Medical Approach to Heartburn / Acid Reflux Disease: Cure or Symptom Relief?
It is the main misconception about acid reflux disease to regard it a condition which can be remedied by controlling acid levels in the stomach. Controlling acid levels may help suppress symptoms but it does not cure.
This misconception leads to two opposite approaches both of which make the condition worse over a course of time. These two absolutely opposite approaches to treat heartburn / acid reflux can be summarized as follows:
1. The first one is the medical treatment which tries to keep acid level low in the stomach. We now know that it is certainly not a correct approach as it rarely -if at all- provides permanent relief from acid reflux disease. It is an established fact that despite many advanced forms of medications to suppress acid production, a high percentage of chronic acid reflux cases cannot be cleared up.
It’s important to understand that acid reflux is NOT a disease of too much acid being produced. This may be hard to believe for many people since acid inhibitors like H2 receptor blockers or proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) work quite well to relieve the symptoms of acid reflux. But this relief disappears as soon as the treatment is discontinued. Besides, suppressing stomach acid production leads to poor digestion of nutrients. Also, animal studies in University of Michigan (USA) showed that mice treated with proton pump inhibitors, which block acid production, acquired more bacteria and developed more inflammatory changes in their stomach linings than untreated mice.
Another disadvantage of acid suppression by these drugs is that you’ll develop both tolerance and dependence on them, so you can’t stop taking them without suffering serious repercussions.
2. Another proof that acid suppression is not the solution to acid reflux disease is the fact that some patients get more relief upon use of HCl acid tablets than acid blockers. This second approach is exactly the opposite of the first one and it is common amongst naturopathic doctors.
Now, this may sound weird but some patients get excellent relief from acid reflux by increasing the acid content in their stomach by taking betaine hydrochloric supplements, which are available in health food stores without prescription.
However, this relief also is not permanent because –just like their counter-parts, antacids– these tablets do not cure the stomach either. Also, in the long term these tablets may make everything worse because they may lead to open sores in the stomach and aggravate hidden gastritis. These are followed by a return of reflux and heartburn which then cannot be remedied with acid pills. Experience shows that patients develop dependence on acid pills too.
As a matter of fact, hypochlorhydria, that is keeping acid level low, is a conscious action of the body to prevent fast erosion of stomach lining which has been wounded due to a helicobacter pylori infection. It is an established fact that more than 50% of World’s population is infected with helicobacter pylori. But about 80% of those people feel only insignificant symptoms like bloating, abnormal appetite, dark colored feces, or stomach intolerance towards some food which they do not pay much attention or attribute to conditions other than an infection. This is why this bacterium is called “the hidden resident of stomach” and most people do not receive a treatment even though they live with an helicobacter pylori infection in their stomachs. Helicobacter pylori infection means open sores in the stomach lining. They are usually very small but they do cause the previously mentioned problems and they make the stomach sensitive to the acid produced by itself. Stoma
Once helicobacter pylori infection is eradicated and open sores heal, stomach acid production returns to normal levels. The end result is improved digestion and relief from many unpleasant stomach conditions including acid reflux disease and its symptoms like heartburn. Then, there will be no need for antacids or acid pills.
reflux????????
MY BABY WAS PREMATURE AND HAS BEEN SEEING A GASTROENTEROLOGIST FOR REFLUX SHE HAS HAD A ENSCOPY PROCEDURE , A UGI X-RAY, HER FORMULA HAS BEEN CHANGED ABOUT 5 TIMES, WE’VE ADDED CEREAL IN HER FORMULA, AND EVEN BABY FOOD, SHE HAS ONLY GAINED 2 OUNCES IN 3 WEEKS AND THAT IS NOT NORMAL SHE SHOULD BE GAINING MORE. IF ANYONE HAS EVER BEEN THROUGH ALL THIS CAN YOU TELL ME WANT ELSE CAN BE DONE, OH YEAH SHE”S EVEN BEEN THROUGH 6 DIFFERENT PRESCRIPTIONS SHE IS NOW ON AXID AND IT DOESN’T SEEM TO HELP AND SHE IS STILL VOMITTING ALL THE TIME. THANKS FOR YOU THOUGHTS.
My daughter is now 4 months old
How did your reflux baby do on whole milk?
Emma is seven months old and is really doing much better about her reflux. She went from spitting up dozens of times a day to now just doing it every few days. Anyways how do reflux babies do when it is time to put them on whole milk (I already know it is twelve months, just thinking ahead)? Emma has done fine with yogurt and cheese.
How to tell if you have acid reflux disease?
I’m a firm believer that the world is over-prescribed. I think that pharmaceutical companies just want to give you a pill for everything under the sun. So with that in mind I never thought I would get acid reflux disease. I always thought that I could just live with general acid reflux, because so many people have in the past and they got along just fine.
So my question is: how can you tell if you have acid reflux? What are the symptoms and if I have it, how can I reduce it without medication.
Thanks in advance.
How long does it take for acid reflux in babies to go away?
My 2 month old baby has acid reflux. He is on Prevacid and Mylanta. I burp him and hold him upright for 30 mins after each meal. Question for all parents whose babies have had acid reflux: How long did it take for your babies to get rid off their acid reflux ?
What gripe water is better for reflux Colic calm or little tummies?
I have a 2 weeks old with reflux. The doctor talked about using zantac if it gets worse. Just wondering which of these two work better for reflux?
My daughter who was a reflux baby did well, but she didn’t start till she was 12 months and not having Reflux problems anymore. However, for some reason, many reflux babies have constipation issues and my daughter was very constipated by the milk at first. We had to slowly transition her to it (she is a breastfed baby, I don’t know if that makes a difference.)
I have an acquaintance who went through severe reflux with her little one. The baby wasn’t able to eat solids until well after her first birthday, she had developed an oral aversion because of all the pain associated with eating. The child had to have G-button surgery, and had an ostomy bag for a while. Severe reflux is very difficult for both baby and family to deal with and I know you must be so worried for your little one.
http://www.infantrefluxdisease.com is a good resource for information and they also have an online community/chatboard for the parents of infants with GERD. There’s a lot of good support there. Here’s a page from that site with info on complications from GERD: http://infantrefluxdisease.com/babies-with-gerd-complications.php
I send good thoughts for you and your baby-
You need to see a doc if you think you have it for a confirmed diagnosis and a cause. You may have a hiatal hernia causing it but you would never know if you don’t see a doc. GERD is not something you can not treat as left unteated it can lead to esophogeal erosion which is serious. My dad never realized he had GERD and now has esophogeal erosion. See your doc if you think you have it.
My son has acid reflux…. He also has tracheomalacia (weakened trachea) He was on hypoallergenic formula… I didnt put him on zantac or prevacid or anything like that… the dr did suggest putting some cereal in the bottles, but I didnt want to do that either..
He is 6 months old now and is pretty much done with the whole acid reflux thing… He spits up sometimes, but not like he used to. We switched him back over to milk based formula when he started solids (around 5 months) and he has been good ever since.
I think it is really a baby by baby thing… each baby just has to grow out of it on their own.
Good luck.