Halt Heartburn and Acid Reflux Naturally

February 22, 2012

6 min read

Halt Heartburn and Acid Reflux Naturally

By: Gaia Staff | February 22, 2012

Ironically, heartburn has nothing to do with the heart, but it causes a burning sensation in the chest which can confuse most people. The good news is that you don’t have to put up with it.

What Causes Acid Reflux/GERD?

Acid reflux or heartburn occurs when stomach acid leaks back up into the esophagus. When you swallow, a circular band of muscle around the bottom of the esophagus relaxes to allow food and liquid to enter into your stomach. Normally this muscle valve, called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), is closed and keeps the digestive acid and food inside the stomach where it belongs. However if the LES valve opens when it shouldn’t, hydrochloric acid from the stomach can reflux back and touch the lining of the esophagus. This can cause a burning sensation in the chest or throat known as acid reflux or heartburn.

Is the Standard Treatment Helping or Harming You?

Typically, acid reflux is believed to be caused by excessive stomach acid production and is treated with antacids that neutralize the acid. The “gold-standard” treatment is to prescribe H-2-receptor blockers or Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) that work by completely blocking your stomach’s ability to produce acid. But this tactic misses the boat entirely, because acid reflux is NOT caused by too much acid in your stomach, it’s more typically caused by too little. Your body actually needs stomach acid to digest protein, activate digestive enzymes, keep the bacteria from growing in your small intestine, and absorb important nutrients like calcium, magnesium, and vitamin B12.

There’s a plethora of medical research indicating that suppressing stomach acid production tends to just worsen and perpetuate the condition. Acid blocking drugs prevent you from properly digesting food and cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Long term use can also cause deficiency in vitamin B12 which can lead to depression, anemia, fatigue, and nerve damage. They also cause dangerous overgrowth of bacteria in the intestine called Clostridia, leading to life-threatening infections. For many others, low-grade overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine leads to bloating, gas, abdominal pain, and diarrhea leading to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Yet another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that chronic use of acid-blocking drugs leads to an increase in the development of osteoporosis and an increase in hip fractures because blocking acid prevents the absorption of calcium and other minerals necessary for bone health. These are serious health concerns, and it’s pretty clear that in this case, the “cure” of acid-blocking drugs is worse than the “disease” of reflux. But that’s of little comfort when you’re suffering from heartburn.

Natural Options to Eliminate Heartburn

So if drugs aren’t the answer, what is? A combination of the right foods, nutrients, and lifestyle therapies can heal the problem, including:

Re-inoculating your gut with enough good bacteria by taking a high quality probiotic supplement or by consuming fermented foods, such as kefir, sauerkraut and kombucha.
Increasing your body’s natural production of stomach acid — one of the simplest strategies to encourage your body to make sufficient amounts of hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) is to consume enough of the raw material. A high-quality salt, such as Himalayan salt crystals, will not only provide you with the chloride your body needs to make hydrochloric acid, but it also contains over 84 trace minerals your body needs to perform optimally, biochemically. You can also try 2-3 teaspoons of Braggs organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar in 8 oz of water or supplement with Betaine HCL available in health food stores without a prescription.
Taking 1-2 capsules of digestive enzymes with each meal to aid in proper digestion and assimilation of your food.
Taking 3-5 grams of glutamine powder in water twice a day to help heal the gut lining.
Chewing 2 to 3 chewable tablets of DGL (a form of licorice) 15 minutes before meals.
Supplementing with 200-400 mg of magnesium citrate or glycinate twice a day; magnesium helps the sphincter at the bottom of the stomach to relax, allowing the food to go down.

As you can see, there’s no need to suffer from heartburn and reflux or to take expensive and dangerous acid-blocking drugs. Try the changes suggested here to soothe your stomach and have your gut engine humming in no time.

Rupina Meer

Rupina Meer, Certified Holistic Health Coach (CHHC) received her training from the acclaimed Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP). Health coaches from Integrative Nutrition’s world-class training program learn from luminaries in the field of functional medicine and holistic health, including Drs. Andrew Weil, Mark Hyman, and Deepak Chopra, to name a few.
Rupina is also trained as a practitioner in the Hormone Cure Protocol, a program created by Harvard physician and New York Times best-selling author of The Hormone Cure, Dr. Sara Gottfried, to teach a new paradigm in women’s health and wellness.
Rupina’s education has provided her with multidisciplinary training across a 100 major dietary theories—everything from TCM and Ayurveda to raw foods—but she practices the principle of bio-individuality, tailoring her health coaching programs to each individual’s unique body, age, lifestyle and goals. Rather than one-size fits all nutrition dwelling on calories, carbs, and lists of good and bad foods, she personalizes her programs to get to the root cause of each client’s health challenges. And together, they make bite-sized diet and lifestyle changes that create sustainable results.
Rupina’s mission is to teach women how to naturally balance their blood sugar and hormones, blast fat and boost energy so they can rock their skinny jeans again and live their dreams without diets, drugs or deprivation. Rupina teaches her clients delicious new ways to eat, think, move and supplement and has developed a proven system, including bite-sized diet/lifestyle changes along with targeted herbs, and laser coaching—sprinkled with behavior modification tools and accountability—to ensure sustainable results.
She offers individual, group and corporate wellness programs via in-person or virtual coaching, so distance is not an issue. Visit http://zen-trition.com/ to get instant access to her wildly popular free eReport and discover the Top 5 Health Myths That Are Keeping You Fat, Fatigued & in a Funk.
Rupina also has an MBA and won multiple accolades in her corporate communications career spanning over a decade, but she struggled with some of her own health challenges (including a brief stint with cancer). Her journey to wellness compelled her to explore the streets of her own emotions, organs and cravings to manifest her optimal vitality. And her passion is to empower her clients to do the same as she supports them in decoding their body’s innate intelligence to enhance their health and happiness. Follow Rupina Meer and Zen-Trition on Facebook and Twitter.