what worked for me

Do you have any side effects from Amitriptyline?

Do you grind your teeth? I so, buy a sports mouth guard and wear that when sleeping. It will cut down on the tension headaches.

im sicker meaning that having acid reflux is better than having headaches. Im having real bad headaches, if its a headache thats there 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Its next to my ears working up to the temple area. No i don't grind my teeth or have any jaw trouble. Saying i have tmj is just a hoping thing so maybe it will go away if i find out it is tmj. As far as lemon goes it is real lemon and is for the blood pressure plus makes water taste better.

Not sure exactly why my reflux went away . I did have the headaches and reflux at same time if you were wondering and thought i was dying from it. At least the reflux went away.

My symptoms are nearly identical to a DrCMI posted in 5/20/2010 5:01 AM (GMT -7). I get excruciating
muscle spasm in my upper stomach area after about 4 or 5 hours from my last meal. It would awake me with a small tingle and a feeling of bloating. Within 20 minutes, it becomes a full blown spasm. Occasionally, the pain is so bad that I sometimes kneel over on the floor in agony. Often I am unable to steady my hand to hold a glass of water. This started at around age 50 and has returned maybe 4 or 5 times a year for the past 25 years. Despite all the anti-acid prescriptions from my doctor, I found no relief. The pain was so bad that I asked the doctor to provide me with the strongest oral pain killer he can prescribe. He said it isn't likely to do any good, but he will give me some. It didn't reduced the pain at all. Getting an IV treatment isn't practical unless someone can drive me to the ER, as I am in no shape to drive. Also, in about an half hour, my pain has usually subsided that I no longer need powerful pain killers.

about 10 years of futile treatment by mainstream doctors, I came upon functional doctors that understood the real problem, and recommended steps that turn out to be truly effective.

Instead of too much acid, these evidence based doctors attribute the problem to too little acid. One of these doctors developed a swallow-able wireless device to measure the acid level in the stomach following a pH challenge. This doctor discovered that the initial acid response was OK, but when challenged 20 minutes later, the acid response dropped considerably. Repeating this test every 20 minutes revealed that the acid response eventually dropped to zero. I am not a doctor or professional researcher, but the following was gleamed from many articles I've read.

Without a low pH (meaning high acidity) food can't be fully broken down. At the same time, in order for the stomach to empty it's content, the ph needs be be around 2, which is very acidic. As a result,
undigested food remains in the stomach when the pH is too high. Food starts to putrefy and form gas. This gas is what causes the bloating sensation that always precede the muscle spasm.

After 20 years of fighting this problem, I found a solution that works. As long as I take digestive enzymes at each meal, and in addition, take Betaine hydrocholride HCL tablets after I eat a fatty meal, the bloating problem is effectively suppressed. However, it I fail to take precautions or not enough of the HCl tablets, or eat ice cream without Lactase enzymes, the bloating would return and the inevitable spasm would follow.

These functional doctors have been proven to be right. You can only make things worse by taking anti-acid drugs when for the majority of people with this kind of GERD, the problem is casued by not enough acid.