Acid Reflux Part 1

If you’re like me, and a majority of other folks both in the US and around the world, you suffer from Acid Reflux Disease. It’s one of those diseases that seems incurable, and yet, there are various supplements available on the market to relieve the pain inflicted by these annoying eruptions. The unfortunate reality of it, though, is that no doctor, at least none that I have ever met, will dare mention alternative treatments to their suffering patients. Now what do I mean by alternative treatments, and what are the typical methods? Allow me to share my story with you, and you might just be in for a surprise.

Acid Reflux

When I first “contracted” acid reflux over a year ago, I didn’t know what it was at first. Sure, I knew people who had it, but they had serious cases. Not to be disgusting, but mine started with huge, voluminous burps and the regurgitation of bile, which was nothing like what my friends had suffered. However, the problem persisted for months, and eventually worsened, so much so that I couldn’t eat properly without severely hurting my throat. So I decided to take a visit to the doctor. He instantly suggested I take Nexium, one of the most recognized names in the “typical acid reflux treatment” genre. I’m sure none of us can think of a time when we turned on the television and didn’t see a three-minute commercial for this “purple pill.” Naively, I thought my doctor’s advice was quite sound. So, I took home a 14-day sample of Nexium and gave it a shot.

The first two mornings were relatively uneventful. I didn’t feel great, but I thought that was merely due to the fact that my acid reflux was still acting up. However, on the third morning, I threw up both of the pills, partially digested. I immediately called a nurse and demanded an explanation. So she sets me up for another appointment with the doc, who then insists that the medicine was simply too strong for me, therefore inferring that the previous mornings’ discomforts were apparently due to the Nexium, and not just my acid reflux.

What to do

But instead of taking a smart action and re-thinking dosing me with yet another prescription, my doctor immediately switches me over to a 14-day supply of Prilosec. He told me it carried about half the strength of Nexium, so I should be fine. He goes on to mention a few concerns about what the inside of my esophagus might be looking like by this point. He suggested I have it scoped – a procedure very expensive, but informative for most. I considered it for a while, but thought I’d try the Prilosec first. Not surprisingly, I was less than impressed at this medication as well, so I give in and have my esophagus scoped.

The day of the procedure, during the pre-surgery appointment, a digestive tract professional asks me a few questions about my eating habits, prescriptions, etc. He finds out that I was taking Tetracycline, for acne reduction purposes. The light bulb comes on. That’s my problem.

You see, most people take Tetracycline at my age, because that’s when acne is the worst. However, I was specifically instructed by my dermatologist to take it before bed. BIG, BIG MISTAKE. The pill will dissolve and instantly travel up the esophagus and begin the deterioration process. She should have known that; it would have saved my parents a bundle.

The sad reality

As you can imagine, my family and I are livid at this point. This problem could have possibly been avoided if not for that one mistake. But that was water under the bridge at this point. I go in for the scope. When the doc finally gets the results, he determines there were only a few inflamed parts of esophagus, nothing serious. He sends me home with the same information the doc gave me; take Prilosec. Only, instead of twice a day, he wanted me to take it with each meal. For anyone, especially at my age, this was outrageous. I would be hooked on prescriptions for life.

Seeing no alternatives in the near future, I took my Prilosec like a good girl. I even cut down on the ketchup and chocolate, seeing as there was nothing else on the list I could cut down on. I obviously didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, and I wasn’t even close to overweight. But those foods had never really brought the problem on, so I thought, why bother cutting down again? I was so fed up with the whole thing that I became reasonably discouraged. And the Prilosec was helping only for as long as the pill lasted. The problems just got worse if I wasn’t taking them, as there was no healing process going on. The “over-the-counter prescription” was merely covering up the problem. So my family and I decided to do some research on the subject. What we found out blew our minds.