Acid Reflux Caused by too Little Acid
Pharmaceutical drugs prescribed to reduce the amount of stomach acid have been found to cause a heavy decrease in magnesium levels. These drugs, known as proton pump inhibitors, are supposed to reduce the amount of stomach acid in your body in order to treat conditions like acid reflux or ulcers. Unfortunately, along with reducing stomach acid they also reduce magnesium levels to a dangerous low, causing big pharma to actually recommend going off of the drug if magnesium supplementation does not solve the problem.
The most common drugs prescribed for gastroesophageal reflux disease are Nexium, Protonix, and Prevacid, to name a few. The majority of the cases of low magnesium caused by these drugs and other similar drugs occurred after 1 year of use. For some cases, however, magnesium levels plummeted only after 3 months. If someone has low magnesium levels, that person is likely to experience muscle spasms, seizures, and irregular heartbeat. Is it worth taking the drug? Probably not, but that isn’t the only reason why.
Related Read: How to Treat Acid Reflux Naturally
The proton pump inhibitors halt the production of stomach acid in the esophagus in order to help conditions like acid reflux and gastritis. The problem is that the acid in your gastrointestinal tract is vital for overall health. Without the acid in your body, a whole host of other complications can arise such as cancer, neurological disorders, chronic infections, obesity, and then some. In fact, the condition are not even caused by too much acid, it’s actually caused by too little acid due to acid escaping from where it is supposed to remain.
In order to get around all of the problems surrounding the drugs and the conditions and the magnesium deficiency, here’s what you can try.
- If taking proton pump inhibitors, gradually wean yourself off of them. Take lower doses each week until you are finally able to stop taking them altogether.
- Buy organic apple cider vinegar and drink 2 teaspoons daily in 8 oz of water
- Get some sun, take some vitamin d3 supplements
- Use Himalayan salt
- Eat more raw foods, fruits and vegetables, and try to buy organic
Additional Sources: