If you are new to this site, you should first read my How I Cured My Silent Reflux article as it explains the underlying root causes of acid reflux, its corresponding treatments, and provides the necessary context to follow some of the concepts in this episode. Note that the concepts in the article apply to acid reflux, GERD, and Silent Reflux. After reading that article, if you would like to learn more you might consider my book:
For a comprehensive / easy to follow plan, additional rationale, and the steps I took to resolve my reflux, get my #1 best-selling book 'How I Cured My Silent Reflux | The Counterintuitive Path to Healing Acid Reflux, GERD, and Silent Reflux (LPR).' Also available in audiobook!
Let's face it, its incredibly difficult to know what you can and cant eat as it sometimes feels like everything triggers symptoms. A list of common reflux triggers is hit or miss, so where do you start to determine what is safe to eat? Furthermore, how long should you expect to maintain this diet and are you even making progress?
We will discuss these challenges and potential solutions in my new online training course "The Un-Cookbook." I have released the first of three modules and you can get it now for a limited time, at its introductory price. As the additional modules release, the price will be updated. Enroll now and you will gain access to the new modules at no additional cost!
Episode Transcript
(Note this is not a word-for-word transcription - it's loosely paraphrased. Alternatively, feel free to watch on youtube or listen on your favorite podcast app here).
Welcome To Episode 0 of The Reflux Cycle. I am your Host, Don Daniels, a.k.a The Acid Reflux Guy. I’m the founder of The Acid Reflux Guy.com and best selling author of ‘How I Cured My Silent Reflux: The counter-intuitive path to healing acid reflux, GERD and silent reflux.”
I suffered escalating forms of reflux for more than 15 years and dealt with a wide range of symptoms, many of which I didn’t attribute to reflux.
Looking back, it is painfully clear that the combination of medical intervention and poor lifestyle choices got me into and escalated my path along the reflux cycle. It was a holistic, natural approach however that got me out.
I vividly remember my First doctor visit. He explained to me that I had two choices 1) to take proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or develop throat cancer and die. So given those two options my choice was pretty clear.
He later explained that the medications really shouldn’t be taking longer than two weeks. I later found that my symptoms couldn’t be managed without the newly prescribed medicine and I got my prescription refilled.
Had I been a little more skeptical, I might have realized that just two weeks prior, my indigestion, while irritating wasn’t unmanageable without medication. It should have been my first clue that the medications were not helpful, but harmful. I had just entered the reflux cycle.
This was repeated three more times over 15 years with doctors each being surprised that I was taking the medications for as long as I had, stating I shouldn’t take them long term because of severe side effects, only to double my prescription because they didn’t have any alternatives to offer me.
Amazingly, about halfway into my 15 years I received my very first diagnostics: an EGD which inserts a small camera into your esophagus and down into your stomach. They found that I have polyps in my stomach, which are little bumpy profusions that occur when you’re taking PPIs for an extended period. They also biopsied them for signs of cancer – thankfully, non cancerous, but i have not had a follow up EGD. Hopefully no cancer has developed in the intervening period, but I don’t know… something that is a daunting prospect me for me in the future.
The other thing they observed as that I have a hiatal hernia which is a protrusion of the stomach out through the diaphragm which makes it more likely for you to experience reflux. My ENT explained that my hiatal hernia was the reason for my reflux. That just completely deflated me. At that point I believed that I would never have a future without acid reflux and I really lost all hope.
Now as I was reaching the end of my 15 years with acid reflux, my symptoms grew completely out of control. My visit do the doctor yielded two more diagnostics. One of those was an h pylori test. Never before, and I hoped that I had a disease. at least in this case it would have been named and perhaps been something that I could tackle with help from the doctor.
The other diagnostic that I received was a sleep apnea test. This was because in addition to the coughing, hacking fits I had at night, my wife told me I stopped breathing sometimes. One of the thighs that I’ve uncovered as I’ve researched this more heavily is that acid reflux, particularly silent reflux, is often misconstrued as other diseases. This diagnostic too came back negative.
By the grace of God a friend commented on me rubbing my fingers as they were tingling. To my surprise, after seeing that she asked if I had acid reflux and advised me that tingling extremities was a common side effect of B12 deficiency which was a common side effect of reflux. This was all the encouragement I needed to research the underlying causes of reflux, something I hope to discussed in great detail on this podcast
As I am writing the outline for this first podcast I received this amazing note from a follower on Instagram: “Your book has changed my husbands life! We are following your guide and he is off the pantoprazole. He has tried a few trigger foods over the past week with no incidents. We will continue to stick with this new lifestyle and way to eat. Thank you for sharing your journey and knowledge to help others heal!”
Since healing my reflux, I have been on a mission to rewrite the narrative around reflux and to give others, like this husband and wife, hope and information that I didn’t during the darkest 15 years of my life.
I plan to release a minimum of one episode weekly, though I may add episodes based on new research that I find, relevant news releases, or in response to your questions.
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Disclosure: This is a free website so I do advertise to cover the costs of website hosting and other services. If you find the information on this site useful, please consider making a purchase using the following links as I will earn a small commission at no cost to you.
I want to help you understand the risk factors that get you into, and keep you spinning round the reflux cycle. Armed with that understanding I hope you are able to break out of the recycle and avoid re-entering it down the line
For those of you that consume my other content, you know that I avoid speculative information. If you have searched for natural remedies of your own you know there is a lot of it out there. To do that, I will provide references and links to medical journals, scientific papers backed by studies and meta-studies so that you know where the information is sourced from
I may do some interviews in the future or Q&A shows just depending on you feedback.
I would love for this show to be crowd sourced and for the direction to be based on your input so drop me a line.
Remember, before you try another reflux remedy, be sure that you can explain how it helps to get you off of the reflux cycle, by addressing the underlying causes of reflux, something we will explore in detail in this podcast series
If you want to know how to take the next step, you can go to theacidrefluxguy.com/getstarted
Lastly, this is important disclosure. Listeners should consider me part of the health and wellness media. And as such, be aware that the information included in this show is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment by a healthcare professional. Because of unique individual needs, the listener should consult their physician to determine the appropriateness of the information for their situation.
My name is Don Daniels aka The Acid Reflux Guy, this was episode 0 of The Reflux Cycle show.
Don Daniels
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