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A new Paradigm on Acid Reflux
Reported April 29, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Every day, 70 million people in
the United States suffer from digestive problems like heartburn, acid
reflux, indigestion, constipation and diarrhea. Many turn to prescription
drugs to control the acid in their stomachs, but some doctors say acid isn’t
the problem.
“It’s very simple; we’re not digesting our food,” Mayer Eisenstein, M.D.,
medical director of Homefirst Health Services and host of the weekly XM
satellite radio show The Dr. Mayer Eisenstein Radio Show, told Ivanhoe. He
says adding digestive enzymes and probiotics to our diets can help solve
this issue. According to Dr. Eisenstein, the body has a limited supply of
digestive enzymes and every 10 years, we lose about 13 percent of them.
Western diets also typically consist of cooked and processed food, which can
further deplete enzymes. Probiotics, or lactic acid bacteria, can help
digest dairy products as well as nutrients like folic acid, riboflavin and
vitamin B12, Dr. Eisenstein says.
Using enzymes, probiotics and stevia -- a natural sweetener which has also
been show to aid in heartburn -- Dr. Eisenstein created a chewable tablet
that he estimates has helped up to 98 percent of the 5,000 patients he’s
treated with it. To also aid in digestion, he recommends people eat slower,
cook foods less thoroughly and chew sugarless gum after a meal, which has
been shown to ease acid reflux. He also says not to drink fluids during a
meal, which can wash food into the stomach before the enzymes in saliva
break it down.
Proton pump inhibitors (Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec) -- a type of
acid-reducing medication -- are supposed to be prescribed for only two
months, but, according to Dr. Eistenstein, the average patient uses them for
five years. Dr. Eisenstein says he never prescribes antacid drugs to his
patients because they have been shown to increase the risk of developing
pneumonia and, in people over 50, increase the incidence of breaking a hip.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Mayer Eisenstein, M.D.; 16th Annual World
Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine & Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in
Orlando, Fla., April 23 - 27, 2008
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