Is Your Digestive System Making You Sick?

There might be something wrong with your inner tube, and it could be making you sick and fat.

You may not even realize you have a problem ... but if you have health concerns of any kind or you are overweight, your inner tube could be the root cause.

Of course, I'm not talking about a beach toy. I mean the inner tube of life -- your digestive system!

It is likely that you suffer from (or have suffered from) some type of digestive disorder -- irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, reflux, gas, and other things too gross to mention in print.

And you are not alone. More than 100 million Americans have digestive problems.

Two of the top five selling drugs in America are for digestive problems, and they cost us billions and billions of dollars.

There are more than 200 over-the-counter (OTC) remedies for digestive disorders, many of which can create additional digestive problems.

Visits for intestinal disorders are among the most common reasons for trips to primary care physicians.

And that's not even the worst news.

Most of us (including most doctors) do not recognize or know that digestive problems wreak havoc in the entire body, leading to allergies, arthritis, autoimmune disease, rashes, acne, chronic fatigue, mood disorders, autism, dementia, cancer, and more.

So having a healthy gut means more than simply being free of annoyances like bloating or heartburn! It is absolutely central to your health. It is connected to EVERYTHING that happens in your body.

That's why I almost always start helping people treat chronic health problems by fixing their gut, which is what I want to help you do today.

Today , you will learn how you can find out if you have a problem with your gut (though many of you won't need me to tell you -- your gut will speak for itself!), and I will give you 7 simple steps you can take today to heal your inner tube of life.

Fixing your digestion is the 4th key of the 7 Keys to UltraWellness or functional medicine, and it is absolutely essential that you heal this critical system in your body if you want to achieve optimum health.

Why your gut is so important? Let me explain ...

How Your Gut Keeps You Healthy or Makes You Ill

The health of your gut determines what nutrients are absorbed and what toxins, allergens, and microbes are kept out. It is directly linked to the health of your whole body.

Intestinal health could be defined as the optimal digestion, absorption, and assimilation of food. But that is a big job that depends on many other factors. Let's look at a few of them ...

First, there are bugs in your gut that form a diverse and interdependent ecosystem like a rainforest. In fact, there are 500 species and 3 pounds of bacteria in your gut which form a HUGE chemical factory that helps you digest your food, regulate hormones, excrete toxins, and produce vitamins and other healing compounds that keep your gut and your body healthy.

This ecosystem of friendly bacteria must be in balance for you to be healthy.

Too many of the wrong bacteria, like parasites and yeasts, or not enough of the good ones, like Lactobacillus or Bifidobacteria, can seriously damage your health.

So keeping a healthy balance of bugs in your intestines is one factor to good gut health.

Second, there is your gut-immune system. Your entire immune system -- and the rest of your body -- is protected from the toxic environment in your gut by a lining that is only ONE cell-thick layer. If spread out, this lining would take up a surface area the size of a tennis court, and the entire thing is covered by a sewer!

If that barrier is damaged, you can become allergic to foods you may normally be able to digest perfectly well, you will get sick, your immune system will become overactive, and it will begin producing inflammation throughout your body.

Filtering out the good molecules from the bad molecules and protecting your immune system is yet another important factor in gut health.

Third, there is your second brain -- your gut's nervous system. Did you know your gut, actually contains MORE neurotransmitters than your brain? In fact, the gut has a brain of its own. It is called the "enteric nervous system" and it is a very sophisticated piece of your biology that is wired to your brain in intricate ways.

Messages constantly travel back and forth between your gut-brain and your head-brain, and when those messages are interfered with in any way your health will suffer.

Fourth, your gut also has to get rid of all the toxins produced as byproducts of your metabolism, which your liver dumps into bile. If things get backed up when you are constipated, you will become toxic and your health will suffer.

And last but not least, your gut must break down all the food you eat into its individual components, separate out the vitamins and minerals, and shuttle everything across the one cell-thick layer mentioned above so it can get into your bloodstream and nourish your body and brain.

Your gut has quite a lot to manage. Even in perfect world it is hard to keep all of this in balance. But in our modern world there are endless insults that can knock our digestive systems off balance; it is that much more difficult to maintain excellent digestive health.

How to Know if Your Gut is Out of Balance

To fix your digestion, you first need to understand what is sending your gut out of balance in the first place. The list is short:

• Our low-fiber, high-sugar, processed, nutrient-poor, high-calorie diet, which causes all the wrong bacteria and yeast to grow in our gut and damages the delicate ecosystem in your intestines

• Overuse of medications that damage the gut or block normal digestive function -- things like acid blockers (Prilosec, Nexium, etc.), anti-inflammatory medication (aspirin, Advil, and Aleve), and overuse of antibiotics, steroids, and hormones

• Undetected gluten intolerance, celiac disease or low grade food allergies to foods such as dairy, eggs, or corn.

• Chronic low-grade infections or gut imbalances with overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine, yeast overgrowth, parasites, or even more serious gut infections

• Toxins like mercury and mold toxins, which damage the gut

• Lack of adequate digestive enzyme function, which can come from acid-blocking medication use, or zinc deficiency

• Stress, which can alter the gut nervous system, cause a leaky gut, and change the normal bacteria in the gut

What happens then is obvious. You get sick.

But what's important to understand is that many diseases that seem to be totally unrelated to the gut -- such as eczema or psoriasis or arthritis -- are actually CAUSED by gut problems. By focusing on the gut, you can get better. Here is an example ...

Can Eczema Start in the Gut?

Allison, one of my patients who suffered from eczema -- a weepy, red, oozing, scaly, itchy rash -- all over her body is perfect example of what can happen when your gut is out of balance and the extraordinary level of healing that can occur when you fix your digestion.

This woman, who saw doctor after doctor, put salves, lotions, and potions on her skin and gave her steroids and antibiotics. But none of them ever addressed the underlying cause of her problem.

Allison was 57 years old and had been suffering from severe, unrelenting eczema for eight years. She ate a high-sugar diet and had a history of frequent vaginal yeast infections.

When I saw her, I checked her gut and found she had a leaky gut -- that one-cell thick lining in her intestines was breached and wasn't working properly. She had developed 24 IgG food allergies, and her stool had no healthy bacteria and an overgrowth of yeast from years of taking antibiotics. She also had very high blood levels of antibodies against yeast.

So I helped her heal her gut. I asked her to stop eating the foods she reacted to, told her to stop feeding the yeast in her gastrointestinal tract by cutting out sugar and refined carbohydrates (which they thrive on), and killed the yeast in her gut with antifungal medications and herbs. Then I helped her rebuild her ecosystem of healthy bacteria with probiotics and provided here with healing gut nutrients that allowed her intestinal lining to resume its normal function.

The result?

Her eczema disappeared for the first time in eight years -- and it stayed away!

You can experience the same thing Allison did. You may be able to heal from many of your chronic symptoms simply by fixing your digestion. Here is how you do it.

7 Steps to Optimal Digestive Health

To heal your inner tube of life you simply need to:

1. Eat whole unprocessed foods. Make sure to include plenty of fiber from foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

2. Eliminate food allergies. If you think you have food sensitivities, try an elimination diet. Cut out gluten, dairy, yeast, corn, soy, and eggs for a week or two and see how your gut feels and what happens to your other symptoms.

3. Treat any infections or overgrowth of bugs -- Parasites, small bowel bacteria, and yeasts can all inhibit proper gut function. You must treat these infections if you want to heal.

4. Replenish your digestive enzymes. When you don't have enough digestive enzymes in your gut, you can't properly covert the foods you eat into the raw materials necessary to run your body and brain. Take broad-spectrum digestive enzymes with your food to solve the problem.

5. Rebuild your rain forest of friendly bacteria. Take probiotic supplements. They will help you rebuild the healthy bacteria so essential to good gut health.

6. Get good fat. Take extra omega-3 supplements, which help cool inflammation in the gut.

7. Heal your gut lining. Use gut-healing nutrients such as glutamine and zinc to repair the lining in your gut so it can resume its normal function.

Fixing your digestion may take some time, but it can be done. And it is absolutely essential if you want to achieve vibrant health. So work on your inner tube of life using the steps above and watch as your symptoms (and those extra pounds) disappear.

Now I'd like to hear from you ...

Did you realize how important your gut is to your overall health?

What steps have you taken to fix your digestion? How have they worked?

Why do you think the pharmaceutical industry develops and actively advertises drugs that are known to inhibit proper gut function and thus compromise health?

Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment below.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, M.D.

References

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• King DS. Can allergic exposure provoke psychological symptoms? A double-blind test. Biol Psychiatry. 1981 Jan;16(1):3-19.

• Ludvigsson JF, Reutfors J, Osby U, Ekbom A, Montgomery SM. Coeliac disease and risk of mood disorders--a general population-based cohort study. J Affect Disord. 2007 Apr;99(1-3):117-26. Epub 2006 Oct 6.

• Hu WT, Murray JA, Greenaway MC, Parisi JE, Josephs KA. Cognitive impairment and celiac disease. Arch Neurol. 2006 Oct;63(10):1440-6.

• Wilders-Truschnig M, Mangge H, Lieners C, Gruber HJ, Mayer C, März W. IgG Antibodies Against Food Antigens are Correlated with Inflammation and Intima Media Thickness in Obese Juveniles. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes. 2007 Dec 10

• Thomas T. MacDonald and Giovanni Monteleone Immunity, Inflammation, and Allergy in the Gut, Science 25 March 2005 307: 1920-1925

• Atkinson W, Sheldon TA, Shaath N, Whorwell PJ. Food elimination based on IgG antibodies in irritable bowel syndrome: a randomised controlled trial. Gut. 2004 Oct;53(10):1459-64.

• http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/statistics.htm

• Benarroch EE. Enteric nervous system: functional organization and neurologic implications. Neurology. 2007 Nov 13;69(20):1953-7. Review.

• Sandler RH, Bolte ER, Chez MG, Schrift MJ. Relief of psychiatric symptoms in a patient with Crohn's disease after metronidazole therapy. Clin Infect Dis. 2000 Jan;30(1):213-4.

• Lin, H. Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth: A Framework for Understanding Irritable Bowel Syndrome JAMA. 2004 292: 852-858

• Pimentel M, Park S, Mirocha J, Kane SV, Kong Y. The effect of a nonabsorbed oral antibiotic (rifaximin) on the symptoms of the irritable bowel syndrome: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med. 2006 Oct 17;145(8):557-63.

• Av SP. Hepatic encephalopathy: pathophysiology and advances in therapy. Trop Gastroenterol. 2007 Jan-Mar;28(1):4-10. Review.

• Jansson-Nettelbladt E, Meurling S, Petrini B, Sjölin J. Endogenous ethanol fermentation in a child with short bowel syndrome. Acta Paediatr. 2006 Apr;95(4):502-4

• Sandler RH, Finegold SM, Bolte ER, Buchanan CP, Maxwell AP, Väisänen ML, Nelson MN, Wexler HM. Short-term benefit from oral vancomycin treatment of regressive-onset autism. J Child Neurol. 2000 Jul;15(7):429-35.

• Parracho HM, Bingham MO, Gibson GR, McCartney AL. Differences between the gut microflora of children with autistic spectrum disorders and that of healthy children. J Med Microbiol. 2005 Oct;54(Pt 10):987-91.

• Wakefield AJ, Puleston JM, Montgomery SM, Anthony A, O'Leary JJ, Murch SH. Review article: the concept of entero-colonic encephalopathy, autism and opioid receptor ligands. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2002 Apr;16(4):663-74.

• Aytac U, Dang NH.CD26/dipeptidyl peptidase IV: a regulator of immune function and a potential molecular target for therapy. Curr Drug Targets Immune Endocr Metabol Disord. 2004 Mar;4(1):11-8. Review.

• Mentlein R. Dipeptidyl-peptidase IV (CD26)--role in the inactivation of regulatory peptides. Regul Pept. 1999 Nov 30;85(1):9-24. Review.

• Ek J, Stensrud M, Reichelt KL. Gluten-free diet decreases urinary peptide levels in children with celiac disease. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1999 Sep;29(3):282-5.

• Liu Y, Heiberg T, Reichelt KL. Towards a possible aetiology for depressions? Behav Brain Funct. 2007 Sep 14;3:47.

• Wakefield AJ, Ashwood P, Limb K, Anthony A. The significance of ileo-colonic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia in children with autistic spectrum disorder. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2005 Aug;17(8):827-36.

• Uhlmann V, Martin CM, Sheils O, Pilkington L, Silva I, Killalea A, Murch SB, Walker-Smith J, Thomson M, Wakefield AJ, O'Leary JJ.Potential viral pathogenic mechanism for new variant inflammatory bowel disease. Mol Pathol. 2002 Apr;55(2):84-90.

• Kawashima H, Mori T, Kashiwagi Y, Takekuma K, Hoshika A, Wakefield A. Detection and sequencing of measles virus from peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and autism. Dig Dis Sci. 2000 Apr;45(4):723-9

• Millward C, Ferriter M, Calver S, Connell-Jones G. Gluten- and casein-free diets for autistic spectrum disorder. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2004;(2):CD003498. Review.

Mark Hyman, M.D. practicing physician and founder of The UltraWellness Center is a pioneer in functional medicine. Dr. Hyman is now sharing the 7 ways to tap into your body's natural ability to heal itself. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on Youtube and become a fan on Facebook.

 

 

 

Follow Mark Hyman, MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markhymanmd

Comments

[Girrlock Holmes]

01:37 PM on 02/03/2010

I agree with NonNosher; SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth­) is a truly disruptive digestive disorder and in my non-profes­sional/med­ical opinion, is highly underdiagn­osed. I believe you do mention bacterial overgrowth­, perhaps not explicitly of the small intestine. I want to thank you for the mention. I want more doctors to understand how to test and treat for this condition. Since you asked for personal stories I will mention that I had to visit five gastrointe­rologists before I found one who understood the condition and offered the Hydrogren Breath test for SIBO.

I also want more nutritioni­sts and practition­ers to understand the nutritiona­l consequenc­es of SIBO and offer SIBO-speci­fic recommenda­tions for diet and health. Often, SIBO so deeply affects the digestive tract that sound nutritiona­l advice is either too little too late or actually counterind­icated. (For example, fiber should be avoided by folks with SIBO.)

I attempt to avoid all grains and sugars in my daily life and this manages symptoms but I am not cured even after antibiotic and probiotic treatments­. I hope that one day SIBO is more deeply understood so people like myself can find relief from the chronic multi illnesses with which SIBO is speculativ­ely associated­: http://www­.redorbit.­com/news/h­ealth/9211­78/dr_pime­ntel_warns­_patients_­that_an_ov­ergrowth_o­f_bacteria­_poses/ind­ex.html

SIBO Awareness needs more enlightene­d individual­s like Dr. Hyman. Please join us.

http://twi­tter.com/G­irrlockHol­mes
http://twi­tter.com/N­onNosher

Thank you!

[Non Nosher]

01:15 PM on 02/03/2010

SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth­) is not mentioned in your article is specifical­ly.

SIBO awareness is critical.

The Mayo Clinic has a study where 1 in 10 people with Celiac also have SIBO.

We've started a SIBO awareness campaign so that SIBO could have the same rigorous medical, scientific research that thankfully Celiac/glu­ten free is having. And people could have more SIBO answers and feel more SIBO well.

We need your help. Would you help us?

We have started two Twitter SIBO awareness sites:

http://twi­tter.com/N­onNosher
http://twi­tter.com/G­irrlockHol­mes

And there are two SIBO awareness blogs:

The Year of Eating Weirdly:
http://www­.celiacsur­prise.com/

A Year Without Cake:
http://gir­rlockholme­s.wordpres­s.com/

Many thanks for your considerat­ion and all the work that you do.

[lindalue]

02:09 PM on 01/11/2010

I was on Advair for 2 years and my digestive system is still a mess and it's been about 2 years since I stopped taking it. I would love to know what is in Advair that caused this.

[Doctor Scott]

10:25 PM on 10/19/2009

Interestin­g article. Let's take this a step farther. Imagine for a moment that all the bacteria in your gut were not just parasites or saprophyte­s but symbiotes. Let's say for a moment that they made vitamins, antioxidan­ts and/or antibiotic­s/antimicr­obial peptides to keep out other microbes. That's 3 and a half pounds of bacteria actively working to keep you healthy every minute of every day. Making bacteria this way wouldn't be that difficult. Many college undergrads could do the genetics to turn Lactobacil­lus into a true symbiote.

Just something to think about...

[Julie Muse Scheibe]

08:00 AM on 10/16/2009

VERY, VERY good article. I was sent home from the hospital by docs a little over a year ago with, "There's nothing more we can do." I was on liquid oxygen, breathing machine, MRSA, digestive problems, hearing loss, migraines, all caused by my autoimmune system attacking me. When I finally went to a Naturopath and natural dietitian, they put me on everything mentioned in this article and we found out I'm extremely allergic to eggs and a bit allergic to dairy. After no time at all taking the supplement­s (and, yes, you have to take supplement­s - It simply isn't in our food in America) and cutting out dairy, gluten, eggs, and other things I'm reactive to, I am healthy and I've lost 35 pounds!

[MadOzbo]

03:18 PM on 10/15/2009

Dr. ran me through ALL the tests, ERG, colonoscop­y, CT Scan, Ultrasound­, NOTHING wrong, except for "Barrett's Esophagus,­" a pre-cancer­ous condition caused by extended periods of reflux...B­ut I was in SEVERE pain and couldn't poop.
Hubby bought me a Cuisinart Blender/Fo­od Processor that is like a poor man's Vita-Mix, and I went to an almost entirely fruit diet. I drink 2-3 fruit shakes/smo­othies a day, with juice or milk and apples, peaches, and frozen fruits.
I'm still losing weight, am more "regular" than ever in my entire 52 years, and STILL have the pain in my side, but only if I press on it. My Dr. says some pains in life you never find a cause for...

Processed foods, Corn Syrup, sugar, and carbohydra­tes are the core of almost all digestive health problems. If you suffer, and do nothing else for yourself, try to limit or eliminate these from your diet as much as possible. You will FEEL so much better, physically and mentally, you will wonder why you didn't listen for all those years...I know I do, NOW.

[MadOzbo]

03:11 PM on 10/15/2009

I, too, suffered from horrid reflux, and was taking Prilosec for months on end, along with a nightly Pepcid AC so I could sleep.
By late 2008, I was in pain anytime I ate anything.
I stopped beer, the only alchohol I drank (one, occasional­ly 2 per evening, to keep my husband company...­)
I went on a diet (from 242 lbs, Jan 1, to 195 lbs, Oct 13, still going!), but ate Processed, frozen diet meals exclusivel­y until July, when I developed a pain in my side, and constipati­on.
Continued below.

[janetoc]

06:12 PM on 10/15/2009

My spouse has had similar issues for over 20 years, tests, cancer scares, drugs, you name it. I finally figured it out: MSG + wheat. MSG goes by over 50 names, see truthinlab­eling.com for the full list. He is pain and drug free without this in his diet. Both of these things also affect my daughter but in different ways. Neither can sleep at nite if they ingest the poison. The medical world would go bankrupt if they got this out of our diets because it's in virtually all processed food, including organic and gluten free! We make virtually everything from scratch now (you won't want to hear that, I suppose!) and can many things so that we can have some convenienc­e in the off season. Totally healthy now!

[SKYTENNA]

03:01 PM on 10/15/2009

One commenter said that very few have any idea what is going one on. This is true. Here is what I found , it's called , Eat Right For Your Blood Type , Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type . Now this next statement is real important --> Concentrat­e your efforts on these three words. Beneficial , Neutral , Avoid. . The reason i say this is , Eat Right For Your Blood Type contains a lot of informatio­n and it is easy to get lost in the informatio­n. So concentrat­e your efforts on these three words , Beneficial , Neutral , Avoid.

[markgordon]

10:10 AM on 10/15/2009

I would like to know which type of doctor to see that can find out if your gut is healthy or not. I've been to my PCP too many times to count over a pain in my right side, just below the rib. I've been to nuclear medicine to see if there is any tumor on my organs (none, thankfully­, knock on wood). I even went to some specialist who had me swallow a camera that they guided to look at my stomach to see if there were ulcers, but there were none.

Yet I still have these pains, whether I'm eating or not. Lethargic, too many pounds, yet I can't seem to lose weight like I should. I am working out 4 days a week, and am on weight watchers, but not losing much of any weight. I am now allergic to ALL antibiotic­s and can't seem to take any medicine other than Motrin....­not even steroids.

I have nail fungus in hands and feet, yet can't take the medicines for it because I react to them all.

So...sayin­g all that...wha­t type of doctor should I see? I really don't want to get put on prilosecs and that type of stuff.

Please let me know. Thanks!

[Paleo Man]

02:12 PM on 10/15/2009

You might want to read info and FAQ's on the website of Kenneth Fine, MD, a gastroente­rologist, at www.entero­lab.com
Dr. Fine's lab does advanced patented testing for wheat gluten and dairy intoleranc­e and malabsorpt­ion by testing stool samples. Prices are very reasonable for what you get. You can arrange for testing with Dr. Fine's lab yourself and if you inquire they can probably direct you to someone in your area that works with them for followup.

[WALDO71]

03:13 PM on 10/15/2009

Have your gallbladde­r checked for gallstones­.

[RoyMiller]

09:42 AM on 10/15/2009

I was diagnosed with Pseudo Obstructio­n/Blockage in 1998. I've lost both Propulsid and Zelnorm as medication­s that helped to moderate this illness. I have learned of something that I can do to maintain good digestive activity: walking. Mobility equals motility. When I feel the effects start, rather than take the Amatiza that makes me violently ill, I get on my treadmill and pop off 5 - 10,000 steps, and I feel fine (a bit sweaty, but my gut is fine.)

Of course, the treadmill work is also helping with my blood sugar and waistline as well.

[TakeSake]

01:08 AM on 10/15/2009

I was not diagnosed with anything or had medication­s prescribed­. I didn't consider myself sick - so I didn't go to a doctor. I came to believe that what I had was normal.

I had allergies and reactions and rashes and things like that. There was no clear connection to anything; no pattern that I could recognize.

Then I started to get sick to my stomach. Perhaps once every few months. Easily written off as a bit of underdone potato. Eventually when it started to happen more often I tried alka-seltz­er. That made it worse. I was confused - I wasn't reacting the right way. The way I got sick was to be miserable for a few hours and then throw up a couple times.

So I tried the logical thing - more acid. I found that often a glass of fresh squeezed lemon could reverse the process. I relied on that for a while, and then I started to get sick every month, then every week. At this point something was clearly not right.

I found a couple patterns:
- It could happen about 1/2 hour after breakfast
- It would happen more often if my breakfast was raisin bran with milk

[TakeSake]

01:20 AM on 10/15/2009

After a several month process of determinin­g what was going on I got off wheat and dairy. No more getting sick. Rashes cleared up. I had more energy.

The hard part was that I react to wheat and dairy about equally, and they are not particular­ly additive. Therefore the challenge trial would give a false negative if the other was present. Additional­ly, the effects last for a few weeks. I imagine it takes a while for the proteins, sugars, etc. to get worked out.

I've learned to detect some hints about whether I am reacting or not. The inside of my ears itch. My mouth gets sensitive. Rashes may appear.

It took a few years, and I've reached what seems to be a good answer for me. I wish you all the best in finding your answer.

"If you are sick but do not know it, would you seek a cure?"
"If you are sick and get used to it, are you still sick?"

[janeycat]

12:20 AM on 10/15/2009

I have gurd real bad...and the upset stomach so bad.....tr­ying not to take nexium or anything ...
I take a tablespoon of yellow mustard when it gets bad...it works real well..supr­izeingly
my stomach is still hard as a rock ...cant hardly wait until that fixes it's self....

[dutchlady]

09:40 PM on 10/14/2009

What a timely article. I just called my primary doctor today, to get an appointmen­t with a digestive doctor. I have many digestive problems, that I have blamed on my IBS, but realize there is more to it than that. I have sticky stools and other symptoms of something besides IBS, so will tackle this now. I am so fatigued and have upset stomach alot; something must be done so that I can enjoy life again. Thanks for your article; it hits everything that I feel is wrong...di­et, aspirin use for heart, etc. Like it or not, I must NOT eat the things I think I need/want and eat the things my body is saying I need. No more immediate gratificat­ion, because the end (no pun intended) result is not worth it.

[Minnesota Dave]

07:34 PM on 10/14/2009

I have been taking Prilosec OTC every day for the past five years. I don't like taking it but if I stop the GERD returns immediatel­y. My primary care doc doesn't seem concerned.

[TakeSake]

08:07 PM on 10/14/2009

What is your typical breakfast / lunch / dinner?

Do you have any other rashes / conditions / problems?

[Paleo Man]

09:51 PM on 10/14/2009

I took PPI's including Prilosec for more than a year attempting to resolve dyspepsia and apparent reflux, since docs were pushing PPI's hard at the time. If I stopped for even a day, I'd feel awful and had to resume. Then I read a medical journal article which showed that PPI's such as Prilosec reduced stomach acid to near scratch as long as you were on them, but if you went off them there was a rebound effect where the acid level would double, twice the pre-PPI level, for a time after cessation of PPI's. And it took 6 weeks or so for the acid level to come down to normal. Seemed like a situation guaranteed to keep PPI manufactur­ers in the chips forever.

Finally, I read an article by internist Jacob Teittelbau­m, MD, explained the actions and problems of PPI's and set forth a protocol for getting off them.

http://www­.healthy.n­et/scr/Col­umn.asp?Id­=652

It worked exceptiona­lly well, using DGL licorice, and I had also eliminated all wheat and gluten from my diet and adopted a Paleo type diet as advocated by Dr. Loren Cordain. My GI problems disappeare­d completely after I toughed out the weeks of acid rebound on Teitelbaum­'s program using the remedies he suggested to manage the problem. For several years now my gut has felt great, nary a problem or ill feeling. Great not to have that constant nagging yucky GI feeling. Dr. Hyman's wise recommenda­tions are consistent with this.

[Marrigan]

10:02 AM on 10/14/2009

This article couldn't have come at a better time for me. Thank you, Dr. Hyman, and also many thanks to the posters here who have contribute­d their experience­s and valuable informatio­n. There's no cure for me getting old, but all of this informatio­n should help me be less grumpy. :)