Nothing gives you a morning dose of fear like reading this about a drug you’ve been on for 6 years. Guess I’ll start looking into alternatives and ways to screen for stomach cancer.
Recently I have found CBD's work wonders for helping every aspect of my GI issues. I can't believe how amazing CBD's are. It's no wonder that pharma is working overtime to keep this kind of product out of our hands.
I had that, crippling stomach pain, which was initially diagnosed as either gastritis or possibly an ulcer. However, after dealing with it for a couple years, I ended up in the emergency room. They ran an ultrasound, and found a number of gallstones lodged in the duct that connects the gallbladder to the stomach. Ended up having my gallbladder removed.
Items that I remember triggering massive pain attacks include pizza (I thought it was acid from the tomato sauce, but it was fat from the cheese), and after eating a large gyro (lots of fat in it apparently). Fat causes the gallbladder to start pumping, and if there are stones it will lodge them in the duct causing the pain.
I'm aware of Mercola's reputation but it's a bit crass to say that everything he writes is garbage especially since he's usually enthusing about good food and healthy living. Peer-reviewed papers are a few clicks away these days so one can check for oneself on many issues.I don't take the view that his site is popular because the the millions who read him are idiots. I suspect that many do though.
I found that when I eat meat and/or when I’m stressed, my body doesn’t naturally produce enough “good” acid. This leads to a build up of reflux because the meat is essentially rotting in my stomach, which creates awful “bad acid” reflux.
Instead of the drug(s), with every meal, I recommend taking one capsule of betaine HCL (with pepsin) and one digestive enzyme capsule.
Also, if you continue to have to treat symptoms on a regular basis you did not "cure" anything, cure implies that you are free from managing your symptoms. Rather you are managing symptoms and doing nothing about the cause.
Which is also what a licensed MD does when he/she puts you on a proton pump inhibitor.
I'm on Pantoprazole for over a year now and saw my doctor a few weeks ago; I asked about long term risks, and she mentioned stomach cancer, but framed the dangers a bit differently than what I've read in the article from this study.
Basically the established risk is that these PPI drugs work so well that if you were to develop stomach cancer while taking it, the likelihood is strong that the drug would mask the symptoms of the cancer until it was already too late to treat it effectively.
Long story short, I am not (this kind of) scientist, I know it's not a miracle drug but I can testify with anecdata that it certainly does a great job of controlling reflux.
(What my doctor did recommend was of course better diet and exercise habits, not eating so late in the day, and not drinking alcohol right before bed, so I can eventually stop taking it without those symptoms coming back.)
It's quite worrisome for me reading this article now!
Most acid reflux is due to mechanical action of a sphincter not working correctly. This, if correct, is an edge case.
This is most likely an evolutionary flaw that can't be fixed short of genetic engineering. I also have this my experience is your opposite. Carbs cause excess acid for me and that means my leakage rate is higher. Eating more meats and veg helps a lot. As others have stated, the traditional human diet is relatively low carb, so our modern diets are things our bodies are fairly unequiped to handle (carb crashing, obesity, celiac, etc).
I'm glad you found something that works for you, but most reflux sufferers don't have a "good" vs "bad" acid problem, they have a sphincter problem.
I use a simple mechanical solution - go to sleep on a wedge pillow. Works way better for me than H2 blockers (which would last for 6 hours of sleep, then I'd wake up with horrible reflux because they'd worn off and thanks to the rebound effect, my body was making even more acid to compensate).
By comparison, now if I wake up later in the night now I can usually remove the wedge pillow and go back to sleep with no problem.
Exactly. The amount of people completely, and utterly, misinformed about acid reflux is astounding. You don't have too much acid, you don't have enough!
Ditching the dairy and drastically cutting back on animal flesh will cure most heartburn/acid reflux.
Sounds like moving to a healthy diet to me...
For large trigger meals + alcohol (e.g. greasy pizza and beer) I'll still take some.
Changed my life.
I started taking such a drug again after developing stomach issues. I had a scare a couple of years ago, and it was only by chance that I changed to another GP who was much more attentive, turned out that I was only months away of having a haemorrhage that would have likely been fatal. All from a few years taking a 'safe' anti-inflammatory. Now I won't touch any NSAIDs (which is a shame as I'm in more pain), but it isn't worth the risk of further damage, which was left me as a coeliac (body went after the wrong target).
How often do you read about NSAIDs? No, it's how Fentanyl is killing so many heroin addicts, yet the patches are safely used by millions.