Nexium

Heartburn Can Be Treated Without Hazardous, Habit Forming Drugs

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Story at-a-glance –

  • Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid are designed to treat a very limited range of severe problems, yet as many as 20 million Americans take them for mild to moderate heartburn
  • PPIs have been linked to a heightened risk for a number of serious health problems, including chronic kidney disease, pneumonia, osteoporosis, hip fractures, dementia, heart disease, and heart attacks
  • There are many ways to eliminate heartburn or acid reflux without drugs, starting with eating real food and probiotic-rich fermented foods. Helpful supplements that help treat the underlying cause are also reviewed

An estimated 15 to 20 million1,2 Americans use acid inhibiting drugs to treat heartburn. Indeed, PPIs are among the most widely prescribed drugs today, with annual sales of about $14 billion.3 This despite the fact that they were never intended to treat heartburn in the first place.

Research clearly shows that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are severely overprescribed and misused, and do far more harm than good in the long run. 4,5,6,7,8,9

If you suffer from frequent heartburn, rest assured there are many alternative treatment strategies that will help you eliminate this problem without serious side effects, which I’ll review toward the end of this article.

Beware: PPIs Are NOT Advisable for Majority of Heartburn Cases

Proton pump inhibitors like Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid are actually designed to treat a very limited range of severe problems,10 including:

  • Bleeding ulcers
  • Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (a rare condition that causes your stomach to produce excess acid)
  • Severe acid reflux, where an endoscopy has confirmed that your esophagus is damaged

These drugs were never intended for people with heartburn, and 90 to 95 percent of people taking them are not good candidates for these drugs. PPIs should also only be taken for a short period of time, yet many continue to take them for months or years on end.

PPIs Can Be Habit Forming and Dangerous

It’s important to realize that if you’re taking a PPI drug to treat your heartburn, you’re treating the symptom only; you’re not addressing the underlying cause, and by doing so, you’re exposing yourself to additional and potentially more dangerous health problems.

PPIs suppress the production of stomach acid, and contrary to popular belief, most cases of heartburn are actually due to having too little acid in your stomach, not too much. So taking a PPI will actually worsen your condition since stomach acid helps digest food protect against ingested pathogens.

Lack of stomach acid makes you more vulnerable to a number of problems, including nutritional deficiencies, food poisoning, and digestive system infections such as clostridium difficile.

Moreover, if you try to quit them cold turkey, your symptoms typically return with a vengeance. As noted by Marcella Lafayette, a 62-year-old heartburn patient interviewed by NPR:11

“I can’t seem to get off the drug, because when I do, I experience severe stomach pain. I can’t eat anything without experiencing stomach pain. It just feels like you’ve got a knife in your gut. It’s just really painful.”

How to Wean Off Your Heartburn Drugs

Since you can quickly develop both tolerance and dependence on these drugs, it’s important to wean yourself off them gradually to avoid severe rebound symptoms. NEVER stop taking proton pump inhibitors cold turkey.

To get off them, gradually lower the dose you’re taking while simultaneously implementing the recommended lifestyle modifications listed at the end of this article.

Once you get down to the lowest dose of the PPI, you can start substituting with an over-the-counter H2 blocker like Tagamet, Cimetidine, Zantac, or Ranitidine. Then gradually wean off the H2 blocker over the next several weeks.

PPIs Associated With Dementia and Other Serious Health Risks

Research has linked PPIs with a heightened risk for a number of serious health problems, including chronic kidney disease,12 pneumonia, osteoporosis, hip fractures, and dementia.

According to recent research13,14,15 published in JAMA Neurology, seniors over the age of 75 who use PPIs on a regular basis had a 44 percent increased risk of dementia, compared with nonusers. Men were at greater risk, raising their dementia risk on average by 52 percent, compared to 42 percent for women.

As noted by NPR:16

“How PPIs might increase the risk for dementia is unclear. But other researchers recently reported that, in the brains of mice, PPIs seem to increase levels of a damaging protein that accumulates in the brains of dementia patients, known as beta-amyloid.”

PPIs Linked to Heart Attack, Even in Those Without Cardiovascular Disease

Research has also linked long-term PPI use to an increased risk for heart disease17 and heart attacks.18,19,20 Disturbingly, your risk for a heart attack is increased even if you have no prior history of cardiovascular disease.

The reason for this effect is thought to be due to the drug reducing nitric oxide (NO) in your blood vessel walls. NO relaxes your blood vessels, so by reducing the amount of NO, PPIs may raise your risk of a heart attack.

To assess whether the use of PPIs were associated with a heightened cardiovascular risk among the general population, the team mined clinical data from more than 16 million medical records on 2.9 million patients.

This revealed that patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) who took PPIs had a 16 percent increased risk of heart attack. Moreover, as reported by Scientific American:21

“Survival analysis in a prospective cohort found a two-fold increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in PPI users … H2 blockers, which include famotidine (Pepcid AC) and ranitidine (Zantac), were not associated with increased cardiovascular risk …

‘Consistent with our pre-clinical findings that PPIs may adversely impact vascular function, our data-mining study supports the association of PPI exposure with risk for MI in the general population,’ the authors write.”

Causes and First Line Treatments for Heartburn

“Heartburn,” also referred to as acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), or peptic ulcer disease, is characterized by a burning sensation originating behind your breastbone, sometimes traveling up into your throat. In some cases, this burning pain can be severe enough to be mistaken for a heart attack.

When food passes through your esophagus into your stomach, a muscular valve called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) closes, preventing food or acid from moving back up.

The painful effect associated with heartburn occurs when the LES relaxes inappropriately, allowing acid from your stomach to flow (reflux) backward into your esophagus. While the conventional rationale states that this is caused by excessive amounts of acid in your stomach, that’s actually an extremely rare situation, typically occurring only if you have the rare condition known as Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.

The vast majority of acid reflux cases are in fact related to one or more of the following situations:

• Insufficient amounts of stomach acid. One simple strategy to address this deficiency is to swap out processed table salt for an unprocessed version like Himalayan salt. By consuming enough of the raw material, you will encourage your body to make sufficient amounts of hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) naturally.

Research22 has also shown that sauerkraut or cabbage juice is among the strongest stimulants for your body to produce stomach acid. It will also provide you with valuable bacteria to help balance and nourish your gut. Having a few teaspoons of fermented cabbage juice from sauerkraut before your meal will do wonders to improve your digestion. Fresh raw cabbage juice can also be very useful to heal resistant ulcers.

• Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) imbalance. One of the explanations for why suppressing stomach acid is so ineffective — and there are over 16,000 articles in the medical literature attesting to this — is that when you decrease the amount of acid in your stomach, you suppress your body’s ability to kill the helicobacter bacteria.

While H. pylori can be part of your normal healthy microbiome, it can cause problems, including symptoms of acid reflux, if there’s an overgrowth of it. This typically occurs as a result of poor food choices.

Taking a betaine hydrochloric supplement (available in health food stores without prescription) will not only improve digestion, it will also help kill the helicobacter, thereby normalizing your symptoms. Other helpful foods and supplements known to suppress H. pylori are listed below.

• Hiatal hernia.23 If you have a hiatal hernia, physical therapy on the area may work, and many chiropractors are skilled in this adjustment.

• Food allergies can also be a contributing factor to acid reflux, so eliminate common culprits such as caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.

Drug-Free Treatment Strategies

Ultimately, the answer to heartburn and acid indigestion is to restore your natural gastric balance and function and to do that, you need to address your gut health. The most important step is to eat real food, as processed foods and sugars are a surefire way to exacerbate acid reflux. Processed foods, especially sugar, also alter your gut microbiome and promote the overgrowth of harmful microbes. So be sure to eat lots of fresh vegetables and other unprocessed organic foods.

Reseeding your gut with beneficial bacteria, either from traditionally fermented foods or a high-quality probiotic supplement is also important, as this will not only help balance your bowel flora, it can also help eliminate helicobacter bacteria naturally. Probiotics and fermented foods, especially fermented vegetables, also aid in proper digestion and assimilation of your food.

Other helpful strategies to get your heartburn under control include the following suggestions, drawn from a variety of sources.24,25,26,27

✓ Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar Acid reflux typically results from having too little acid in your stomach. You can easily improve the acid content of your stomach by taking one tablespoon of raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar in a large glass of water.
✓ Betaine Another option is to take a betaine hydrochloric supplement. You’ll want to take as many as you need to get the slightest burning sensation and then decrease by one capsule. This will help your body to better digest your food, and will also help kill the H. pylori bacteria.
✓ Baking soda One-half to 1 full teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in an 8-ounce glass of water may ease the burn of acid reflux as it helps neutralize stomach acid. I would not recommend this as a regular solution but it can sure help in an emergency when you are in excruciating pain.
✓ Aloe juice The juice of the aloe plant naturally helps reduce inflammation, which may ease symptoms of acid reflux. Drink about 1/2 cup of aloe vera juice before meals. If you want to avoid its laxative effect, look for a brand that has removed the laxative component.
✓ Ginger root Ginger has been found to have a gastroprotective effect by blocking acid and suppressing helicobacter pylori.28 According to a 2007 study,29 it’s also far superior to lansoprazole for preventing the formation of ulcers, exhibiting six- to eight-fold greater potency over the drug.

Add 2 or 3 slices of fresh ginger root to 2 cups of hot water. Let steep for about half an hour. Drink about 20 minutes or so before your meal.
✓ Vitamin D Vitamin D is important for addressing any infectious component. Once your vitamin D levels are optimized, you’re also going to optimize your production of about 200 antimicrobial peptides that will help your body eradicate any infection that shouldn’t be there.

As I’ve discussed in many previous articles, you can increase your vitamin D levels through sensible sun exposure, a tanning bed, or an oral vitamin D3 supplement.
✓ Astaxanthin This exceptionally potent antioxidant was found to reduce symptoms of acid reflux in patients when compared to a placebo, particularly in those with pronounced helicobacter pylori infection.30 Best results were obtained at a daily dose of 4 mg.
✓ Slippery elm Slippery elm coats and soothes the mouth, throat, stomach, and intestines, and contains antioxidants that can help address inflammatory bowel conditions. It also stimulates nerve endings in your gastrointestinal tract. This helps increase mucus secretion, which protects your gastrointestinal tract against ulcers and excess acidity.

The University of Maryland Medical Center 31 makes the following adult dosing recommendations:

  • Tea: Pour 2 cups boiling water over 4 g (roughly 2 tablespoons) of powdered bark, then steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Drink 3 times per day.
  • Tincture: 5 mL, 3 times per day.
  • Capsules: 400 to 500 mg 3 to 4 times daily for 4 to 8 weeks. Take with a full glass of water.
  • Lozenges: follow dosing instructions on label.
✓ Glutamine Research32 published in 2009 found that gastrointestinal damage caused by H. pylori can be addressed with the amino acid glutamine, found in many foods, including beef, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy products and some fruits and vegetables. L-glutamine, the biologically active isomer of glutamine, is also widely available as a supplement.
✓ Folate or folic acid (vitamin B9) and other B vitamins Research33 suggests B vitamins can reduce your risk for acid reflux. Higher folic acid intake was found to reduce acid reflux by approximately 40 percent. Low vitamin B2 and B6 levels were also linked to an increased risk for acid reflux.

The best way to raise your folate levels is by eating folate-rich whole foods, such as liver, asparagus, spinach, okra, and beans.
✓ Melatonin, l-tryptophan, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, methionine and betaine A dietary supplement containing melatonin, l-tryptophan, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, methionine and betaine, was found to be superior to the drug omeprazole in the treatment of GERD.34

Part of the success is thought to be due to melatonin’s inhibitory activity on nitric oxide biosynthesis, which plays an important role in transient lower esophageal sphincter (LES) relaxation, which, as I mentioned earlier, is part of the real underlying problem of GERD.

Impressively, 100 percent of patients receiving this supplement reported a complete regression of symptoms after 40 days of treatment, compared to just under 66 percent of those taking omeprazole. The authors concluded that “this formulation promotes regression of GERD symptoms with no significant side effects.”

Tapping for Acid Reflux

 

Last but not least, you could even try the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). In the video above, EFT practitioner Julie Schiffman demonstrates how to tap for acid reflux.

Heartburn Pills Linked to Kidney Disease

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Heartburn Pills

Story at-a-glance –

  • Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been linked to an increased risk of chronic kidney disease
  • PPIs have previously been linked to a kidney disorder called acute interstitial nephritis
  • These heartburn drugs may also increase your risk of fractures, serious infections, heart attack and nutrient deficiencies

Heartburn drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most commonly used drugs in the world. About 15 million Americans use PPIs, either in prescription or over-the-counter form. Brand names include Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium.

The drugs have long been touted as a safe way to relieve heartburn, indigestion and acid reflux. They work by inhibiting the production of acid in your stomach, which helps to relieve symptoms but appears to have a number of unintended consequences as well, including for your kidneys.

PPIs have previously been linked to a kidney disorder called acute interstitial nephritis. Now researchers have linked them to the risk of chronic kidney disease, prompting experts to call for more caution in their use.

Heartburn Drugs May Increase Your Risk of Kidney Disease

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health analyzed two sets of data representing more than 250,000 people.1

In the first set, the 10-year absolute risk of developing chronic kidney disease was 11.8 percent among those taking PPIs compared to 8.5 percent among those not taking the drugs.

The second analysis found the 10-year absolute risk of chronic kidney disease among those taking PPIs was 15.6 percent compared to 13.9 percent among non-users.2

The study left some unanswered questions, like how long those who developed kidney disease had been taking PPIs. It’s also not known how the drugs may be harming the kidneys.

Many of those taking PPIs had other risk factors for kidney disease as well, including being more likely to use blood pressure medication (high blood pressure is linked to an increased risk of kidney disease).

However, even though the analysis couldn’t prove that PPIs were directly responsible for the increased risk of kidney disease, the finding warrants caution in the drugs’ use, especially given their prevalence.

Adam Schoenfeld, an internal medicine resident at the University of California, San Francisco, said in an accompanying editorial, “mounting evidence demonstrates that PPIs are associated with a number of adverse effects and are overprescribed.”3 He continued in NPR:

“I think it’s a pretty big concern … When they first came out they weren’t associated with side effects, or we didn’t think they were … So we put [people] on this medication thinking: ‘It’s a quick fix and they’re very safe.’ But in actuality they’re associated with a range of side effects.”

PPIs Are Also Linked to Heart Risks

If you take PPIs, you should know that not only might your kidneys be at risk, but your heart may suffer as well.

After reviewing the medical records of nearly 3 million people, researchers from Stanford University in California found people with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) who took PPIs had a 16 percent risk of heart attack.4

A two-fold increased risk of cardiovascular mortality was also noted in PPI users.5 Such risks make sense when you consider that PPIs are known to reduce nitric oxide (NO) in your blood vessel walls.

NO has the effect of relaxing your blood vessels, so by reducing the amount of NO in your blood vessel walls, PPIs may raise your risk of a heart attack.

PPIs May Raise Your Risk of Fractures

In 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated a new fracture risk warning be added to the labels of both prescription and OTC PPIs.

The safety announcement was based on a review of several epidemiological studies, which found the drugs were associated with an increased risk of factures of the hip, wrist and spine.6

The greatest risk of increased facture risk was found in people who had taken high doses of the drugs (available only in prescription form) or had taken the prescription drugs for at least one year.

Because of this, in 2011 the FDA recalled the safety warning for OTC PPIs, stating that “an osteoporosis and fracture warning on the over-the-counter (OTC) proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medication “Drug Facts” label is not indicated at this time.”7

Their reasoning was that OTC PPIs “are marketed at low doses and are only intended for a 14-day course of treatment up to three times per year.” Since OTC heartburn drugs are only supposed to be used for short courses of treatment, they believed the fracture risk was low.

In reality, however, many people use OTC heartburn meds for much longer than two weeks at a time, and therefore might be exposed to them long-term. Some people may also take higher doses than are recommended. Even the FDA acknowledged this, stating:

“… [C]onsumers, either on their own, or based on a healthcare professional’s recommendation, may take these products for periods of time that exceed the directions on the OTC label.”

Unfortunately, instead of letting consumers know about the fracture risk (so they could make an informed decision about using the drugs), the FDA left it up to health care professionals to be aware of the fracture risk in patients taking OTC PPIs at high doses or for extended periods.

If there’s no communication between the two parties, the consumer will be left at risk.

PPIs May Rob Your Body of Important Nutrients, Increase Your Risk of Serious Infections

If you suffer from acid reflux, suppressing your stomach acid may seem like a very good idea. Be aware, however, that doing so comes with significant risks. Stomach acid is important for your body to absorb vitamin B12, for instance.

The acid separates the B12 from the protein it’s attached to, which is essential for it to be absorbed by your body. People taking PPIs for more than two years had a 65 percent increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency.8 This, in turn, can lead to a number of troublesome ailments, including:

  • Anemia
  • Nerve damage
  • Psychiatric problems
  • Dementia

Your magnesium levels are also at risk. In 2011, the FDA warned that PPIs may cause low magnesium levels if taken for longer than one year. Even taking a magnesium supplement was not enough to sufficiently increase levels among about one-quarter of those taking PPIs.9

Early signs of magnesium deficiency include loss of appetite, headache, nausea, fatigue, and weakness. Ongoing magnesium deficiency can lead to muscle cramps, seizures, abnormal heart rhythms, personality changes and more.

Further, PPIs may increase your risk of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea, a potentially life-threatening infection, by 65 percent.10 The risk of hospital-acquired pneumonia may also increase with PPI use, an important consideration since PPIs are commonly given to hospital patients.

One study using a microsimulation model found that this practice needs serious review, as new initiation of PPI therapy led to an increase in hospital mortality in about 90 percent of patients.11

Reducing stomach acid also diminishes your primary defense mechanism against food-borne pathogens, thereby potentially increasing your risk of food poisoning.

Heartburn Drugs Only Treat the Symptoms, Not the Cause

In most cases, acid reflux is not due to having too much acid in your stomach; rather, it’s a condition related more commonly to hiatal hernia — a condition in which the acid comes out of your stomach, which is where it’s designed to be confined to. After food passes through your esophagus into your stomach, a muscular valve called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) closes, preventing food or acid from moving back up.

Gastroesophageal reflux occurs when the LES relaxes inappropriately, allowing acid from your stomach to flow (reflux) backward into your esophagus.

In the early ‘80s, Dr. Barry Marshall, an Australian physician, discovered that an organism called helicobacter pylori(initially called campylobacter) causes a chronic low-level inflammation of your stomach lining, which is largely responsible for producing many of the symptoms of acid reflux.

One of the explanations for why suppressing stomach acid is so ineffective — and there are over 16,000 articles in the medical literature attesting to this — is that when you decrease the amount of acid in your stomach, you suppress your body’s ability to kill the helicobacter bacteria.

So suppressing stomach acid production tends to just worsen and perpetuate the condition. If you’re taking a PPI drug to treat your heartburn, understand that you’re treating a symptom only; you are in no way addressing the underlying cause. And, by doing so, you’re exposing yourself to other potentially more dangerous health problems, courtesy of the drug itself.

That being said, please don’t try to quit PPIs cold turkey, as this can lead to a relapse and severe pain. To minimize this risk, you can gradually decrease the dose you’re taking, and once you get down to the lowest dose of the PPI, you can start substituting with an OTC H2 blocker like Tagamet, Cimetidine, Zantac, or Ranitidine.

Then gradually wean off the H2 blocker over the next several weeks. While weaning yourself off these drugs, start implementing the lifestyle modifications discussed below to help eliminate your heartburn once and for all.

Heartburn May Be Due to Too Little Stomach Acid

If you struggle from heartburn, it may be because you have too little stomach acid. One simple strategy to address this deficiency is to swap out processed table salt for an unprocessed version like Himalayan salt. By consuming enough of the raw material, you will encourage your body to make sufficient amounts of hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) naturally.

Sauerkraut or cabbage juice is among the strongest stimulants for your body to produce stomach acid as well. Another benefit is that it can provide you with valuable bacteria to help balance and nourish your gut. Having a few teaspoons of cabbage juice before eating, or better yet, fermented cabbage juice from sauerkraut, will do wonders to improve your digestion. Fresh raw cabbage juice can also be very useful to heal resistant ulcers.12

Another option is to take a betaine hydrochloric supplement, which is available in health food stores without prescription. You’ll want to take as many as you need to get the slightest burning sensation and then decrease by one capsule. This will help your body to better digest your food and will also help kill the helicobacter and normalize your symptoms.

Now, while hiatal hernia and H.pylori infection are unrelated, many who have a hiatal hernia also have H. pylori and associated symptoms.13 If you have a hiatal hernia, physical therapy on the area may work as well, and many chiropractors are skilled in this adjustment.

Natural Treatment for Heartburn

Ultimately, the answer to heartburn and acid indigestion is to restore your natural gastric balance and function and to do that, you need to address your gut health. The most important step is to eliminate processed foods and sugars as they are a surefire way to exacerbate acid reflux.

They also alter your gut microbiome and promote the growth of pathogenic microbes. So be sure to eat lots of fresh vegetables and other unprocessed organic foods. Food allergies can also be a contributing factor to acid reflux, so eliminate items such as caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.

Reseeding your gut with beneficial bacteria, either from traditionally fermented foods or a high-quality probiotic supplement is also important, as this will not only help balance your bowel flora, it can also help eliminate helicobacter bacteria naturally. Probiotics and fermented foods, especially fermented vegetables, also aid in proper digestion and assimilation of your food. Other helpful strategies to get your heartburn under control include the following suggestions.14,15,16

Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar You can help improve the acid content of your stomach by taking one tablespoon of raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar in a large glass of water.
Baking soda One-half to one full teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in an eight-ounce glass of water may ease the burn of acid reflux as it helps neutralize stomach acid. I would not recommend this as a regular solution but it can sure help in an emergency when you are in excruciating pain.
Aloe juice The juice of the aloe plant naturally helps reduce inflammation, which may ease symptoms of acid reflux. Drink about 1/2 cup of aloe vera juice before meals. If you want to avoid its laxative effect, look for a brand that has removed the laxative component.
Ginger root Ginger has been found to have a gastroprotective effect by blocking acid and suppressing helicobacter pylori. According to a 2007 study, it’s also far superior to lansoprazole for preventing the formation of ulcers, exhibiting six- to eight-fold greater potency over the drug.17

This is perhaps not all that surprising, considering the fact that ginger root has been traditionally used against gastric disturbances since ancient times. Add two or three slices of fresh ginger root to two cups of hot water. Let steep for about half an hour. Drink about 20 minutes or so before your meal.
Vitamin D Vitamin D is important for addressing any infectious component. Once your vitamin D levels are optimized, you’re also going to optimize your production of about 200 antimicrobial peptides that will help your body eradicate any infection that shouldn’t be there.

As I’ve discussed in many previous articles, you can increase your vitamin D levels through sensible sun exposure, or through the use of a tanning bed. If neither of those are available, you can take an oral vitamin D3 supplement; just remember to also increase your vitamin K2 intake.
Astaxanthin This exceptionally potent antioxidant was found to reduce symptoms of acid reflux in patients when compared to a placebo, particularly in those with pronounced helicobacter pylori infection.18 Best results were obtained at a daily dose of 40 mg.
Slippery elm Slippery elm coats and soothes your mouth, throat, stomach, and intestines, and contains antioxidants that may help address inflammatory bowel conditions. It also stimulates nerve endings in your gastrointestinal tract. This helps increase mucus secretion, which protects your gastrointestinal tract against ulcers and excess acidity.

The University of Maryland Medical Center makes the following adult dosing recommendations:19

  • Tea: Pour 2 cups boiling water over 4 g (roughly 2 tablespoons) of powdered bark, then steep for 3 to 5 minutes. Drink 3 times per day.
  • Tincture: 5 mL, 3 times per day.
  • Capsules: 400 to 500 mg 3 to 4 times daily for 4 to 8 weeks. Take with a full glass of water.
  • Lozenges: follow dosing instructions on label.
Glutamine Research published in 2009 found that gastrointestinal damage caused by H. pylori can be addressed with the amino acid glutamine, found in many foods, including beef, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy products, and some fruits and vegetables.20 L-glutamine, the biologically active isomer of glutamine, is also widely available as a supplement.
Folate or folic acid (vitamin B9) and other B vitamins As reported by clinical nutritionist Byron Richards, research suggests B vitamins can reduce your risk for acid reflux.21 Higher folic acid intake was found to reduce acid reflux by approximately 40 percent.

Low vitamin B2 and B6 levels were also linked to an increased risk for acid reflux. The best way to raise your folate levels is by eating folate-rich whole foods, such a sliver, asparagus, spinach, okra, and beans.
Melatonin, l-tryptophan, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, methionine, and betaine A dietary supplement containing melatonin, l-tryptophan, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, methionine, and betaine, was found to be superior to the drug omeprazole in the treatment of GERD.22

Part of the success is thought to be due to melatonin’s inhibitory activity on nitric oxide biosynthesis, which plays an important role in transient LES relaxation, which, as I mentioned earlier, is part of the real underlying problem of GERD.

Impressively, 100 percent of patients receiving this supplement reported a complete regression of symptoms after 40 days of treatment, compared to just under 66 percent of those taking omeprazole. The authors concluded that “this formulation promotes regression of GERD symptoms with no significant side effects.”

Why You Should Get Off Prescription Acid-Reducing Drugs ASAP!

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Treatment with the anti-heartburn drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for eight weeks induces acid-related symptoms like heartburn, acid regurgitation and dyspepsia once treatment is withdrawn in healthy individuals, according to a new study.

More than 40 percent of healthy volunteers, who had never been bothered by heartburn, acid regurgitation or dyspepsia, developed such symptoms in the weeks after cessation of PPIs.

The use of PPIs for acid-related symptoms and disorders is extensive and rapidly escalating. Rebound acid hypersecretion, defined as an increase in gastric acid secretion above pre-treatment levels following antisecretory therapy, has been observed within two weeks after withdrawal of treatment and can lead to acid-related symptoms and possibly PPI dependency.

 9-5heartburn

If you have heartburn, acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcer disease or any acid-related condition, chances are very high that you’ve been offered a prescription for a proton pump inhibitor (PPI)

PPIs like Prilosec, Nexium and Prevacid are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world, and their use for treating acid-related symptoms is increasing rapidly.

But these drugs are not only vastly overused … they’re very dangerous as well.

To start, they actually CAUSE the very type of symptoms that they’re intended to prevent if you stop taking them.

In the study above, more than 40 percent of healthy volunteers experienced heartburn, acid regurgitation and dyspepsia (pain and fullness in your abdomen) in the weeks after stopping the drugs. These were symptoms they did NOT have before!

It appears the drugs lead to “rebound acid hypersecretion,” which is an increase in gastric acid secretion above pre-treatment levels within two weeks of stopping the drugs.

Essentially, because these drugs slam the brakes on the acid-producing pumps in your stomach, when you stop taking them that built-up acid can be unleashed with a vengeance.

Meanwhile, studies show that up to 33 percent of people taking PPIs continue to refill their prescriptions without an apparent need for them. Could it be that many of these people continue to refill their prescriptions because they have severe withdrawal symptoms each time they run out … and are assuming they need MORE of the drug to help them?

This is a vicious cycle — one that can easily lead to tolerance and dependency on these drugs. As the researchers of the above study astutely point out:

“If rebound acid hypersecretion induces acid-related symptoms, this might lead to PPI dependency. Our results justify the speculation that PPI dependency could be one of the explanations for the rapidly and continuously increasing use of PPIs.”

Acid-Reducing Drugs are the Opposite of What Most People With Acid Reflux Need

As Dr. Jonathan Wright explained in detail in an interview I did with him last year, heartburn and GERD are almost always caused by a LACK of stomach acid, rather than an overproduction thereof.

Further, acid reflux (of which heartburn is the primary symptom) is commonly related to hiatal hernia — a condition in which the acid is coming out of your stomach, where it’s supposed to remain.

After food passes through your esophagus into your stomach, a muscular valve called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) closes, preventing food or acid to move back up. Gastroesophageal reflux occurs when the LES relaxes inappropriately, allowing acid from your stomach to flow (reflux) backward into your esophagus.

An organism called helicobacter pylori (initially called campylobacter) can also cause a chronic low-level inflammation of your stomach lining, and is responsible, or at least a major factor, for producing many of the symptoms of acid reflux.

There are actually over 16,000 articles supporting the fact that suppressing stomach acid does not treat the problem. It only treats the symptoms. And one of the explanations for this is that when you suppress the amount of acid in your stomach, you decrease your body’s ability to kill the helicobacter bacteria. So it actually makes your condition worse and perpetuates the problem.

More Reasons Why Reducing Your Stomach Acid is a Risky Bet

When you take PPIs, which significantly reduce the amount of acid in your stomach, it impairs your ability to properly digest food.

Reduction of acid in your stomach also diminishes your primary defense mechanism for food-borne infections, thereby increasing your risk of food poisoning.

Additionally, if you fail to digest and absorb your food properly, you will not only increase your risk of stomach atrophy but also nearly every other chronic degenerative disease.

These drugs have also been linked to an increased risk of pneumonia, and result in an elevated risk of bone loss. The risk of a bone fracture has been estimated to be over 40 percent higher in patients who use these drugs long-term.

If You’re Already Taking These Drugs, Avoid Stopping Cold Turkey

You should NEVER stop taking proton pump inhibitors cold turkey. You have to wean yourself off them gradually or else you’ll experience a severe rebound of your symptoms, and the problem may end up being worse than before you started taking the medication.

Ideally, you’ll want to get a lower dose than you’re on now, and then gradually decrease your dose. Once you get down to the lowest dose of the proton pump inhibitor, you can start substituting with an over-the-counter H2 blocker like Tagamet, Cimetidine, Zantac, or Raniditine. Then gradually wean off the H2 blocker over the next several weeks.

Natural Treatment Options for Heartburn, GERD and Acid Reflux

As I explained in my recent Acid Reflux video,while you wean yourself off these drugs (if you’re already on one), you’ll want to start implementing a lifestyle modification program that can eliminate this condition once and for all.

These strategies include:

  • Eliminating food triggers — Food allergies can be a problem, so you’ll want to completely eliminate items such as caffeine, alcohol, and all nicotine products.
  • Increasing your body’s natural production of stomach acid — Like I said earlier, acid reflux is not caused by too much acid in your stomach — it’s usually a problem with too little acid. One of the simplest strategies to encourage your body to make sufficient amounts of hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) is to consume enough of the raw material.

One of the simplest, most basic food items that many people neglect is a high quality sea salt (unprocessed salt).

I recommend eliminating processed, regular table salt for a lot of different reasons, all of which I’ve reviewed before. But an unprocessed salt like Himalayan salt — one of the best salts on the planet – will not only provide you with the chloride your body needs to make hydrochloric acid, it also contains over 80 trace minerals your body needs to perform optimally, biochemically.

  • Taking a hydrochloric acid supplement — Another option is to take a betaine hydrochloric supplement, which is available in health food stores without prescription. You’ll want to take as many as you need to get the slightest burning sensation and then decrease by one capsule. This will help your body to better digest your food, and will also help kill the helicobacter and normalize your symptoms.
  • Modifying your diet – Eating large amounts of processed foods and sugars is a surefire way to exacerbate acid reflux as it will upset the bacterial balance in your stomach and intestine.

Instead, you’ll want to eat a lot of vegetables, and high quality, organic, biodynamic, and locally grown foods. You can also supplement with a high quality probiotic or make sure you include fermented foods in your diet. This will help balance your bowel flora, which can help eliminate helicobacter naturally.

  • Optimizing your vitamin D levels — As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, vitamin D is essential, and it’s essential for this condition as well because there’s likely an infectious component causing the problem. Once your vitamin D levels are optimized, you’re also going to optimize your production of 200 antimicrobial peptides that will help your body eradicate any infections that shouldn’t be there.

You’ll want to make sure your vitamin D level is about 60 ng/ml, and I strongly recommend you use LabCorp, which is a high quality testing facility.

As I’ve discussed in many previous articles, you can increase your vitamin D levels through appropriate amounts of sun exposure, or through the use of a safe tanning bed.

If neither of those are available, you can take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. However, whenever you use oral vitamin D, it’s imperative you get tested regularly to make sure you’re not reaching toxic levels.

  • Implementing an exercise routine — Exercise is yet another way to improve your body’s immune system, which is imperative to fight off all kinds of infections.

Clues to How Popular Heartburn Drug Might Harm Arteries

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A popular over-the-counter heartburn medication accelerated aging of blood vessel cells in lab tests, raising red flags about its long-term effect on heart health, researchers say.

Faster aging of blood vessel cells exposed to the antacid Nexium (esomeprazole) might potentially hinder the tasks these cells perform to prevent heart attack and stroke, the new study suggests.

These lab results could explain why other studies have shown increased risk of heart disease in people who use proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) — the class of heartburn medication that includes Nexium, said study senior author Dr. John Cooke.

“Our finding that the lining of blood vessels is impaired by proton pump inhibitors is a unifying mechanism for the reports that PPI users are at increased risk for heart attack, stroke and renal failure,” said Cooke, chair of cardiovascular sciences at the Houston Methodist Research Institute.

AstraZeneca, the maker of Nexium, responded with a statement noting that the study was conducted in a laboratory setting, “not in humans within a controlled clinical trial. Therefore, conclusions around cause and effect cannot be made.

“Patient safety is an important priority for AstraZeneca and we believe all of our PPI medicines are generally safe and effective when used in accordance with the label,” the drug maker said.

However, many people aren’t using PPIs in accordance with FDA guidelines, which in Nexium’s case would limit them to a four-week course of treatment three times a year, Cooke said.

“They are being used ubiquitously, for long periods of time. They aren’t being used as originally approved,” Cooke said.

Dr. P.K. Shah, director of the Oppenheimer Atherosclerosis Research Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said these study results provide a reasonable explanation for how PPIs might affect the heart health of long-term users.

“We have clinical data that raises a suspicion that they might be bad if used long-term, and we have now experimental data that suggests a potential mechanism,” Shah said. “But we still have unanswered questions.”

For this study, Cooke and his colleagues cultured the cells that line the walls of blood vessels, which are called endothelial cells.

These cell cultures were exposed every day to doses of Nexium “similar to what a patient would receive” for an extended period of time, Cooke said.

Protective endothelial cells produce substances that relax the blood vessel, and create a slick “Teflon” coating inside the vessel that prevents plaques or blood clots from sticking, Cooke said.

PPIs treat heartburn by blocking acid-producing cells in the lining of the stomach, Cooke said. But researchers now suspect PPIs might also interfere with acid-producing cells elsewhere in the body.

In the case of blood vessel cells, researchers found that long-term PPI exposure impaired acid production by the lysosomes in the cells. Lysosomes typically clear waste products, but exposed to PPIs they didn’t produce enough acid to clear waste.

The waste buildup caused endothelial cells to age rapidly, Cooke said, which could hamper their ability to protect blood vessels.

“They start to convert from Teflon to something more like Velcro,” he said. “Things begin to stick.”

Another prominent class of heartburn medications, H2 blockers, did not have the same aging effect on blood vessel cells, the study found. H2 blockers include Tagamet (cimetidine), Pepcid (famotidine) and Zantac (ranitidine).

Dr. Mark Creager, president of the American Heart Association, added that a lab study like this cannot prove a direct link between PPI use and increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

“It certainly raises the question. But now the question, once raised, needs to be answered in a well-designed clinical trial, which hasn’t taken place yet,” said Creager, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “I would not advise clinicians to jump from this important basic science study to recommendations they would provide to their patients.”

Another expert said PPIs should be used with caution due to possible harms “that have nothing to do with the digestive system.”

“Much more work needs to be done before we can draw a line with confidence from this class of drugs to some of these potential side effects, but these researchers are taking an important first step,” said Dr. David Robbins, interim chief of gastroenterology at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City.

“Bottom line: If you take a daily PPI, which can save lives in the right scenario, check with your doctor and see if you really need it,” Robbins said.

Lifestyle adjustments — such as exercising, cutting down on alcohol or caffeine, and avoiding heavy meals just before bedtime — might also ease heartburn, Cooke added.

Daily antacid use ups heart attack risk

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Popping over-the-counter antacids daily to control acidity or heartburn can increase heart attack risk by 16-21 percent, a huge data-mining study led by an Indian-origin researcher has revealed.

The researchers analysed 16 million clinical documents of 2.9 million patients in two separate databases.
Daily antacid use ups heart attack risk: Study
“People who take medication to suppress stomach acid are at greater risk of developing myocardial infarction, commonly known as heart attack,” said the lead researcher, Nigam H. Shah from Stanford University, California.

Drugs like Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid — called proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are among the most prescribed drugs to treat a wide range of disorders, including gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD).

“By looking at data from people who were given these drugs primarily for acid reflux and had no prior history of heart disease, our data-mining pipeline signals an association with a higher rate of heart attacks.”

“Our results demonstrate that PPIs appear to be associated with elevated risk of heart attack in the general population,” he added.

The team along with scientists from Houston Methodist Hospital, however, found that H2 blockers – another type of antacid drug – showed no such association.

Examples of the drug of H2 blockers are cimetidine and ranitidine and brand examples of H2 blockers are Zantac and Tagamet.

“Our earlier work identified that the PPIs can adversely affect the endothelium, the Teflon-like lining of the blood vessels,” said John Cooke, a senior study author.

That observation led researchers to hypothesise that anyone taking PPIs may be at greater risk for heart attack.

The scrutiny of antacids has only increased with time. Initially, it was believed PPIs only posed a risk to a very narrow subset of patients — those with coronary artery disease who were using the anti-platelet drug clopidogrel to prevent future heart attacks.

“Examiners originally assumed this was due to a drug interaction between these compounds and the FDA went so far as to release a warning about their concomitant use,” informed principal examiner Nicholas Leeper.

Our report raises concerns that these drugs — which are available over the counter and are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world — may not be as safe as we previously assumed,” the authors said.

In the future, the researchers say they hope to conduct a large, prospective, randomised trial to determine whether PPIs are harmful to a broader population of patients.

According to the study, an estimated 113 million prescriptions for the drugs are issued around the world each year.