Heartburn drugs can severely damage your kidneys - how can homeopathy, nutrition and supplements help?

If you or one of your friends are on a type of drugs called “proton pump inhibitors“, then you’d better read or forward this newsletter. This type of drugs includes omeprazole, lansoprazole, pantoprazole, esomeprazole and rabeprazole and their use may be re-classified after new scientific research widely reported in the media showed that they may increase significantly the risk of kidney damage: over five years, it almost doubles up your risk of kidney failures.

Here are some explanations that may help you understand a bit more about the role of your stomach, your kidneys and how they link to your overall health. It will also point on what you can do.

Why are heartburn drugs affecting kidneys (and your overall health)?

Heartburn is caused by a surge of acidity in the stomach, usually during or after digestion. It can also happen to some people away from a meal. This acidic stomach juice is travelling upwards to the esophagus and bring a burning sensation within that delicate tube.
To palliate this, chemical drugs are used to reduce the ability of the stomach to create this acid juice. The body wants to create over-acidity in the stomach and it becomes prevented chemically to do so.
Lower down our body, we have two kidneys, whose primary functions, are to control the level of body fluids (water) and also to control the acidity/alkaline levels of our body by filtering acid and alkaline compounds out of our blood.
Over a long term of 5 years, by disturbing the acidity balance in the stomach, the side-effects of these drugs, as shown in this latest scientific study have a widespread effect on the whole body by disturbing acidity/alkaline balance of the body and disrupting kidney functions, which can be fatal or life-threatening.

Why does the stomach require an acidic environment?

The stomach’s role is to start breaking down our food before it is further broken and digested lower down the digestive track. We also absorb some acidity-sensitive vitamins within the stomach.
As you may remember from your chemistry classes, acids dissolve: this acid environment is not key for the breaking down process of vegetables but it is primordial to digest complex proteins, like dairy, meat, fish or eggs, and also some carbohydrates.
What you may not know however, is that the stomach does not produce much of the stomach juices, and most of it is produced by the liver and the pancreas and carried into the stomach.
So a poory diet or a weakened liver or pancreas will affect the stomach environment during your digestion.

Why can you do to control or reduce stomach acidity with nutritional therapy?

Taking chemical drugs will help you reduce the intensity of heartburn, but this should be ideally used only in extreme cases and with a medium-term strategy to wean off these drugs and allows the body to balance stomach acidity naturally. This is because this study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology has shown that over a period of five years, those taking proton pump inhibitors had a 28% increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease and a 96% greater risk of suffering kidney failure,

If you suffer from heartburn, but only on occasional basis, then you can probably improve your condition through some lifestyle changes:
– first, make sure to drink your allocation of pure normal water, which is a minimum of 2 litres a day: our body and kidneys eliminates over-acidity via urine, so drinking plenty of water during the day will help your kidney and acidity balance.
– arrange your diet to help your liver and pancreas: these two organs produce most of the stomach enzymes, the bits that allow the stomach to start digestion. But they also have a role in protein and carbohydrate metabolism. So, make sure to make it easy for these organs, by reducing your amount of refined carbohydrate and also not mixing too much your proteins during the same meal. You can find more suggestions on my website.
– eat the right amount of proteins at every meal: the digestive process generates a lot of wear and tear, and we need the right amount of proteins to repair our body, especially to repair our digestive track. While cutting down on proteins may help in the short-term, it may also deprive you from key nutrients in the long run. This can be calculated with specialist equipment, such as the one, I have at my clinic.
If after a month, this does not work, then it means that your issues are more chronic, than you think, and check the section below.

What shall I do if I suffer from chronic or severe stomach heartburn, using homeopathy in addition?

In that case, you probably have a much compromised digestive system and the body has an inability to regulate normal acidity for an optimal digestive system.
Beside diet changes, strengthening a weakened liver and also possibly your kidneys and your pancreas will be required. I usually use a range of homeopathic tand herbal support such as Milk Thistle, Cynara and especially Erythraea Centaurium. Most of these products are now regulated, which means, that you cannot get them off the shelf, even if they are much safer than omeprazole!

I have extremely good success with stomach issues and heartburn, and adding an individual nutritional programme such as Metabolic Balance has helped me to achieve great results much faster. While, I was expecting a full re-balancing within 3 months, with Metabolic Balance, I now feel confident to have significant improvement within a month.

If you need more information, please contact me by simply responding to this email.