Acid Reflux Disease Cause
Q: The problem was one of dreadful intestinal pain after eating most
foods. The only way to avoid the pain was a diet of cooked grains and
yogurt. Conventional medicine had only provided antispasmodics and
acid reducing drugs (omeprazole), which had only a limited effect.
The solution was a course of mixed digesting enzymes, a plant source
pancreatic enzyme replacement. It contained lipase, amylase, protease,
and I think lactase. I can't remember off hand if there were one or
two others in there as well.
My conclusion had been that lack of pancreatic enzymes was one of the
possible causes, and from the successful results I take it that it
was. A normal diet is now possible with no further supplementatin,
with the one exception of nuts, which are still a problem to some
extent. 150 GDU of Bromelain taken when eating nuts resolves the
remaining nut problem.
Anyone has comment about this please?
A:My interest is human nutrition. Acid reflux has been a problem
for humans since recorded human history. Ancient healers found a
way to deal with it. Modern medicine is confirming that many of
these ancient healing approaches work.
I don't know if the doctor will jump into this thread or not
but I just spent a lot of time in medline going over acid reflux
to see if what IBIS uses has any validity.
The most likely cause of acid reflux is a spastic duodenum.
Lowering the acid level of the food coming out of the stomach will
help but that lowers mineral absorption. Ginger works a lot
better.
Licorice also helps but it's action is in the stomach, not
the small intestine. Protein is a buffer but if you improve
protein digestion in the stomach (bromelain) you improve the
buffering action of protein.
I've not found a digestive enzyme supplement that I liked. That does
not mean that some can't help but if you understand what is
going on you have a better chance of using something better
designed for the problem.
Personally, I think that the only people who need animal
digestive enzymes are patients with cystic fibrosis.
Plant enzymes and herbs have been used to treat acid reflux for
thousands of years. Neither conventional nor alternative medicine
have it right (in my humble opinion).
Conventional medicine has completely forgotten the past (food and
herbs to treat human disease) and alternative healers have fallen
into the same trap (do not go back far enough to find what did
work in ancient medicine).
For every disease I always go back and try to see if modern
science can show any effectiveness for these ancient treatments.
Bromelain, licorice and ginger should work very well for acid
reflux but I have yet to find a supplement company producing
this mix.
There are other causes of acid reflux beside a spastic duodenum
and these other potential causes need to be ruled out by a
physician before any alternative treatment is attempted. Once
a doctor rules out all the known causes, a proton-pump inhibitor is
often prescribed. If this did not decrease mineral