A Personal Experience With Acid Reflux Disease
A lot of us suffer from acid reflux, but we call it acid indigestion or heartburn. But it can be very damaging to your quality of life, and indeed can also develop into something more serious. Following is a personal account of an sufferer, and many of us will find echoes of our own experience in it:
"Acid Reflux Disease is not as ominous as it sounds, unless you are a chronic sufferer who has only recently found it necessary to try every over the counter heartburn product available. For many people what started as little bouts of heartburn every now and then, grows into more frequent trips to the drug store and before you know it you're making an appointment with a doctor because you just don't know what to do next.
Sound familiar? I've dealt with heartburn or 'acid reflux disease' for most of my adult life. I had made it to the end of the line, as far as my peace of mind and pain tolerance were concerned. Something had to change. And I needed some guidance about how and what to change."
It's at this stage that most of us make a doctor's appointment. So did this person, but as happens on many occasions, he got a "band-aid" prescription with no real attempt to get at the underlying causes of the problem:
"So I went to a doctor appointment and was given a prescription. It kind of worked, but not for long and I soon found myself making another appointment with a different doctor. I was given a prescription for a different medicine. It sort of worked for a while and then didn't. Are you seeing the pattern?
Yeah, so I decided there must be a better way to deal with disease. I started looking toward natural and ancient medicine to see what morsels of wisdom I could find to alleviate my heartburn suffering.
At first reading through the holistic medicine websites seemed every bit as confusing as pharmaceutical and western medicine has always been: a zillion different supplements to choose from instead of the zillion drugs.
But as I read I began to understand some of the big differences between modern medicine and ancient medicine of various peoples. Ancient or natural/holistic medicine always works to correct imbalances that are the root causes of the given disease or painful condition."
This is quite an important point. In many people's view, modern Western medicine is more concerned with quick results and appearances, treating the symptoms and not the causes, the underlying imbalances that take place from time to time in our bodies. And this is an opinion that is gaining credence in the medical community as well.
"Only by simplifying our lives can our body effectively alert us to these imbalances and guide us toward the foods that will help return us to full health. I've found that as I quit medicating my heartburn I was able to 'hear' my body better. I was able to determine which foods set off and which did not.
Over time I've continued to make subtle changes I my eating habits and it's been more than three years since a serious bout of heartburn. I encourage you to look into the underlying causes of your as well. Of course everyone's situation is different, but there are simple things we can do to increase our comfort and wellbeing even if it does not completely alleviate all symptoms."
The experience of this sufferer shows that the disease, at least where not due to structural physical causes, can be greatly alleviated by behavioural and dietary means, greatly enhancing quality of life.
