Immensely Educated by the Digestion Sessions from Underground Wellness

I cannot say enough good things about the FREE Digestion Sessions going on right now via the internet thanks to Sean Croxton! The interviews of highly knowledgeable functional medicine doctors and naturopaths are *A M A Z I N G*!

The interviews discuss things like:

--Causes and natural remedies for constipation, GERD, acid reflux

--How anxiety and depression may be rooted in the health of your digestive system

--How to get rid of Candida yeast overgrowth for good

--How stress affects your digestive system

--How to treat and heal IBS and IBD for good

Every interview has offered me *so much more* beyond what I thought it would be about! WOW!

Email Q&A from November 22, 2013

READER'S QUESTION:

Howdy!

I was wondering how long it took after beginning to supplement your HCL intake that you got relief from your GERD? I'm pinning down if my recent GP diagnosis is truly from my diabetes or is hypochlorhydria. I'm scheduling the Heidelberg test soon but am hoping to get some relief.

Thanks so much for your blog. I totally identified with what you wrote.

God bless!

Steve

MY RESPONSE:

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your email. 

It didn't take too long for the HCl to help me with GERD.  It was more a matter of me playing around with the Betaine HCl supplement and figuring out how much to take with each meal and what was right for my personal needs.

Regarding the Topic of Parabens, Deodorants, Anti-Perspirants, and Breast Cancer

I often share many informative health articles on The Acid Truth Facebook page.  Last week, I shared a few more articles regarding parabens, deodorants, anti-perspirants and the breast cancer link.  In response, a reader (also a close relative of mine) messaged me letting me know that a friend of hers had sent her a link from the American Cancer Society: Antiperspirants and Breast Cancer Risk. In their article, the American Cancer Society basically says that the link between parabens and cancer and aluminum and Alzheimer’s are a bunch of hogwash and should be ignored and also stated more studies are needed to prove it true.  The reader asked me what my thoughts were about the article.  Here was my reply:

When I get conflicting information, I always look back at the sources of that information. On one hand, we have a host of organizations and medical people who pursue and promote holistic and more natural ways to maintain good health, and they refer to studies that reveal the build-up of parabens in the body may have something to do with an increased incidence of breast cancer.

On the other hand, we have the link you were sent from the American Cancer Society (ACS)  (a mainstream medical related organization) that says it is all hogwash, and women shouldn't be worried it about it. The article angers me even more stating that it is possible the people or organizations suggesting that parabens may increase cancer risk and aluminum may increase Alzheimer’s risks might have something to gain (in selling more natural deodorants) by promoting a falsehood.  What a joke! As I learned by watching the Burzynski Movie, cancer is big, serious business, not natural deodorants.  The ACS also infers that women concerned about breast cancer should stay away from hormone replacement therapy.  While it is true that synthetic hormone replacement therapy can be harmful, there is proof that natural, plant based progesterone replacement can be beneficial to many women.  

The ACS also says that the best way for women to take care of their breasts and protect themselves is to have mammograms.  That is another issue of controversy considering that every time we have a mammogram we are radiating our breasts and that there are other natural and holistic medical articles which suggest this could do more harm than good in the long run and that mammography is not extending the life of women. 

A better alternative to mammography is thermography. I've also recently posted some of the latest articles about mammography and thermography on The Acid Truth Facebook page.

A few years ago, mainstream medical sources also told me that my acid reflux problem would have been cured with the typically promoted acid reducing medications.  I was told that I had Gastroparesis and needed to remove all good fiber from my diet. That was SO false!  I am forever grateful for doing my own research and finding the book Why Stomach Acid is Good for You. I solved my stomach and acid reflux problems by taking a Betaine HCl acid supplement with every one of my meals.  Big money is involved in promoting the propaganda that the majority of the adult US population needs acid reducing drugs. The fact is that our bodies need stomach acid to break down food in order to absorb nutrients properly and to keep harmful bacteria out of our system. My experiences with my stomach and digestive system are what led to me starting this blog and adding the Facebook page to complement it.  I called it The Acid Truth because the mainstream teachings proved false, and they are harming a lot of people.

Mainstream medical sources also told me that antibiotics would be the cure to my antibiotic induced colitis back in 1994. When antibiotics didn't cure me, I searched and found Primal Defense, a probiotic that did.

I was also advised last year that my cholesterol is way too high and it may cause me to have a heart attack. Psh... I've had enough of all the propaganda trying to push some pharmaceutical drug on me. I've read many articles about the cholesterol issue from the more holistic and natural side and having high cholesterol doesn't mean you are going to croak over any minute. Our bodies need cholesterol. There are more important lifestyle and dietary aspects which lead to heart attack than eating too much cholesterol or having a high reading. I'm currently reading the book The Great Cholesterol Myth. Big money is also involved in promoting the propaganda that people need to take pharmaceutical drugs to lower their cholesterol. The number of people who truly need these drugs is actually minimal.

I could go on also about the flu shot, the food industry, the FDA, GMO's, and Monsanto ... but I'll spare you.

As you can see, I am very much a non-conformist to the mainstream medical stuff. My experiences have made me that way. If my bones are broken or I need stitches, I'll definitely go see a doctor. If I need blood work done, I'll go see a doctor to get the orders. If the doctor tells me I have an illness and need some pharmaceutical drug to cure it, I'll be doing my own research and trying more natural and alternative methods first.  If the medical profession is trying to convince me that the latest and greatest pharmaceutical drug is the answer to my problems, I'll probably run for the hills!

My goal is always to educate myself on all the facts and possibilities, not to just take someone else's word for what is best for me and my body. We all must make that decision for ourselves, but it should be a very informed decision.

I suggest you read more articles about this topic and make an educated decision as you are led. There are a bunch of articles on Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website about breast cancer, parabens, and aluminum. Go to the site www.mercola.com and type "parabens breast cancer" in the search box. You'll get many links of articles to read.

You may also want to check out the sites www.naturalnews.com and http://www.ewg.org/ (The Environmental Working group)


This Natural News article may also be of interest:  The Cancer Industry's War on Cancer Cures

For my personal recipe on a low cost, natural deodorant that truly works go to my link MA's Amazing & Natural Deodorant.

April 2008 - Gastroparesis or Hypochlorhydria?

In April, I sat down with the gastroenterologist to discuss my experiences with the treatment and how I was feeling.

The truth was that I wasn’t feeling that much better. My stomach still did not feel well or normal. We decided it would be best to go ahead and do an endoscopy right away and see if she could discover what was going on. Plus, at the same time, she would confirm whether the H. Pylori had been completely eradicated and whether I was having any Celiac disease issues. The endoscopy was scheduled for that same week.

I went in for the procedure and as soon as I came out of it, sick to my stomach and groggy from the sedatives, Michael informed me that the doctor had told him that I had gastroparesis because she had discovered food in my stomach during the procedure (and there shouldn’t have been any), and that I needed to start a low fiber diet. Gastroparesis is a condition where your stomach does not properly digest the food and the food sits in there too long, eventually causing other problems. Gastroparesis is most typically associated with people who are diabetic; of which I am not.

They had handed my husband some generic paper with lists of foods that I should and should not eat and an appointment card dated a couple of weeks away for me to come have a follow up appointment and discussion about the procedure and results.

I was flabbergasted! How had I gone from a slight case of gastritis, to a terrible case of H. Pylori bacteria, to then being diagnosed with gastroparesis?! And the doctor didn’t seem to be concerned as to WHY I had gastroparesis, just that now I needed to eat a low fiber diet. And then surely in the future she would also be the one to tell me that I had also gotten colon cancer since I hadn’t been able to eat enough fiber. Ugh!

I was totally confused and became quite depressed about the diagnosis for the first few days. The refined diet seemed a horrible thing to me and even more terrible because I had no reasons WHY I was having this problem and good enough reason to eat that way. I am the type of person that likes to get to the root of the matter—treating health symptoms is idiotic! That will never heal anyone; it will only make things worse in the long run.

I began my own research. Thank GOD! for the internet resources that are available to us these days. I researched gastroparesis and read and read. As I read, I didn’t seem to really connect with symptoms and issues that were related to gastroparesis. It just did not seem right at all. I joined a gastroparesis yahoo group and I couldn’t believe how much worse most of the people on there had it compared to me. These people had severe gastroparesis issues—in comparison with them, I had nothing; I was healthy. But I was led to join that group for one email that would spur my search in another direction. Someone mentioned about the fact that often times people who are told they have too much acid production and are given acid reducers are actually suffering from too LITTLE acid production. The symptoms are practically identical to each other.

I switched tracks and pursued learning more about too little acid production, hypochlorhydria. Did I find a wealth of information! Amazing! As I began reading the symptoms of hypochlorydria, I could actually truly relate with them and all that was being said about it. I became SO excited and filled with hope! I sensed that I had hit the jack pot—the root of my stomach problems! H. Pylori, improper digestion of food, stomach pains, etc. all went right along with too little acid production.

Yahooo!!! On to where that search led me and where I am today…