Heart Burn

Dr Turner,

I wanted to tell you about a natural cure that I found recently.

I have struggled with acid indigestion/sour stomach for almost 20 years now. Unfortunately, I must have inherited a bad digestion system from both sides of my family. I remember both sets of grandparents living off of Tums and Alka-Seltzer. Since my college years, I have tried to eat bland foods, refrain from eating hours before bedtime, and also kept Tums, Alka-Seltzer, and Rolaids in the house and eventually had Tagemet and then Prilosec.

As I mentioned at my appointment recently, I had started researching this and found that people were taking natural, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar to cure their own stomach problems. At first, I was not only skeptical, but downright doubtful since taking an acid to relieve and acid problem seem contradictory. Luckily, I kept investigating and decided to finally try it. I followed what appears to be a common method by many people for several weeks. That common method seems to be a couple of tablespoons twice a day or a bit less before each meal. The two main sites that gave me the most information about this are below:

A natural way to treat heartburn is with apple cider vinegar; a tablespoon twice a day. it can be mixed with honey and hot water, taken in juice, taken alone, etc. the following article gives good reasons not to take pharmaceuticals chronically for heartburn.

<http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/vinegar-and-acid-reflux.html>

The results are nothing short of amazing for me. I feel like I have what I would consider a normal digestion system now. Of course, I get some acid indigestion once in a while, but nothing like the burning, acid-induce pain on a daily basis. I even eat Mexican without fear! Totally changed this area of my life to the point that I no longer take OTC or prescribed medications. When I do have a little indigestion, I take activated charcoal and that nearly always clears up the discomfort.

I would recommend this to anyone, at least to try it for a while. There are many ways you can ‘doctor’ up the ACV so that it’s much more palatable (honey, on salads, and even in apple juice). I don’t take nearly as much as I did before, but I like to continue taking it because ACV has so many other benefits, as well.