A new Paradigm on Acid Reflux

By Meghan Yost, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Every day, 70 million people in the United States suffer from digestive problems like heartburn, acid reflux, indigestion, constipation and diarrhea. Many turn to prescription drugs to control the acid in their stomachs, but some doctors say acid isn’t the problem.

“It’s very simple; we’re not digesting our food,” Mayer Eisenstein, M.D., medical director of Homefirst Health Services and host of the weekly XM satellite radio show The Dr. Mayer Eisenstein Radio Show, told Ivanhoe. He says adding digestive enzymes and probiotics to our diets can help solve this issue. According to Dr. Eisenstein, the body has a limited supply of digestive enzymes and every 10 years, we lose about 13 percent of them. Western diets also typically consist of cooked and processed food, which can further deplete enzymes. Probiotics, or lactic acid bacteria, can help digest dairy products as well as nutrients like folic acid, riboflavin and vitamin B12, Dr. Eisenstein says.

Using enzymes, probiotics and stevia -- a natural sweetener which has also been show to aid in heartburn -- Dr. Eisenstein created a chewable tablet that he estimates has helped up to 98 percent of the 5,000 patients he’s treated with it. To also aid in digestion, he recommends people eat slower, cook foods less thoroughly and chew sugarless gum after a meal, which has been shown to ease acid reflux. He also says not to drink fluids during a meal, which can wash food into the stomach before the enzymes in saliva break it down.

Proton pump inhibitors (Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec) -- a type of acid-reducing medication -- are supposed to be prescribed for only two months, but, according to Dr. Eistenstein, the average patient uses them for five years. Dr. Eisenstein says he never prescribes antacid drugs to his patients because they have been shown to increase the risk of developing pneumonia and, in people over 50, increase the incidence of breaking a hip.

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SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Mayer Eisenstein, M.D.; 16th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine & Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in Orlando, Fla., April 23 - 27, 2008