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I receive at least 10 emails a week from people who are currently experiencing acid reflux. It’s amazing how so many people overlook this awful condition and simply ignore their symptoms by swallowing a handful of Tums or antacids that are eroding their gut lining. Yuck!

What Is Acid Reflux?

Acid reflux is the burning sensation that moves up from your stomach to your throat and chest. It’s also known as acid indigestion and heartburn. When acid backs up into your throat and/or mouth, that is called regurgitation, which happens quite often with people who suffer from acid reflux. It’s amazing to think that everything from nausea after eating, burping, GERD, indigestion, stomach pain after eating, stomach fullness, upper stomach pain, stomach discomfort and bloating are all a part of acid reflux and are called dyspepsia. It’s VERY important to pay attention to your symptoms when you have acid reflux because they are RED FLAGS that your digestive system is not working properly and there is an underlying health issue. Acid reflux is not something to ignore; however, sadly most of our population ignores it and swallows over the counter pills to take the burning sensations away!

Acid reflux is pretty much simply the backup of stomach acid into your esophagus. Most people think there is TOO MUCH ACID in the stomach and that this acid gets refluxed back up into the esophagus; however, you actually may not have enough acid in your stomach!  Sadly, the antacids and prescription drugs that block acid production at a cellular level – some even being buffers of the acids – can give you relief but they are NOT a healthy long term solution because they do NOT address the root cause of the problem here.

Acid reflux can easily been corrected without drugs that will end up giving you awful side effects. So, instead of looking at the PROBLEM of acid reflux as having TOO much acid, look at your gut and the health of your digestive tract.

Here are a few easy solutions that have helped many of my clients:

1. Digestive Enzymes. Digestive enzymes may be helpful for you before you eat your meals and snacks because they actually HELP you digest your food completely. These enzymes start the digestive process in your mouth.
2. Chew. Be sure to chew your food VERY well. I’m talking 30 chews per piece. Yes, you heard me. 30. Trust me. You’re putting such a load of food into your body that it can’t handle digesting large amounts at once – leading to Leaky Gut and numerous other health issues that you don’t want.
3. Probiotics. Our intestines are in need of GOOD bacteria to function correctly. Many of our good bacteria are killed each day from the chlorine in our water and the toxic chemicals in our food such as pesticides, antibiotics, processed foods and sugar. We all need a good dose of probiotics to keep our guts healthy and able to fight off the toxins we’re exposed to each day!
4. Elimination Diet. Remove the foods that are bothering you by starting an elimination diet and removing gluten, dairy, soy, nightshade vegetables such as eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, etc. You can also remove sugars, fried foods and processed foods.
5. Toxic Build-Up. Our bodies are slammed with toxins in our air, water, food, etc., every minute. All these toxins get stored in our liver and, if we don’t DETOX them out, they will circulate in our bodies and make us sick and toxic!
6. Body Burden. When too many toxins accumulate in your body – your body can’t function correctly because it’s trying so hard to deal with these toxic things floating around and getting trapped in your liver. To keep your intestinal tract clean, make sure your body’s detox system is running efficiently.

Did you know that one of the biggest major side effects of long-term acid blocker use is osteoporosis? Yep. So, taking all those over the counter Tums and Rolaids isn’t helping you one bit in the long run! Try my 10 Day Clean Eating Cleanse to get you started eating whole, organic foods.

It is essential to work with an Integrative M.D. because I am sharing general information that is not intended to be medical advice. This information is only given for informational purposes.