Abdominal Pains, GERD, The Cure, part 2!!

[Sickboy1]

It all started going wrong with the first wrong diagnosis" Heartburn and abdominal pain", i was given acid blockers without even testing my stomach acid levels, my acid levels were too low, not too high, this causes "delayed gastric emptying" and this condition allows food to back flow up into the esophagus, after years of suffering from this condition, damage is done to the esophageal sphincter and it weakens and the condition gets noticeably worse, the doctors prescribe acid blockers purely to stop the stomach acids damaging and burning the esophagus, but what actually is happening is the condition is getting worse, "gastric emptying" is getting worse allowing more back flow,but we feel a bit better because it is not hurting as much when it does back flow into the esophagus, so we feel that we need them from then on and so your ready for bringing on the next stage of the illness.
What we need to realise is our Ph in the stomach ideally should be Ph2, very acidic, this is a perfect Ph level for breaking down the food, the Ph in your esophagus ideally should be 7 neutral, so just because you get acid burning your esophagus does not mean you should neutralize the acid, it only means you need to sort out the back flow issue. Imagine your acid level in your stomach was Ph4, this would still be acidic enough to damage the esophagus, but yet it is too alkaline to digest food properly, poor digestion causes "delayed gastric emptying" which as we know causes reflux, so with most people the problem is not too much acid but not enough, so if you increased your acid levels, the food would get digested properly and the reflux would not occur. Most of the other stomach ache symptoms most people describe is coming from not digesting food properly and "delayed gastric emptying". Acid blockers make this problem worse over time and so reflux becomes more frequent although not as painful, this causes the valves between the stomach and small intestines to get even more lax due to high pressure destruction and dilation, so here you are well on your way to fundoplication surgery.
Please do not think this covers all cases, a lot of people have severe "lower esophageal impedence" and do require this surgery, but i just want to point out that a lot of cases may be cured without surgery.
So i am now in a place where i am not digesting food properly, causing bloating, and nutrient deficiencies, and stomach gurgling scenes like something out of the film "Alien". Stomach acid is crucial for good health and should not be getting blocked or neutralized.

So the next step was "domperidone" an antagonist, to speed up gastric emptying, causing strong contractions throughout the esophagus, stomach and intestines, these really do work, but as with all western medicines, it has side effects, the powerful contractions can cause pains long term, in the esophagus and intestines, as my symptoms described above, the food is getting pushed through the system faster before acid has had a chance to break it down properly, the malnutrition problem gets worse when linked to acid blockers you end up with no energy and feeling unwell in general, you then start getting stressed about feeling so unwell all the time, and your health continues to spiral down.

So next the doctors try me on a muscle relaxant"antispasmodic" to reverse the side effects of the "domperidone", this causes the valves between the esophaugus, stomach and small intestines top relax also, which allows more reflux and backflow of stomach contents, now the stomach is not emptying properly again and backflow becomes worse, because the sphincter is now hardly working at all, even off the shelf drugs like "Buscopan" are well known to cause lax function of the stomach valves, so now we get "bile" also joining the party back flowing into the stomach, "delayed gastric emptying" mixed with "bile" causes a gaseous build up, the stomach wall is aggrevated and reflux becomes worse than ever, but now you have "bile" attacking you esophagus and the pain really starts, think about it, if acid blockers only give partial relief, then the pain can not be caused by acid, the acid has been neutralized, so what is aggrevating the esophagus? "BILE", a big first give away that your pain is "bile " related is exactly that" Acid blockers will only provide partial relief" other symptoms are as follows " pale stools", "high white blood cell count", "severe esophageal pains without heartburn", "burning sensation in the upper abdomen with muscle weakness and inflammation", "attacks mainly at night", "attacks brought on by fatty foods", "pain upper abdomen spreading to shoulders" but remember that esophageal spasms/pains brought on by reflux even when acid is neutralized, must eliminate acid as the cause!

So armed with all my research i demanded a PH test, and guess what, I did not have high acid levels in my esophagus but high alkaline levels, so they put doctors admitted it looks like "bile reflux" not "acid reflux", that's nice isn't it after 5 years of being on the wrong medication, 5 years of medication actually making the problem worse, i had research this myself and fought all the way otherwise i could still be getting batted back and forth with wrong medications.

Now remember back to when i spent 3 days in hospital with no medication and no food, and i felt great after, i was not eating, the bile was not being produced, the stomach was back to normal function after 3 days off the medication, funny that the cure was staring at me all along, stop all medication to get gastric emptying and acid levels back to normal and do not eat foods which promote the production of stomach bile and "fundoplication was not required", i now have the option of "bile diversion surgery" where the bile gets dumped further down the small intestines, to stop it entering the stomach, if you do not fight to find the underlying cause only "YOU" will suffer long term, "Esophageal cancer" "Stomach Cancer" is where it is ultimately heading with not much quality of life leading up.
I just hope that upon reading this, it may help some long term sufferers like myself and you can get diagnosed properly before its too late.

I have opted to not take the route of surgery for now, i am controlling my stomach bile by healthy eating, i am controlling reflux by eating small amounts regular and sleeping elevated, I am not taking any medication and gastric emptying has improved ten fold, my stomach valves are getting stronger and i am going to build on that, think about it, Q:How can bile get into your esophagus if your stomach is emptying properly? A: it can't!!

Remember where it all starts, maybe you used to over eat, maybe you just need to stop smoking, it can be a little problem that starts this whole thing, don't jump on the medication band wagon, i went to the doctors with a stomach discomfort and heartburn and ended up with a serious illness and in hospital several times, i was terrified at the thought of coming off acid blockers, i thought i would be in agony after 12 hours, the 1st day was very uncomfortable, but i did not get the "upper abdominal pain" i just ate dry toast every two hours and took sips of water in between, i could literally feel my stomach starting to digest food properly again, so there was no reflux, after sleeping elevated the next day, my stomach and body felt on the road to recovery this is just 24 hours and my body had almost returned to normal like somebody had turned the clock back 5 years.

Why are these cases increasing in number every year, 126million cases of GERD.
Acid blockers and indigestion remedies are the best selling drugs in the world, you really need to start reading about how the stomach acid works and what causes GERD before reaching for Acid blockers or Acid neutralizers ever again and doctors need to stop "putting a lid" on conditions with these medications. Good luck!

[soo_many_symptoms]

Hey when we are not feeling at our best, it is hard for us to spot things. It was pure chance that I took the course that I did as I don't know what gave me the idea really. I did know however, that I didn't want to take PPI's as I had read that its hard to stop taking them once started as the symptoms will return because we are not treating the root cause. We are supposed to be able to trust Doctors to do the best for us when we explain our symptoms but there are budgets for them to think of when prescribing and lets not forget the drug companies who peddle their wares offering strong incentives tor them to use a certain product.  When I had acute glaucoma I was given an evil drug - Diamox which I had to take for longer than I should have because their laser was broken. The side effects were horrible and I became so nauseous that I could not eat anything for weeks and lost a LOT of weight so now I have perhaps developed an aversion to drugs. Plus if I have to take antibiotics they can muck my system up for about 6 weeks.

Anyway, I am finding that I can tolerate raw apples but not apple juice, oats are ok, rice  and most veggies. For protein I eat fish and the only meat I eat is chicken. I am finding it a bit difficult to find things to eat as I have an intolerance to wheat and am just being tested for lactose intolerance so have been avoiding dairy and gluten. If you add in the tests for candida and H pylori that takes out sugar too. You are down to fresh fruit and veg, seeds and nuts. I have some digestive enzymes and had begun to take them - at first I felt better then about day 3 i was feeling worse so I stopped taking them. When I looked at the label, they had sucrose in them. Need to source some more natural ones.

BTW totally agree with you about the anxiety coming from another complaint. I have been having CBT for the anxiety, panic and depression I have and the anxiety disappeared for about 4 months. It came back when I started having digestive issues.
Thanks for your help and Stay Well

[soo_many_symptoms]

Wow. Fantastic articles and advice and many congratulations 'Sherlock' on finding answers to your issues and trying to help everyone else to boot! Thank you so much for documenting your experiences that lots of us can identify with but have been told that the symptoms are in our head or anxiety related which they become cos we are soooo worried about and totally fed up with feeling so bad!!!

My situation is that approx 7 wks ago I had a bout of constipation (out of the blue for me). I resolved this with prune juice and relieved the constipation the same day. However, also had, what i thought, was reflux. Now I am not so sure. I had other symptoms too, such as abdominal discomfort, wind for England, smelly farts, smelly breath, smelly pooh....then diarreah, malabsorption, seed like things in my stools and 1 occasion white froth. 7 weeks on the malabsorption (to a much lesser degree remains) and mostly seeds, nuts and carrots seem to cause this??  I still have burning in my stomach (more often than not) in the middle of the night,this I gained at some point after constipation? not quite sure. Anyhow got fed up and went to docs - lasanaprozole or whatever its called was prescribed - which I did not take but instead (and I don't know why I did this) I cut wheat and sugar out of my diet and ate bland, bland, bland and drink water and herbal tea - ginger, fennel and chamomile. I also feel hungry and shaky in my back, my heartbeats fast, I feel incredibly anxious and fearful but the whole thing lasts only a short while with the exception of anxiety which comes and goes. In your opinion and experience, would it help to continue with the bland diet in the hope that this will quell the burning eventually. Do I need to take digestive enzymes. Check for Candida, H Pylori? Anything else helpful.? I have tried Aloe Vera on a couple of occasions but only before bed, and occasionaly pop the odd Rennie which does help, but still get the burn in the night.  Had a blood glucose test which was a bit high and needs repeating. My doc thinks that there are also menopause related issues at play but I don't know how to tackle if they are running concurrently. Which came first the chicken or the egg. I like you, would like to deal with the actual issues, without drugs masking the symptoms. Any suggestions grateful received.  

[takemystomachplease]

I recently wen't back to my Family Dr. with some new stomach complaints. Now I am throwing up stomach acid, have a terrible taste in my mouth combined with bloating, excessive gases and foul smelling bowel movements.  Hence to say  I'm being reffered back to the Gastro Dr. for some additional tests. My Family Dr'  said most likely the Gastro  man has to make another look inside.  Hey thanks for all of your imformative posts .  You have helped me alot to learn about some other things related to my conditions.

[Jangela]

    You have just summed up in a few paragraphs all the things I have always believed to be true and painstakingly learned about reflux, and then some! Where were you all those years ago when my husband was in such agony? We would have rejoiced with the angels to have discovered your posts!

[takemystomachplease]

Hi thanks for the great info !!!!!!!!!!  I have IBS, Lactose Intolerance,Esopogitis,Hiatal Hernia and Gerd. I hear your suffering !!!!!  I have been prescribed every medication for this under the sun. I never heard of Bile Reflux thats interesting. I heard of the PH test, thats something Ineed to have done and have not yet. I have had an array of tests . Upper and Lower GI  Series, Endoscopy and Fluroscopy.  I suffer like a dog with the runs, constipation , farting and belching too!!!!!  I am surprised I still have a boyfriend. hence to say it's not very lady like nor attractive either. Yes i used to drink alcohol to an excess hey I am irish it's in the blood LOL.  I am a social drinker I drink rarely and when I do i limit it to two or three drinks maximum. I am also over weight  and on meds that cause weight gain and edema.  So i am fighting many issues. I have Asthma and I smoke so the acid makes those conditions worse too.  Hey thanks once again for your post.  I agree the DR's  try to help but in the lonf run misdiagnose and do us more damage.

[Sickboy1]

sorry i forgot to mention, i assume you have been checked for H pylori?