January 14, 2011
What Causes Heartburn?
Heartburn and indigestion is a form of gastrointestinal tract upset.
Despite often having a single cause a gut imbalance can trigger a wide variety of gastrointestinal and even non-gastrointestinal complications.
Heartburn is usually one of the first noticeable effects or signs of this internal imbalance.
Once your digestive system falls out of balance you may experience several symptoms that seem unrelated to your heartburn issues, such as:
- Fatigue
- Bloating
- Flatulence
- Bad breath
- Headaches and much more . . .
Your indigestion and heartburn are really two symptoms of the same digestive imbalance.
The important thing is to learn to understand your symptoms of indigestion and heartburn. Those symptoms are all that stands between the cause of your heartburn and your remedy.
Your body/mind communicates directly to more than 60 trillion cells and your heartburn symptoms are nothing more than those 60 trillion cells talking back to you.
There is a reason why you are experiencing a heartburning sensation in your chest and throat area. Whatever you just did may be a clue to stop doing that.
If you lay down after eating and you got hit with heartburn, that should be a clue not to lie down after eating and if you really read into it, it’s suggesting you go for a walk and get things moving.
Walking is one of the most under rated activities, if you can walk you should be doing it as much as possible.
Walking and swinging your arms acts as a pendulum that helps circulate blood and move stagnant lymph fluid. Your lymph fluid is part of your endocrine system, which is part of your immune system as is your digestive tract.
Heartburn can become chronic when activity levels drop and eating the wrong things increases. The lack of mild activity and dumping of food wastes and toxins in your cells steal vital energy from them.
This loss of cellular energy leads to a build-up of more toxins, enough to trigger symptoms of digestive imbalance. Ignored secondary stress can create more symptoms of indigestion and heartburn, eventually causing more complications from inflammation that can lead to degenerative disease.
So doping up your body to hide your heartburn can be the cause of it becoming chronic. The real cause of heartburn comes from not enjoying variety in life. Try avoiding the same old foods and reach for more fresh foods, less white bread, less sugar, less animal fat.
Adopt mild exercise into your lifestyle, try deep breathing exercises (yoga) or even mild stretching (Tai Chi) if walking is painful . . .you’ll be surprised at the benefits.
Heartburn can also be caused from chronic dehydration – discover a natural source of good mineral water and drink half your weight in ounces every day.
Note: Avoid drinking large amounts of anything with your meals . . . the trick is to drink plenty in-between meals and eat small meals throughout the day. Better to have 5 small meals than 1 or 2 large meals.
Pay attention to the foods you mix too. If you just eat fruit with your steak and you feel heartburn, then separate those foods. By the way fruit should be eaten between meals too.
The cause of heartburn is one of the first big symptoms of a digestive struggle that is stressing out your cells . . . remove the cause, don’t just block the symptoms.
You were born to heal,
Todd M. Faass
Health Advocate
Filed under Heartburn Remedies by admin
October 7, 2010
What Does Heartburn Feel Like?
If you?re asking how heartburn feels you obviously have never experienced it.
Imagine nearly the most corrosive substance know to man, hydrochloric acid (HCL) splashing up into your sensitive mouth area, again and again and again.
Why does this happen?
Besides the fact that we eat too many processed foods, Americans have been lied to by antacid manufacturers. These so-called antacids actually produce what?s called a stomach acid rebound affect.
You see, the layers of your stomach are very complex and don?t have any problem holding down a bubbling cauldron of caustic acid so powerful it will ?etch? a glass window.
All this volcanic, blistering nasty stomach acid is kept down below by muscular valve called the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES). Now I see two schools of thought which describe exactly how the stomach acid gurgles its way past this esophageal flap.
One idea claims that the stomach acid over powers it, weakens it and allows the forbidden elixir of brimstone and digestive acids to eat their way up into your more sensitive oral cavities.
The other more feasible explanation of how the bubbling curd works its way upward into your mouth, nose and middle ears is because the undigested stomach contents are bulging and piling upward forcing the flap to compromise its integrity.
You see, in actuality most people have difficulty properly digesting food when they get older because they suffer from mineral and nutrient deficiencies. These nutritional deficits are caused from eating a lot of enzyme-barren foods, forcing the pancreas to make enzymes that are usually hidden within raw fruits and vegetables. This also taxes the bile producing gall bladder of important minerals necessary to make stomach acids.
So now here we are, gut full of food eaten days ago, maybe longer, just slowly fermenting like a cow?s belly, simply because there?s no more stomach acid or enzymes left to break it all down faster.
This bulk, presses up ward causing gas, heartburn and acid indigestion, cramps, flatulence and the rest of it. But what?s bad is the body is working hard to produce a much needed ?mega burst? of gastric acid and when it lets it go, it has nowhere to go but up, because your stomach is already stuffed to the brim.
In this case ?the brim? is referring to the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES).
Now use your imagination. What?s going to happen is noxious stomach acid, from your guts HCL surge, is going to shoot straight up where it should never be. The deep burning sensation is your flesh being etched, blistered and chemically peeled away; the rancid disturbing taste is horribly indescribable.
Over time you?ll experience gum disease, loss of tooth enamel and permanent ?non-kissable? breath. In fact your breath may get so bad no one will want to even talk with you without a ten foot pole to keep a safe distance.
I haven?t even touched on the damage the gastric fumes and stomach acid particles have on your lungs.
This acid reflux situation is so serious it can end up mutating your throat?s tender lining into cancerous leather capable of handling large gulps of hydrochloric and sulfur acids.
Once your throat cells have transformed to literally become more like the stomach lining your Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is likely to progress into throat cancer . . . not a good situation and I don?t want to even imagine what that feels like.
You were born to heal,
Todd M. Faass?
Health Ecologist
Filed under Acid Reflux Remedy by admin
September 21, 2010
Low Stomach Acid Symptoms
Most people who are suffering from GERD and other related conditions will first look into excessive stomach acid as the main cause. While this is indeed a common trigger for GERD, it is important to note that the condition can also be caused by insufficient stomach acids. Low stomach acid symptoms are quite similar to the symptoms caused by excessive amounts of stomach acids, and they can be just as damaging and painful.
Low stomach acid symptoms occur because the entire digestive system relies heavily on hydrochloric acid in order to dissolve the food as it reaches the stomach. When a condition occurs in which a person has an abnormally low amount of stomach acid, the characteristic acid symptoms may result.
Insufficient hydrochloric acid can adversely affect the digestion of protein, carbohydrates and fat in the stomach. When this happens, the stomach is at increased risk of being overrun by bacteria and fungus, both of which are kept in check by stomach acids. Hydrochloric acid also serves the additional function of helping the body absorb vitamins and minerals more efficiently.
Even worse than GERD, undigested food that collects in the small intestines and colon can cause an abnormal bacteria buildup as well, and this can cause the liver to absorb too much toxin. This can cause a considerable amount of stress on the system, and a number of health conditions and illnesses may result. Among the low stomach acid symptoms are: fatigue, excessive gas and/or flatulence, headaches, high blood pressure, insomnia, aches and pain, and mood changes.
If you are looking for a completely natural way to ease the suffering associated with low stomach acid symptoms, the Reflux Remedy Report is a guide well worth looking into. With the help of this collection of tips and advice, numerous people all over the world have already discovered for themselves why natural methods are often the best choices for ridding the body of stomach acid symptoms.
One of the features that make this guide so useful is the organization of these remedies. They are outlined in a step-by-step format, and are very easy to understand. With the help of this guide, you will find proven treatment methods that will help you get rid of low stomach acid symptoms for good, and you do so in a totally natural manner that is free of side effects. The guide also comes with a handy bonus section that offers dozens of reader tips and suggestions on how to get rid of heart-burn related symptoms. Since the guide is available for download you can be well on your way to freeing your body of these ailments within just a few minutes!
Filed under Acid Reflux, Stomach Acid by admin
September 10, 2010
Foods To Eat With Acid Reflux
If you suffer from acid reflux, acid indigestion, acidosis, digestive upset, dyspepsia, flatulence or heartburn you should know not to eat foods high in animal fat, wheat gluten or refined sugar or salt, to name a few.
On the other hand do you know what foods you can eat that will help prevent or cure your acid reflux, heartburn dilemma?
This whole acid causing food thing can be a little confusing, but I?m going to clear that up for you real fast today. I get a lot of people asking me about this, but it?s really quite simple to understand. You see many foods that are ?acidic? actually create an ?alkaline? condition inside your body and alkaline is good, that?s what you want.
This includes heirloom tomatoes, organic lemons and oranges . . . basically all citrus fruits. Once you know this, the rest is straight forward.
Now that we have that cleared up let?s take a closer look at what having an ?acid condition? or an ?alkaline condition? really means and why it?s important to know.
A Comparison: Acid Vs. Alkaline
First, an acid or alkaline state are opposite poles on a scale measured according to the ?pH,? which is short for ?potential of hydrogen.? Pure, living mineral water, which is made of hydrogen and oxygen, should have a natural pH of 7.0 representing the neutral, or half way mark on the pH scale.
A neutral 7.0 pH is neither in an acid or alkaline state. When the pH reading drops below 7.0 it?s considered to have an acidic pH and when the pH reading rises above 7.0 it is said to have an alkaline pH. So as you can see the entire pH scale is only from 1.0 pH being the most acidic to 14.0 pH reading being the most alkaline.
Your optimum health depends on you having a slightly alkaline reading, a 7.4 pH is good. This will naturally fluctuate from 6.5 to a 7.5 pH depending upon the time of day, your metabolic cycle and what you just eat.
The pH reading of your blood, urine and saliva determines your health.
Your urine will naturally become temporarily acidic in the morning because that?s when you carry the most acid waste.
If your blood pH becomes too acidic the hemoglobin is destroyed making it impossible for your red blood cells to carry oxygen to your cells. This is called acidosis and ignored will cause illness, cancer and even sudden death.
Perhaps now you can see why eating the wrong foods could cause an illness like acid reflux disease.
Bottom line is you need to know which foods will cure acid reflux and most of them are alkaline foods that create a slightly alkaline pH, the one exception being citrus fruits as I mentioned above.
German researchers discovered eating acid forming foods flushes the magnesium out of your kidneys, leading to magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is vital for heart health, for proper gastric acid balance and helps maintain optimum pH levels. So naturally, food rich with magnesium and other minerals will qualify as alkaline producing foods. Actually most raw green plants are rich in alkaline minerals.
Here?s a list of 9 very alkaline foods:
- Organic bananas or plantains
- Organic dark chocolate (70%+)
- Organic figs
- Natural mineral water
- Fresh squeezed orange juice
- Organic potatoes
- Organic spinach, kale or collards
- Seeded watermelon
- Organic dandelion greens
I hope you?ve found this information useful. On a final note, keep in mind that anything with refined sugar in it will tend to give your urine a more acidic pH. I would suggest supplementing with agave nectar, raw palm sugar or raw honey, at least these provide a lower glycemic load and provide useful minerals, vitamins and cofactors, whereas refined sugar and artificial sweeteners actually deplete these.
Live well,
Todd M. Faass?
Health Ecologist
Filed under Acid Reflux Natural Remedies by admin