How to Heal Acid Reflux

Author's Bio: Ashley Oswald, RDN, IFNCP, CLT, LD

Imagine you were just diagnosed with acid reflux and you asked your doctor what nutrition changes you can make to improve this.

And your doctor tells you... nothing.

This is exactly what happened to my client, and it was from literally one of the best gastroenterologists in the country.

So how could they be so wrong?

I've helped many clients improve and get rid of acid reflux using nutrition approaches, and I'm going to share my top two recommendations with you today.

But first, I want to explain why so many well educated and well experienced doctors let these real solutions to problems fall through the cracks.

[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]

Why Nutrition Gets Overlooked

Our healthcare system does many things well.

If I were in a major car accident, there's no place I'd rather be than in a top 50 ICU in the United States.

In fact, doctors travel from all over the world to train in our healthcare system.

I used to work in the intensive care units and got to see firsthand, and help contribute to, bringing patients back from the brink of death after a major house fire, a major car accident, or other major trauma.

It's pretty amazing.

However, I've also worked with many clients with chronic disease issues, and this is where the system fails them.

Let me explain why.

Doctors Receive Very Little Nutrition Education

Did you know that doctors have, on average, just 20 hours of schooling in nutrition science?

The reality is, when medical schools were created, the country didn't have nearly as many chronic disease problems as we do now.

And you can see from this graph how it's trending up.

Do you know the most effective way to treat chronic disease issues?

It's with medical nutrition therapy.

And this is not a doctor's specialty.

Therefore, that's why your doctor is not telling you these real and effective solutions to your chronic disease problems.

But it's worse than that.

Most doctors now wouldn't even have the time to help you, even if they had the knowledge.

This is why my client's doctor told him that there are no nutrition answers to his acid reflux problem.

Because in his mind, they don't exist.

Because in the medical school that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for, he was never taught this.

But thankfully, there are ways to use food to dramatically improve and eliminate acid reflux, especially if your doctor has ruled out structural issues such as hiatal hernia.

If you're wondering how to heal acid reflux, nutrition can play an important role.

It's really important that more people know that nutrition can help acid reflux because it's one of the most common gut issues.

In fact, I met an ER doctor from New York City the other day who told me that most people getting admitted into their emergency room also have acid reflux.

Can you believe that?

So, you're not alone.

Your Stomach Is Supposed to Be Acidic

To start, it's important that you know the stomach is supposed to be acidic.

This acidity helps to start the breakdown process of important minerals and vitamins like iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium, and vitamin B12.

If your stomach is not properly acidic, it can also start to cause issues lower down in the gut.

Which is why a lot of people who have acid reflux can eventually start to get chronic bloating, excessive gas, diarrhea, and/or constipation.

Proton pump inhibitors, the popular medication that people are put on for acid reflux, can actually make this worse.

These medications were never meant to be used long term due to some of the potential side effects I just mentioned.

When I used to work in the hospitals, I would actually see people coming in on proton pump inhibitors and leaving without a care in the world.

Which makes sense because it's not a priority at the hospital.

But when patients got discharged, they were never connected to somebody who could help them properly make the changes to their food and lifestyle that are needed to actually be able to get off of those proton pump inhibitors.

This is serious because some of those vitamin and mineral deficiencies can cause irreversible damage.

For example, vitamin B12 deficiency can cause irreversible memory loss issues and can be contributing to chronic depression.

So you must take ownership of your own health because the reality is the healthcare system is getting bogged down right now.

Doctors are having less and less time for client care because insurance is putting more and more demand on clinicians, and they are being burdened by more and more administrative tasks.

So what happens is you, as the patient, end up getting the short end of the stick.

This isn't fair for you.

This isn't fair for your doctor.

But it's the reality of the situation right now in the healthcare system.

How to Heal Acid Reflux: Two Nutrition Strategies

Here are two solutions that I recommend for healing from acid reflux.

First of all, with healing chronic disease, sometimes we have to go backwards before going forwards.

This might mean adding some supplements with the ultimate goal of getting off of supplements.

Or cutting out some foods with the ultimate goal of adding the foods back in.

Acid reflux can be triggered by acidic foods like citrus or tomatoes, high fat or fried foods, highly processed foods, spicy foods, chocolate, carbonated or caffeinated beverages, peppermint, onions, garlic, and alcohol.

Further, the way that you consume these foods could be contributing to acid reflux.

Not chewing well, eating too much in one sitting, drinking too many fluids at the same time as eating too much food, or eating too fast can all exacerbate symptoms of acid reflux.

In these situations, even healthy foods could be contributing to your symptoms.

The first thing you can try is a food elimination diet.

Remove these common acid reflux triggering foods.

The good news is that most people will find benefit in just two weeks.

At that point, you can start to add them back one at a time over the course of one to three days.

Just keep track using a food journal.

The Second Strategy: Address Gas and Bloating

The second major thing that you can do to heal from acid reflux involves gas.

If you're having excessive bloating and gas lower down in the gut, such as in the small intestine, this pressure can build up and create pressure in the stomach, contributing to acid reflux.

We need to fix the root cause of this.

This is where it gets tricky because two people can be having the same symptoms, but the root cause can be completely different.

For example, if somebody is having constipation, we'll focus on improving motility.

For another person, it could be related to SIBO.

Then we'll focus on rebalancing the microbiome.

For a third person, it could be something completely different.

Thus, the supplement strategy would also look completely different for that person.

Don't Stop Medication Cold Turkey

It is possible to get off of acid reflux medication.

But it's really important that you don't quit cold turkey because this can contribute to rebound acid reflux.

You must taper down very slowly over the course of one to three months alongside nutrition interventions.

Some supplements can help, including zinc carnosine, DGL, slippery elm, digestive enzymes, and others.

We usually do add some sort of supplement in our clinic to help our clients get rid of acid reflux.

If the issue is lower down in the small intestine, we'll add supplements that help rebalance this part of the gut, which in turn is going to benefit the stomach and the acid reflux.

GI Integrity is one of the most helpful combination supplements for acid reflux.

I'll go ahead and link this below, but just make sure to make an appointment with our clinic for any personalized recommendations.

Finding the Root Cause

If none of that works for you, our team would keep unpeeling the onion, per se, to help figure out the root cause.

There's a lot that we can gather from your intake form that you fill out for our clinic.

We also have access to different functional testing to help give us more information if needed.

There are so many other potential root causes that are not covered in this video.

It's pretty rare that we can't help a client feel better because, on average, each of our clinicians has seven years of schooling in nutrition science.

Final Thoughts

The real reason that you fell through the cracks is simply because you did not get referred properly.

The real reason your doctor told you that nutrition can't help is simply because they were never taught how to do it.

But that's okay because we need our doctors to be able to help us when acute issues knock on the door.

This is what they train so hard to be able to help us with.

On the flip side, we need holistic dietitians to help when you're sick of dealing with chronic disease symptoms and you're finally ready to take action to heal.

If you need that help, I'll go ahead and link our clinic information below.

Thanks for watching today.

Take care, and as always, stay curious. 1) GI Integrity Supplement: - https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/dyn-gi-integrity

2) Schedule your INITIAL APPOINTMENT [We Take Insurance!]: https://www.oswalddigestiveclinic.com/schedule

Easily schedule your Initial Appointment here. 70% of our clients get insurance coverage, and the appointments are via privacy-secure Zoom video

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