The world is not as it seems or is it?
The Great Acid Reflux Scam
Why Stomach Acid Is Critical For Health
Story at a Glance:
•Many commonly prescribed medications are given to patients despite the risks often outweighing the benefits.
•Acid-suppressing drugs are among the worst offenders, with their overuse fueled by a lack of understanding about the crucial role of stomach acid throughout the body or that acid reflux is due to too little stomach acid (as the stomach acid of digestion gives the stomach’s opening a signal to seal and not let any more food in).
•Deficient stomach acid causes many chronic health problems (e.g., macular degeneration, a myriad of autoimmune disorders such as asthma, and less overt forms of reflux that cause many common diseases of the ears, nose, and throat such as allergies, coughs, and sinusitis).
•Acid blocking medications cause a variety of severe side effects, including a 19% increased risk of death and a comparable increase in cardiac events, kidney or liver disease, numerous infections, and bone damage.
•Thankfully, many safe natural treatments can effectively address acid reflux and many of the complications of a chronic stomach acid deficiency.
In the U.S., 66% of adults are estimated to have at least one prescription, and the average person has nine filled annually. As an awake physician, one of the most depressing aspects of my work is seeing patients, especially the elderly, weighed down by numerous prescriptions that frequently do more harm than good.
For example, as I showed here, statins provide a negligible benefit (e.g., at best, taking them for five years extends one’s lifespan by 3-4 days) but create significant side effects such as severe muscle pain and cognitive impairment for 20% of users.
This tragic situation is best demonstrated by a 2007 study which showed that simply discontinuing the least necessary prescriptions resulted in a 23% reduction in the death rate and an 18.2% decrease in hospital referrals. Sadly, since the trend in medicine is always to have people on more drugs, data like this has had no effect on the practice of the overprescription of medications.
Over the years, I’ve asked dozens of holistic doctors which widely prescribed drugs they consider to be the most unnecessary and dangerous, and in addition to statins, three frequently make their list:
•NSAID painkillers (discussed further here).
•SSRI antidepressants (discussed further here).
•Stomach acid blocking PPIs (the focus of this article).
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a very common condition, estimated to affect 20% of adults (ranging between 18.1% to 27.8% of adults in the USA), is slightly more common in women, and those numbers have been gradually increasing globally.
In addition to overt acid reflux, another condition is silent reflux (laryngopharyngeal reflux), where minor reflux occurs without causing overt heartburn. It is often the root cause of a variety of other symptoms, such as:
•Allergies
•Asthma and reactive airway diseases
•Burning in the mouth or on the tongue
•Chronic sore throat
•Ear pressure and ear infections
•Frequently feeling like you need to clear your throat (and sometimes cough)
•Post-nasal drip
•Sensation of a painless lump in the throat
•Sinus issues
While most medical conditions are overemphasized to sell more prescriptions, silent reflux is not, and it is quite rare for me to meet an otolaryngologist (ENT) who recognizes this is the root cause of their patients’ symptoms. Fortunately, silent reflux is highly responsive to lifestyle changes (e.g., not eating at night), and those measures frequently produce profound improvements for patients.
To continue reading go to the link below:
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-acid-reflux-scam
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