Acid Reflux?

[gemma]

Hi Shelley,

It's been a long time! Primarily because I improved my health tremendously following your guidelines and by moving to a farm where we grew our own organic food and followed Weston Price philosophy. Well, now that I am off the farm I have slipped a little.

I had acid reflux for a few days and then it subsided. I've never had acid reflux and can only think that it was because I was constipated for 2-3 days prior (I normally have 1-2 per day). Well then a whole bunch of symptoms slowly showed up over the next couple weeks. I began to lose my appetite, felt pain in my throat (like something was stuck there), my tongue turned white, my breath began to stink horribly. Saw a doctor who gave me antinausea medicine, I took two pills and was able to eat. I felt much better after eating. Mostly the pain in throat went away. But I still have stinky breath and I feel like I do not want to lay down flat at night.

From reading the forums here I gather that I probably have bile backed up and need to do some heavy liver cleansing. Does that sound right? Besides starting the liver cleansing, I've added some things for my stomach and bowels, aloe vera juice, p&b shakes, DGL (licorice), HCl, and digestive enzymes. Is there anything missing?

Thanks in advance!

[shelley]

Hi Gemma! Nice to hear from you.

You needn't go that far really. I'd avoid the DGL as it inhibits stomach acids and licorice is highly estrogenic. If you want to reduce your stomach acids at any time simply drink more water. If you're in pain a flat teaspoon of baking soda in warm water should do the trick if it's truly your stomach that's hurting.

If the aloe dries you out too much (very cracked tongue) then you should take some DGL and marshmallow to lubricate the bowels.

I'd also avoid the p&b shakes (there's a white paper that discovered the aluminum IS absorbed). Simply eat whole foods and you'll get enough fiber. The Cleansing Salads in the FAQ work much better than P&B shakes on the small intestine. Don't eat a whole lot of raw, just one serving a day, and make sure it's grated or blended. Most of your foods should be as easy to digest as possible while your digestion is so weak.

I've found that most gastritis is indeed clogged liver and bile ducts, if it's not dehydration or GERD due to continually eating wrong.

If you haven't been getting enough Taurine, choline and EFAs in your diet (and I strongly suspect that's the main cause), even if it was a clean one you could have been forming stones.

I would add in Kefir once your tongue is clear, lots of ginger/peppermint tea and Pungent Therapy to clear it, plus Taurine and Lecithin and some kind of good EFA oil every day. Drink Eater's Digest tea to keep your bowels moving, or Triphala. Liquid Chlorophyll is an excellent internal de-oderizer and is very high in magnesium so it helps keep you regular too, so that's another option.

Hope that helps!