Natural treatment of reflux
Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is the name given to the food in the stomach and acid back to the esophagus (esophagus). Because of the burning in the chest among the public? Chest burn? known as. Reflux is very common in our country and all over the world. It is said that at least 20% of those who feed on industrial, refined foods have reflux, and this figure exceeds 50%.
Acid-reducing drugs are the first or second among the best-selling drugs in many countries as a group. Although there are those who claim otherwise, these drugs do not have a cure for the disease. Despite the tremendous advances in medicine, despite the discovery of a pile of modern stomach medications, the number of people suffering from reflux complaints is rising to one side with rocket speed !!
Professor Dr. In this article, written by Ahmet Aydın, you will learn how the treatment of complaints such as heartburn (reflux) and heartburn without medication that uses acid-reducing drugs can be improved without diet.
There are great advances in medicine. Discovering a pile of modern stomach medicine. Despite this, reflux is increasing? Why is that?
Gastroesophageal reflux (GER), or reflux, is the name given to food and acid in the stomach to recoil to the esophagus. Because of the burning in the chest among the public? Chest burn? also known as.
Reflux is very common in our country and all over the world. It is said that at least 20 per cent of people in industrial countries have reflux, and even more than 50 per cent. That's what the drug sales show. Stomach acid-reducing drugs are the first or second best-selling drugs in many countries as a group. These drugs have no cure for the disease, they only save the day. It was already therapeutic though they wouldn't be sold that much.
Could you tell us a little about the formation mechanism of the reflux?
Where the lower end of the esophagus joins the stomach, there is a muscular valve-like structure called the lower esophageal pusher (sphincter). During this swallow, the food relaxes and opens as the food descends to the stomach, while other times it shrinks and closes. Food that normally enters the stomach through the esophagus rarely escapes from the stomach up to the esophagus. Although this takes very short time.
The reflux esophagus loosens when the lower pucker needs to be closed and the stomach content escapes back into the esophagus. Stomach swelling exacerbates the current state. Retrieval rarely depends on the inadequacy of the tone of this pucker (certain contraction), ie its laxity.
The cells lining the stomach surface are resistant to the strong acid secreted by the stomach. However, the floor of the esophagus has no property to be protected from this strong acid. If it is exposed to gastric acid for a long time, a germ-free inflammation develops; this is called esophagitis in medical language. Esophagitis can cause esophageal cancer in the long term.
What symptoms and side effects have reflux?
Patients with reflux usually have a "burning" under the breastbone. and? printing? Sometimes, this burning sensation is reflected towards the throat. These symptoms, which are in the form of burning and pressure, increase after a meal and sometimes last for hours. Sometimes sour water may come into the mouth. Asthma, laryngitis (hoarseness), difficulty swallowing.
If reflux is not treated, it can lead to stenosis and bleeding in the esophagus. At least one third of asthmatic patients have reflux as the cause. Esophageal cancer can develop in a person with long-term reflux.
How is reflux diagnosed? How's the treatment?
If the patient's complaints are evaluated well, the diagnosis of reflux is generally made easily without resorting to any laboratory methods. If there is no other suspicious condition, radiological examinations and endoscopy are rarely needed.
Three groups of drugs are used in the treatment of classic reflux; anti acids, H2 receptor breakers and proton pump inhibitors. Antacids are alkaline substances such as bicarbonate which neutralize stomach acid. Others are drugs that reduce stomach acid. These drugs are ranked first or second among the best-selling drugs in many countries as a group.
Although these drugs reduce the burning of the esophagus in the acute phase, they do not have any therapeutic properties. If used for long periods of time, there are a lot of serious side effects.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no excess of acid production of the stomach in patients with reflux. Even in many reflux patients (especially the elderly), gastric acid secretion is low (1). Stomach acid has many tasks. Reducing this with medication causes a lot of side effects.
Tell me a little about those side effects. Because so many people are taking these drugs?
Yeah, you're right. Moreover, the majority of physicians do not explain these side effects to their patients. For example, that patient may have pneumonia due to stomach medicine, but he does not know it himself. Probably even a doctor.
So we're having lung disease because of the stomach medicine?
For example, according to a study conducted on 364,683 patients who applied to health centers in the USA, it was found that there were 4 times more pneumonia (pulmonary inflammation, pneumonia) in patients who used acid-reducing drugs than those who did not use it (2).
Because one of the important functions of gastric acid is to kill the germs we take with our food. So stomach acid is one of the most important members of our immune system. For example, helicopter bacteria that cause ulcer disease (helicobacteria) have the chance to live in low-acid environments. The underlying cause of many microbial diarrhea is the same.
Another disadvantage of gastric acid reduction is that it leads to vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 deficiency is very important because it can lead to anemia, fatigue, poor concentration, disturbance of perception and even severe symptoms of dementia. Vitamin B12 deficiency has increased tremendously in recent years. Rates ranging from 20 percent to 30 percent are reported. The main reasons for this are the prohibition of eating red meat by the doctors and the stomach medications prescribed to their patients! (3)
Gastric acid has two main benefits to vitamin B12 absorption. Stomach acid, dietary vitamin B12 taken from dietary proteins allows separation. Otherwise it is very difficult for the vitamin to be absorbed from the intestine and passed into the blood. In order to absorb vitamin B12 again, it has to be combined with a structure called intrinsic factor in the stomach, which secretes the decrease in acidity.
A downside of stomach medications is that it disrupts protein digestion. Not enough digested protein particles pass into the blood. As a result, a mass of allergic, psychiatric (autism, depression, hyperactivity) inflammatory or autoimmune disease (Hashimoto thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, ulcerous colitis, asthma, etc.) can develop.
Reduction of stomach acid also reduces the absorption of minerals such as calcium and iron from the diet. Since the drugs that reduce stomach acid are used so much, esophageal cancers had to be reduced. What travels? On the contrary, the last 15-20 esophageal cancers increased by 3-4 times (4).
Is there a relationship between our feeding habits and reflux?
Most fat people have reflux. Therefore, it has been suggested that excess fatty foods cause reflux. However, reflux has been shown to be related to obesity, not to the amount of fat in the diet (5).
On the other hand, the excess of refined sugars in the diet causes reflux. In a study, it was shown that when foods with high glycemic index in the diet of patients with reflux were removed, symptoms of disease improved within a week (6). Even the patients who participated in this study continued their bad habits such as alcohol, smoking and coffee, but their reflux symptoms improved. The aforementioned patients discontinued all the stomach medications. Unfortunately, this is the only research on this subject.
Our observations are the same. Reflux disappears spontaneously in a few days (almost all) in a low-sugar diet, the Stone Age diet. The mechanism by which a low sugar diet reduces reflux is not well known.
At this stage, Batmanghelidj's statements are important. As I have told you about water before, due to the secret thirst found in many of us (that is, if we do not get enough fluid) your body increases histamine secretion (already stomach drugs such as acid ranitidine, cimetidine also reduce histamine secretion). Histamine prevents the loss of fluid by contracting the lung vessels and the vessels in our limbs. So it gives more blood to the brain. But in return, histamine increases gastric acid secretion.
Acid that will digest protein food in the stomach does not harm the cells in the stomach lining. However, the duodenum cells are not as acid-resistant as stomach cells. Normally, gastric acid increases secretion of the hormone called secretion of bicarbonate increases by increasing the pancreas.
However, when enough bicarbonate is released to neutralize the acid in the stomach, the stomach door (pylor) opens and the stomach acid and food can pass to the duodenum. If it passes, the acid passing into the duodenum destroys the floor (mucous membrane) and makes an ulcer.
Fortunately, pylori spasm often does not allow this situation. But this time the intra-stomach pressure is increasing. As a result, the stomach contents back to the esophagus. This is what we call reflux. In the meantime, if the stomach is chronically swollen, it causes the hernia to the diaphragmatic cleft (hiatus) of the upper gate (hiatus hernia).
In fact, another problem is the reduction of gastric acid secretion. Contrary to popular belief, gastric acid secretion is low in most people suffering from ulcers. When the proteins in the stomach are not sufficiently cleaved with acid, the stomach door does not open and as a result the stomach contents back up to the esophagus.
I think hypoglycemia is similar. During hypoglycemia, our body increases stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to raise blood sugar. As you know, cortisol is a hormone that increases gastric acid secretion. As I just explained, the pylor is tightly closed, as the pancreas cannot release enough bicarbonate to neutralize this acid, which the cortisol secretes extra. Intra-gastric pressure is increasing, food can not pass to the intestine, and due to increased pressure, the lower esophagus opens. As a result, the stomach acid food and cortisol increased due to increased stomach acid back to the esophagus.
Water is said to be very important in the treatment of reflux and ulcers. How that happens?
It's clear that most of us don't drink enough water. Therefore, our body does not fully fulfill its duties and various chronic diseases emerge. Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj (Feridun Batmangeliç) Water: Not Sick, Thirsty in his book says that the most important cause of all diseases, the body is dehydrated (7). According to this scientist, adequate water consumption can help protect almost all diseases. Adequate water is the most beneficial disease, reflux and ulcers.
Dr. The story of Fereydoon Batmanghelidj is very interesting. Batmanghelidj is imprisoned for a death row in 1979 during the Iranian Islamic Revolution. In the early days of the prison, a prisoner suffering from severe writhing ulcer pain gives two glasses of water because there is no medicine in the prison infirmary. The pain goes away in eight minutes. The patient then continues to drink 500 mL (1 small pet bottle or 2 large glasses) of water every 3 hours. After the acute period has passed, the patient advises him to drink 250mL half an hour before the meal and 2.5m after the meal and drink as much water as he wants. The patient has been suffering from stomach pain for years.
Batmanghelidj treats more than 3000 ulcers with water only until 1982, when he was released from prison after the first patient. When he went to the first hearing a year after his imprisonment, he told the judge that he had made a very important invention for human health, and that he had written an article for publication in Iran and Western medical journals. He wants to hand this over to him before he's executed. The judge is sentenced and reduced his sentence to 3 years. In the following months, he decides to be released early. However, Batmanghelidj refuses to offer early release to complete his investigations, stays in prison for a few more months (2 years and 7 months in total) and completes his work (7).
How do you treat reflux?
I treat reflux and ulcers in similar ways. Let me explain the two together. The first step of the emergency treatment is to give the patient 500 mL (1 small pet bottle or 2.5 large glasses) of water every 3 hours (at least 4 liters per day). After the acute phase has passed, I recommend that the patient drink 250mL half an hour before the meal and 2.5m after the meal and drink as much water as he wants. As we said before, Dr. Batmanghelidj treated thousands of patients in this way.
The second important step is the significant reduction of refined sugars, flour and sugar-made foods. The Stone Age diet is very suitable for this purpose.
Pneumonia-stomach medications
According to a study conducted in the USA, it was performed on 364,683 patients who applied to primary care centers (6). Primary pneumonia (pneumonia) was detected in 5,551 of these patients. The prevalence of pneumonia was 2.45% in patients who used drug that reduced acid secretion for at least one year, and 0.6% in those who did not use such drugs; that is, four times less pneumonia.
One of the important functions of gastric acid is to kill the germs we take with our food.
As well as stomach acid is one of the most important members of our immune system. In the above-mentioned study, the fact that pneumonia is seen 4 times more in users of gastric acid-lowering drugs further emphasizes the importance of this issue.
Vitamin B12-stomach medications
Reduction of stomach acid prevents dietary protein B12 from being separated from dietary proteins. Vitamin B12 deficiency has increased tremendously in recent years. The main reasons for this are the ban on eating red meat and stomach medications (7). Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to anemia, fatigue, poor concentration, and even severe symptoms of dementia.
To prevent B12 deficiency, acid-reducing drugs should be discontinued and fed with a diet rich in vitamin C or other natural acidic foods.
Gastric remedies and indigestion
Protein digestion is greatly impaired because gastric drugs reduce acid secretion or inactivate the existing. As a result, undigested protein particles pass through the blood. As a result, a mass of allergic, inflammatory or autoimmune diseases (Hoshimoto thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, ulcerous colitis, asthma, etc.) may develop.
Stomach drugs and absorption of minerals
Reduction of stomach acid also reduces the absorption of dietary minerals such as calcium and iron. For example, antacids contain much calcium, but they are not a good source of calcium because they reduce stomach acidity.
Cancer and reflux drugs
It is assumed that drugs that reduce stomach acid need to reduce Barett's esophagus, and we would expect the esophageal cancers to decrease in the last 15-20 years. However, esophageal cancers increased by 3-4 times during this period !! (8-10)
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