Plop, plop, fizz, fizz…

Have you ever-experienced heartburn, the nasty taste of acid backing up, the feeling of a lump in your throat or in my case, horrible chronic chest pain?

Symptoms of digestive stress:  decline in energy after meals or becoming sleepy, stomach pain, acid reflux or heartburn, dizziness, moodiness, bitter taste in mouth and constipation (just to name a few).

I tried propping my head up when I slept, eliminating spicy or “acidy” food, Prilosec (had a terrible reaction from it), Zantac (gave me worse chest pain than I already experienced) and finally Tagamet, which worked better than anything but I was still not satisfied with the results.

Of course, the doctor just wanted to keep trying different drugs and by now, you may know how I feel about that.  I was frustrated and needed to find some answers.  After tons of research, I found some things that worked for me.  I’m going to lay them out as simply as possible.  Let me know if you have any questions.

1.   I started- FOOD COMBINING (also known as trophology) is a term for a nutritional approach that advocates specific combinations of foods as central to good health and weight loss (such as not mixing carbohydrate-rich foods and protein-rich foods in the same meal). Wikipedia

The link below will give you quick easy instructions on how to begin food combining.  Print out the chart she has posted and keep it with you.  I started learning about food combining from this blogger and by following her steps, I started feeling better within a month.  Trust me, it’s easy!

http://detoxinista.com/about/food-combining/

2.  I started taking- ENZYMES right before lunch and dinner.  Now I only need one before dinner.  There are all different kinds of enzymes but this one works really well for me.

http://www.rainbowlight.com/Categories.aspx?Category=17096b74-d5c9-4789-818b-605fcb21ee97

3.  Quit drinking liquid with your meals.  Oh, I was one of those people who thought I was doing my body good-by drinking lots of water with my meals when actually, I was just diluting the enzymes in my stomach that you need for digestion.  It just so happens that your enzyme count goes down, as you get older.  Now I don’t drink anything with my meals and for an hour after I’m finished eating.

4.  Eat more-RAW FOOD. When you cook your food you destroy the enzymes at temperatures as low as 115 degrees Fahrenheit. To obtain enough enzymes you must eat raw foods or consume supplements of enzymes and/or friendly bacteria. Sadly, most of our food is either cooked or processed, so most people get very few enzymes in their diet.

5.  Alcohol:  Although, I wasn’t a big drinker (maybe every 3 months or so) I would get deathly ill after a night out.  My acid reflux and chest pain would be so bad (lasting 2 weeks) that I would go to the doc thinking something was wrong.  I quit drinking.  The benefits outweigh the risks and let’s face it; I’m silly enough without drinking.  :)

The combination of food combining, taking enzymes, not drinking liquid with my meals, eating a lot of raw food and eliminating alcohol has also helped cure my insomnia.  I wasn’t aware that my digestion problems were mostly the cause of my sleep problems.  I hope some or even all of these suggestions help you as well as they help me!

Cheerio!