Eat a typical American diet and you’re bound to get gastroesophageal reflux disease — better known as heartburn.
The problem is, Big Pharma’s treatment for this common disorder carries far more health risks than the heartburn it’s supposed to help.
In a minute, I’m going to show you some easy natural solutions to chronic heartburn problems — without taking risky Big Pharma meds.
If you’re one more than 18 million Americans who suffer heartburn symptoms each day, you’re probably taking an acid reflux medication, like proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs). You might know them better as Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid.
While these PPIs can neutralize your stomach acid and help relieve your heartburn in the short-term, they will never heal the condition and they do nothing to prevent it coming back tomorrow.
In fact, scientific studies have linked PPIs to multiple conditions, including:
- Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia;1
- Kidney disease 2
- Heart disease and increased heart attack risk; 3,4
- Pneumonia5
- Vitamin B and calcium deficiencies;6
- Increased risk of hip fractures;7
Big Pharma knows all about the risks associated with its multibillion PPI industry8, and either ignores them or goes out of its way to refute them.
I recently read a “scientific” study denying the evidence of at least two major independent studies linking PPIs with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
After a little research, I wasn’t very surprised to discover that two of the study’s lead authors have strong ties to the drug companies that manufacture PPIs. One of the researchers even serves as a consultant for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, which makes Nexium, a top-selling heartburn med that makes them more than $9.5 billion a year.9,10
But the evidence is crystal clear: Even though Big Pharma wants to bury the conclusions of two key independent studies, PPIs do raise your risk of dementia.
In the first study, the researchers collected data from almost 74,000 seniors over seven years and found that people who regularly take PPIs have a 44% increased risk of dementia. At the start of the study, none of the seniors had cognitive problems. But seven years later, almost 30,000 PPI users were diagnosed with dementia.11
Even more shocking was that most of the patients had only used a PPI for a short time — in some cases, just once every three months.
The second study closely tracked more than 3,300 people for six years and found PPI users had a 38% increased risk of dementia and a 44% increased risk of Alzheimer’s.12
No wonder Big Pharma tries to bury the truth about its multibillion-dollar industry.
Relieve Heartburn Naturally
When my patients come to me with chronic heartburn, I recommend simple, all-natural remedies that gets to the real cause of the problem. You see, heartburn isn’t caused by too much stomach acid. It’s caused by too little.
You need stomach acid to digest food and absorb nutrients. This acid also protects your digestive tract from the dangerous H. pylori bacteria linked to stomach and duodenal ulcers.
The real cause of heartburn is the inefficient closing of your lower esophageal sphincter (LES) — thanks to the overload of unnatural grains, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and other additives in the modern American diet. Your body has a hard time breaking these alien ingredients down.
Your LES, a small muscle that opens and closes to allow food to move from your esophagus into your stomach, is overwhelmed. And when it doesn’t close completely, food, bile and acid flow back into your esophagus, causing painful heartburn and indigestion.
Instead of risky and expensive PPIs, here’s what I recommend to my patients:
Supplement with D-limonene.
- This is an orange peel extract that protects the lining of your esophagus. In one study, 90% of people reported complete relief of their heartburn symptoms in just two weeks. I recommend taking 1,000 mg every other day for 20 days.
- A teaspoon of bicarbonate. Bicarbonate in baking soda neutralizes acid. If you remember your high school chemistry class, you know bicarbonates help balance your pH, making it less acidic and more alkaline. That means baking soda can neutralize the acid in your stomach.It’s as easy as mixing half to one teaspoon of baking soda into an 8-ounce glass of water before bed. You’ll be amazed how effective it is. Baking soda is not a long-term solution, but it’s a great quick fix. And there are no side effects.
- Drink a cup of ginger root tea. Research shows that ginger is eight times more effective than the popular heartburn drug Prevacid.13 At the same time, it also helps strengthen your LES.Here’s a refreshing recipe I recommend to my patients:
Ingredients
- 1 1-inch piece freshly grated ginger root;
- 2 cups filtered water;
- 1 to 2 tablespoons honey, to taste.
Directions
- Add one-half teaspoon of freshly grated ginger root to a cup of hot water
- Let the ginger steep for 10 minutes. Strain the ginger and stir in honey to taste.
Sip and enjoy!
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
1. Haenisch B, von Holt K, Wiese B, et al. “Risk of dementia in elderly patients with the use of proton pump inhibitors.” Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2015.
2. Lazarus B, Chen Y, et al. “Proton Pump Inhibitor Use and the Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease.” JAMA Intern Med. February 2016.
3. Shah NH, LePendu P, et al. “Proton Pump Inhibitor Usage and the Risk of Myocardial Infarction in the General Population.” PLoS ONE. (2015).
4. Juurlink DN, Dormuth CR, et al. “Proton Pump Inhibitors and the Risk of Adverse Cardiac Events.” PLoS One. December 27, 2013
5. Fohl AL, Regal RE. “Proton pump inhibitor-associated pneumonia: Not a breath of fresh air after all?” World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. 2011 Jun 6.
6. Heidelbaugh J, Goldberg K and Inadomi J, “Adverse Risks Associated with Proton Pump Inhibitors.” Gastroenterol Hepatol (NY). 2009 Oct.
7. Yang YX, Lewis JD, Epstein S, Metz DC. “Long-term proton pump inhibitor therapy and risk of hip fracture.” Jama. 2006 Dec 27.
8. “GERD Therapeutics Market Size to Reach $4.34 Billion by 2025.” Grand View Research, Inc. PR Newswire, March 21, 2017.
9. DiSalva D. “Should You Be Worried About Your Heartburn Medication Causing Dementia?” Forbes. 2017, Jul 20.
10. “Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI) Medicines Review.” Consumer Reports Magazine. July 2013.
11. Gomm W. “Association of Proton Pump Inhibitors With Risk of Dementia: A Pharmacoepidemiological Claims Data Analysis.” JAMA Neurol. 2016 Apr.
12. Haenisch B, von Holt K, Wiese B, et al. “Risk of dementia in elderly patients with the use of proton pump inhibitors.” Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2015.
13. Siddaraju MN, Dharmesh SM. “Inhibition of gastric H+, K+-ATPase and Helicobacter pylori growth by phenolic antioxidants of Zingiber officinale. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 Mar.