What Thin People Do by Terry Ryan
I consider myself an casual observer of life and people. If I had to do it over again, I would have become a modern day Margaret Mead, the famous social anthropologist. One of my latest personal studies is how thin people eat to keep themselves thin vs. how heavy people eat to keep themselves, well, heavy.
Heavy people will kid themselves with saying-I don’t eat that much. I have a slow metabolism. It’s my genes. Nope, sorry, I have dis-proven the above excuses. What overweight people should be saying is-I eat too many calories. It really comes down to calories in and calories burned. Simple as that.
Yes, your metabolic rate will slow down as we age so we should compensate by eating less. Of course eating less means you should eat only low calorie and high in nutritional value foods. As you get older, you do not have the option of wasting calories to unhealthy food, or eating healthy all day and throwing an extra 500 calorie dessert in at the end of the day. The experts say, 3500 calories intake equal a pound.
I knew a man who changed jobs and at his new place of work there was a vending machine (danger!) full of unhealthy snacks. He would go to the snack machine twice a day and buy a sugary cinnamon bun. I figured that each one contained about 400 calories, so that was an extra 800 calories per day. An average man with average physical activity is supposed to consume around 2200 calories a day. He was of normal weight when he started and he put on 40 pounds in a matter of few months. Let’s do the math. 800 Calories X 7 days is 5600 cals extra per week. That means he was gaining an average of 1.5 pound per week. At that rate in 5.5 months he could easily have gained the 40 pounds. It’s that simple.
It could also go the other way. You want to lose 40 pounds by 5.5 months so you reduce your daily caloric intake by 800 calories. Yes, you can also include in the formula-if I consume 400 calories less per day and work off an extra 400 calories, that will also work. But, do you know how hard it is to work off extra calories? Have you gone to the gym and walked on a tread mill for 30 minutes and when you look at how many calories you just burned, hey, you just walked off a single cookie. You can’t outrun the fork. I think it is better for the masses to put down the fork than to try to become a workout fanatic. Yes, it is great to be a gym regular but who has the time? I’d rather work around my house or walk around the block than try to fit in a gym schedule. Oh, and I have seen my friends buy lots of home workout equipment and use it for a short period of time before they start hanging clothes on them. Save your money.
How did the guy who gained the 40 pounds by eating cinnamon rolls lose weight? He bought a jetski, the kind that you stand up on and went out on the ocean everyday and hit the waves and overtime he pounded the weight off himself. And he managed to keep it off, and I thought it was an interesting example how a simple change in a diet can quickly put on weight.
So, I observed and interviewed thin women. They all seem to do the same thing to stay slim: They eat very little. There you have it. The big secret has been revealed. You need about 1200 calories for a woman to survive. That’s all and that is not very much. Here is an example of a 1200 calorie day meal plan.
-
BREAKFAST
- 1 Cup Skim Milk
- 1 Orange, medium
- 1 Cup Cheerios Cereal
-
MORNING SNACK
- 1 Cup Cantaloupe Melon
-
LUNCH
- 1 Whole-Wheat Pita Bread, small
- 1 Cup Skim Milk
- 1 Fudgsicle, no sugar added
-
AFTERNOON SNACK
- 2 Tablespoons Prepared Hummus
- 3 Ounces Celery Sticks
-
DINNER
- 1/2 Cup Cooked Brown Rice
- 1/2 Banana, small
Realize how everything is measure out. 3 Ounces of celery sticks. 2 Tablespoons of Hummus. Yes, everything in your mouth counts. Grab a handful of nuts….100 calories. Eat a 1/4 cup of ice cream is 350 calories. It all adds up.
Thin women also plan their meals. They like to pack their lunch so they know what they will be eating. They do not have candy bars hidden in the pantry. They know the calorie count of just about everything they put in their mouths. Thin women know that one Dunkin’ Donut Boston Kreme Donut has 310 calories! They won’t eat it. They also know how to control their hunger. I went to an island picnic with some friends. We the heavier ladies dived into the barbecue of hotdogs and potato salad. We were all starving. But my thin friend said to me and I quote, “I don’t eat that kind of stuff.” Yea, you don’t eat that kind of stuff but wasn’t she as starving as the rest of of? Thin women would rather stay hungry than eat bad food. They do not succumb to their hunger. That’s somebody who is serious about being thin. I observe and learn.
They also keep sweet things out of the house, special treats are allowed on special occasions, and they stay away from activities that focus on food.
For the most part, they are much healthier than overweight people as far as lab testing goes. They have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and fewer health problems.
If you want to see more 1200 calorie diet plans, go to http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/weight_loss_diet_plans/diet_meal_plans/7_day_diet_meal_plan_to_lose_weight_1200_calories
And go on the Internet and plan ahead. If you want to eat a Steak N’ Shake chocolate covered strawberry milkshake…just know that it will be 1050 calories. Yikes!
Terry Ryan is a health blogger for Slimhealthysexy.com and a social media expert.
I Am The Master Of My Health by Terry Ryan
I am the master of my health and also the master of my appetite. Who is control? You or your cravings? Do you give in to eating sweets easily even though you know they are wicked for your health? Do you turn on the TV instead of a walk around the block after dinner? Do you have a propensity to gravitate to foods that are quick, cheap and easy? Stop! Stop it now! Don’t wait until the first heart attack to get serious about your health.
It is shocking how many American’s take the easy road to eating instead of the mature and responsible route to good health. Yes, it takes a little effort to eat responsibly but it is definitely worth it if you look at the entire picture. Some people view eating as part of the entertainment in their life instead of what it is really meant to be…fuel for life. People associate overeating as a sign of celebration but do they have to celebrate everyday? No! Sure, you can knock your calorie count out the window when it’s Christmas or your birthday but not everyday.
Okay, I get why kids want to eat hot fudge sundaes everyday because they are KIDS with no self-control. You, on the other hand, are all grownup and can make informed and responsible choices, yet you still let yourself succumb to bad food decisions like, yes I can eat that pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Oh, boy!
So, today, I want you all to pick yourself up and be the MASTERS OF YOUR OWN HEALTH!
- Bring lunch with you instead of eating fast food
- Drink lemon water instead of coffee
- Stop drinking soda
- Stop drinking alcohol
- Drink plenty of water everyday
- Get lots of sleep
- Walk instead of going to lunch with the gang
- Juice for health
- Plan social events around physical activities, not food related
- Get a blood panel taken so you know what your cholesterol is
- Reduce your blood pressure
- Don’t snack between meals-give your digestion a break
- Don’t eat after dinner
- Have a vegetarian meal once a week
- Get familiar with raw veggies
- Don’t eat sweets unless it’s a special occasion
- Skip the chips, crackers, cheese
- Need more health info, follow my blog
Do you have Diabetes Type 2? Did you know that is totally diet related as in bad diet and that is curable through changing bad eating habits into good eating habits? Yes, it is!
High blood pressure? I cured mine (they wanted to put me on pills) by juicing celery, carrots, and ginger. Nice combo! Please try it. I have lots of juicing advice on this blog. Watch the documentary…Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross for a juicing education.
I just interviewed William Anderson who wrote The Anderson Method for Weight Loss and I asked him why do people go on a calorie restriction diet, lose 10 pounds, then find themselves binge on food (usually food that is high in calories and low in nutrition) after and put the 10 pounds back on and more. He said it is because of addiction. It is just like being addicted to alcohol. Yikes! It makes sense. What is the definition of addiction?
Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving,
diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death. (source:ASAM.org)
So, you know it is wrong and bad for you yet you still do the thing that is causing ill health, a larger than desired body mass and a shorter life expectancy. Hmmmm. Does that sound like someone that is Master of Their Own Health?
Is this an example of the Peter Pan Principle? People never want to grown up? They still want to act like little kids who allow themselves to eat anything they want because they never want to grow up? Also, what about parents that stockpile their pantries with every kind of junk food and candy because junior wants it but wipes away the tears when their child comes how from school crying because the kids called her FAT. You, the parent, are also responsible for what your child puts into his or her mouth. If you have a obese child you have just set your own flesh and blood up for health problems. social problems, and a shorter life expectancy. I’m sure you do not want to do that so clean out the pantry and announce the new eating plan today.
The message here is to take charge of your own life and be in control. If you are having problems with food addiction and can’t seem to get a grip on eating healthier seek a therapist that specializes in eating problems.
Please keep in mind that healthy eating is a learned behavior and takes dedication and time. It is a habit that you will develop with practice. You have to reprogram the mind to reward itself with healthy food and learn to dislike even the thought of eating junk food. You can do it! I had a weak self-control, and nobody and I mean nobody has a weaker self-control than I once did, and I managed to reprogram my mind and refine my taste buds. If I can do it, you can do it.
Last summer when I went back to my hometown in upstate NY I was shocked to see how many of my friends and neighbors had health problems including heart attacks and strokes, and some were younger than me. What was the common link? Bad food habits. One person who had an heart attack (gosh, we almost lost him) is an exercise fanatic and skis the black diamond trails on Stowe and Killington but has terrible eating habits and like to overindulge when drinking. Why should I or he be surprised? It was bound to happen and it will happen to you if you are not Master’s of Your Own Health.
I just wrote a book called The Insomnia Cure-How I Kicked Insomnia Out of My Bed and told my neighbor about it who takes a sleeping pill every night. I told her about the book and she asked if it involved hard work as in giving up sweets and I said YES. She said she didn’t want to work that hard and would rather just take her sleeping pill every night. She is also on lots of other prescription medicines and is overweight. She has bowls of candy all over her house and a bowl on her nightstand so she can nibble while she lies in bed watching TV. At her last doctor’s appointment her doctor gave her the speech about if she didn’t start living healthier to expect a health emergency soon. She tells me life is too short to not live the way she is living as in no I won’t give up sweets and eating whatever she wants. I sometimes wonder if this is some sort of suicide. Oh, by the way, she is younger than me and my husband and someone thought she was my husband’s mother. Yeah, that’s another thing eating unhealthy will do to you…age you! Inside and out!
Terry Ryan is a Internet Marketer, Social Media Expert, and health blogger. Follow her on Slimhealthysexy.com
Lose Weight And Keep It Off
I had pleasure of meeting with William Anderson at his office in Sarasota, FL on 4/21/2014. His space is small and cozy and the furniture is definitely from an old home in Massachusetts, where he is from. After our preliminary meet and greet he told me he was more interested in having me as a client than having me interview him for my health blog. After going back and forth on this subject I finally agreed to go through the “process” of finding out if I wanted to be a new client. “Okay,” I relinquished. There was of course paperwork to fill out-name, DOB, married or single, what stress do you have? He left the room saying he had to run an errand and I filled out the paperwork and had time to scan the framed diplomas in his office. MA in the Arts and his LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor) from an online division from University of Mass, and also a certificate in hypnotherapy.
How I had found out about Mr. Anderson was through my endocrinologist who had written the forward to his book The Anderson Method. I was intrigued and wanted to meet him, hence, why I am in his office now. After he returned he looked over my paperwork then he proceeded to tell me his duty to what he can keep confidential and what he can’t. Then he told me about his childhood as an obese child. He is 64 so a heavy Babyboomer in school would have been an unusual sight; at least in my school where we were all scrawny. Our parents didn’t give us many in between meal snacks and soda was not a staple in the pantry. Plus we were all active and our TV viewing was at a minimum. He must have had an overindulgent parent and when he talks about his childhood-“I was the fattest kid in school and it was horrible!”- you can still see the hurt in his eyes.
The more we talked I uncovered one of his main points. Food is to be handled as an addiction. Bingo! That made perfect sense. His plan includes weekly counseling sessions, homework, calorie counting, excuse debunking, cognitive behavioral therapy,etc. just to give you an idea of how he reprograms people’s view of eating.
People interested in more info should read The Anderson Method.
Mr Anderson also writes for the Huffington Post. Here is one of his articles.
(Article from Huffington Post 3/11/2014 By William Anderson MA, LMHC, Sarasota, FL)
I’m asked all the time, “What finally made you decide to solve your weight problem?” as if it didn’t bother me being overweight for 25 years. The truth is that I sincerely wanted to solve my problem when I was 12! But I wasn’t successful until 20 years later. It took me that long to learn what I needed in order to be successful.
Wanting, even with all your heart, to lose weight does not make it happen, as anyone with a stubborn weight problem knows. Hopefully, it won’t take you 20 years to learn what I learned. You can learn it from me!
For my first 30 years, I was overweight and out of control, more than 300 pounds as an adult. Only in my early 30s was I finally able to succeed, losing 140 pounds and becoming my ideal body weight. I’ve maintained it handily since. Now I help other people and I wrote a book about what I eventually learned that made me successful. Here are a few of the most important things, five key requirements to make 2014 the year you solve your weight problem for good:
1) You must make it the priority in your life. You need to decide that being healthy in body, mind and spirit is more important than anything else and that your weight problem must be solved. Losing weight must become your No. 1 one concern. More important than your job. More important than your relationships, family, friends, favorite pastimes, clubs, hobbies or comforts. You must become like a religious zealot who forsakes all else, a soldier in the field facing life and death where losing this battle means losing everything. Nothing else can stand in the way of doing what you need in your effort to solve your weight problem.
Some may criticize this as being unreasonable and off-centered. I understand their criticism, but for most of us, this is one of those things where you will not make it unless you are totally devoted. Approach it as if it’s life and death. To enjoy all of those other things you cherish, you’ve got to get this right. Nothing less than total dedication will do. It’s like wanting to make it to the top in a music, sports or business career. Nothing else can get in the way of doing what you need to do to succeed. It cannot take a back seat to anything else, cast aside when something else “comes up” as if it were more important. Controlling your weight is more important.
2) You must respect the science that tells us that we need to eat fewer calories than we burn to lose weight. We must accept the fact that we need to develop habits where we consistently eat within our caloric “budget” to keep it off.
There is no mystery to the science of weight control. It has not changed in eons. Eat too many calories and you get fat. Eat fewer than you burn and you burn it off. Accepting this reality does not by itself solve the problem, but there is no hope until you do. Hoping for a way around this fact will prevent you from ever succeeding. There is no way around this, no magic pill or surgery that will relieve you of having to limit your caloric intake. Fight this reality and you’ll never succeed. Accept it, and you’re on the path to success. In over 20 years, I have never had a client not lose weight when they eat the way I teach them.
3) You must learn how to train your mind to program yourself and master your habits, desires, impulses and feelings. The idea that your behavior and feelings are a matter of just making up your mind or wanting it badly enough is a fallacy. We are not born with well-developed “will power” and conscious control over the things that go on in our mind and body. In fact, most of what goes on is unconscious and a product of conditioning and programming that we were not even aware of. Habits and impulses were not chosen and they can seem to have a life of their own beyond your control. However, you can learn the programming and conditioning techniques discovered in behavioral and cognitive psychology as well as the ideo-dynamic phenomena that hypnotherapies use. The techniques I teach in my method are not unknown to science and behavioral medicine, but we are not born knowing them. They must be learned.
4) Make your goal the development of new permanent habits, rather than weight loss. Don’t focus so much on pounds but rather on the way you are living.
The most common approach to weight loss is doing something out of the ordinary for a while, like eating a special diet or going on an exercise crusade, and then going back to “normal” after a while. This is self-defeating. Even if we lose the weight we want, the “normal” that we have learned is what makes people fat, so we’ll just put it back on.
We are suckers for these diets and schemes because usually, we don’t want to change our habits. We are fond of doing the things we do, snacking the way we do, enjoying our favorite foods and restaurants and not having to think about it. We don’t want to give those things up. We’ve tried and we couldn’t do it or it was so miserable we gave up the idea.
However, we don’t have to give up enjoying food. In fact, one of the keys of reprogramming is that the new behavior must be satisfying. I enjoy food now more than I did when I was overweight. But just wanting and “willing” yourself to change habits is not the way it’s done. There are reprogramming techniques you need to use. The first step is to realize that our goal needs to be a change in our habitual behavior. When that happens, the weight comes off automatically. Focusing on weight loss instead of a change in yourself and your habits will not work.
5) You must be honest and sincere. I used to say things like “no matter what I do, I can’t lose weight.” That’s crazy of course. If I somehow got myself to eat very little, I’d lose weight. If I kept it up long enough, I’d starve to death. People who don’t have food in the Sudan are not fat. I was telling myself nonsense, lying to myself.
I used to say, “This won’t matter” if I cheated or “I just don’t care anymore” when my self-control flagged. Neither was really true. Everything counts. When I got discouraged and caved, I cried “uncle” and gave up in that moment, but I never stopped caring. I never stopped hating obesity and wanting something better. I still cared. Saying, “It doesn’t matter” was a lie.
Behavioral science teaches us that what we say to ourselves affects how we feel and how we act in an almost magical or mystical way. When we tell ourselves this nonsense, we are literally programming ourselves to overeat and become overweight, just as if we were using hypnotherapy to gain weight. When we say, “I just can’t lose weight,” we are using cognitive therapy techniques to make ourselves feel hopeless and depressed and self-hypnosis to unconsciously sabotage any efforts to succeed.
I used to engage in foolish talk, like a child, unwilling to get serious. We need to stop being childish and foolish in our thinking. Changing the way we think and talk is essential to reversing obesity. Getting honest and serious, truly sincere about what we want, is one of the most important keys.
So, what do you think? Can you say, “yes” to these five key requirements? If you can’t, and you are a person who has been overweight and unable to fix it, you now know where you need to start to make changes. We are not going to solve this problem by accident. We need to be very intentional and meet these requirements.
If you think back to your younger days or prior attempts, you’ll recall you may not have met these requirements. If you meet them now, you are on the path to success. That’s progress! Keep going.
William Anderson is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who specializes in weight loss, eating disorders and addictions. He is the creator of “Therapeutic Psychogenics”, which helped him lose 140 pounds permanently thirty years ago after years of obesity and dieting failure. He has written a book about it, The Anderson Method, and he is teaching these techniques to individuals and therapists all over the country.
An Interview With Harvey Diamond-Fit For Life!
Harvey Diamond (he has dropped the Dr.) was a pioneer in alternative health with his book Fit For Life way back in 1985 before computers and we all had to go to the local library to look up things.I read his book and for me, it was a real eye-opener. I think mainly because it just made commonsense. I was so in love witht his book that I gave many copies out as gifts. I’m sure 90% of the gift receivers thought I was crazy.
Now here it is 2014 and I have discovered that my hero, Harvey Diamond, lives is Sarasota so I decided to give it a chance and called him to request a phone interview for this health blog. I left a cheerful message on his voice mail and hoped for the best. Imagine my surprise when I saw “Harvey Diamond” on the caller ID a few hours later. We decided on a time in a couple of days and as promised, he called me back for what I told him would be 15 or 20 minutes interview.
Before the interview I carefully scripted out my questions on paper with plenty of room to write down his replies between my questions. We started off with me saying how honored I was that he agreed to the interview and then we went right into a conversation like we were old friends. I would normally write the interviewees’ answers down but we both got off on tangents…scripted questions out the window.
I explained to him that I was always interested in staying healthy and now was diagnosed with Hashimoto Thyroiditis. (Hashimoto Thyroiditis is a autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid.) He said he just spoke to a very famous person yesterday and was giving her advice on how to deal with Hashimoto. (These are not his words exactly for I am paraphrasing but if I use italics it is a direct quote..) He told me, “You know if you have Hashimoto what things you have to stay away from. Soy and Fluoride.” I told him I did and also cut out gluten. But I didn’t want to talk about me so I moved on with the questions and Harvey (he told me to call him Harvey) is so enthusiastic and energetic in talking about health that he can go on for about 5 minutes in rapid fire speaking with statistics and sometimes funny sayings that made me burst out laughing like “I’d rather step in front of a truck than eat….”
I was interested on how his book Fit For Life became such a sensation. Harvey said the timing was right for a health book and he was a guest on all the talk shows as in Oprah, etc. “Yes, but you just don’t get on Oprah by calling her up and say can I be on your show?” I said.
As a beginner writer and someone who also likes to help indie authors promote their books, this info was important to me. Was it just word of mouth that kept Fit For Life on the New York Times’ Best Seller List for 40 consecutive weeks? So, I circled back with my questions on how he marketed his book.
“Oh, I had a friend that was on the Eight is Enough TV show, Joannie Prather, and her agent was with William Morris Agency and she said she would put my manuscript on his desk. He liked it and passed it on to Warner Books and the rest is history.”
I asked him what he was doing for employment at that time in 1985. “Nothing, I was borrowing money from friends and working on my book with heart and soul. I had a feeling it was going to be well received.” That was in 1985 and since Fit For Life he has written 8 more books his latest Fit For Life-A New Beginning. He said, “It’s my best book so far.”
He told me that his website had a lot of information and I brought it up on my laptop as we talked. I noticed that there were a lot of supplements on the site. “No!” said Harvey emphatically. They are enzymes which are very important for your digestive system. I wouldn’t eat cooked food without taking one first. I don’t believe in supplements. Did you know Americans have the most expensive urine?”
Some of the other things he pointed out:
- USA spends 3 trillion a year on health care
- We are a pill-taking society
- People are overfed and undernourished
- Still believes in water fasting for health
- A mostly raw food diet is important
- You should have a good partnership with your body for health
- He never eats sugar or believes in dieting
He claims to not be perfect (who is) and will occasionally have a slice of pizza. Aha! I thought I had him with that one. “But that has a high-glycemic index which the body converts to sugar!”
“Oh, I don’t go along with that guy (guy?) who talks about the low glycemic way of eating. I mean according to that chart a watermelon has a higher glycemic index than a bowl of ice cream. I love watermelon! A bowl of ice cream is not better for you than a piece of watermelon.” Point taken.
We talked about the naysayers he said that attacked him when his book first came out and some are now agreeing, writing or lecture on the same topic they were so against in the 80s. I told him that I was juicing and that was even a controversial topic between the juicers and the smoothies. “There will always be someone to contradict you,” he said.
“Do you really think there is a cure for cancer?” I hopefully said.
“I thing the medical community dangles the word “cure” like a carrot in front of a horse. I think the word “care” is more important.”
I said, “Why don’t more people work on the care of their health before they get cancer? I want to do something to prevent getting cancer now so I don’t have a cancer diagnosis in the future.”
“People believe that the medical profession is going to cure them when they get called into the doctor’s office with the bad news.” Harvey continued with, ” “Chemotherapy is actually mustard gas which causes cancer. It’s like trying to stop a freight train with a fly swatter.”
I had heard that Harvey had been suffering from the effects of Agent Orange that he was exposed to while serving in the Vietnam War. He is 69 years old now and can hardly move his arms and walks with a distinct limp. He told me he was one of the few survivors from Agent Orange that is still alive and can walk. Something he claims is because of his mostly raw food diet.
Well, we finished the interview in just shy of an hour. He was fascinating to talk to and I promised to send him my book, The Insomnia Cure-How I Kicked Insomnia Out of My Bed! He said, “that’s a good title.”
Thank you, Harvey!
From http://www.harveydiamond.com
Harvey Diamond is a Health & Wellness Advocate and New York Times #1 Bestselling Author who has been studying and teaching the principles of healthful living for over 40 years. He is credited as a pioneer in helping shift people toward healthier eating. He has helped millions of people worldwide to not only dramatically improve their health, but also to overcome serious, catastrophic disease, including cancer.
His FIT FOR LIFE books have sold nearly 14 million copies in 33 languages and are read in over 80 countries. FIT FOR LIFE held the #1 position on the prestigious New York Times Bestseller list for an unprecedented 40 consecutive weeks. It was the fastest selling book of its kind in history.
Books by Harvey Diamond
Terry Ryan is a health blogger and lives in Sarasota, FL with her husband Kenan.
The Agent Orange Victims Fund (AGORAVIF) works to support families and children affected by Dow’s chemicals. You can find out more and donate to their fund by visiting www.vnrc.org.vn.
My Experience with Acid Reflux Disease by Terry Ryan
Have you ever wondered why you have acid reflux? Most people over the age of 50 do. It is considered one of the “old-age” disease…thank you very much. As a Baby Boomer when I turned 50 I can remember the exact moment it hit me, Acid Reflux Disease. I was at dinner with friends having a wonderful time drinking wine and eating Clams Casino as an appetizer when burp it started burning in my throat. “What the heck is that?” Then it happened again and again that horrible burning there is a volcano in the stomach feeling.
I noticed it was happening to my friends, too. A few summers ago, I was out in a boat with the girls and they were drinking Margaritas. I witnessed Katie take a sip of cocktail and then chew on a Tums; take another sip and eat another Tums. Whoa!!!!
I made an appointments with a gastro who prescribed the usual prescription of Prilosec that works as PPI (proton pump inhibitor)
When you eat, millions of tiny pumps in your stomach produce acid to break down food—and heartburn can occur when excess acid refluxes into your esophagus. A PPI treatment, such as Prilosec or the generic form Omeprazole, works by turning off many of these pumps to reduce the amount of acid produced, but leaving enough acid for digestion. Prilosec, for some people, treats frequent heartburn for 24 hours with one pill a day for 14 days. (Note: the 14 days. That’s how long you are supposed to take the drug.) Prilosec starts working on day one, and some people get complete relief of symptoms within 24 hours. It may take one to four days for full effect. PPI’s did not work for me. On to the next treatment.
H2 Blockers
H2 blockers relieve heartburn symptoms by blocking histamine type 2 receptors, one of the three triggers of acid production. H2 blockers can begin working within an hour, so they act faster than a PPI, but they do not provide the immediate relief of an antacid. H2 blockers then continue to work in the body for up to 12 hours. H2 blockers can work against heartburn, but they do not last a full 24 hours from just one pill. Prevacid is an example of a H2 blocker.
Antacids
I depend on antacids. They seem to work the best for me. I use a combination of store brand Ranitidine (Zantac) 150 dose and Mylanta which seems to control the “volcano” in my stomach. Antacids neutralize the acid in your stomach. Antacids go to work on your heartburn immediately unlike PPI’s. While no heartburn treatments cure the condition, antacids provide only temporary relief.
Getting Old Is Not Fun.
With age, the strength of the lower esophageal sphincter (or LES, the valve that connects the bottom of your esophagus to your stomach) decreases, as does the amount of stomach acid produced. This is an excellent recipe for acid reflux and explains why close to 50% of adults over the age of 50 experience acid reflux. There is a common misconception that acid reflux is caused by too much stomach acid when in reality it is more common for the cause to be low stomach acid, say some of the experts. I have experimented with increasing my stomach acid to test this with horrible results. I tried drinking only grapefruit juice diet…OMG! Then I tried to increase my stomach acid with Betaine Hydrochloride. OUCH! I threw the bottle away. Now on to drinking a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar which seemed to increase the burn in my stomach, not decrease it.
However, according to some health websites they stress that we Baby Boomers produce less acid and If stomach acid is too low, then LES doesn’t close properly and allows stomach contents and acid to splash up and irritate the esophagus causing heart burn. One website makes the point that teenagers produce more stomach acid than mature adults and they don’t have acid reflux.(Hmmmm) Baby Boomers also tend to be taking multiple medications, many of which can weaken the LES. These include nitrates, calcium channel blockers, benzodiazepines, anticholinergic agents, and antidepressants.
As we age, lactase levels in the small intestine decrease, leading to dairy intolerance. There may also be an overgrowth of bacteria that can cause gas, bloating and bowel habit changes. The small intestine also becomes less able to absorb nutrients such as B12, Iron, Calcium and Vitamin D.
I spoke to my gastroenterologist about the low acid theory and she said that it is true in about 10% of adults and the rest of the population produce too much acid. During my research I have read many conflicting reports. Some have said too much acid and others have said too little acid. Who to believe?
Lifestyle changes for reducing acid reflux disease.
- Skip alcohol, soda, coffee
- Eat small meals.
- Dark chocolate can irritate your stomach
- Take dairy out of your diet
- I find that juicing does not irritate my stomach and is a good way to up your veggie intake
- Don’t eat 4 hours before you go to sleep
- Don’t eat until your stuff. Leave yourself a little hungry at meals. It takes 20 minutes for your brain to catch up with your stomach
- Lose weight. Experts say that losing weight helps with acid reflux
- Use two pillows under your head when sleeping.
Recommendation
If you have acid reflux I recommend finding a gastroenterologist and seek treatment. Also, if you have had it for a prolonged time, then ask to have a endoscopy to see if you have any damage in the lining of the esophagus. When stomach acid constantly splashes up into your esophagus you may develop Barrett’s Esophagus Disease; scar tissue buildup that can lead to esophageal cancer. Why more doctors do not recommend an endoscopy along with a colonoscopy is something I do not understand because personally I know more people who have died from esophageal cancer than colon cancer.
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Terry Ryan is a blogger, recent author of The Insomnia Cure: How I Kicked Insomnia Out of My Bed, health enthusiast, and website designer. She lives in Sarasota, FL and Lake George, NY.