The Truth About GERD: 6 Easy Steps to Reduce Acid Reflux
Many of us have felt the uncomfortable symptoms associated with GERD. The rising of acid into the esophagus is an annoyance at best, but the constant presence of that acid can pose some serious health risks over time. Traditional methods consist of combating reflux with PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors), but while doctor’s prescribe them for long term use they’re only meant for short term use. If conventional methods are unsafe for long term use and GERD can flare up at a moments notice, what can be done to help minimize the symptoms?
On this week’s episode Ed discusses some of the common causes of GERD including diet, lifestyle and even physical movements that can increase your risk of reflux. He then lays out a simple six step approach that anyone can easily incorporate into their daily routine.
Some Topics We Discussed:
What is GERD and why does it occur? (1:58)
What do some of these acid blocking medications do to our bodies? (3:32)
What are some of the natural options for GERD relief? (7:34)
What are the most common trigger foods for GERD? (13:36)
Why would you take a histamine blocker to help with GERD? (15:05)
What are some lifestyle changes you can make to help with GERD? (20:27)
What are some additional things we can put in our natural toolkit to keep us from getting frequent heartburn? (23:44)
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
Do not go off of your acid blocking medications abruptly. (7:47)
If you have GERD and are trying to go off your medications, it will take 2-3 months to do. (10:37)
Be a detective and figure out what triggers your GERD symptoms. (20:27)
Products + Resources:
Tagamet, Zantac or Pepcid
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland 00:11 Hello, friends and welcome back to another episode of the Holistic Navigator Podcast, where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself. I'm Brian Strickland, the producer the show. And before we begin today, if you've enjoyed the information provided on this podcast, would you please consider subscribing and leaving us some feedback. We really appreciate the time you take to listen. But when you subscribe and leave a rating and review, it helps us spread the word and potentially make a real impact in people's lives. Well, with that being said, today we're going to be talking about gastro esophageal reflux disease or GERD for short. And let's be honest, if you've ever experienced heartburn or indigestion, it really sucks. We're going to talk about some of the causes some of the risks involved, and maybe some products that can actually help reduce those symptoms. So without further delay, let me go ahead and introduce your host on today's podcast, Mr. Ed Jones. Ed, how are you doing today?
Ed Jones 01:46 I could not be better Brian, and thank you for asking. I had a wonderful night's sleep. And I put together what I preach and teach back into my life. And now I'm doing well again.
Brian Strickland 01:58 Perfect. Ed let's go ahead and start talking about GERD. If you could go ahead and introduce what exactly GERD is and why it actually happens.
Ed Jones 02:08 It is a growing epidemic. And of course, we partner the word GERD with heartburn. And they share a lot of things. And there's a couple things now, but we're not going to get into that. But we know that when acid is bubbling up from the stomach, it will go into places that it really not meant to be. Where is that? The esophagus and the back of the throat. And there's many reasons why this is happening. But any of us who've ever had that experience, it is not pleasant. And it is really crushing sometimes on the feeling of your chest and the discomfort. And there's like you can't even push on it or it's not like something you can massage out and we all try our little methods of everything from chewing gum to you know, taking the strong drugs because this is not something we want to live with. Secondly, is it dangerous? It is if it's long term. And the reason is dangerous is because the esophagus is a very tender part of the system. And when you put acid on something that doesn't have a mucous layer that can block the damage from the acid, you have potential of getting what's called Barrett's esophagus, which is a precancerous cells later changed within the esophagus. So it's not only discomfort, there is some risk to that.
Brian Strickland 03:27 So are there particular times when GERD is worse or may flare up at times?
Ed Jones 03:32 Absolutely. And I want to go through a whole list of the reasons we have it. And what I have learned over the decades of how to holistically and truthfully manage the condition. I want to tell a little personal story back in 1995. And looking back on it, it was primarily due to stress but I was having a tremendous amount of stomach issues, discomfort in the middle part of the abdomen and not digesting well and gas and then I was having some heartburn. So I go to a physician it was actually believe it or not the last time I ever made an official visit to a physician was 1995. And he listened to my complaints and he said, you know it sounds like you have a couple things going on probably some irritable bowel, but you also have GERD reflux. And he wrote me a prescription for this new blockbuster drug that was going to save the world. And it was called prilosec Well, I went home, and I took a pill. And I actually felt better the next day but my inquisitive mind started turning and twisting with the logic of how does this pill and drug work? Well, when I realized that what is doing is actually shutting down the ability of the body to produce acid. All of a sudden I started second guessing and saying well let's see acid is super important for taking the protein that I eat, and allowing me to break it down into its individual amino acids. And then secondly, I'm started, of course, my own weird mind is, I wonder how vultures eat rotting rotting food on the side of the road and not get sick? Well, they do that because they have tremendous acid within their system. Guess what? We have that same asset not to the level of vultures, but we have it to protect us from bacteria that could end up killing us and other organisms. So let's say we're cutting this off. Does that make common sense? No, it doesn't. So I called the doctor about three days later. And I met with him again. And I said, I'm not really comfortable with this drug, long term. And of course, it was the same old, same old, don't worry about it patting me on the back. It's been tested. It's all fine. It's all safe. And I'd never took another pill after that.
Brian Strickland 05:55 Because even now, I mean, you're not supposed to take it long term, right? Do they actually say that on the package now?
Ed Jones 06:01 They do. Two weeks is the prescribed recommended time of most of these drugs. Yet, how many of us personally, or no family members who say a lot been on it for years? My doctors never said a word about it. Here's the issue. When you're on it for years, you are going to not slightly significantly increase your risk of osteoporosis. Well, guess what? That's become epidemic. Hmm. Wonder why that is? Because 20% of the nation's on these drugs. Secondly, C diff. C diff is a very lethal gastro infection that comes from many times nursing homes and other places where people are sick. Well, the reason that more and more people are getting it is because they don't have stomach acid to kill it. And the reason they don't is because they're getting older one, but two is they're taking these drugs. My father passed away from C diff, I know all too well, the devastation of that disease. And it is caused by the use of antibiotics, and the use of these acid blockers. So two major risk factors. But now the past two years, more research is showing the negative effects of these drugs on heart disease. So and then, and then lastly, is memory. So we've got a whole host of reasons to consider should we be doing this? And that's why I'm here. That's why we're talking about it because there is options that conventional medical model does not seem to have in their toolbox.
Brian Strickland 07:34 Right. And so let's go ahead and talk about some of those options. If, if these conventional drugs, I mean, are definitely not supposed to be taken long term, what are some of the more natural and holistic options that we can explore?
Ed Jones 07:47 Well, I've came up with a kind of a idea protocol list several years ago that I found it to be very pleasing to those people who attempt to do it this way. But before I even get into it, here's the issue. A lot of people say, well, I'm just not going to take the drug. And when they go off of it, they have a massive flare up of reflux. Why is that? Well, if you remember being a child, and you go play with the water hose, and you you bend it, and, and you crunch it, so there's no water coming out. And then all of a sudden, you let go of it, a whole big gushing of water will flow out. Well, that's what happens with Prilosec. What Prilosec type of drugs are, which are called proton pump inhibitors, is they're actually going in. And if you can imagine a factory and they're all operating, there's lights on electricity, but we went in and we just turned the fuse box off and every switch to the opposition and said go home, we're going to close this factory. That's what proton pump inhibitor drugs do. And you know what, there's a time in place for that there is but it has to be wisely managed that which is not usually happening in this country. So when you decide not to take the drug, the switch does not only come on, but they are coming on with way too much electricity, way too much power, and then you overproduce acid because you have been suppressing it so long. So you get in worst shape, your esophagus is worse your pain, your discomfort. Well, you know what a wonderful situation business wise to create a product that people once they get on have a very hard time getting off because the body is addicted. And welcome Coca Cola, because that's exactly what they did without knowing it 100 years ago, all of us who are those of us who drink Cokes, well it's hard to get off of them, but at least it's not dangerous. So Prilosec is a product we have to be respecting and know something more about. So here is my protocol. You ready to hear it?
Brian Strickland 09:52 Yep, let's hear it.
Ed Jones 09:54 I came up with a another acronym and the acronym is lethal. LETHAL. Now before I get into the exact particulars, here's what I have to say. A big part of this is retraining the body's own system. We are certainly programmed and wired to do certain things. We're programmed to digest food, when it comes down to our path. We're programmed to, like, you know, have the right mucus in our nose, earwax, all these different systems that are so important for homeostasis, which is the balance of our body. Well, when you're on these drugs, you're not balanced. So we are trying to re-educate the body to learn how to do what it forgot to do. It will take two to three months to do this with the education that I'm about to give you. And it does require it really kind of odd system. So you're let's just consider Brian that you're on promising. And you've been on it for a long time, you have concerns because of the recent studies and the older studies, and you want to get off and you've attempted on your own to just not take it didn't work, you had to keep going back on and on and on. Because life was miserable. So let's retrain the system. Okay. First thing that has to be done is under the lethal acronym, L stands for a product that I really love called limonene. limonene is actually an extract of an orange peel oil. And I have come on and off with recommending this for about 20 years, but I am so convinced of its effectiveness. And you can buy many different good brands, and it needs to be about 500 milligrams. And what you will do with limonene is you're going to take one pill in the morning, every other day, for most times 20 to 40 days. Now it's gonna be based on the individual, but you're gonna do one pill every other day. What will it do? It's actually going to help you to the esophagus to have some protection. It's going to also do something that I have to explain here. The esophagus at the bar or at the top of the stomach, you have a gasket, and this gasket is no different than the plumbing gasket. And what is happening and so many cases is this particular gasket is weakening itself due to multiple reasons. So we want to strengthen it so that the bubbling up of the acid is less likely to occur. There are people I will go ahead and say this that this is not a possibility. Those generally are the ones with a extensive hiatal hernia. Because that hernia is actually pressing on this gasket. And there's not a whole lot we can super do about that. But you never know until you try. So limonene one pill every other day in the morning. Secondly, the E of lethal is there studies done that if you chewed your food very adequately, which most of us don't do, we are in a big hurry, including me. When you chew your food completely adequately, there's a bout a 40% reduction in the level of GERD and reflux in people. And so following the our great grandmother's advice, which is chew slowly and swallow your foods and do all the common sense thing. We need to be chewing slower because the lava is a huge part of this digestive system. Third, the T of lethal you have to know your trigger foods. Well, most of us probably do have an idea of some of those foods. But the standard list is chocolate, pepper, man, alcohol, and caffeine. And then the second list is onions, tomatoes, and spices. Those are generally the most common trigger foods.
Brian Strickland 14:00 Basically all the good things then.
Ed Jones 14:04 So what does that mean when I say trigger foods, it's actually weakening the gasket. So all of a sudden, even if you have a strong gasket, these foods like peppermint one peppermint will weaken that gasket if you have a tendency for that. And then here you go, the acid gonna bubble up. And if you imagine when you see the National Geographic TV commercials or shows where you have volcanoes, and they have these lava beds, well, you'll watch the lava bed and all of a sudden his huge burping from the earth will spew lava that is exactly what's happening when you loosen that sphincter muscle. And that's why sometimes you'll eat a food you don't really feel the effects. It could be hours later, and sometimes we don't associate the food so knowing those foods or triggers does not mean you have to eliminate them. I really like tequila. I also have some GERD but it doesn't bother me but guess what? Wine does. The wine especially red wine is really devastating to my system. So we have to be a detective for our own self. Next is the H. Now this will be the oddest part of this conversation of all because I don't know of anyone else who has come to this conclusion. When you get off of a proton pump inhibitor, which proton pump inhibitors, there's a whole list of them Prilosec and Prevacit that are the two most common. What we're trying to do is actually, just like a drug addict, we are trying to detox you, we're trying to help you get off the addictive quality of that drug. How can we do this? Well, that's what I'm speaking about. But here's where it's really odd for me. I'm going to recommend a second drug, because the second drug is far less harmful, and it is a stepping stone to retraining the whole system. And that second drug is called a histamine blocker. What does that mean? And the drugs that fall into that is Tagamet, Zantac and Pepcid. A histamine blocker is if you go back to the same analogy of that factory, that the proton pump inhibitor philosophy, we go in and shut down the whole thing. Well guess what a histamine blocker does is we're actually making a phone call to the factory and say, You know what, we're just gonna, we're gonna shut you down for just a few days. And we want you to come back in a week due to bad weather coming or due to some supply problems, we can't have the materials to build what you're building. And we're just doing this with a phone call. We're not going in and physically making it shut down. We're just asking it to shut down less. So what are the reasons that I prefer histamine blockers, temporarily? They don't cause c diff, they don't cause you to lose bone mass, they do reduce your acid. So that's still the same issue. But it doesn't cause the other diseases. If my dad had been on Tagamet, instead of Prilosec, who knows how much longer he could have lived. And the thing is, those kind of drugs have gone out of favor with the medical system because they like bigger, better and later.
Brian Strickland 17:03 So because they don't shut down the whole system these are okay to take long term?
Ed Jones 17:07 Well, they're better, okay, long term. But here's the protocol. And, and I'm going to get into this, the very first thing you want to do is you're gonna want to start tapering the proton pump drugs. And what I mean by that is, whatever notes you take every day, you're going to start skipping one day, like if you do the Prilosec on Monday, then on Tuesday, you won't do it. But you have to do something, that something would be a histamine blocker. Now, I am not giving medical advice, I'm not telling you how to treat your disease, I'm telling you how to maintain optimal levels and health of your esophagus and your intestines. So we ask your doc, if you're being treated and right past them, and if they'd like it fine. If they don't then find another Doc, every other day, you are going to consider doing one tagamet in the morning and one tagamet in the evening that's on your off days of the proton pump inhibitor. What is this doing? One is you're using less toxic drug. Secondly, is it slowly starting to work with that, that massive OFF button that's been pushed for so long, and it's being gentler as far as retraining the fact that you know there's a little acid will be fine, because histamine blockers do not block all acids, they block most of them, but it's going to retrain you and with the addition additional stuff that we're going to talk about. It makes life really easy, not perfect, you're gonna still have flare ups but so that is what I want, you know, to get across on the histamine blocker drugs. Next there one absolute nutritional product that I have been probably the happiest with in 20-25 years in the category of digestive support is called absorb aid. It is a really interesting product totally natural from A to Z. The company actually only makes three products. And I have even though I've dealt with a hundreds of products in that line, I still love absorb aid the best. And it only has these basic ingredients lipase, amylase, protease, cellulase, lactase. So what is this going to do? When you take these which you hopefully will with every single meal two you are going to supply the digestive support that has been many times sorely lacking. When you don't digest food, guess what happens? It pushes again on this sphincter muscle. It also doesn't allow you to digest the nutrients. It also doesn't move down the intestines the proper way. Many things happen and this digestive supportive absorb aid will generally help take care of those lacking things within our own body. And so two have these with every single meal.
Brian Strickland 20:01 Are these particular ones, are they any different than other digestive enzymes? Is there something you know unique about them?
Ed Jones 20:07 It seems unique and I can't explain the uniqueness. The reason I find it and I'm so loyal to it is because some of the other digestive enzymes can actually make you worse, you have to be very cautious and careful with some of the others. And it's all just hard to explain it, but no one is getting worse on Absorb Aid that I've ever, ever dealt with.
Brian Strickland 20:26 Okay.
Ed Jones 20:27 So that's, that's a good question. The next and the last of this lethal acronym is L for lifestyle. Here's a couple things I found out. I had heartburn really bad even after starting all the right things, and I could not, for the life of me, I was doing all the right things, I had not been on the drugs. And yet, like six o'clock in the evening, or nighttime or this or that, that had these massive flare ups. And then I realized when I was kept thinking more about the sphincter muscle, I was bench pressing, and I was doing those pause presses where the bar would sink into my chest. Well, does not that makes sense that that's pretty close to the sphincter muscle that's on the esophagus. The thing is, every time I pressed on it, it was probably squeezing it. And then hours later, here comes the lava, burping backup on me. And then I went to yoga classes, and all of a sudden I had it again. So some of the movements in yoga was pushing on the sphincter muscle. So I'm telling people, you have grandkids, and their little, if they step on your belly could be an issue. If you're pushing it or you're leaning over something, you lean over a chair and you push on those abdomen, any parts that you could have a flare up later, well, nothing's going to fix that except realizing what you did wrong. So that's part of the exercise risk that you have to analyze to make sure you're not doing that. I am a huge, huge fan. And I will actually be speaking of this in other podcast of inclined bed therapy. There's a gentleman that I have been really following that has this research on, if you can incline the front of the top of the the head side of your bed by five to six inches. Not only will this reflux probably get better, but almost everything does from nighttime urination, to not waking up with your eyes swollen, to actually not having fluid settle in the bottom part of your body because when you're at an incline, it actually moves the fluids all night long. Instead of it settling it's very similar to the sap of a tree. And when the sap of a tree part of it comes down, it actually pushes the other part up in despite gravity well, incline the bed by five to six inches is a huge, huge deal. And lastly, Brian is and it's a touchy subject, but if someone is overweight and obese and have a huge body mass, that makes sense again that the sphincter muscle will be pressed on. So you're going to be doing limonene once every other day, absorb aid with every single meal two capsules, and you're going to learn how to rotate the drug of choice with permission of your healthcare professional. And after one to two months. The goal is to go completely to the histamine blocker drugs that would probably have to last a few weeks and then you start tapering off it completely. And usually within three to four months you have retrained the system in order to not have the discomfort. But the truth of the matter is we all are going to have some flare ups due to our life or foods or stress or sleep or this or that. And so you need to put together a toolkit. This toolkit is the non toxic toolkit that you use when things are not feeling as well in this area. What is that? One is apple cider vinegar, which I actually would recommend every day if you're willing to do it. But if you don't want to do it every day have it in your reserve and you need to drink about a tablespoon. You can mix it in some water, a little honey or little fruit juice and do get the kind that has the mother not the clear. We want the one that's organic and the one that has the enzymes in it. You can do it when you have a flare up or you can do it with each meal because there's a huge theory that is always been circulating that part of the reason we make too much acids because we don't have enough and the body is trying to overcompensate. We don't need to get in that but the apple cider vinegar does deal with that. The other last toolkit that you need DGL de glycerides licorice extract. If you took dgl you chew that big tablet or wafer within eight to 10 minutes what will happen is the esophagus and the stomach is going to start producing a mucus layer. This is not like mucus Bran that you're blowing out of your nose. But it is a protective mucus that we have a ton of at 15 years old. And we have a signal significantly less at 50 years old, and sometimes even younger. What DGL will do is put that new layer of mucus back into the whole track. If you have enough mucus, it will protect you from even some of these lava flare ups up to a point, but we don't so DGL I don't like the taste, I will be honest, I do not like licorice. But it's worth the effects. Because it really does work. And it's safe. You cannot take straight licorice to do this. Why? It will elevate your blood pressure to to actually try it with real licorice. The DGL means they've taken the part of the licorice molecule out that would have caused you to have high blood pressure
Brian Strickland 25:50 I'm sorry, with with apple cider vinegar, would tablets and capsules be as effective as drinking it. Because I know some people are really sensitive to that tastes too.
Ed Jones 26:01 You know, I've done both. I do believe significantly that I prefer the liquid. But I am like you and I and I can almost do anything, but it's not something I totally prefer. And I have used and recommended the tablets. If it is from a good company, I certainly would recommend trying it. Because here's the other thing about apple cider vinegar, it's a little tough on the enamel of the teeth. So if you do it consistently, rinse your mouth out with at least water before you before you move on because it is a pretty strong acid, which is what we want.
Brian Strickland 26:35 Yeah, and you can reduce it with water, it's probably not a great idea to take it straight up, is it?
Ed Jones 26:41 Not for me now. But mixed in a little bit of water, I'm able to do it. But I'll tell you anytime I do feel nauseous or I feel sick in my stomach, it is a miracle worker for how and I can within three to five minutes, I am just so much more improved, right. So we've gone through the whole protocol of that. I do want to say that, you know, my wisdom really comes being connected to what I call ancient wisdom, which is the way that nature put us together and honoring and respecting that method of how the body operates. And anytime we get off of that philosophy, there's generally a payday to be had to the more arrogance we become and have believing we can outsmart Mother Nature, the deeper we're going to fall in the quicksand of poor health. There is just no doubt about it. And that is absolute with these acid blocking drugs. There, you know, again, I go back to we're not talking about treating your condition, you go and you ask if you can do this if you're being treated. And if you're not, you know, do what you want. But I'm really concerned about this nation and the health of people. In fact, the amount of stories I hear of children being put on this drug at three and four and five and six years old, we did not used to have this epidemic of esophageal issues. And it's really disheartening, because when we start all these children on again, drugs that are artificially turning off switches that nature put into us as a huge component of health. It is terribly, terribly frightening.
Brian Strickland 28:28 I know you mentioned earlier, you know the hiatal hernia is or anyone experiencing that are suffering from that. Is there anything that can actually be effective?
Ed Jones 28:37 Well, you know, I actually made a comment that, you know, there was less hope, I guess I would make it sound if you had a hiatal hernia that was significant. And that is still true. But for the modest people, there is one single remedy of choice that I have actually been very excited about, but it always kind of stays under the radar with publications, but it is a type of alginate s-alginate that what you do is you chew this big tablet or chewable wafer, and it's going to form almost a new gasket edge or esophagus by the method of how it works. And I'm a big fan of Life Extension. And the name of that product, Brian
Brian Strickland 29:19 It's Esophogeal Guardian,
Ed Jones 29:21 Esopheogeal Guardian, and is so interesting. I have used it. I don't have a hernia, but I did it because I'm the self appointed guinea pig of the United States, and I'm willing to try anything. So send me any pills you have and I will take one of them just for hope. No, I'm just kidding.
Brian Strickland 29:37 Please do not go there.
Ed Jones 29:39 Oh, another final point, Brian, I know everyone's gonna be thinking this. Well, everyone says take probiotics for the gut. Won't that help on this reflux issue. You know, my take is that if that's all you do, it's gonna be all very minimal and it is not part of the first part. The protocol would not involve that. However, as we and I have done a podcast on the illicit navigator on probiotics, which was so interesting with Brenda Watson, the probably the guru of the country on this, we have to address it for all parts of health. But don't expect to take a probiotic and then walk away from your drugs, it's probably not going to happen, you'll need to probably do something like we have discussed on this show. But do add it in again, we are all about the orchestra that needs to play to produce optimal health. And I do want to say there is a class of people who feel like that they have GERD and heartburn in the traditional sense, and they don't. And what it really comes down to in the functional medicine approach is that stress is causing a certain chemistry in the body to produce this this discomfort that is not really associated with all of the normal reasons. Again, going to a wise healthcare practitioner for diagnostic purposes, is really the probably the only way you'll know absolutely for sure. But you can certainly try any of these things that we talked about today, as long as you're not on drugs that would interact and again, ask your healthcare professional on that. Well, everyone that's it for this week's episode of the holistic navigator. I truly enjoyed doing this and I hope you truly enjoyed listening. Just remember it but doctor cannot do you good. He must be kept from doing harm. That was from Hi A long time ago. Thank you so much for listening and have a healthy and safe day.
Brian Strickland 31:42 The information on this podcast and the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or any one of the medical profession is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The holistic navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. The holistic navigator is not a doctor nor does he claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.