Hello all. I'd like to offer encouragement and an overview on some practical suggestions on how to heal the gut and get over acid reflux. I consider myself healed, but for about 4 years my life was hell. It got so bad that I even considered ending it all. But now I'm healthy, active, happy, off all meds, and have my life back, and I'm thinking that my journey may be of some assistance to someone out there. I just got back from a road trip around Australia, living off pub meals, restaurant food and take away and my gut feels great.
Just a little rundown of my symptoms. 24/7 burning esophagus, sore throat, sore lungs from acid vapor, acid stinging in ears and eyes, enamel of my teeth destroyed by acid, sore lips and gums, the list goes on and on. I was considering surgery and am so glad I didn't. Also considered a feceal transplant but couldn't find anyone healthy enough to consider. I was desperate.
I tried meds but they didn't really work for me, or if they did the side effects were pretty bad. My body developed tolerance to PPI's very quickly, so the only thing I could do was increase the dose weekly. Obviously you can't go on doing that for ever. H2 blockers worked great for awhile but then they started to give me constant headaches and tinnitus, the tinnitus I still have but vastly diminished.
I eventually came to the conclusion that that I better work out how to heal myself or suffer the consequences. After lots of research I figured that my gut micro biome was out of wack and set out on a journey to heal it. So here's a list of some of the things I did and still do, and some of the things to avoid. The 21st century is very hard on our gut and the only way I got healthy was to give the gut what it has evolved to thrive on, so no rubbish like packaged, canned or take-away foods which are full of additives and sugars that are really bad for our guts. I went on and remain on organic foods so can't comment on conventional, but it is worth considering that conventional foods are now full of chemicals that our gut never evolved to handle. Things that really help our gut biome (bacterium) are sauerkraut, the best probiotic you can afford, kefir, I use a coconut water one, kombutcha, etc. No need to buy Kombutcha as it's so easy and fun to make your own. Eat ginger every day. In some people it works better than meds. There's research to back that up. I gave up anything that was hard to digest and my diet became incredibly bland. No red meat or even chicken. Fish is a lot easier to digest but it's now contaminated with chems and heavy metals, so it's suss in my opinion. If you're going to eat fish then try the ones at the bottom of the food chain like mackeral and sardines. Anything dairy effected me badly. I ate lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. I couldn't tolerate spices but maybe that's just me. All the usual culprits like coffee, acid veggies like tomatoes effected me. Keep a food diary and keep track of what food you can and can't tolerate. As your gut begins to heal so will the foods you will be able to tolerate.
Things to avoid are obvious. Any food that causes discomfort. Chlorinated water kills bacteria and since you're trying to get the guts bacteria balanced and healthy, chlorinated water is not a good idea. I'm lucky to live near a mountain spring. On my journey around Australia I drank only bottled spring water. Antibiotics will nuke your gut so only consider if really needed. Stress is really bad for the gut and a problem for me. I thought I was a pretty cruisey guy, but after awhile realised I had stress issues. I have a great easy going life but every time I'd turn on the TV and watch the news I'd feel my gut tense. There's probably no way to remain stress free in this crazy, stressed out culture we live in, but we can manage it. Walks in nature, meditation and yoga really help me stay calm and centered, and consciously staying away from stressful situations. Lots of ways to handle stress.
Live well and prosper.
Mick