| Spurn the Burn: Extinguishing Heartburn the Natural Way |
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| Heartburn - Heartburn 2006 |
| Written by Frank Mangano |
| Sunday, 13 August 2006 02:44 |
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I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "You are what you eat." This phrase holds truth to it and so most cases of heartburn are caused by poor eating habits. This modern-day proverb means more today than ever, especially when you consider how many times in a day you hear about the importance of healthy eating. What you may not have heard, however, is the role eating plays in heartburn. Turn on the television and you’ll see the plethora of advertisements promoting antacids and prescription medications that claim to thwart heartburn and indigestion. What you won’t hear, though is how their products might be doing more harm than good. Products like Prevacid, Nexium and Prilosec do block the stomach acid that cause the burning sensation, but it also blocks the body’s ability to absorb the nutrients that ensure proper digestion, which is essentially what brings about indigestion in the first place. Numerous natural health professionals agree that using heartburn medications is the worst thing you can do for your health. Folks, I couldn't agree more! Consider what health expert Bill Gottlieb says about the deadly—yes, deadly—side-effects of heartburn medications. He writes in his book, “Alternative Cures,” that “[a] popular heartburn drug, used by more than 30 million people since 1993, has caused 70 deaths and 200 other incidents of heart problems, and, says the government, ‘it should be used only as a last resort.’” How’s that for full disclosure? Something else you won’t read or hear from antacid pharmaceutical companies are some of the things found in heartburn medications. According to James and Phyllis Balch, health experts and authors of “Prescription for Natural Healing,” several over-the-counter and prescription heartburn medications contain compounds like aluminum, magnesium, sodium bicarbonate and calcium bicarbonate, which have been shown to cause diarrhea, bloating, gas and even cause the body to produce more acid. In other words, antacids may actually perpetuate the problem. The trick in stopping the acid build up where it starts is by determining what foods are acting like kindling: inflaming the body’s juices to burn as though it were a raging inferno. And the culprits aren’t always fried, spicy, fatty foods. In fact, healthy foods, foods like garlic, tomatoes, onions, oranges and lemons are just as guilty of inducing heartburn and indigestion. To further complicate things, food isn’t always the problem. Other components may be how you’re eating—eating too fast, too much, or not chewing well enough. Stress may contribute to heartburn, or medications you may be taking, things like anti-inflammatory pills, aspirin, birth control pills, treatments for Parkinson’s disease or asthma In other words, there are many factors that can cause heartburn and all of them can be thwarted without heartburn medications. Instituting a little deductive reasoning should do the trick. In the meantime, while you’re deducing what’s causing your heartburn pains, reach for a glass of water if you feel pain coming on. Heartburn often starts as “thirst pains,” according to F. Batmanghelidj’s book “Water for Health Healing,” and we know that nothing hydrates the body better than pure water. Here’s a special F-R-E-E 38 page report titled, “The Best Natural Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure, Reduce Your Waistline and Take Back Your Health:”
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