Common Health Myths And How To Cure Heartburn

I thought I’d start this month with a few myth busting facts about the human body before we look at how to cure heartburn.

Did you know we all have 12 ribs on each side of our body? There is no extra rib for women as is often believed from the Adam and Eve story.

A bone fracture is exactly the same as a bone break – the two terms mean the same thing. I often have people tell me they have never had a fracture but have broken a bone, not realising that it is one and the same!

You CAN take your pulse with your thumb. The idea there is no pulse in your thumb so you should take a pulse with it is incorrect. If your thumb had no pulse it would be dead, every last bit of your body has a pulse because it all requires a blood supply.

Most heartburn is caused by not enough stomach acid rather than too much. Which brings me to the heart of this month’s ramblings.

Are you taking long term antacids for heartburn and indigestion? Or taking stronger medication such as omeprazole or lansoprazole? These are known as proton pump inhibitors or PPIs.

These appear to be relatively safe medications to take. Certainly you are unlikely to get an acute side effect from taking these type of medications but long term use, which appears to me to be at epidemic proportions, comes with a whole host of trouble.

Because these drugs are reducing your stomach acids your body cannot digest effectively so you will begin to become deficient in vital minerals. Most notably, calcium, magnesium and Vitamin B12.

Calcium deficiency is linked to osteoporosis, or brittle bones which increases your risk of fractures.

Magnesium deficiency increases your chance of having high blood pressure and seizures. I’d even suggest this contributes to your mental health and, in some cases, muscle cramps.

B12 deficiency is well known to contribute to dementia.

There are numerous other troubling problems caused by this group of drugs that suppress your body’s natural actions. There is a law of physics that ‘for every action there is a reaction’. This can be applied to your body too. If you keep suppressing it with a drug then something must occur somewhere else. There has to be a reaction to this suppression if it continues for too long.

The suppression caused by PPIs increases your chance of heart attacks and strokes, infections, immune system problems, mental health issues and oesophageal cancer.

The above problems come, not as a direct reaction to the drug but indirectly and the latest studies show that just over 4 in every 100 people taking these drugs have premature death from these complications.

Therefore, we need to work out how we can safely stop taking this medication where possible. If it is for heartburn there are simple, natural steps you can take.

Stop eating that which is causing the problem. Normally this is processed foods of one form or another.
Replace the antacid/PPI with ten organic almonds. Chew them to a paste and swallow. Goodbye heartburn.

OR drink fresh cabbage juice which will also fix your heartburn.

Never take one of these tablets so that you can eat foods/drinks that you know cause you a problem. This is like ignoring the warning light on your car. Please learn to listen to your body and change your behaviour accordingly.

If you're interested in developing healthy habits, try introducing CBD oil supplements into your day to day life.