Acid Reflux Formula

Overcome Acid Reflux Permanently

Introduction

There are many books about reflux out there that fail to reach the true causes of reflux disease. You may have read several of them. Some focus on a single cause by implementing a FODMAP diet, or by eliminating a food sensitivity, and others focus on managing the symptoms through low-acid diets and other smaller measures.This book is about the most significant discoveries I made over the last twenty years in my quest to overcome reflux disease. I have never been content to simply manage the disease. After all, a low acid diet is not a permanent fix. A low-acid diet is, without doubt, the best way to manage the symptoms, but the underlying disease is still there. My research, instead, is more focused on discovering the underlying causes of reflux disease and the ways to fix them.

Where is the Cure?

All the information we need to overcome reflux disease is already available to the general public. You might be surprised to hear this, and you might have tried many different strategies to overcome the pain already, without success. One problem is that the answers are hidden amongst conflicting information. Another problem is that no one follows the correct sequence of steps to ensure that reflux disease is cured.The sequence of steps is important. This book will walk you through the difficulties of reversing reflux disease. You cannot simply open a random chapter such as gut health and expect that you can focus on that one method. Every chapter of this book is dependent on the chapters that come before it. If you have not followed the sequence of steps correctly, you are more likely to fail in your attempts to fix the problem. This includes when and how to give up PPI medication, or when to start thinking about gut health.This book is part 1 in a three-part series on the real causes of reflux disease. Although I would like to have contained everything in one single book, I felt that the volume of material would make some people give up before they ever started. Despite the length of the book(s), remember that this is just a ‘mud-map’ for your journey to health. It is a very brief explanation of all the points that you need to know and is not a comprehensive treatise on the subjects. Every chapter tackles a subject that could easily expand to become a book of its own.

Why I wrote this book.

The pain of reflux disease is very difficult for others to understand. Not only is the pain severe, it is persistent, and no one wants to hear about our constant complaints. The pain from my own reflux was severe. Every night, throughout the entire night, I could feel it building up and by the time morning came, my throat and my sinuses, were red raw. It felt as though a severe cold had hit me during the night. My throat was swollen, my vocal chords were also swollen, and it was very difficult and painful to speak. My dentist warned me that my back teeth were also being eroded. This was my life every day.And it is not just about the physical pain. Other people think less of you because you need to turn down invitations to celebrations, to food events and even to physical activities. For a few years I never had time for anything much other than managing my reflux symptoms. Life was exhausting. I would try to relieve the pain in the morning before work, and in the evenings, I spent the whole time preparing my special reflux-minimizing food for the next day, navigating the minefield of foods that might trigger more reflux episodes. And if I had to go out with others, I needed to prepare for that in addition to everything else that I was trying to do. That was just to manage the symptoms, and ensure the pain was minimized as much as possible.In my desperation to escape the pain, I visited many types of doctors and experimented with many different types of foods and medicines. I tried plant-based, vegetarian, high-fibre, whole-grain, sprouted seeds and nuts, and all organic foods. I did loads of reading and tried out many different types of supplements including HCl, vitamins, minerals etc. Aside from the specialists, I saw nutritionists, naturopaths, allergists and I tried to pinpoint problems through elimination diets. I tried to improve my digestion with bitter herbs and tinctures or by using parasite cleanses.I was someone that wanted to believe in our medicines, in natural medicines, organic and health foods, and I was let down.But those were the worst failures of 10+ years ago. I have since found exactly the solution I was looking for and therefore I have written this book. I want to share my journey with you and help you to relieve your own pain, too.I know how it feels. I often meet people who are convinced that no one could be experiencing pain worse than their own, but I am here to tell you that it can be overcome. You can conquer this pain, even if you think that you have tried ‘everything’.

Is this book for you?

While this book provides the knowledge to identify the causes of your reflux, you need to be aware that some people may not benefit from it as much as others do.Firstly, this book has been formulated specially for those with LPR (Laryngopharyngeal Reflux, or silent reflux). This is the form of reflux that affected me, but if you have another form of reflux disease, I highly encourage you to read this book. The principles that I outline may still be of great value to you.Secondly, there are sections of the community that will not benefit from everything that I have written here. This is especially the case for those who:

• have missing organs such as the LES (lower esophageal sphincter)
• have had surgery to remove organs (eg. Gallbladder)
• have had surgery on the intestines (re-section)
• have had a procedure on the stomach or LES to prevent reflux from occurring

This book may be of limited value for you if you fall into these categories. There is valuable information to be had, but you may need to follow additional guidelines that properly support your particular physical condition.Thirdly, your particular values may not align with this book. For devoted vegans and vegetarians, this book may not be appropriate if you are determined to remain on plant-based diets. Although it may be possible to overcome reflux on a plant-based diet, I do not believe it is optimal.Many people believe that animal products are holding back their health, and I believed the same for a long time. The results of my tests and elimination diets showed that animal products were causing many of my issues. Also, nutritional experts support plant-based diets, and plant-based diets are currently the strongest recommendations for managing reflux disease.But I want to achieve more than merely managing the disease. Through a combination of chance and a little desperation, I found the results were better when there were less plants and more animal products. I am sure that it is possible to overcome reflux on a plant-based diet, but I believe this is the slow-lane on a very long and difficult road. Many people will never reach its destination. The chapters in this book are not written to disparage any path to healing. They simply outline the steps that worked best for me, why it worked for me, and why it also works for the majority of other people.I know how it feels. I often meet people who are convinced that no one could be experiencing pain worse than their own, but I am here to tell you that it can be overcome. You can conquer this pain, even if you think that you have tried ‘everything’.For anyone who is open to change, I hope that these pages will become an effective springboard from which you can launch your own research. Most people will find relief from acid reflux within the first major step in this book, but please keep reading the entire book: the goal is to keep acid reflux away for good.In addition to this, I urge you to act quickly! The diseases that cause acid reflux tend to degrade the functionality of the body as time goes by. The information in this book becomes less effective the longer symptoms continue and damage to the body’s organs becomes increasingly permanent. The best solution is to overcome the causes of reflux as soon as possible, before the reflux-causing diseases have set in for good.

Can Acid Reflux Really be Cured?

There will always be instances where reflux cannot be cured, and instances when it can. The key to understanding reflux is this: Reflux is always caused by other diseases.If you have spent time on forums and discussions, you may have discovered that everyone with reflux also has a list of other health complaints. Deciding on whether Acid Reflux can be cured depends on how you understand the disease.This is the basic premise of this book.Over the years, I have noticed that reflux is always accompanied by other diseases. Taking steps to identify these diseases and to fix them is key to overcoming reflux.So, is acid reflux curable? This depends on what underlying disease is causing your reflux, and how permanently that disease has damaged your body. If the underlying disease is curable, then I believe you will cure your reflux. Thankfully, this is the case for most people.If your body has been permanently damaged from a disease, and this disease continues to affect your health (this can happen from autoimmune disease or from organ damage from incorrect lifestyle choices), then you may be able to manage acid reflux by managing the underlying disease. Many people in this situation continue to improve slowly over time, but it is difficult to know how far that improvement will go.

How to optimize your progress

The information contained in the coming chapters is no replacement for your relationship with a team of medical professionals.This book is not about changing your allegiance, but more about dissemination of valuable material. Essentially, it is unfair to hold back on information when other people could be using it for their own benefit, no matter how anecdotal it may seem. Experience and research are important tools in the search for answers to our health concerns, and it is my own experiences and research that you will find written here.Many people regard overcoming disease naturally as being hippie, trendy or radical. This is not my intention. The fact is that even conventional medicine has no drug that cures or manages reflux safely. The only option we have for curing reflux is via natural methods. And the guidance of a good doctor is absolutely necessary while you are travelling this path.With this information in hand, you must find a doctor that can collaborate in your efforts to cure your reflux. This book does not offer any advice to your specific circumstances and I hope that the information in this book can be a valuable resource in this journey.I often hear people tearing down the medical establishment because they feel that they have been ignored and left out to dry. It is difficult to confirm these types of claims, but most medical professionals really are there to provide the greatest help that they can. They are real people that feel a great sense of pride in obtaining positive outcomes. But they do have to work within a system.The medical industry is not perfect. There are many barriers in the way for everyone. There are barriers holding doctors back from what they want to achieve and there are barriers in front of the patients that are looking for answers. Just knowing that there are barriers can help you to find your place within the system so that you can get the help that you need.Firstly, information from new research takes almost 20 years to filter down to medical practice for the general public. This is a very long time that people are left without the answers that they are looking for. If you want to be up to date with the latest findings, then it is good to place yourself in the organizations that are likely to have access to this. These days, communication from researchers is excellent, and there are also many lay people that are committed to learning about new developments and broadcasting them to the world. Make sure you connect with those in the know and make yourself as informed as you can be. This will help you when discussing with doctors.Secondly, specialists tend to limit their study to specific parts of the body, and they don’t cross the boundaries to other parts of the body. This is simply the way the system trains specialists and sets them up for medical practice. This can be a problem in identifying cause and effect in diseases that involve multiple systems in the body. There are many specialists that do not collaborate deeply with other specialists, so it may be up to you to bring any relevant information to the table. Most specialists like to feel that they are informed so it may be worth asking their opinion on any connections that you have discovered in your own research.Thirdly, any doctor, in general, must abide by conventional guidelines, or risk having their medical licenses revoked. This protects people from quackery and dangerous advice, but it also makes many doctors afraid to mention information that could be the answer to your prayers. Within the last 10 years, many lawsuits have been filed against doctors that have given excellent advice, but it was advice that their peers did not agree with or thought was unconventional. Thankfully, each of the doctors won their cases because their advice was overwhelmingly supported by the medical literature. They kept their careers, probably owing to the skill of their lawyers. But this is the danger that any doctor faces. Keep this in mind when you speak with them. They must be vigilant about staying within the boundaries that medical authorities have set.Fourthly, general practitioners are extremely busy people. They must deal with every disease in the book – not just yours. It is impossible for a single person to understand everything in detail and that is why we have specialists. They often rely on summaries of diseases and treatments from publications for their ongoing education, usually supplied by pharmaceutical companies. Being well informed about your own condition can also be a great source of education for a practitioner.Despite all these limitations, many doctors have found ways to help their patients without upsetting their peers. It is important to find a doctor that is open-minded and can respect your desire to research your own topic and approach them for their professional opinions on those research items. I have been lucky to find a doctor that is willing to listen to my thoughts, reasonings and to work with me in the way that I feel comfortable, and I know that you can find a doctor like this, too.And the fifth barrier to your health, sadly, is often the pharmaceutical companies. They are in the businesses of providing products that can improve health, or fight disease and save lives where no other options exist, but they are not a charity. If there is no money involved, then the business will fold, so just like any business. They conduct themselves like businesses, they employ strategies to market their products and to make more sales, whether you need the products or not. They do play a vital role in medicine but taking pharmaceutical products unnecessarily may be making you sicker, as we will see in the following pages. There is no pharmaceutical drug that cures acid reflux because acid reflux can be cured naturally. And because of the nature of acid reflux, we are unlikely to see a cure for this disease for a very long time, if ever at all.In the end, it is up to you to be informed, and to bring your information to doctors that are open-minded to work with you through this.I hope that the ideas in this book can help you overcome all these barriers. The information is new, it is based on research, it has worked for other people and it is something that you can take to your doctor for discussion. The information in this book provides solutions that will cost you extraordinarily little, because acid reflux can be overcome naturally.

And just one more thing…

Before you continue to chapter one, I want to leave you with something to do. I want you to succeed in your efforts to overcome this disease. If you want to make the most of this book, and the suggestions that are included throughout the chapters, you would do well to include two lifestyle changes, if you are not doing them already.One change is exercise. I know that the ‘talk’ about exercise can be like switching on the broken record. I totally get it. But think about doing something simple and easy. Just go walking. Put aside some time daily. Even twice daily if it’s easy exercise. This is not about weight loss, but a lot of the benefits of exercise are implied throughout the pages of this book.And the other change is to relax. And this includes getting proper sleep. Make sure you are not living in a stressful and toxic environment, and that you are as relaxed as you can be for most of your day. The fact is that stress may be causing your reflux, and if this is the case, the only solution is to remove the cause. However, if you find it difficult to relax and you want some tools that can increase your ability to relax, then the answers are in the book you are holding!I’m not going elaborate on exercise and relaxation here because they will be big topics in book three. However, I mention them here because you can take care of these changes straight away, they can make an enormous impact to your progress, and why wait until book three to start on something that you can do right now?Yours Sincerely,Drew Niemeyer   [Founder of Acid Reflux Formula]