my food is not digested is my large bowel is moving food through too quickly and because the GI tract is a continuous pipe the food moves through the small bowel too quickly.

I know that the small bowel does do much of the digestion, but I have read that the stomach acid does start the breakdown of the food so that certain vitamins and minerals can be absorbed in the small bowel. I didn't get in to it with him.

Anyway, I am going to stick with 100mg of B3 at dinner for tonight and tomorrow to make sure there are no ill affects and then add in another dose at breakfast.

rawmaven, thanks for the low carb advice. I know that low carb doesn't mean more meat and I shouldn't have said that as a general statement for low carb dieting. It is specific for me and I am very limited in my vegetable choices because I have Ulcerative Colitis. I do eat lots of leafy greens in fact I eat well cooked spinach, swiss chard etc. with lunch and dinner everyday. It is tough to feel full on that stuff alone, so for me it always requires a protein. Last night I introduced pureed cauliflower and that really helped fill me up. I still find breakfast to be a tough meal. I currently off eggs, but I hope to add them in soon.
Are you following a low carb diet for GERD?

Isn't the tounge usually white?

Not to be Mr. Negativity, but isn't Threelac just another thing I am going to try and not work and end up wasting money on?

 

Post Edited (kevinla) : 4/16/2009 10:04:10 AM (GMT-6)

I did not know what those little things were for to the top-right of the posts and I accidentally hit one of them and I guess I listed the person who stated this post as being on my ignore list. I did not mean to do that. Please un-ignore this poster. I was actually trying to contact this person and I guess I messed up. Sorry....

Thank you moderator. I am so interested in these acid-reflux posts because like most other people, I thought acid-reflux was caused by too much acid in our bodies. My sister seems to have acid-reflux and now her doctor prescribed Prolesec and she's never been big on medicine so she really didn't want to take medicine but she wants to get rid of the burping, etc. I will let her read these posts.