When it comes to digestive problems, the most common condition in the United States is heartburn, or its more serious form, GERD (Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease). Due to the fact that over-the-counter treatment is available, often times the condition is never discussed with ones doctor. We have been told for years that heartburn is a result of eating fried or spicy foods, overeating and lying down too soon after meals. While these can be true, if you dig a little deeper you will find that often heartburn is simply a symptom of a much bigger problem. Just the tip of the iceberg…the largest part of the real problem lies deep below the surface.
There are several schools of thought regarding why nearly sixty million people suffer from heartburn, covering the spectrum from too much to not enough stomach acid. Treating heartburn comes down to which school of thought you think has it right.
As someone who has battled heartburn on a daily basis for more than 20 years, you can bet I’ve done a little bit of reading on the subject. The message that has been presented to me by conventional medicine has always been that I suffer from too much stomach acid and therefor would benefit from taking acid blocking medication for the rest of my life. Here in lies the problem. I’m not a big fan of taking prescription medication. Although I do feel they have their place, I prefer them to be a last resort after I’ve exhausted all other resources. That being said, I have tried prescription and over-the-counter medications for treating heartburn and honestly haven’t found much relief from them. Over the years I’ve found certain foods do trigger a burning effect for me, so I made every effort to avoid those. As the years went on the list of foods continued to grow. It was time for change. Enter Paleo diet experiment.
When I first decided to go Paleo, I stopped taking all my heartburn related medication. It was no coincidence that with my dietary changes, my heartburn all but disappeared. At this time I found myself immersed in information connecting the consumption of grains, dairy and sugar to gut damage and inflammatory responses in the body. AH-HA moment! Yet as the months went on and I began to tweak my Paleo diet a bit in order to get better results in the gym, I noticed heartburn was creeping back in. At this point I stumbled upon some information regarding the possibility that maybe I was suffering from not enough stomach acid. Now that is counter-intuitive, I know. It doesn’t make sense that one would suffer from heartburn due to not enough stomach acid. But after some hefty reading on the subject, I came to find out that many times heartburn is misdiagnosed as too much stomach acid because the symptoms are virtually the same as not enough. Who knew?
There is no simple answer. Several factors come into play as to why we suffer from this painful condition. Is our diet spot on, everyday? Probably not. For some, even the slightest diversion from a healthy gut diet (Paleo) can trigger a response. There is no doubt that specific foods will cause heartburn, and that list can vary from person to person. But what is most important to remember here is the iceberg analogy. Heartburn is most likely the symptom, the exposed part of the iceberg, quietly floating above water. It’s what lies beneath that you should fear most. Conventional medicine often promotes symptom relief, which unfortunately leaves the underlying problem unaddressed.
Chris Kresser, of The Healthy Skeptic has a comprehensive series of articles on the subject and makes a good point here. “Americans spend more than $13 billion on acid stopping drugs each year. This expense might be justified if antacid drugs were actually curing heartburn and GERD. But just the opposite is true. Not only do these drugs fail to treat GERD, they will make the underlying condition (not enough stomach acid) worse. This virtually necessitates the lifelong use of these medications for anyone who takes them…Curing a disease means eliminating its cause. When a disease is cured, the symptoms don’t return once the treatment is removed. This of course is not the case with drugs for heartburn and GERD. As soon as the patient stops taking them, the symptoms return. And often they’re worse than they were before the patient started the drug.”
So where does that leave us? It leaves you in the driver’s seat, my friends. The message I continue to send is Take Control of your health. Dig deeper, ask questions, continue to learn. I’m not going to spoon feed you what I believe to be the answers (to be honest there is just too much information to cover here). You decide for yourself. If this happens to be a condition you suffer from, take the time to understand it. Who knows, it might just change your life.
Here are links to each of Chris’ articles covering diagnosing, problems connected with and treating low stomach acid, heartburn and GERD.
PART I What Everybody Ought To Know (But Doesn’t) About Heartburn & GERD
PART II The hidden causes of heartburn and GERD
Part III More evidence to support the theory that GERD is caused by bacterial overgrowth
Part IV-A How your antacid drug is making you sick (Part A)
Part IV-B How your antacid drug is making you sick (Part B)
PART V Get rid of heartburn and GERD forever in three simple steps
Weekly Recipe
Breakfast Paleo Pizza
www.everydaypaleo.com
Crust:
8 eggs scrambled
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves minced
1 tbsp dried basil
Pinch of sea salt
Black pepper to taste
Toppings:
1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Organic Marinara sauce (or gluten free marinara sauce of your choice)
1 lb ground mild italian pork sausage
1-2 sweet bell peppers diced
2 roma tomatoes sliced
1 cup sliced black olives
3 green onions sliced
In a medium sized skillet, brown the sausage and set aside. In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium high heat and add the minced garlic. Saute for 2 minutes. While the garlic is cooking, add the basil, sea salt, and pepper to the scrambled eggs and mix well. Pour the egg mixture over the garlic in the skillet and turn the heat down to medium. Cover and let cook for about 3 minutes, or until the bottom of the eggs are set and firm. Do not stir or disturb the eggs while cooking. Remove the lid and transfer the skillet to the oven and broil for another 3 minutes or until the top of the frittata is also firm. Remove from the oven and add evenly spread the 1/2 cup of marinara sauce. Add the cooked sausage and the rest of the toppings. Place the pizza back in the oven and under the broiler for another 5 minutes. Slice and serve immediately with avocado slices as a garnish! Enjoy!
For a video demonstration of this recipe check out www.everydaypaleo.com
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Nice blog post Sally! I (knock on wood) have only had heartburn symptoms a couple of times in my life. I’m all for finding real cures for our diseases though and avoiding symptomatic relief which can often do more harm than good. Ibuprofen is an over the counter drug that comes to mind that does a lot more harm than good.
Good point Scott. I think so often people find that it is just easier to “put a bandaid” on their symptoms, by using over the counter medication, especially Ibuprofen. These days that seems to have made it into people’s diet on a daily basis.
Here is some good info on that subject: http://www.crossfitgenesis.com/vitamin-i.html
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