A low-carb cure

[mike_d]

I just read in MedZines free 2nd quarter 07 edition pp16 :The Atkins diet may relieve GERD symptoms in two days, a study at University of North Carolina just revealed.Well hold the grits and biscuits 'n gravy ... ironically the facing page is a full color 4 pages ad for Nexium free trial :lol:

They did say, "while health experts already advocate eating less white bread and sugar" check with your doctor before going on any diet though.

What "experts" very few I have heard from can condemn sugar-- its a sacred cow :nono:

The tide may be turning.

http://www.healthyupdates.com/general/articles/content?cid=964&ctid=2

[Jules443]

I have experienced this myself---have terrible GERD. when I do low cab it vanishes! NO meds needed!

[HappyLC]

I have experienced this myself---have terrible GERD. when I do low cab it vanishes! NO meds needed!

Me, too, Jules. My gastroenterologist told me to cut out caffeine, alcohol, and fatty foods, and prescribed Prilosec. The prilosec gave me terrible headaches, the diet didn't help, and I decided I would just have to eat Tums constantly for the rest of my life. Then I went on Atkins and by the third day I had no symptoms at all. I can even have coffee and alcohol with no problem. (The alcohol slows my weightloss, unfortunately, but has no effect on the GERD.)

I wonder when they're going to start recommending Atkins to GERD patients?

[mike_d]

I wonder when they're going to start recommending Atkins to GERD patients?Probably when they start recommending it to diabetics.

[mammac-5]

No doubt. As part of the medical community, I will attest to the fact that NO drugs are "pushed" harder to primary care physicians than PPIs (Proton Pump Inhibitors) for treatment of GERD. The pharmaceutical companies have incredible competition where this class of drugs is concerned.

As a "veteran" low carber, I experienced this first-hand. Used to sleep with the bottle of TUMS next to my bed so I could just roll over and eat a few in the middle of the night on an almost-nightly basis. Had tried PPIs but they gave me intolerable constipation. I was destined for esophagoscopy in my near future...then I started LC. It took about 3 or 4 days before I realized that the TUMS bottle had gone untouched.

Amazing!

[LC FP]

NO drugs are "pushed" harder to primary care physicians than PPIs (Proton Pump Inhibitors) for treatment of GERD.
How devastating will this lifestyle be to the pharmaceutical industry?

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

[Abd]

I had the same experience as others have reported here. I typically woke up in the morning with a sore throat. If I ate too much, and sometimes when I didn't, I'd have obvious reflux. It all stopped, *totally*, when I went on Atkins.

I used to think it was the fat!

One of the Atkins critics quoted here on low-carb.org, gave as an example of how ridiculous Atkins' claims were that supposedly the diet helped with reflux.... not so ridiculous, from all the voices chiming in. But anecdotal evidence is always problematic, we might just be hearing from people who had this result and not from all the others.... so it's nice to see a study that confirms it.

[catfishghj]

Count me as cured by low carb from that also. When are they going to do the low carb cures type II diabetes studies?

[Azlocarb]

I’ve never had a problem with GERD or acid reflex so when I started seeing all the ads on TV for the “cure” to acid reflex disease I got curious. For one thing I had never heard of acid reflex disease so I did a search on the net and found that it is not a disease, it is a symptom. Basically what I found is that our digestive system has some controls built in that are supposed to insure that food is digested correctly. What happens is that the colon senses that what is passing through is not digested correctly and signals the stomach to pump out more acid. In the case of GERD sufferers the extra acid does not do the trick so the colon says put out more and more acid. The drug companies have found a way to turn off the acid pumps but that does nothing to fix the problem in the digestive system. If you notice that at the end of most of the commercials for the drugs they say something like “Use of this product may not correct an underlying digestive problem”.

[Daryl]

Another cured of heartburn here. I was chewing antacids like candy for years, and I have not had heartburn once, NOT ONCE, since beginning low carbing.

[Azlocarb]

On another message board I frequent there is a guy that has GERD and was asking what he can do to get rid of it. I posted the link to the article and someone posted the following comment:

Go see your doc, get some professional advice, and maybe some better meds. I've been on Nexium for close to a year now and have seen a big improvement in my health.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.