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
