Overlooking Acid Reflux Disease in Children

An 11-year-old boy in Boston developed a Gastro esophageal reflux Disease (GERD). According to his mother, Cathy, it was the end of June in the year 2005 when his son developed a cough which usually happens during sleep, and even during daytime. It is only a short dry cough symptom. His pediatrician thought it was only allergy, however, when his son was tested, result showed that his son had no allergy. According to her, it was his sons asthma that relates to GERD.

Studies show that GERD is likewise normal to infants and children like in adults, though this fact is often times being overlooked. The symptoms come in continual sickness, coughing, and other respiratory trouble.

Children are vulnerable to GERD because of their immature digestive system. Truth is majority of the infants grow out of GERD once they reach the age of one year old.

The medical specialists further stated that symptoms for children may come in difficulty in swallowing foods, or failure to grow. The doctors recommended that in situation like this it is best to lessen the amount of acid in the childrens stomach before it could lead to acid reflux, since this disease is not very curable in children.

However, the doctor suggested some approaches to avoid acid reflux on children; an example of these is burping the infant quite a few times during feeding, or letting the infant stay in an erect position for 30 minutes after nourishing.

Although, for a child ages three and up, doctors suggested to keep them off from sodas that includes caffeine like soft drinks, carbonated drinks, spicy foods like peppermint, acidic foods like citrus fruits, too much chocolate, and fried and fatty foods. Ideally, establishing a healthy eating habit diet can really decrease the acid reflux in children.

It is also suggested that children will eat smaller meals before sleeping, if possible, do not allow them to eat two to three hours before sleeping, also, elevate the head of their bed for at least 30 degrees.

Further treatments include the use of H2 blockers; this is available in any drugs store. Prevacid, proton plump inhibitors, can also be used in treating acid flux for children.

However, if these treatments fail to stop the symptoms, other treatment method needs to be done. It is very atypical, but doctors recommends surgery, this is so far the best treatment for relentless symptoms which do not anymore counter to other treatments.

The Esophageal reflux surgery for children is designated for children who have had unsuccessful medical treatments, and continuous surgery is essential as the child grows.

Now, if you get confused whether when is the time to consult a pediatrician regarding acid reflux. The answer is you observe, observe the amounts of vomiting of the child, if it already comes out in green or yellow or appears to be like blood or coffee grounds, there difficulty in breathing after vomiting, and there is pain in swallowing, immediately consult a pediatrician before the symptom gets aggravated.

So to prevent the occurrence of this disease, stay away from the habit of leaning forward after eating, or worse, sleeping after taking a large amount of food.

Take note, advanced acid reflux disease has a great possibility to end serious medical complications, and it may lead to hospitalization.

Be keen of the possible symptoms so will not overlook it. Take care of your kids.

Keeping Pregnant Women Away From Acid Reflux Dilemma

Many women tend to experience heartburn symptoms when they are still carrying their babies, and this happens for several reasons.

One of these is the increase of hormones in the womens body while they are pregnant. The occurrence of this will result in softening the ligaments which function is to keep the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) firmly closed. When the LES rests at unsuitable periods, tendency is, this will let the gastric acid and food to reflux back to the esophagus and throat.

One more reason of experiencing heartburn during pregnancy is because the changes in the body and the development of the baby creates more pressure in the womens stomach. Therefore, the stomach contents are forced right into the LES, and then to the esophagus.

However, there are several methods that a pregnant woman can observe to lessen the discomfort brought by heartburn. The following are good advices, although this may not remove the heartburn totally:

Avoid the food that triggers heartburn. Examples of this are chocolates, spicy foods, citrus fruits and juices, mustard, tomatoes and tomato based products, fatty foods, fried foods, and highly seasoned dishes. Try to refer to medical specialists to know the complete list of foods to avoid Acid Reflux. Also, for foods that you may take which contains little danger of causing heartburn.

Get rid of drinks that have caffeine, like tea, coffee, and soda. Too much of these will cause the LES to relax and let the acid to return into the esophagus.

Stay away from alcohol beverages. This, like caffeine tends to relax the LES thus, creating the same effecttriggering heartburn.

Avoid eating large meals. It is suggested that taking numerous small meals throughout the day will be better.

Avoid rush in eating your meals. Chewing food thoroughly will really help in avoidance of heartburn, so better take your time in eating.

Rest for at least three hours after having your last meal before taking your sleep.

A pregnant woman is advised to take more glasses of water a day, at least 8 to 10 glasses, though this must be taken not just during meals. Through this, the stomach will expand, and then the LES will be given more pressure, obliging it to open inappropriately. Hence, it is really recommended to drink more water and other fluids in between meals.

When sleeping elevate the head of the bed for at least six to eight inches. Try to sleep with an elevated head and shoulders through a wedge pillow. Through this, the gravity will work as much that it will keep the acids in your stomach in their placein the stomach, not in the esophagus. Try to consult physicians to gain additional knowledge on how to relieve nighttime heartburn.

Dont wear tight fitting clothes. Tightness around the waist and stomach will trigger heartburn as it causes uneasiness.

When bending, do it at the knees, not at the waist. This will avoid in creating too much pressure in the stomach.

Dont slouch; rather sit erect in a relaxing chair.

Maintain a sensible amount of weight, too much weight and fatness will give more stress in your stomach. As a result, this will force stomach contents throughout the LES and to the esophagus. Stay with your doctors guidelines.

Avoid smoking. Doctors stated that smoking could cause several effects to a pregnant woman, much that it can add to the possibility of experiencing heartburn.

Magnifying Acid Reflux

Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), the medical term for Acid Reflux is defined as the product of abnormal reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus thus, creating a mucosal damage, likewise known as the chronic symptom.

This disease strikes adult primarily, while infants and children can also be affected. Normally spurred by eating certain foods, if not pregnancy, or taking a sleep right after eating a heavy meal, a large number of persons suffer from acid reflux at one time or another.

Heartburn or acid indigestion is another name that refers to acid reflux. Heartburn, the major symptom of Acid Reflux in the esophagus, is described to cause a burning uneasiness at the back of the sternum.

The symptoms may come as coughing, voice transformation, hoarseness, constant ear ache, or sinusitis. The complications brought upon by acid reflux may lead to esophageal ulcers or worse this can lead to esophageal cancer.

However, constant heartburn sensations do not necessarily mean that one has captured GERD already. The risk occurs when heartburn happened more than once a week, this occasion could possibly lead in developing GERD.

The usual cause of GERD is the increase in acidity or gastric acid production in the body, obesity, pregnancy, or tight-fitting apparels, these all can add to the problem. The yeast infections are also thought to be one of the causes of GERD-like symptoms.

An added ironical cause of the GERD is the insufficient production of stomach acid in the body. The explanation says that the valve, the hollow organ with a flap that insure the one-way course of fluid through the organ, once emptied triggers acidity in the intestines. If the valve fails to open, the contents of the stomach will be blended into the esophagus, and then irritation occurs.

Meanwhile, there are already several treatments for GERD today, one of which is the balance and healthy eating habits. Now if proper diet fails to work, one can shift to medication therapy or surgery as suggested by the doctors. Below are the lists of several selections of Acid Reflux treatment:

Proper Diet: the natural way to cure Acid Reflux is through change in their eating habits. A good number of people affected by GERD found success in following this method. Avoid the food ingredients which can intensify heart burn such as caffeine, soft drinks, and smoking. Avoid eating two hours before sleeping; likewise, avoid lying down after taking meal. These are the regular suggested change in lifestyle.

Another easy way to treat GERD is to elevate the head of the bed. The pharmacologic therapy, the combination of prevention of food two hours before sleeping and the rise of the head of the bed, there is a great chance for a patient to gain a 95 percent relief. The rise of the head of the bed is suggested to range for only 6 to 8 inches or 20 cm. Using this method the backflow of gastric fluids will be hampered.

Drug Treatment: Drugs reduce the secretion of the gastric acid, for instance and famotidine and omeprazole lessen the secretion of gastric acid and the Antacids counteract the acid.

Surgical treatment: the Nissen fundoplication, the standard surgical treatment for Acid Reflux, the medication process will only cover a short period of time. The function of this is to support the sphincter, a spherical bond of muscles that opens and closes to let the food or waste to pass, as well as stop Acid Reflux, and of course restore the hiatal hernia.

Arthritis

Arthritis
Djehuty

Arthritis by Djehuty Ma’at-Ra

The first Western disease I was ever familiar with as a little
boy was arthritis. My beloved paternal grandmother, Bertha
Cooper, suffered from this pathology for many years. She had it
very bad in her wrists and joints. I remember her asking me if I
would go to the corner liquor store on the corner of 101st
Street and Avalon Boulevard in Watts, California, and buy her
some Ben Gay, a white pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory rubbing
cream. She would rub Ben Gay on her wrists and joints and her
tendons as well.

As a little boy, I didn’t understand disease. I didn’t know how
my grandmother developed arthritis. All I knew is that she had
it (and claimed it too).

However, when the Universe bestowed its Akashic Records of
health knowledge upon me in the late 1990s, I finally understood
why Grandma Sis (Bertha) developed and suffered from arthritis.
You see, my grandmother was originally from the South,
Mississippi to be exact. The ideal dinner was “soul food.” My
grandmother was an excellent cook and I never tasted any food
back in my deaf, dumb, and blind days and years that tasted
better than my paternal grandmother’s food/cooking. However,
while this so-called food, soul food, tasted good, I now
understand that taste is not the criterion or measuring stick
for what is healthy or nutritional. It was Grandma’s good
tasting soul food that did her in with arthritis and tendonitis.
Yes, all that cornbread, collard and mustard greens, salt pork,
candied yams, fried chicken, liver, catfish, pork chops, rock
Cornish hen, neck bones, ham, white rice, etc. eventually did
her (and the rest of my family members) in. Not to mention
eating all that white, refined Webber’s and Wonder bread, flap
jacks (pancakes), syrup and biscuits, bacon, sausages, jelly
cake, jelly sandwiches, saltine crackers, Vienna sausages,
potted meat, Spam, hog’s head cheese, liverwurst, etc. And what
about all that hot cocoa, coffee (laced with white sugar and
dairy cream), butter milk, pet milk, Kool-Aid, and soda pop that
she drunk?

She didn’t smoke cigarettes like her five sons, but she would
roll up her own smokes with Prince Albert brand tobacco and Zig
Zag paper. My childhood friends thought my grandmother smoked
marijuana. It was a little embarrassing until they found out
what it was she was really smoking.

I mentioned all of the above to let you all know that my
grandmother’s arthritis was caused by what she ate and drank on
a daily basis through ignorance, tradition, and habit.

All that meat converted into uric acid in my grandmother’s
joints and ligaments. The starches broke down into carbonic acid
and also made its way into her joints. And so did the lactic
acid from the brake down of the dairy products she consumed.

The smoking also created an over acid condition in my
grandmother as well. She also had bouts with gout, which is
nothing but arthritis in the ankle area.

You see, arthritis is a condition of inflammation of the joints.
That’s all it is. The Latin word “Arth” means “joints,” and the
English suffix, “it is” means “inflammation.” What is
inflammation? A burning! What causes this burning or
inflammation? ACID!!! Plain and simple!

Grandma Sis was lucky, eventually dying from degeneracy (that
doctors call natural death). However, her sons (and
daughter-in-laws, nephews, nieces, and grandchildren) were not
so lucky, dying from the insidious cancer, including my father
from lung cancer in 1994 and my mother from pancreatic cancer in
1999.

My family could not, would not, and to this very day, still will
not believe that what they put into their mouths cause their
pathologies and eventually kills them. It was easy to write me
off when I was a Muslim and member of the Nation of Islam in the
early 1990s, simply saying “that boy is mad at white folks and
the world!” But today as a Naturist, what’s their excuse?
Nothing but ignorance and traditional paralysis! Soul food is a
tradition, Djehuty! Yes, a tradition that leads to an early
grave!

One of the greatest contributors of arthritis is collard and
mustard greens. Sorry Black folks, Negroes, and soul food
lovers! But this is true! Greens are laced with “oxalic” acid
and this oxalic acid is greatly produced when you cook the
greens. This is true! And for you rat feces-laced chocolate
lovers out there, your precious chocolate also contains oxalic
acid.

Now, I don’t want you thinking soul food is the cause of
arthritis, because a lot of white folks, Mexicans/Latinos, and
Asians also suffer from arthritis. Like soul food, the Standard
American Diet will also cause arthritis. Arthritis is an
American disease!

If you understand arthritis, you should understand tendonitis
and gout. They are acidic fluid build up problems in the joints
that cause inflammation (pain).

Most modern day suffers of arthritis (and tendonitis and gout)
are fighting the symptoms of these inflammatory diseases with
pharmaceutical grade drugs. Even though God instructed Bible
believers to heal themselves with herbs (Revelations 22:2,
Ezekiel 47:12, and Pslams 104:14), in their strange obedience to
God, they take the enemy’s pharmaceutical drugs that prolong the
arthritis. Why and how? Because pharmaceutical grade drugs,
though made from alkaloids, eventually break down into ACID
(especially ascetic acid, which eats your red blood cells up) in
the body, and acid produces inflammation, so how intelligent is
it to take something to target the symptom which eventually
lengthens and worsen the initial condition?

Mother Nature has provided healing for arthritis and other
inflammatory diseases. To heal from arthritis, all one needs to
consume is certain herbs. Herbs that are anti-inflammatory in
nature are the best to heal from arthritis. These herbs include
Meadowsweet, Peppermint, Wintergreen, Birch, White and Black
Willow Bark and Balm of Gilead.

However, other certain herbs work synergistically with the herbs
supra. Personally, no healing from arthritis can take place
efficiently without the following herbs: Devil’s Claw, Boswellia
(Frankincense), Uva Ursi, Mullein leaves, Saffron, Cayenne
pepper, Feverfew, and Guaiac wood.

Devil’s Claw, Boswellia, Uva Ursi, and Mullein are the paramount
arthritis herbs. They greatly counteract mucus, which is the
byproduct of acid, which causes inflammation.

Organic sulfur, commonly called MSM Sulfur, is also great in
healing arthritis. So is Noni juice!

You can make your own healing salve as well from a base butter
or oil such as shea or cocoa butter, coconut, olive, or almond
oil (or any other good oil) and add in a few drops (10-15 drops)
of the following essential oils: Peppermint, Clove, Wintergreen,
Eucalyptus, Birch, and/or Spearmint.

You can rub this salve directly on your joints or other problems
area. It is very soothing and healing.

And of course, as an herbalist, I have formulated my own Joint
Formula that consists of all the herbs mentioned above that is a
powerful little formula that works wonders for me when my wrists
start to hurt from excessive typing (typing up all that legal
pleading).

I can’t forget about magnet therapy as well for arthritis.
Magnets make a problem or injured area alkaline and also
enhances circulation to the problem area so that healing can
begin.

My good friend and brother, Mark Lomax, a musician, healed
himself from serious bouts of gout, another acid condition. It’s
been a few years now since he had gout. What did he do? First,
he detoxified his body on our Full Body Detox. Then, he did a
daily regimen of our Electric Greens Cell Food (pure
alkalinity), Joints Formula and Black Cherry Juice Concentrate.
You wouldn’t recognize this brother if you knew him 3 years ago.
He also lost more than 70 lbs on these herbs. This man is a
walking example of healing!

I should also mention the importance of pineapple enzymes called
Bromelain for the healing of arthritis and other acid
conditions. Bromelain or pineapple enzymes are anti-inflammatory
in nature and effect and therefore provide healing for
arthritis. They taste just like candy and are chewable and you
can chew as much as you like, although 3-6 tablets after dinner
ought to get the job done. You can find Bromelain at most good
health food stores.

Soaking inflamed body parts in hot water and essential oils of
Peppermint and Eucalyptus is also beneficial for arthritis.

But most importantly in fighting arthritis is modified diet. Cut
out or cut down on meat and dairy products. These are two of the
biggest culprits in causing arthritis. A vegetable cocktail
consisting of celery, parsley, apple and/or carrot (for
sweetness and base) 3-4 times weekly will greatly remove acid
buildup in the joints. By all means, avoid all acidic beverages
(beer, soda pop, milk, orange juice, wine, coffee, etc.).

Man, life is so wonderful when you know how to heal and prevent
disease. The understanding of diseases is just as important.
Sometimes I’m full of grief and sorrow from my knowledge and
knowing that people suffer from a lack of knowledge (and
insanity too). See Ecclesiastes 1:18 and Hosea 4:6

However, the children of the future, including my son, Asim, and
daughter, Layla, and other Conscious Minds offspring – Nadya,
Najee, Elijah, Asar, Sunshine and the newest edition from Melia
and Obea, and the others (out here on the West Coast in Los
Angeles) will all benefit from this profound knowledge of proper
diet as well as from my suffering and grief, as well as their
parents. I’m also quite sure that many children around the
nation will also benefit from their parents’ reading and
applying this health information and knowledge that is freely
distributed.

As much as I loved soul food and my relative’s cooking back in
my death (Negro) days, you couldn’t put a gun to my head and
compel me to eat a piece of chicken or pork today, and I mean
that! I love myself too much to harm my temple of God. My
children are beautiful (and highly astute and precocious)
because of what their parents ate before and while conceiving
them. You can do it too!

Make the change people! Taste is not the criterion for what is
healthy. Nutritional content is!

Peace and love, readership!

This article was compliments of www.DHERBS.com and Djehuty
Ma’at-Ra, the People’s Herbalist!

MSM Sulfur-
http://www.dherbs.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_
id=73

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