What is Acid Reflux

Good question, ?What IS Acid Reflux?? You?ve heard it called heartburn, acid indigestion or maybe even esophagitis and gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD). Whatever you want to call it, it is one of the most unpleasant experiences you could have short of vomiting.

If you noticed, it starts with something harmless enough sounding, like ?heartburn.? Then suddenly it?s involving indigestion and then medical sounding conditions that have something to do with your esophagus, or throat.

What happens is heartburn usually progresses until it becomes a disease and then eventually even leads to throat cancer. Sounds fun doesn?t it? NOT.

Heartburn feels like a burning near your heart because that?s where your Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES) is, right behind the top part of your heart. This is where acid reflux takes place at.

Your stomach acid is the culprit here. You either have too much or too little. It may surprise you to learn that most people suffer from too little stomach acid. The stomach acid reflux is a chemical biological eruption that forces the acid passed your LES, which is designed to seal off your stomach contents from entering your throat area.

There are things that can make it easy for your acid to reflux up beyond your LES. One is eating too much. As undigested food piles up, the acid in your stomach has nowhere to go but up. Acid reflux happens when food pushes on your LES causing it to open. Your stomach acid is pooling on top of your food trying to chemically dissolve it. This is a very caustic situation.

Did you know your stomach acid is so corrosive it can eat glass?

Another way acid can reflux up your throat is from lying down after a meal, this distorts your rib cage and diaphragm muscle, pressing undigested food against the LES making it open. The natural result is corrosive digestive juices leaking up where they do not belong, in your throat, lungs, mouth and sinuses.

If you lack stomach acid it is not unusual for you to feel bloated because your food is not moving or being chemically dissolved by your stomach acid. Imagine a zip-lock baggie filled with mash potatoes and soda pop. Picture the mashed potatoes fill 9/10ths of the bag leaving only one place for the soda pop to go . . .up.

Your stomach acid is like that, in fact, your stomach acid is made by cells in your stomach lining located at the top of your stomach. So it?s easy to see, whether you have a lot of stomach acid, or just a little, it?s going to be near the top next to your throat.

Once the LES has been breached it weakens your throat muscles, making it more likely to happen again. If it is allowed to continue this simple case of heart burn and acid reflux will eventually destroy throat tissue leading to GERD or throat cancer. That?s why if you take any drugs for acid reflux, use them wisely and ONLY for a very short period of time, because the cause of the acid reflux will be there until you find the natural treatment to help your body cure itself by removing the real cause of the problem.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass?

Health Advocate