ACID REFLUX ? WATER IS THE CURE !!!

OR

In 2008, a remarkable study took place comparing a glass of water to an antacid and "acid blocking" drugs, in their overall effect in increasing gastric pH (i.e. making it more alkaline) in healthy subjects.

• A glass of water (200 ml)
• Antacid
• Ranitidine (Zantac)
• Omeprazole (Prilosec/Losec)
• Esomeprazole (Nexium)
• Rabeprazole (AcipHex)

Gastric pH was recorded for six hours after drug intake.

 The study found it took the following duration to increase gastric pH >4:

• Water increased pH >4 in 10/12 subjects after 1 minute
• Antacid increased pH >4 in 2 minutes
• Rantidine increased pH >4 in 50 minutes
• Omeprazole increased pH >4 in 171 minutes
• Esomeprazole increased pH >4 in 151 minutes
• Rabeprazole increased pH >4 in 175 minutes

What would you rather do? Get instant relief with a glass of water, which has loads of side benefits to your health, or wait between 50 minutes to 175 minutes (close to 3 hours!) as the excess acid burns the lining of your stomach, using a chemical class of drugs which have the potential to cause the following unintended, adverse side effects:

1. Clostridium Infections
2. Diarrhea
3. Pneumonia
4. Vitamin C Deficiency
5. Gastric Cancer
6. Bone Fractures
7. Magnesium Deficiency
8. Myopathies
9. Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Of course, water will only "water down" a problem that is often a direct result of bad food combining, excessive portions, food-body incompatibilities, acute or chronic stress, undiagnosed overgrowth of pathogens, and environmental allergies, to name but a few known contributing factors. But, water can do no harm, whereas using chemicals to poison the proton pumps or histamine receptors on the parietal cells in the stomach into shutting down acid production has an obvious set of serious side effects that can and should be avoided, whenever possible.