Oh no… It’s happening again… Indigestion… Your stomach boils… You feel your heart in your throat… It’s indigestion and you pull out the antacids. How long have you been taking them for? When will they become a problem? Notice the “when” instead of an “if.” That’s because antacids are not a viable long-term strategy for fighting indigestion. With so many people in the world suffering from indigestion, it’s understandable as to why people would worry about a long-term strategy for fighting indigestion, but antacids are not the solution. In fact, they can even prove to be dangerous.
With antacids, you’re not solving the problem, but rather masking it. Acid indigestion is the result of not having enough stomach acid along with intestinal flora imbalance. Without being digested, the food has trouble passing through the small intestine. When this happens, the food sits in the stomach fermenting. As the food ferments, it bubbles and rolls about, resulting in acid reflux. The acid rises into the esophagus, causing pain and discomfort that is easily noticed by the sufferer.
What Happens What Someone Takes An Antacid?
When you throw back an antacid, you’re able to cease the pain and discomfort, but it is also just putting a mask on the issue. The food does not go away, but rather gets inside of the intestinal tract. When the food gets stuck in there, it’s still fermenting and still has the potential to cause a variety of other issues. Your body will not obtain the nutrition it needs, your immune system feels a negative impact, and the digestive system is being overworked to a point that it’s straining. In essence, if you have indigestion and take antacids, you’re not really doing anything to resolve the issue, but rather throwing a Band-Aid on it and hoping for the best.
Problems Caused By Long-Term Antacid Use
There are some serious dangers associated with long-term antacid use and it’s important to know the risks prior to taking them. For example, proton pump inhibitors, one of the more popular medications utilized for acid reduction in heartburn, has the potential to cause bone loss as well as vitamin B12 deficiency if it is used long-term. While other medications with fewer side effects exist, the fact of the matter is that they still have negative impacts on health when used long-term.
The problem here is that this is just a temporary fix rather than fixing the actual problem. Why is the body doing this? How can we resolve this issue? Using antacid medication makes it so the stomach acid ceases, but the acid is necessary for the stomach to protect itself. There are other ways of going about resolving these issues and they do not involve taking medication that has the potential to harm you. Eating more fresh and organic vegetables and fruits has the ability to greatly impact acid reflux. Diet has a lot to do with ensuring you don’t have these kinds of problems. Raw apple cider vinegar being taken in a glass of water prior to every meal can assist in reducing the chances of this occurring as well. Even dry chia seeds can be ingested in an attempt to absorb any unwanted acid that is causing you pain or discomfort.
The Normal Digestion Process
The stomach is built for digestion, but it needs to have a healthy pH environment for it to be effective. This is why stomach acid is necessary. The acid aids in digesting proteins and is a major component of the immunity system, protecting the body from any germs that are taken in with food or water. If the environment’s pH is constantly higher than 3.0, this causes serious issues. Having a stomach pH that is higher than 3.0 makes it so there is more acid being secreted in an attempt to lower the pH. Using the medication to resolve this issue results in the stomach acid being messed with, raising the pH to higher than 3.0. This makes it so the stomach is not functioning properly anymore and sends it out of whack. With this being known, the digestive track is given a mess of trouble due to the intense work it has to complete when the food is not being broken down properly. This ultimately leads to fermentation, gas, and bloating. The body can even become allergic to certain foods that it would typically not have nay trouble digesting if the stomach’s pH was correct.
Taking antacids may seem like a good option, but it’s only a temporary fix. Treating this problem may be better left to natural treatments as opposed to harmful medications that have numerous negative health impacts associated with them. When you feel the pain of heartburn or acid reflux, you may want to try taking some apple cider vinegar instead. The long-term impacts of using antacids for chronic acid reflux are simply not worth the temporary relief.
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