5 Whole Food Supplements To Stop Acid Reflux Naturally

Hello Health Champions today we're going to  talk about five supplements to stop acid reflux  

naturally and also we want to talk about why the  standard solution to acid reflux is the exact  

opposite of what you want to do so acid reflux  is exactly what it sounds like it's a backflow  

of acid and where it happens is in the stomach so  we have the esophagus come down and then we have  

the stomach and then we have the lower esophageal  sphincter so the inside of the stomach is supposed  

to be very very acidic so a pH of about one to  three it's an acid vat it's by far the most acidic  

place in the body and it can tolerate that because  it secretes a thick layer of mucus on the inside  

of the stomach to protect the cells from the acid  acid however this lower esophageal sphincter it's  

supposed to open up it's a muscle that opens up  and lets food through down into the stomach when  

you swallow but then once you're done swallowing  once you're done eating it's supposed to tighten  

up and keep the food down in the stomach and keep  it from flowing back up with the acid that's now  

produced and the pH helps stimulate the tone the  acid stimulates the muscle tone of that lower  

esophageal sphincter so as long as we're very  very acidic then we keep a good muscle tone and  

we don't have any backflow so it's the opposite of  most people think they think that acid reflux is  

too much acid when in fact it's the opposite it's  when you don't have enough when your pH goes up  

when it starts creeping up to about four or five  now we lose some of the tone of that sphincter and  

now the food doesn't get digested properly so it  sits around longer and now it starts backflowing  

and pushing on that lower esophageal sphincter and  now we get some irritation we get some burning and  

pain up in the esophageal sphincter because the  cells up there don't have that mu mucous secretion  

they don't have that protection so the stomach  can handle the acid the esophagus can't and if  

this goes on for a long long time like months or  years then the irritation can be so severe that we  

develop something called Barrett's esophagus and  now these cells start to change under the assault  

they undergo what's called dysplasia they become  pre-cancerous they change from the nice regular  

shapes that they're supposed to have but under  this assault they change and become pre-cancerous  

so the most important thing to understand about  acid reflux is that it has everything to do with  

this lower esophageal sphincter and then we  want to understand what are the factors that  

influence the function of that sphincter well we  talked about one which is pH so it needs to be  

very acidic that's the purpose of the stomach the  acid stimulates the production of pepsin which is  

the digestive enzyme that we use to break down  protein so without that acid we don't stimulate  

pepsin and we can't break down protein but the  other factor is what people miss the most and  

that is your autonomic nervous system and we're  going to talk more about that so a lot of the  

remedies are going to have to do with the pH but  you need to stick to the end where we're going  

to go over the function of the autonomic nervous  system and the stress and how that influences this  

and how it ties it all together otherwise you're  going to miss the biggest piece about how this  

works the first thing that you can do because it's  the simplest and the cheapest and it's so easy is  

apple cider vinegar there's a lot of talk about it  it's very popular because it has various different  

benefits people know that it improves digestion  it improves insulin resistance but the way that  

it helps acid reflux is that it brings the PH down  it helps the body get the PH down into the one  

to three range where it needs to be and in doing  that it starts stimulating the digestive process  

so everything depends on a previous step so first  we chew properly and then we swallow and now the  

stomach does step one of digestion and then as  it gets further down into your digestive tract  

every step down there depends on what happened  on the earlier steps so everything is a chain of  

events and we have to make sure that these early  steps are working the second thing you can do is  

to Simply take some hydrochloric acid in a pill  form when the body is supposed to make it but  

doesn't make enough in the stomach then you can  take it in a supplement form it's usually called  

betaine hide hydrochloride which is just a pill  form of hydrochloric acid and what this does is  

just like the apple cider vinegar it lowers  the ph and it activates the pepsin the good  

thing about hydrochloric acid is that the pH is  even lower so it's even more potent in bringing  

the PH down in that very low range and a good  product I use come from standard process that  

we use in the clinic they have two products one  is called zypan which is part hydrochloric acid  

and part pepsin and pancreatic enzymes so you  get a few different things that contribute to  

the digestive process the second thing they have  is simply betaine hydrochloride which has the  

hydrochloric acid with some pepsin but none of the  pancreatic enzymes now here's the thing to keep in  

mind though if you have an active irritation like  an ulcer or gastritis and every time you take a  

little bit of acid it burns then you don't want to  start off with apple cider vinegar or hydrochloric  

acid because you're not ready for it it's too  intense because you already have sort of an open  

wound there so what you want to do now is you want  to support your digestion a little more gently and  

a product that works great also from standard  process is called okra pepsin E3 so it has some  

digestive enzymes but it also has some soothing  components that help coat the stomach and reduce  

the distress while still helping the digestive  process number three is to Simply eat some salt  

salt is also known as sodium chloride it has 40  sodium and 60 percent chloride and the chloride  

like the name says is the raw material for this  hydrochloric acid that's what the body needs to  

make the hydrogen chloric acid if we don't have  enough and I see that on quite a few blood tests  

that when your chloride's low then that could mean  that your production of hydrochloric acid suffers  

now there's many many reasons we're going to talk  about as well and regular table salt is sodium  

chloride but if you use sea salt or pink Himalayan  salt now you're getting the sodium chloride but  

also a bunch of different trace minerals that can  come in handy an interesting tidbit for you I knew  

that chloride and salt was very abundant on the  planet because that's what sea water has in it I  

had no idea how much there is so in all the oceans  combined there's about 50 quintillion kilograms of  

chlorine which is about half the mass of the Moon  so there is no shortage of chloride on the planet  

but you got to make sure that you get some into  your body so you can make Hydro boric acid number  

four is probiotics we talked about how important  it is to cover every step of the digestive tract  

from start to finish so that all the steps are  there well here's another example of how important  

that is when we're talking about the microbiome  that we have these we have our digestive tract  

with a small intestine and then we get into the  large intestine and we have all these bacteria  

down here now they have a combined genetic Mass  the number of genes of all the bacteria in your  

gut outnumbers your body your own body's DNA  about a hundred fold so the neurotransmitters  

and the chemical Messengers down there that are  produced have a huge impact on your health and  

your physiology and your mood and your insulin  resistance and all those different things and we  

know for example that the brain and the mood is  hugely influenced by the microbiome and then of  

course the frontal lobe the brain the cortex has a  huge impact which we'll talk about in a second on  

the autonomic nervous system and the function of  your gut and the production of acid and so forth  

so this is just one more example of how incredibly  important it is to look at the body holistically  

and not just go in with spot treatment so what  most people do is they take an antacid they feel  

a burning and they have a burning in the esophagus  and they think that it's too much acid so now they  

take an antacid and they relieve the symptom  for the time being because whatever they take  

is alkaline and it neutralizes the acid but now  they just shut down their digestive process so now  

they don't have the nutrient they don't get it the  absorption and it backfires in the long term the  

they can't utilize the food and the food gets  down into the small intestine undigested now  

we get inflammation we promote leaky gut and the  leaky gut signals back to the brain and now we get  

mood disorders and so on and so forth so we have  to realize that the acid is there for a reason the  

body is not stupid it does not make stomach acid  by mistake and when we neutralize that acid now  

we are shooting ourselves in the foot we are doing  ourselves a disservice we're interfering with what  

the body is trying to do I've done a lot of work  on probiotics and microbiome in the clinic lately  

and one company that stands out to me is called  systemic formulas I believe that we're leading  

in probiotics and they have a wider variety of  strains and more heavy duty products than anywhere  

else I have found they even develop some of their  own strain lanes that are not available anywhere  

else and what most people seem to be deficient  in is soil based bacteria so they have a product  

called Terra biome that works really well for a  lot of people and then if that doesn't work then  

there's another one called immunobiome and between  these two we've been able to handle pretty much  

anything now the thing to keep in mind is we don't  want to do the same thing over and over for a long  

period of time the body wants change the body is  always adapting so if you don't know which one you  

most likely need then start with one and go for  a month and then alternate and go back and forth  

and then take a break and then maybe start over  again because we don't want to just do one thing  

forever we want to challenge the body we want to  bring in some variety number five has to do with  

brain support because it's very well established  that there's a strong connection between brain  

health and gerd between reflux so whenever people  have anxiety when they don't feel so good when  

they don't sleep enough when they have a lot of  stress then they have more episodes of reflux it  

always gets worse when people are stressed so if  we can support the brain to make the brain fire  

up a little better give it a little burn a little  brighter if you will then it can modulate it can  

balance the gut and your stress levels much better  the first product we try is called mintran from  

standard process it's a mineral Min trans stands  for mineral tranquilizer it's all natural stuff  

but it can be very calming for people with anxiety  and if that frontal lobe is a little weak then  

we can support it and strengthen it a little  bit the other one is fish oil but we need to  

understand that fish oil is anti-inflammatory  it helps the body modulate inflammation in  

general but if we're looking for brain support  specifically now we want something that's very  

high in DHA and usually most fish oil have about  a three to two ratio between EPA and DHA but tuna  

Omega has a five to one the other way so it  has five times more DHA so if we're looking to  

support brain and frontal lobe and have a calming  effect then it's the DHA that we're looking for  

so we said that in order to control the tone the  muscle tone of this lower esophageal sphincter  

we have pH as one of the factors and most of the  remedies that we talked about have to do with ph  

the last one had to do with brain support and this  is where we get into the autonomic nervous system  

the ANS because the ANS has two branches called  the sympathetic and the parasympathetic and those  

sounds like big complicated words but just know  that sympathetic is fight flight anytime you're  

stressed you're going to fire off more sympathetic  function at the expense of the parasympathetic  

which is your feed breed your digestion your  reproduction Etc so if we just understand that  

sympathetic and parasympathetic are like a seesaw  that whenever you have stress you fire off the  

sympathetic at the expense of the parasympathetic  then you can explain almost everything that goes  

on in the body so let me make it really simple  for you when you have a stress response that  

you're sympathetic that's your fight flight and  whenever you're sympathetic kicks in it's going  

to decrease the parasympathetic because you only  have so much blood in the body there's only so  

many resources and when you are threatened when  there's something chasing you you need to send all  

the blood or most of the blood to the muscles  that can do the work and get you out of there  

that's more important than digesting food at that  time so as long as that sympathetic nervous system  

stays engaged or is has more priority than your  parasympathetic your digestion is going to suffer  

and the parasympathetic drives everything about  your digestion your immunity your reproduction  

and your healing so like we talked about before  here with the l-e-s the lower esophageal sphincter  

well it is controlled by the parasympathetic so  whenever you have more sympathetic Drive whenever  

you have more stress you're going to lessen the  control of that sphincter and you're going to  

reduce the muscle tone of that sphincter you're  going to allow more backflow of that acid but  

not only that when you have more stress you're  also going to decrease the production of your  

hydrochloric acid and your digestive enzymes so  sure you could take a supplement and improve the  

pH situation but long term you want to balance out  your stress response so you can make acid yourself  

without the supplement that's the way it's  supposed to happen we also know that when people  

are stressed when they have a high sympathetic  drive then they have less micro diversity they  

have fewer strains they have lesser numbers and  fewer Variety in their microbiome so they have a  

less healthy gut we also know that they have more  increased permeability they have a higher tendency  

toward food allergies and autoimmunity and like we  said you're also going to see a decrease in immune  

function you're going to see a decrease in healing  and repair and you're going to see a decrease in  

reproductive function that means that you're going  to have less of a sex drive and you've been less  

able to have and maintain erections so if you  understand how much stress we have is there any  

wonder why we have so many digestive disorders and  why there's an infertility clinic on every corner  

these days so the thing to understand about stress  and sympathetic tone is that most of the time you  

can't feel it sometimes people know that they're  really stressed but other times they'll say oh I  

was stressed 20 years ago when I had a stressful  job but today my life is so peace useful but what  

they don't realize is that during all those years  they conditioned a pattern of responses and the  

Baseline of nervous system Behavior into their  body and these responses get patterned in from  

childhood we look at our parents we mirror their  behavior we have mirror neurons that mimic what we  

see with before we're even aware of what we're  doing and then these patterns stay with us for  

a lifetime so for most people who try to do the  right thing they eat right and they exercise and  

they try to take care of themselves but they still  have some health issue 99 of the time it's going  

to be based on stress and sympathetic dominance  and drive but if we understand that these are  

conditioned patterns now we can also start undoing  them but it's going to take some time it's like a  

trickle effect if we're consistent and what  you want to do is you want to relax you want  

to practice mindfulness and relaxation but on top  of that you want to do some breathing exercises  

and some meditation on a regular basis so you can  start programming a new pattern but there's a lot  

of research in this area and they're starting  to understand it better and there's even a lot  

of really cool devices because we know that  meditation works but who has the time and the  

patience to sit down for 30 minutes 45 minutes an  hour every day and just focus and concentrate and  

it might take a year here to really get good at  it and some people still don't really get there  

so there are some shortcuts and one of them is  called brain tap that we use a lot in my office  

now and we'll put a link down below for all of  the products and things that I talked about if you  

want to check them out and if you want to dig a  little bit deeper and start understanding how all  

these issues are influenced by the things you can  read on your blood work I've published a course  

where you can learn more about that so right now  there's over 15 hours of video explaining that  

and guiding you through taking you by the hand so  you can take your blood work and follow along and  

understand what it means and take charge of your  health that way and I'm going to keep building it  

out based on feedback and questions then I'll post  the videos on the course as well and right now  

it's still the lowest price we're going to offer  it's the introductory price once it's fully built  

then the price will go up but if you get on it now  then you will have lifetime access and you will  

still get all of the improvements that will happen  down the road if you look down below there's some  

more information about that too if you enjoyed  this video you're going to love that one and if  

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