Acid reflux is a problem that has more to do with stagnation and subsequent fermentation in your digestive tract than an overproduction of hydrochloric acid (HCL). The cells of your stomach manufacture this acid to digest your food. The idea of taking antacids (Tums), proton pump inhibitors (Prevacid), and H2 antagonists (Tagamat, Zantac, Pepcid) to combat the “over-production” of acids are a band-aid that glosses over the underlying condition. This is great news financially for pharmaceutical companies because it treats the symptoms will never providing a cure for the root problem and this equates to a lifetime consumer.
As you take in food, the columnar cells that make up the inside of your stomach start to stretch. As they stretch they start to release HCL digestive acids. If they are unable to stretch because they are hypertonic from chronic dehydration or a problem further down the alimentary canal – HCL cannot be released. Food should pass through the stomach in a couple of hours normally and if the food is hanging out for an extended duration (2-6 hours) in a hot environment you can only imagine what this will do to your esophagus and superior digestive structures. But why would the body not allow acid production? To protect the very important small intestine. A very simple treatment here is a Tbsp of apple cider vinegar. Yum.
Down the line from the stomach we have the liver with its 500 life supporting functions. If your liver is stressed it will produce a substandard thicker bile. Bile is a salt, completely alkaline and works as a bactericide killing harmful pathogens. Besides digesting fats (and allowing fat soluble vitamins D, A, K, and E to be absorbed) and escorting toxins out of the body via the elimination tract, bile’s alkalinity neutralizes stomachs acids rendering the food to a PH of 7.0. This neutrality is imperative to keep the small intestine and its all important villi functioning correctly. Now that you have some background information, watch this great little lecture by Ayurvedic Dr. John Douillard. And remember that you need to always treat the structure with visceral manipulation alongside any chemistry and nutritional treatment.
I try to keep this blog focused on health advice and tips about what’s great for your body but this post is so important I have to share. FairTax is an idea that should have been implemented in 1913 instead of the unconstitutional 16th Amendment. This government is run by greedy, corporate controlled plutarchs who are self-serving miscreants operating under the guise that they are for the people they represent, saying one for you, two for me every step of the way. Please support the America that used to be so we can get away from this oligarchical pig-sty we call home and hopefully prevent the anarchy that is looming on the horizon. The FairTax means we pay less in taxes, stimulate the economy, and the government brings in an additional $350 billion more then the current system – how can this be wrong?
The 23% FairTax:
Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
Allows American products to compete fairly
Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
Abolishes the IRS
The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.
The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.
A new research paper presented by Ara Tachjian, MD, Viqar Maria, MBBS and Arshad Jahangir, MD.
More than 15 million people in the U.S. consume herbal remedies or high-dose vitamins. The number of visits to providers of complementary and alternative medicine exceeds those to primary care physicians, for annual out-of-pocket costs of $30 billion. Use of herbal products forms the bulk of treatments, particularly by elderly people who also consume multiple prescription medications for comorbid conditions, which increases the risk of adverse herb-drug-disease interactions. Despite the paucity of scientific evidence supporting the safety or efficacy of herbal products, their widespread promotion in the popular media and the unsubstantiated health care claims about their efficacy drive consumer demand. In this review, we highlight commonly used herbs and their interactions with cardiovascular drugs. We also discuss health-related issues of herbal products and suggest ways to improve their safety to better protect the public from untoward effects.
Doctors should always be fully aware of everything you are taking, this study certainly should illustrate why people need to be more forthcoming. Herbs are powerful treatments and should be respected. They’ve been used for millennia medicinally for good reason – they work.
