Acid Reflux, Tums, Feldenkrais and More

acid-refluxEver suffer the proverbial tummy ache associated with that burn or something stuck in your throat kind of feeling? Did your doc tell you that you have acid reflux or Gerd. Did he prescribe you or you self-prescribe the over counter med in the plastic container that is nice and sweet like a candy, and choc loaded with calcium carbonate? Women, do you remember until just a few years ago that the media, along with your family doc were all telling you to take it to make your bones strong and how loaded it is in calcium for you?

Tums, I’m here to talk about Tums, the acid reducer chew from your local drug store, right off the shelf, prescribed for so many who suffer the woes of occasional heart burn.

If Tums was made to reduce acid in the stomach, then how can it possibly help you produce strong bones? The real story goes something like this…

Gastrin is the hormone primarily created to stimulate acid production in the stomach. If you take any of these acid reducers on any kind of regular basis, what you are actually doing is lowering the acid levels, and therefore causing the body to go into overtime in production of gastrin, therefore having even higher levels of HCL in the stomach as soon as you stop taking the Tums or other chew. Burn baby burn! Who ya gonna need more now! That very same acid reducer drug!

We’re on vacation now with our sons and one of my young men had a bad case of heart burn after a spicy lunch. I put my hands on his chest and belly and could clearly feel the dysfunction of what was happening all along his throat, esophagus and the gastric esophageal sphincter. But, what’s a mom supposed to do? I worked with him using some nice Feldenkrais touch along his organs talking the organ talk. It improved, but not to our satisfaction. As we walked along, we stopped a few times and I touched him a little more along his esophagus to re-create a nice kind of functioning. Talking to his organs no differently than how we talk to the central nervous system, I spoke to his visceral nervous system.

The fait accompli was us walking by the open bar at our resort. I stopped and asked the bartenderess if she had a bottle of bitters. Bitters are used by bartenders to create more depth in their drinks. It really is quite an amazing little slurp of goodness. In the good old days, bitters were used to help in digestion and for heart burn. Bitters are simply made with a good high-proof alcohol with herbs, roots, spices or barks added to it. Let it sit for some time and voila, you have your own formulation of bitters. We poured just a splash of bitters in a glass and topped it with bubbly water, and sipped away. Within a few minutes, no more tummy ache.

Was it my hands that helped him, or the bitters concoction, or combination of both that helped my son? I guess I won’t know for sure this time. But, what I do know is we have a nice and happy family once again, and no one had to use any Tums. Instead, we used Feldenkrais touch to the organs and a splash of old fashioned ingenuity. All is well on the Silverstein front.

Elinor, mom, Feldenkrais Practitioner, and overall lover of life

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