In the bottom of my last post, I gave a brief history of my first hospital experience. I’d like to talk about that a little more real quickly.
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In the 3 months prior to my first visit to the emergency room, I was feeling pretty lousy. I was experiencing what I can only describe as an intense pressure in my chest. Migraines plagued my everyday life, and I frequently had a burning sensation in my stomach. I also had a weird copper taste in my mouth most of the time. I felt like I was falling apart.
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That is what caused me to go to the emergency room in the first place. (It wasn’t an emergency, but I had no money or health insurance, and that was my only option.) As I mentioned earlier, they ended up sending me home with nothing more than a $200 bill.
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Now, back to the story…
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We got to the hospital in Dallas, and we sat around for hours on end, surrounded by sick people, and drug addicts begging to be prescribed some painkillers. When I was finally seen, I described my symptoms and they began a series of tests. After a pap-smear, fecal sample, H. pylori test, and an x-ray, they still didn’t know definitively what was wrong with me. Finally, they had me drink this white “numbing” liquid. It made my stomach feel somewhat better, so they concluded that what I had was a stomach ulcer.
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They sent me home with the recommendation to take Zantac 75mg. So, that’s what I did. After a month or so, I wasn’t seeing any results, so I decided to double the dosage. I was now in with the big dogs, taking Zantac 150mg.
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Raising the milligrams did help initially, but not as well as I would have hoped. It allowed me to cope with life, but I still wasn’t feeling as well as I knew a 17 year old should.
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Right before the new year, some good friends invited us to stay with them, because they knew we were in a rut. (Thank God for them!) Soon after moving in with them, I got some advice from a stranger at a restaurant. He suggested that I switch to taking Prilosec, as that turned out being more successful for him than Zantac. I did just that, and ended up feeling a hundred times better.
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Unfortunately, though, I became dependent on it. (Like everyone does.) My stomach no longer knew how to function without it. I remember running out for a couple of days once, and my stomach never hurt so much in my life. It was way over producing acid, because it had adapted to the drug, and without it, it didn’t function correctly. I had inadvertently destroyed my stomach’s natural ability to heal itself. My solution? Take more Prilosec, of course.
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Fairly quickly I started to realize that what I was doing just didn’t make sense. There had to be another way. We started eating better, and I realized that when I ate certain foods, like beef for instance, my stomach problems would return. Soon, the connection between my health and the food I was eating started to form in my mind, and before long, I was convinced that I had to stop drugging myself with Prilosec.
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I started trying to wean myself off of Prilosec, but it was really difficult. I would take the full dose 1 day, and 1/2 a dose the next. I did that for awhile, but then switched to only every other day, but couldn’t take less than that without feeling the pain. My body was unhealthy, and unable to fix what was wrong with it. I knew I needed to do something to help my body do it’s job.
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I researched like crazy, and came across the subject of fasting multiple times. After talking with Patrick about it, we decided to do a fast. We ended up settling on a 5 day fasting program, which required that we eat no food whatsoever. I also decided to go without my Prilosec for those 5 days, which was quite a risk for me.
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I can’t even describe to you how wonderful that experience was.
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During those 5 days, I felt sickly (detox), but really great at the same time. I could feel my body healing itself, and it was the first time I had ever consciously thought about how my body was functioning. It was eye opening. The most amazing part was that after those 5 days, my acid reflux was gone. The stomach burning was gone. The migraines were gone. I was my old self again, only a lot smarter and healthier.
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The myth had been dispelled. Prilosec, Tums, and Zantac were not cures. They were simply symptom disguisers. The commercials look so appealing. They show people eating donuts, drinking beer, and having a grand ol’ time, all because they popped their morning Prilosec. They claim that you will never suffer from indigestion again, and all this other nonsense. What they don’t tell you is that you have to take them for the rest of your lives, and that you are destroying your stomach’s natural healing abilities in the process.
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People buy into this lie everyday, thinking they are just doing what they are supposed to by taking the medicines. They want an easy out, of course, but I truly feel that most people have no idea that what they’re doing actually may be harming them. I know I didn’t. Sure, I was depressed at the prospect of having to take a pill for the rest of my life, but I figured that it was just a part of life. It doesn’t have to be, though!
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Now, whenever I feel a little indigestion coming on, I either fast, or eat raw for a day or so. Juicing is a particuarly quick solution, and always cures it for me. By doing one of those things, I am allowing my body to focus on the problems inside, instead of having to use all it’s energy on digesting and getting rid of toxic food, and with juicing, I’m also supplying my body with readily available nutrients that are alive and fresh.
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Think about it, we are constantly eating acid forming foods, and hardly any that are alkalizing (mainly raw fruits/veggies). It’s no wonder that we have indigestion and GERD. (Gastro-Intestinal Reflux Disease) There is no easy way out. We must start eating better, or else we’re doomed to pop pills for the rest of our short lives.
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The systems of the body are so complex and intelligent, but we don’t give them nearly enough credit. (God did create them!) Our bodies have everything they need to cure themselves, if we’ll just give them a chance to.
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If you are suffering from stomach acid problems, I beg you to try juice feasting, or fasting with just water. I can almost guarantee it will change you. It sure did me.
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