Acid Reflux & Cider Vinegar

My name is URL

Hey

I sometimes suffer from acid reflux after eating certain foods or drinking alcohol.

I've done some research into more natural remedies than OTC drugs such as Zantac, and one that keeps popping up is cider vinegar

Have any of you heard of this as a remedy? I'm a little reluctant to give it a go because it's acidic after all, and I don't quite understand how it could help with reflux.

And do you know of any other remedies that can help?

Thanks

genericguy

i do be crippled with this at the best of times, i feel your pain.
a surgeon i work with says the increasing the acid level in your stomach aids faster digestion, which beats reflux at the source so to speak. i don't really trust him though, he's a friggin' maniac.

genericguy

fcuk it, there's some in the kitchen, i'll give it a bash for a couple of days and let you know.

My name is URL

It's a pain in the esophagus :pac:

I guess it makes sense to increase the acid in your stomach manually in order to avoid it producing too much acid when you eat

I think I'll give it a go, it'll hardly kill me!

genericguy

ha, go on sure. in my case i'm sore every night anyway, so i've f all to lose.

My name is URL

genericguy wrote: »

ha, go on sure. in my case i'm sore every night anyway, so i've f all to lose.

Have you been to your GP about it?

I only get it the odd time but it bloody hurts when I do!

If I was getting it every night I'd definitely want to get it sorted coz afaik it can lead to other complications

genericguy

i have been to three doctors, but they won't do anything beyond prescribing tablets that stop working after about a month, or have side effects that i find unpleasant. it hasn't been really bad in a while but I'm still always on the lookout for a miracle cure!

KoemansCC

I was prescribed 'Protium' tablets by my GP back in January...seems to have done the trick.

My name is URL

I ate a BigMac for lunch today and started to get a bit of reflux about an hour ago, ran into town to get some cider vinegar and I'm after taking a tablespoon full just now

The relief was instant! Tastes absolutely horrible but I'm amazed at how well it works tbh

nesf

KoemansCC wrote: »

I was prescribed 'Protium' tablets by my GP back in January...seems to have done the trick.

Protium is a Protein Pump Inhibitor, rather than a natural remedy for any interested.


Personally, I presently suffer from gastritis due to medication and honestly only a PPI does the trick.

sam34

samson09,

we've asked you repeatedly on this forum NOT to copy and paste stuff, presenting it as fact, without any discussion of the content therein.

that article is one person's opinion and does not provide any links to any reliable evidence to back it up.

you've been banned from here before. if you post again in this manner you'll be banned again.

samson09

Nice to see everyone beong treated equally, oh well :rolleyes:

sam34

samson09 wrote: »

Nice to see everyone beong treated equally, oh well :rolleyes:

everyone else just posted their own personal experiences.

noone else copied and pasted an article by an alleged MD.

banned for questioning a mod decision in-thread.

dudara

Interesting, given that cider vinegar is acidic, I wouldn't have thought that it would help. Might give it a try next time.

I've been on and off PPIs over the years and although they do work, I'm not keen on taking medication for it. Rennies are my standby cure as well as a quick glug of milk.

rubadub

My name is URL wrote: »

The relief was instant! Tastes absolutely horrible but I'm amazed at how well it works tbh

I had some before, I mixed it with water and heated it in a bowl in the microwave then added dried potato flakes (like smash), sort of masks the taste, sort of taste like chips, I would add ketchup too, I actually liked it.

dudara wrote: »

Rennies are my standby cure as well as a quick glug of milk.

Rennies should be a last resort, too many people eat them at the drop of a hat and it can make the condition worse in the long run. I have read that some doctors reckon they should be made OTC or even prescription, and that some consider them the most widely abused drug out there. People see them as benign since it is not really considered a "drug", but is rather just naturally neutralizing the acid.

I used to take them while drinking, and soon became dependant on them, i.e. would get terrible acid if I didn't take them. I just went cold turkey and came back to normal. Problem is there are loads of tasty ones! remegels are gorgeous. Baking soda has the same effect and tastes nasty, so really forces you to take it as a last resort. I used always have remegels and baking soda, a mate used to get mild heartburn and ask for them all the time, so I would offer baking soda.
"I'm not eating that stuff, its rotten"
"ah, so you don't have bad heartburn at all..."

dudara

rubadub wrote: »

a mate used to get mild heartburn and ask for them all the time, so I would offer baking soda.
"I'm not eating that stuff, its rotten"
"ah, so you don't have bad heartburn at all..."

. Interesting point re the Rennies though.

I actually had a bad dose of acid last night, so I went looking for cider vinegar to try it out. Couldn't find any, so I tried a spoon of white balsamic vinegar. It actually did seem to work. Sounds completely crazy though.

My name is URL

I just found this article, I'm sure it's ok to post it because it's only an opinion piece, but Mods feel free to delete it if it breaks a rule..

Millions of people have the symptoms of acid reflux each and every year. It may be that because of high fat, high sugar diets that acid reflux is becoming more and more common. It does not help that a growing number of people are becoming less active than they used to be. Acid reflux can be referred to as a bad case of heart urn that keeps coming back. It is thought that an increase in abdominal pressure is the reason for the reflux. The pressure does not allow the esophageal sphincter to close properly and the stomach contents are able to flow back up along with the stomach acids. These things irritate the throat and cause horrible pain.

There are many over the counter and also prescription medications that work for acid reflux. Many sufferers are not using the medications; instead they are choosing to go on a more natural route. They feel that the side effects and cost could be avoided with natural remedies.

Acid Reflux and Vinegar: A User-Beware Homeopathic Remedy

Apple cider vinegar may be an all natural remedy for acid reflux. There have been many different people that have stories of the acid reflux and vinegar working. You can find stories like these on message boards devoted to acid reflux. You would think that the vinegar would be more acidic to the stomach and the two would work against each other. There is no real correlation between the vinegar and the acid reflux.

It is thought the acid reflux and vinegar remedy may be helpful to the acid reflux because of the fact that acid reflux may be from low acid in the stomach and not high acid. It may be that the undigested food will ferment in the stomach because the level of acid is low for proper digestion. The vinegar may help to add acid to the digestion process and speed things along. This action then reduces the acid reflux symptoms. However, the acid reflux and vinegar remedy has not been properly tested and is only a theory.

It is also thought by some that the vinegar acts as a placebo with the acid reflux. If many people say it works then you will think that it has to work too. Placebo means that it does not have any effect, and in the case of acid reflux and vinegar, you use your mind to make this particular remedy work. In clinical trials for medication, the placebo is given as the actual drug and participants think it is the real thing. It is usually a sugar pill with no medicinal value. The participants expect the placebo to be the actual medication and do what the medication does.

Some of the acid reflux sufferers do not even care if the acid reflux and vinegar remedy really works. They just want it to work. They simply want to feel better, to not experience acid reflux anymore. Thus, they tend to try many different things to find that relief, including homeopathic remedies like the acid and vinegar remedy. Vinegar will probably not cause any side effects to acid reflux sufferers who take the acid reflux and vinegar remedy in reasonable quantities. However, there are a number of acid reflux sufferers who have reported that the acid reflux and vinegar remedy did not work for them; they reported that the vinegar only exacerbated their acid reflux and the pain that accompanies it.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Acid-Reflux-and-Vinegar---Does-It-Work?&id=534102

I hope it's not just a placebo effect