Warning – Have you Been Taking Acid Reflux or Antacid Medication for Longer Than 6 Weeks?
If you have been taking acid reflux medication for longer than
6 weeks, it is super important that you read this message.
The FDA released a press release on May 25 2010 in which it
warns of a possible increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist and spine
with high doses or long term use of a class of medication called proton pump
inhibitor. (Click here to read the FDA press release – just in case you think I
am telling you a little story!)
Wow – did you get that… a possible increased risk of fractures
of the hip, wrist and spine!
I won’t really scare you with the statistics of people over
the age of 60 that die within a short space of time after suffering a
fracturing hip other than to say the statistics are high.
What has that to do with acid reflux medication you ask?
Let me ask you a question – can you name me something that
improves your life with less off it when we age? Do we need less hair, less teeth,
less sleep, less collagen, less eye sight? Now we probably experience less of
all of those things but does it improve our life and I would suggest that they
don’t.
It is exactly the same with stomach acid. The ‘professionals’
would have you believe that you need to either neutralize or block the
production of stomach acid to stop acid reflux or GERD. They are telling you
that you need less stomach acid as you age, which is absolutely absurd.
Stomach acid has some really important roles, and I mean
super important. It is the body’s first line of defence against bad bacteria which enter your body via your food. The stomach acid kills bacteria before they
can enter your system.
But more importantly, stomach acid breaks your food down
into what I like to call a slurry. It is the body’s vitamizer and it breaks the
food down into small enough particles to enable the villi in your small
intestine to absorb vital minerals and vitamins.
No stomach acid means no slurry – the food passes through
your digestive system in big chunks – and the big chunks are far too big for
the villi in the small intestine to absorb the minerals and vitamins. Therefore
the majority of vitamins and minerals in your food are flushed away.
One of the minerals that the body absorbs is calcium and we
know that calcium is vital for strong bones. If you lack stomach acid then you
will not break down your food sufficiently to enable your body to absorb
calcium (along with the other 90 minerals, vitamins, amino acids and fatty acids)
and you are not getting sufficient calcium to maintain strong bones. We are
talking an increased risk of fractures of the wrist, hip and spine. Do you see
the danger of taking acid reflux medication long term?
It makes my blood boil to think of all those health ‘professionals’ that have prescribed you acid reflux medications
every month for years. They are literally allowing you to flush your health
down the sewer and they don’t even blink an eyelid.
See you don’t normally associate a broken hip with the acid
reflux medications you have been taking for years. I mean, who would think the
two were linked, but when it is explained to you, it makes perfect sense.
Do you know an elderly person who has broken a bone, ask
them if they took acid reflux medications prior to the accident.
The reason your bones become brittle is because if you lack
calcium the body starts to rob it from its reserves. Your body stores calcium
in your bones and in your teeth. Again people do not associate their brittle
teeth with taking acid reflux medications.
Now it would be remiss of me to make you aware of all these
issues and leave it at that. And of course I wouldn’t do that.
There is a solution?
The solution is to stimulate your body to produce more
stomach acid. Now before you start thinking I am stark raving crazy, let me
explain. In the vast majority of cases, the reason people experience acid
reflux is because there is insufficient acid in your stomach to break down your
food. The body is built perfectly and it is designed to only open the valve at
the bottom of your stomach (pyloric sphincter) when there is a sufficient level
of stomach acid.
So without stomach acid, the food sits in your stomach and ferments and bubbles
out the top of your stomach, and that is when you feel that burning sensation
in the middle of your chest.
If you have sufficient stomach acid the acid does its job
and the food is broken down. The valve
opens and the food moves on through the rest of the digestive system before you
experience bubble, bubble toil and trouble in your throat.
I recently read that salt helps produce stomach acid and
that made sense to me as well. Acid reflux has skyrocketed in recent decades
and it may be due in part to people embracing a low salt diet.
How does salt help to produce stomach acid. Well stomach
acid is predominately hydrochloric acid, which is a combination of hydrogen and
chloride. We get hydrogen from water and
salt is made up of sodium chloride, hence the combination of
water and salt gives the body the components necessary to produce hydrochloric
acid.
There are two other foods that eliminate
acid reflux very quickly. The discovery
is not mine and so I cannot list the two foods here but if you click on the button
below you will be taken to the author’s webpage where you can gain access to
the two foods.
I hope this article has been helpful, and if it has, I would
appreciate it if you could share it on your social media accounts (facebook, twitter
etc) - share buttons at bottom of this page
Also if you don’t believe anything I have stated on this
page – I recommend you Google for the information. When you start digging
around it is amazing what you find in regards to the harmful effects of long
term use of acid reflux medication.
The contents of this article are only to be used as a guide and must not be relied upon as medical advice.
The author is not a doctor.
Medical attention and diagnosis should be sought from a qualified medical
practitioner, especially prior to beginning any program of nutrition, exercise
or remedy.
The remedies offered in this
article may not be effective for every person. As each individual’s
circumstances and diagnosis is different, and the specifics of acid reflux,
GERD & heartburn differ, success will vary.
