# Extreme Acid Reflux



## Brotherjohn

Hi everyoneI thought I'd share the story of my progress so far with acid reflux if maybe it can be of any help to anyone else. My story starts with going to bed after having one too many glasses of wine. The next morning I woke up I was feeling very ill and there was acid coming up in the back of my throat. Recently I had woken up a few times from regurgitating my food into my mouth after having some wine but thought nothing of it. This time it was different. I did what I've always done for upset stomach which is to get a glass of baking soda in water. This helped for a while, but the acid started back up within the hour, so I knew I was dealing with something pretty serious.As an aside, I am a fundamentalist Christian, and I believe that the body is God's creation. So I place very little trust in today's modern allopathic medical practices, which I call the slice it/dice it, drug it, or zap it model. more on that later. In short, I concluded that I had made some serious mistakes in taking care of this body God has given me and I planned to find out what those were. I found this and other forums on the internet and began my study.Many of the reflux stories I found were similar to my own, but mine seemed to be much worse. I could not sleep, I mean AT ALL! As soon as I laid down and started that first dozing off, I would regurgitate acid up into my mouth and start choking. Needless to say, I went for nearly a week without any sleep. All the while I was simply devouring everything I could find on the internet about this "disease". Most of what I found was of the allopathic model. Either PPI drug treatment or surgery. Many of the sufferers got some relief from these methods, but overall the results were unimpressive, and often the symptoms were worsened. After much agonizing and prayer I decided to start a 14 day course of one of the OTC PPI drugs while I continued to search for the answer online.Since I had no choice in the matter, because everything I ate ended up coming up back into my throat, I decided to start fasting until I could find out what was wrong with me. In the process of searching for natural remedies for gerd I came across a site which offerred an old Amish recipe called stopsacidreflux. It is made of a combination of apple cider vinegar, ginger, and garlic juice. There was only one store in my town that carries it. Fortunately they had some in stock. So I bought it and gulped down 2 capfulls. At first I felt a strong burning in my stomach but that went away. The ulping seemed to subside, but not for long. Soon it was back again and as strong as ever. So either I had a very much worse case than most, or this stuff didn't work. I didn't think it was the latter because these people seemed quite above board. And their explanation actually made sense:"Simplistically, acid reflux, food regurgitation and heartburn are caused by gas in both thestomach and upper part of small intestines forcing partially digested food up theesophagus and into the back of the throat.This happens periodically because not enough HCL (hydrochloric acid - stomach acid) isbeing produced to control the bacteria and digest the food in the stomach. When thishappens gas is formed and pushes the food upward through the esophagus toward theback of the throat. As a result, there is an acid, burning taste in the esophagus and in thethroat that causes considerable discomfort.This mainly happens in older people because as humans age they tend to produce lessstomach acid, causing more gas.To stop the acid reflux immediately we needto add more acid to the stomach. The pH of our certified apple cider vinegar, gingerand garlic juice formula is perfect for this - just one or two swallows (sometimes threeif you are a particularly large individual) and your acid reflux, burning, and heartburndisappears in short order - a minute or two. You will have total relief and can now goback to sleep with no further burning or discomfort."Now this explanation makes perfect sense, but it didn't help me at all. First of all, at this point I had little to no food left in my stomach, so what good would it do to add more acid to the mix? Secondly, I couldn't figure out how a problem of too much acid could be solved by adding acid. More on this later.So, back to the drawing board as they say. I had to find out why couldn't sleep. I had not missed work yet, but I was 5 days now with virtually no sleep, so this could not go on much longer. As soon as I would nod off my throat would be full of acid. This started me down the road of investigating sleep apnea. I have always had a problem with snoring and some sleep apnea. It is hard to know how bad it is because I have never had a sleep study done. I have met many people who have, but they all tell me that they were given a CPAP machine to help them breathe at night, but they were so uncomfortable that they stopped wearing it.The literature out there is hit and miss regarding the connection between sleep apnea and acid-reflux, but I was starting to become convinced that they were related. This began my search natural cures for sleep apnea. The only "cure" the allopathic models offered was either surgery or a breathing machine. All the literature agreed that obesity was a key factor. I am not obese, but I am about 30 pounds overweight. At this as point I had already ceased consuming all alcohol, pop, or coffee; and I was already fasting as well.After much research I came to the conclusion that sleep apnea was primarily caused by the same thing as snoring: fatty tissues in the back of the throat blocking your airway as the muscles relax during sleep. Well, if this is the case, then there's only one answer: EXERCISE!After an exhaustive search for snoring and apnea exercises, I compiled a list of all the ones I found. I am doing these daily. Here's the list:Extend lower jaw outside upper and hold ten seconds/5 times.Hands under jaw pressing down against it for ten seconds/5 times.Stick tongue out as far as possible straight, then towards nose, and towards chin. 10 seconds/5 times.Lalalala-Kakakaka-Mamamama at the top of your voice holding each for 3 seconds repeat this 5 times.Tongue against roof of mouth press hard, 2 minutes.Pucker like a kiss for five seconds. Do 5 times.Do an exaggerated smile. Hold for 5 seconds. Relax. Do 5 times.Slowly open your mouth as big as you can for 5 seconds. Repeat 5 times.Take a Sip from a straw & press lips Do for 5 seconds. Repeat 5 times.Take a pencil and hold it between the teeth for up to 5 minutes.Push chin forward against finger and hold 10 seconds. 10 times.Although I strongly believe losing weight, eating right, and exercising will cure the apnea, I was still getting reflux even when awake. So, back to the drawing board I went. At this point I was starting to get the strong impression that my body was filled with acid. Even while standing up or walking with no reflux, there was always a very strong taste of acid in my mouth at all times. My research into body PH balance was starting to make me think that I had become acidified. This lead to my investigation of PH balance and its effect on the body.The more I read the stronger the feeling became that my symptoms were because my body was overloaded with acid. I had to find out my PH level and FAST. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to find simple PH test strips locally. Conspiracy? You tell me. You can test your pool, but good luck testing yourself. I decided to go with Phion and had them overnighted from Amazon. In the mean time I had to call off from work because at this point it had been nearly six days with little to no sleep or food. My wife was encouraging me to eat something but I told her that I had to find out my PH first to know what to eat. One thing good about not being able to lie down is that it encourages you to go take a walk or ride a bike. Well just as I was rounding home for my third bike ride of the day the UPS guy pulled up with my PH test strips. I rushed in the house and read the instructions. Results: PH 5.5, VERY ACIDIC. That was it. Time to go eat. I rushed to the store and bought avacadoes, red apples, lemons, and sports drinks. The sports drinks refill your potassium, magnesium, and other salts that alcohol, soda pops, and other bad foods leech out of you.My first real meal in five days consisted of the best quick high alkaline stuff I could rustle up: 1/2 of an avacado, some hummus, 1/2 half an apple and lemon water. It felt good at first but my tummy started rumbling soon. I figured my stomach acids were weak and needed some help, so I went and took a walk also doing my apnea exercises. After I returned my wife and had our nightly Bible study and tea. She picked out the best high alkaline tea we had and boy was it delicious. It was Egyptian Licorice herbal tea. The contents are as follows:Organic Licorice RootOrganic Cinnamon BarkOrganic Orange PeelOrganic Ginger RootOrganic Cardamom SeedOrganic Black PepperOrganic Clove BudNatural Cinnamon OilAfter drinking this tea I felt so sleepy that I couldn't finish reading. So I laid down on the couch and we watched a video. In minutes I was out. I remember my wife putting the blanket on me and then I slept like a baby for 8 hours. When I awoke I felt more rested than I have in YEARS, and not one instance of acid reflux! Praise Jesus!!!So. Here is my new regimen. All sodapop, alcohol, coffee, and junk food are gone FOREVER. Only high alk teas, lemon water, and sports drinks after heavy exercise. Daily walking and riding my bike. Sleep Apnea exercises 3 times a day. Daily PH tests, this morning I was up to 6.0. I have also ordered an emergency alk recovery kit from Phion. It's called pHion Balance Complete Alkalizing Program. It's at Amazon.com. I truly believe that this is the answer to my problem and I thank the Lord for answering my agonizing prayers to be led to it. I will update you with my progress and will pray for you. God bless all.Brotherjohn


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## em_t

Hi Brotherjohn,Although you do not believe in using PPIs to overcome acid reflux, they have worked very well for other people so I wouldn't discredit them completely. The vast majority of people on the internet are those looking for a cure not those who have already found it so you won't hear people telling you about how great a modern medicine has been for their particular condition.If your symptoms do not improve I would suggest going to see a doctor because you could be overlooking a serious medical problem like a stomach ulcer or H pylori. You have a very sceptical view of doctors and modern medicine. I am an atheist and believe that the vast majority of people out there want to do good and help others, including doctors. Its a caring profession and most go into it because they believe they want to help people. Sure there are others who go into it for the wrong reasons but I truly believe they are few and far between. If being a fundamentalist Christian means I have such a pessimistic view of people then I'm glad I'm an atheist (which by the way doesn't make me a bad person).If it is truly an acid reflux problem then drinking apple cider will not improve the problem as you are adding more acidic to an already acidic environment. However, if apple cider vinegar improves your symptoms then perhaps it is not acid reflux at all and your symptoms would best warrant a doctor's opinion. By the way it is HCl not HCL (Cl is the symbol for chlorine) and its pH not PH. Its hardly a conspiracy that you can't buy pH testing strips - most people have no need for them. All doctor's offices and A+E departments will have them and self testing is not advised for many medical tests as patients can misinterpret the results and it can cause health anxiety already at risk of suffering from it. This is why it is best to get testing done at your doctor's surgery as they have the experience to interpret the results (through years of training) and to suggest the best course of action.I truly hope you find something that gives you relief but if not I would recommend that you go see an expert, ie: a doctor. All the bestEm


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## Jackson.James 2-27

Brotherjohn said:


> Hi everyoneI thought I'd share the story of my progress so far with acid reflux if maybe it can be of any help to anyone else. My story starts with going to bed after having one too many glasses of wine. The next morning I woke up I was feeling very ill and there was acid coming up in the back of my throat. Recently I had woken up a few times from regurgitating my food into my mouth after having some wine but thought nothing of it. This time it was different. I did what I've always done for upset stomach which is to get a glass of baking soda in water. This helped for a while, but the acid started back up within the hour, so I knew I was dealing with something pretty serious.As an aside, I am a fundamentalist Christian, and I believe that the body is God's creation. So I place very little trust in today's modern allopathic medical practices, which I call the slice it/dice it, drug it, or zap it model. more on that later. In short, I concluded that I had made some serious mistakes in taking care of this body God has given me and I planned to find out what those were. I found this and other forums on the internet and began my study.Many of the reflux stories I found were similar to my own, but mine seemed to be much worse. I could not sleep, I mean AT ALL! As soon as I laid down and started that first dozing off, I would regurgitate acid up into my mouth and start choking. Needless to say, I went for nearly a week without any sleep. All the while I was simply devouring everything I could find on the internet about this "disease". Most of what I found was of the allopathic model. Either PPI drug treatment or surgery. Many of the sufferers got some relief from these methods, but overall the results were unimpressive, and often the symptoms were worsened. After much agonizing and prayer I decided to start a 14 day course of one of the OTC PPI drugs while I continued to search for the answer online.Since I had no choice in the matter, because everything I ate ended up coming up back into my throat, I decided to start fasting until I could find out what was wrong with me. In the process of searching for natural remedies for gerd I came across a site which offerred an old Amish recipe called stopsacidreflux. It is made of a combination of apple cider vinegar, ginger, and garlic juice. There was only one store in my town that carries it. Fortunately they had some in stock. So I bought it and gulped down 2 capfulls. At first I felt a strong burning in my stomach but that went away. The ulping seemed to subside, but not for long. Soon it was back again and as strong as ever. So either I had a very much worse case than most, or this stuff didn't work. I didn't think it was the latter because these people seemed quite above board. And their explanation actually made sense:"Simplistically, acid reflux, food regurgitation and heartburn are caused by gas in both thestomach and upper part of small intestines forcing partially digested food up theesophagus and into the back of the throat.This happens periodically because not enough HCL (hydrochloric acid - stomach acid) isbeing produced to control the bacteria and digest the food in the stomach. When thishappens gas is formed and pushes the food upward through the esophagus toward theback of the throat. As a result, there is an acid, burning taste in the esophagus and in thethroat that causes considerable discomfort.This mainly happens in older people because as humans age they tend to produce lessstomach acid, causing more gas.To stop the acid reflux immediately we needto add more acid to the stomach. The pH of our certified apple cider vinegar, gingerand garlic juice formula is perfect for this - just one or two swallows (sometimes threeif you are a particularly large individual) and your acid reflux, burning, and heartburndisappears in short order - a minute or two. You will have total relief and can now goback to sleep with no further burning or discomfort."Now this explanation makes perfect sense, but it didn't help me at all. First of all, at this point I had little to no food left in my stomach, so what good would it do to add more acid to the mix? Secondly, I couldn't figure out how a problem of too much acid could be solved by adding acid. More on this later.So, back to the drawing board as they say. I had to find out why couldn't sleep. I had not missed work yet, but I was 5 days now with virtually no sleep, so this could not go on much longer. As soon as I would nod off my throat would be full of acid. This started me down the road of investigating sleep apnea. I have always had a problem with snoring and some sleep apnea. It is hard to know how bad it is because I have never had a sleep study done. I have met many people who have, but they all tell me that they were given a CPAP machine to help them breathe at night, but they were so uncomfortable that they stopped wearing it.The literature out there is hit and miss regarding the connection between sleep apnea and acid-reflux, but I was starting to become convinced that they were related. This began my search natural cures for sleep apnea. The only "cure" the allopathic models offered was either surgery or a breathing machine. All the literature agreed that obesity was a key factor. I am not obese, but I am about 30 pounds overweight. At this as point I had already ceased consuming all alcohol, pop, or coffee; and I was already fasting as well.After much research I came to the conclusion that sleep apnea was primarily caused by the same thing as snoring: fatty tissues in the back of the throat blocking your airway as the muscles relax during sleep. Well, if this is the case, then there's only one answer: EXERCISE!After an exhaustive search for snoring and apnea exercises, I compiled a list of all the ones I found. I am doing these daily. Here's the list:Extend lower jaw outside upper and hold ten seconds/5 times.Hands under jaw pressing down against it for ten seconds/5 times.Stick tongue out as far as possible straight, then towards nose, and towards chin. 10 seconds/5 times.Lalalala-Kakakaka-Mamamama at the top of your voice holding each for 3 seconds repeat this 5 times.Tongue against roof of mouth press hard, 2 minutes.Pucker like a kiss for five seconds. Do 5 times.Do an exaggerated smile. Hold for 5 seconds. Relax. Do 5 times.Slowly open your mouth as big as you can for 5 seconds. Repeat 5 times.Take a Sip from a straw & press lips Do for 5 seconds. Repeat 5 times.Take a pencil and hold it between the teeth for up to 5 minutes.Push chin forward against finger and hold 10 seconds. 10 times.Although I strongly believe losing weight, eating right, and exercising will cure the apnea, I was still getting reflux even when awake. So, back to the drawing board I went. At this point I was starting to get the strong impression that my body was filled with acid. Even while standing up or walking with no reflux, there was always a very strong taste of acid in my mouth at all times. My research into body PH balance was starting to make me think that I had become acidified. This lead to my investigation of PH balance and its effect on the body.The more I read the stronger the feeling became that my symptoms were because my body was overloaded with acid. I had to find out my PH level and FAST. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to find simple PH test strips locally. Conspiracy? You tell me. You can test your pool, but good luck testing yourself. I decided to go with Phion and had them overnighted from Amazon. In the mean time I had to call off from work because at this point it had been nearly six days with little to no sleep or food. My wife was encouraging me to eat something but I told her that I had to find out my PH first to know what to eat. One thing good about not being able to lie down is that it encourages you to go take a walk or ride a bike. Well just as I was rounding home for my third bike ride of the day the UPS guy pulled up with my PH test strips. I rushed in the house and read the instructions. Results: PH 5.5, VERY ACIDIC. That was it. Time to go eat. I rushed to the store and bought avacadoes, red apples, lemons, and sports drinks. The sports drinks refill your potassium, magnesium, and other salts that alcohol, soda pops, and other bad foods leech out of you.My first real meal in five days consisted of the best quick high alkaline stuff I could rustle up: 1/2 of an avacado, some hummus, 1/2 half an apple and lemon water. It felt good at first but my tummy started rumbling soon. I figured my stomach acids were weak and needed some help, so I went and took a walk also doing my apnea exercises. After I returned my wife and had our nightly Bible study and tea. She picked out the best high alkaline tea we had and boy was it delicious. It was Egyptian Licorice herbal tea. The contents are as follows:Organic Licorice RootOrganic Cinnamon BarkOrganic Orange PeelOrganic Ginger RootOrganic Cardamom SeedOrganic Black PepperOrganic Clove BudNatural Cinnamon OilAfter drinking this tea I felt so sleepy that I couldn't finish reading. So I laid down on the couch and we watched a video. In minutes I was out. I remember my wife putting the blanket on me and then I slept like a baby for 8 hours. When I awoke I felt more rested than I have in YEARS, and not one instance of acid reflux! Praise Jesus!!!So. Here is my new regimen. All sodapop, alcohol, coffee, and junk food are gone FOREVER. Only high alk teas, lemon water, and sports drinks after heavy exercise. Daily walking and riding my bike. Sleep Apnea exercises 3 times a day. Daily PH tests, this morning I was up to 6.0. I have also ordered an emergency alk recovery kit from Phion. It's called pHion Balance Complete Alkalizing Program. It's at Amazon.com. I truly believe that this is the answer to my problem and I thank the Lord for answering my agonizing prayers to be led to it. I will update you with my progress and will pray for you. God bless all.Brotherjohn


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## Jackson.James 2-27

brotherjohn i would just like to add my little tale, i joined the army a couple years back, and last year when we first deployed i had some major heartburn all the times, tums were my best friend if i could ever get some out there. but it got worse until it became around the same thing you were experiencing and ive been living with this horrific pain sometimes almost unbearable, granted i was deployed for a year and you dont have a choice on what to eat. im only 23, im pretty sure im to young and active and in shape to be having these problems, i was even coughing up blood when i got back from afghan when i first tried drinking alcohol with these symptons, yes it wasint smart but we just got back so it was a must. and now i believe there saying i might be having liver problems as well but thank you for posting your story it helps when you here other people suffer and try new ideas to help your own.


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