New information on heartburn & reflux ….
Welcome to our health & self help blog.
Focus on Your Health:
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Tuesday, 12-12-2006
New information on heartburn & reflux ….
Most doctors who treat it with the acid reducing drugs don’t yet know of a serious, health-damaging, side-effect that these drugs have.
However, if you take the drugs, there are ways you can check for this side-effect & turn it off or way down while you take the drugs.
And, there is a safe, as yet little used, procedure to turn off the reflux enough that drugs are no longer needed or can be taken in lower dosages.
If you have persistent heartburn, or even worse have it most days or every day, your doctor may well have told you that this can lead to cancer of the esophagus even if you take antacids.
And, they tend to prescribe proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec, Nexium, or Protonix, to name a few. (This is a prudent thing to do. Cancer of the esophagus is a horrible disease to get. And, the drugs do seem to prevent it effectively.)
In addition, they suggest giving up coffee, tea, tomato sauce, garlic, chocolate, & alcohol.
This combination seems to prevent cancer & reduces or eliminates heartburn.
It doesn’t help that tea, tomato sauce, garlic, & chocolate are actually good for you in other ways. Coffee has recently been reported as having some health benefits. And, 3 to 9 drinks a week of red wine or dark beer seem to have health benefits also.
And if you like these foods & drinks or are often short on sleep in a performance demanding job or get a bit overstressed, they can be quite hard to give up.
Here’s the two pieces of news:
(One is bad but can be overcome & the other is good.)
1. Here’s the bad news that you need to know:
Apparently by reducing your stomach’s acid content, heartburn & reflux symptom reducing drugs, reduce your ability to digest the key B vitamins that keep homocysteine levels low enough to protect your health.
This is quite significant since high levels, 9.0 or higher, according to one doctor who has studied the effects of high homocysteine, David Perlmutter, MD, tend to cause cardiovascular disease, age-related mental decline, accelerated aging, & reduced longevity. (Dr Perlmutter’s recent book is The Better Brain Book.)
Another doctor quoted a report saying that the number one predictor of serious health problems was high homocysteine -- even more so than sky high LDL cholesterol or other undesirable lipid measures.
He aims for homocysteine levels of 8.0 or less in his patients.
This has two implications.
First, if you take acid reducing medicines, you need to also take a B complex vitamin supplement that includes folic acid, B6, & B12 & have your homocysteine level checked at least every six months.
If you haven’t been taking B Complex vitamins, your homocysteine level may well already be high, so get it tested.
Once you have been taking B Complex vitamins for 2 or 3 months, get retested.
If it’s still high, you may be wise to add a good bit more folic acid, perhaps 800 mcg & 1,000 mcg of the methyl cobalamin form of B12, ideally in a chewable form as some is absorbed in your mouth, both daily.
And, your total B6 intake from supplements should approach but probably not go much over 100 mg per day. To fight homocysteine, you need to take more than 50 mg. But amounts much over 100 mg seem to cause neurological problems. (To illustrate, I get 10 mg of B6 from my multivitamin; 20 mg from my B Complex vitamins; & I take an additional 75 mg daily for a total of 95 mg per day.)
Then get retested again after two or three months. If your homocysteine is still 9.0 or over, you would be wise to add other supplements that lower it.
Betaine, also known as TMG or TriMethylGlycine; & NAC, or NAcetylCysteine also help to lower homocysteine. If your test results for homocysteine are still over 8.0 or 9.0 after adding both B Complex vitamins & extra folic acid, B6, & B12, it my well pay you to add NAC or TMG.
Dr Perlmutter recommends NAC. And, TMG also works. (If you have reflux, do NOT take Betaine (TMG) HCl. The HCl is Hydrochloric acid which you do NOT want more of. Jarrow makes a TMG supplement with no HCl.)
All of these vitamins & supplements are available in health food stores.
(PS: Stay AWAY from cigarette smoke whether smoking yourself or second hand smoke. It sharply INCREASES homocysteine levels. That’s one of several ways that smoking causes the cardiovascular disease that kills more people by far than the cancers smoking causes.)
The second implication is that people with heartburn & reflux who take acid reducing drugs would protect their health if they could turn off the reflux rather than take the acid reducing drugs.
2. The Stretta procedure is an effective way to turn off persistent heartburn & reflux.
It now has a several year track record of success. And, it is widely used in Europe where the payment for new medical procedures is less bureaucratic & slow than in the United States.
There are doctors in the United States now that are doing the Stretta procedure, particularly in the Atlanta area I’ve heard.
And, if you can afford or finance the $2500 to $3500 cost, you can have it done even if your HMO or insurance won’t cover it.
(Unfortunately they will likely pay later for their lack of adaptation of the Stretta when they begin to pay for the treatment of the increase in strokes & heart attacks cause by the increased homocysteine from the acid reducing drugs.)
It’s actually a simple procedure in many ways. Many people with reflux have endoscopies where the doctors put a small video camera down the esophagus.
What the Stretta adds to that is to add a microwave element, so the doctor can zap the cells in the area of the lower esophageal sphincter, or valve, just above your stomach.
Within a few weeks, 3 to 6 months is typical, your body will build up scar tissue in the area that was zapped enough to greatly strengthen this valve between your stomach & esophagus.
That prevents or greatly lessens the acid leakage that causes Reflux disease without overdoing it & making it hard to swallow or burp normally.
The company, Curon Medical, that provides it is re-organizing. But it is working to go private by February next year.
Between then & now there are doctors who can do the Stretta in the United States. And, there should be in Europe also.
(The previous surgical method for tightening this valve, Nissen Fundiplication, is major surgery, costs about 10 times as much, & does overdo it so people who have it done do have problems swallowing for awhile after it.)
Focus on Your Health:
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Tuesday, 12-12-2006
New information on heartburn & reflux ….
Most doctors who treat it with the acid reducing drugs don’t yet know of a serious, health-damaging, side-effect that these drugs have.
However, if you take the drugs, there are ways you can check for this side-effect & turn it off or way down while you take the drugs.
And, there is a safe, as yet little used, procedure to turn off the reflux enough that drugs are no longer needed or can be taken in lower dosages.
If you have persistent heartburn, or even worse have it most days or every day, your doctor may well have told you that this can lead to cancer of the esophagus even if you take antacids.
And, they tend to prescribe proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec, Nexium, or Protonix, to name a few. (This is a prudent thing to do. Cancer of the esophagus is a horrible disease to get. And, the drugs do seem to prevent it effectively.)
In addition, they suggest giving up coffee, tea, tomato sauce, garlic, chocolate, & alcohol.
This combination seems to prevent cancer & reduces or eliminates heartburn.
It doesn’t help that tea, tomato sauce, garlic, & chocolate are actually good for you in other ways. Coffee has recently been reported as having some health benefits. And, 3 to 9 drinks a week of red wine or dark beer seem to have health benefits also.
And if you like these foods & drinks or are often short on sleep in a performance demanding job or get a bit overstressed, they can be quite hard to give up.
Here’s the two pieces of news:
(One is bad but can be overcome & the other is good.)
1. Here’s the bad news that you need to know:
Apparently by reducing your stomach’s acid content, heartburn & reflux symptom reducing drugs, reduce your ability to digest the key B vitamins that keep homocysteine levels low enough to protect your health.
This is quite significant since high levels, 9.0 or higher, according to one doctor who has studied the effects of high homocysteine, David Perlmutter, MD, tend to cause cardiovascular disease, age-related mental decline, accelerated aging, & reduced longevity. (Dr Perlmutter’s recent book is The Better Brain Book.)
Another doctor quoted a report saying that the number one predictor of serious health problems was high homocysteine -- even more so than sky high LDL cholesterol or other undesirable lipid measures.
He aims for homocysteine levels of 8.0 or less in his patients.
This has two implications.
First, if you take acid reducing medicines, you need to also take a B complex vitamin supplement that includes folic acid, B6, & B12 & have your homocysteine level checked at least every six months.
If you haven’t been taking B Complex vitamins, your homocysteine level may well already be high, so get it tested.
Once you have been taking B Complex vitamins for 2 or 3 months, get retested.
If it’s still high, you may be wise to add a good bit more folic acid, perhaps 800 mcg & 1,000 mcg of the methyl cobalamin form of B12, ideally in a chewable form as some is absorbed in your mouth, both daily.
And, your total B6 intake from supplements should approach but probably not go much over 100 mg per day. To fight homocysteine, you need to take more than 50 mg. But amounts much over 100 mg seem to cause neurological problems. (To illustrate, I get 10 mg of B6 from my multivitamin; 20 mg from my B Complex vitamins; & I take an additional 75 mg daily for a total of 95 mg per day.)
Then get retested again after two or three months. If your homocysteine is still 9.0 or over, you would be wise to add other supplements that lower it.
Betaine, also known as TMG or TriMethylGlycine; & NAC, or NAcetylCysteine also help to lower homocysteine. If your test results for homocysteine are still over 8.0 or 9.0 after adding both B Complex vitamins & extra folic acid, B6, & B12, it my well pay you to add NAC or TMG.
Dr Perlmutter recommends NAC. And, TMG also works. (If you have reflux, do NOT take Betaine (TMG) HCl. The HCl is Hydrochloric acid which you do NOT want more of. Jarrow makes a TMG supplement with no HCl.)
All of these vitamins & supplements are available in health food stores.
(PS: Stay AWAY from cigarette smoke whether smoking yourself or second hand smoke. It sharply INCREASES homocysteine levels. That’s one of several ways that smoking causes the cardiovascular disease that kills more people by far than the cancers smoking causes.)
The second implication is that people with heartburn & reflux who take acid reducing drugs would protect their health if they could turn off the reflux rather than take the acid reducing drugs.
2. The Stretta procedure is an effective way to turn off persistent heartburn & reflux.
It now has a several year track record of success. And, it is widely used in Europe where the payment for new medical procedures is less bureaucratic & slow than in the United States.
There are doctors in the United States now that are doing the Stretta procedure, particularly in the Atlanta area I’ve heard.
And, if you can afford or finance the $2500 to $3500 cost, you can have it done even if your HMO or insurance won’t cover it.
(Unfortunately they will likely pay later for their lack of adaptation of the Stretta when they begin to pay for the treatment of the increase in strokes & heart attacks cause by the increased homocysteine from the acid reducing drugs.)
It’s actually a simple procedure in many ways. Many people with reflux have endoscopies where the doctors put a small video camera down the esophagus.
What the Stretta adds to that is to add a microwave element, so the doctor can zap the cells in the area of the lower esophageal sphincter, or valve, just above your stomach.
Within a few weeks, 3 to 6 months is typical, your body will build up scar tissue in the area that was zapped enough to greatly strengthen this valve between your stomach & esophagus.
That prevents or greatly lessens the acid leakage that causes Reflux disease without overdoing it & making it hard to swallow or burp normally.
The company, Curon Medical, that provides it is re-organizing. But it is working to go private by February next year.
Between then & now there are doctors who can do the Stretta in the United States. And, there should be in Europe also.
(The previous surgical method for tightening this valve, Nissen Fundiplication, is major surgery, costs about 10 times as much, & does overdo it so people who have it done do have problems swallowing for awhile after it.)
posted by David at 12:42 PM
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