Better Sleep, Better Life™
Acid reflux or heartburn can make it hard to go to sleep or stay asleep at night. It can make our chest tight, cause irritation in our throat, create a burning sensation in our esophagus, and cause a feeling of gaseousness or fullness in the abdomen.
Our neighbors ate Tums like candy for the entire time they lived on our street: mother, father and all the children. I was not a nutritionist at the time but I was still in awe that they thought they could build bone with the calcium in Tums. The ingredients and the pretty colored tablets scared me. Good Morning America’s female doctor just a few weeks ago said how Tums was a good way to get some calcium in to build bone. She needs the advice of a good nutritionist!
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, “At least 10 percent of Americans have episodes of heartburn every day, and 44 percent have symptoms at least once a month. Overall, reflux or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as heartburn) affects a whopping 25 to 35 percent of the US population!
As a result, acid-blocking medications are the third top-selling type of drug in America today. Two other drugs to treat reflux, Nexium and Prevacid, are in the top 10 best-selling drugs and account for $5.7 and $4.0 billion in sales annually!”
We need stomach acid. It is not normal to try to block or neutralize the production of something in our body so critical to our health. Stomach acid is essential for protein digestion and activating the production of digestive enzymes from our pancreas to digest the rest of our food. It is also essential for mineral absorption like calcium and magnesium and for assimilating vitamin B-12, our “energy” nutrient! Oddly enough, it is part of our immune system’s first line of defense to kill invading bad bacteria and viruses that we may come into contact with through our mouth or food.
Many folks who come to see me have unbalanced moods. They have depression or anxiety and they take Nexium or Prilosec (or anyone of the many antacids.) Without proper protein digestion, our brain chemistry will be impaired. We need amino acids (the breakdown of protein) to build our brain chemistry. So will our liver function and bone health as we need protein to make these processes happen.
