GERD/acid reflux and early CROHN'S disease

[Thuang]

Hi! My name is Terri and I have been struggling with different health problems for a long time. I have been diagnosed with early Crohn's Disease and GERD.
The GERD is getting me down. I have acid coming up to my throat and I have to blend my food or food gets stuck in my throat and esophagus. I only learnt about and started going raw 5 days ago. I also started medication the very same day which I hate to do but my esophagus felt like someone threw acid down my throat and the pain won't let up. Has anyone been helped with GERD?
I need some encouragement.
Thanks.

[smoothiegirl]

One thing that helps my stomach is just raw celery. I had an acid stomach and lots of backwash and burping up foods. The sodium in the celery helps to calm my stomach. Almost like a raw tums.:) Raw foods are healing to the stomach especially the green smoothies.

[snoops]

I don't have GERD but I had bad acid reflux/heartburn until I started adding Apple Cider Vinegar to my green smoothies. Haven't had any since. I do notice if I miss a GS for a day or two it comes back.

[juliesvoyage2]

I had a Nissen Fundoplication to end my GERD. Though it worked wonderfully for me, it is a drastic step. Had I known about raw then, I wouldn't have had to take this measure. I can empathize with your experiences and wish you the best of luck. :)

[Thuang]

Thank you Smoothiegirl, Snoops and Juliesvoyage2 for your responses so quickly. I am grateful.
I am still waiting for my Alissa Cohen book to come in the mail.
Would you be willing to share a recipe you like of a green smoothie? Or any kind of smoothie actually?
I am struggling to figure out what to eat but it has to be a smoothie because of the food getting stuck in my throat.
Thank you so much.
THuang

[juliesvoyage2]

I don't have Alyssa's book yet, so I will be curious to see what recipes people give. I can tell you that seedy items were bad for my GERD, because they got stuck in my throat.

Do know that you are not alone in this, because people here have been there. :)

[rayofsunshine]

Hi Thuang,

I have Gerd and IBS. I too decided to go on medication. I'm in my third month of medication and am going to try to go without after this month. My Gerd was bad, even swallowing water caused reactions in my throat. I know how depressing and hopeless it can feel.

Good news! I have made great progress with raw foods. Most days I try to start my day with a green juice. I always include apples and celery (for Gerd). I put kale or cucumber in too. I find that 2 apples and a bunch of parsly juiced go down good. I follow up with a GS. I really enjoy one made with 1 cup of water, spinach, 2 bananas, blueberries, and clementines. Sometimes I use an orange instead. If i use orange juice, it can bother my gerd.

I use a lot of blended foods. There are many great dips (Alissa's avo/spinach dip) and raw soups. For my IBS I find bananas and avocado's to be very soothing to my system. I need the Avocado or a raw dressing made with soaked nuts to eat a salad, or it will throw my IBS out of wack.

I find the dried fruit(except soaked dates) and nut combo desserts to be too much for my digestion. Most other recipes are ok. I make an almond milk, fzn banana, soaked date shake, that goes down very well and is soothing.

Raw tomatoes are ok, where cooked can really bother me. When I slip and have cooked food, I can really feel my Gerd symptoms, even through the medication.

When I feel any burning in my chest or stomach, I eat a spoonful of raw honey and try not to drink or eat anything for 20 minutes afterwards. If you do a search you will find a lot of info on the healing power of honey.

Water is very important too!

I know you can reduce your symptoms and eventually heal yourself with raw foods. I have seen a great improvement!

[carolg]

acid reflux: HAD...got rid of breads...cooked...then also...vegan ice cream by Rice Dream....all my problems gone....think it was something in the Rice Dream ice cream bars, but then I was excessive....today I don't do any of this stuff.....my Acid reflux was super bad and scarey when I would jump out in a deep sleep or start running to the bathroom early evening heaving like crazy and losing my voice.

green smoothie recipes:

http://rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=44520&highlight=green+smoothie+recipes

Green Smoothie .hit our "search" button here for tons and more than you want or even google green smoothie challenge, subscribe and get many coming..no shortable of green smoothies...

I love pear in mine....

So here's a sampler or base you can always add too:

spinach
apple
pear or two

blend....

Can always play with additional things like romaine added to the spinach or forgetting spinach and using romaine in it's place.

Oh, did a search here: green smoothie recipes and tons of information came up...variety is a blessing so enjoy all the ideas...try what works....

Oh, mangos yum...peeled works great in smoothies....

Best to you....

Feel great ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

carolg

[carolg]

crohns...check livingnutrition.com
Dave Klein would be a goodie person...he has forum too....

carolg

[Vaclare79]

Hi,
I just wanted to add that it was VERY depressing and hard for me to deal with too when I developed it this spring. I had researched the raw foods/Green smoothies until I finally started eating raw. I got relief and my symptoms didn't come back after eating raw.
Maybe you could also try juicing or the lemonade diet so your digestive system can rest a little while you are still feeding yourself.
Good luck with it. I know it's hard.

[annavon]

Thuang:

I had GERD and colitis. Eating raw has really helped. My naturopath also recommends taking a little bit of diluted apple cider vinegar (like Braggs) in water (2 tsp to 8oz water) to enhance digestion. I would also recommend Paul Nisons book "Healing Inflammatory Bowel Disease". This really helped me a lot.

[Thuang]

Thanks everyone for all your responses.
I was 134 lbs when the GERD began in May this year and now I am 114 lbs. So I have lost 20 lbs. People are commenting and it's getting me down. I am concerned about gaining weight on this diet. Is it possible to gain weight? I am kind of scared to even blend nuts/seeds (I hope I can do that when my esophagus heals) because it seems to irritate my throat and I seem to get acid too.
THuang

[rayofsunshine]

You may want to start with nut butters.

I use almond butter to make my almond milk. There are always questions if all of them are raw or not. I just make sure it says raw on the label and it has worked OK for me.

[Thuang]

Thank you so much for your kind words.
I hope down the road I can heal and then help others as you re doing.
THuang

[Thuang]

Rayofsunshine,
How do you make your almond milk?

[Thuang]

Hi. Right now I feel like someone is sitting on my chest and it is burning. I started a new Medication yesterday and I seemed to feel a little better yesterday but then last night I ate a banana and spinach smoothie. I had it again for breakfast this morning but this time I added a little coconut to it. Ever since then, I have felt miserable. I have read about not combining fruit with vegetables when you have acid reflux because it can cause acid reflux by combining the wrong foods together. Has anyone had this awful experience? I could also feel acid last night so I had a choice to take DGL Licorice Chewable Tablets (which are supposed to be good for heartburn) or 2 TUMS before I went to sleep. I decided on the Licorice. Maybe this was a huge mistake combing medication with herbs. Ever since I ate breakfast this morning, I have felt miserable all day and I couldn't swallow properly. It felt like the food was stuck in my throat and esophagus. I am wondering if the Licorice is reacting with my medication. Any ideas anyone on this or the food combining?
I'd be grateful.

[raweater]

You may want to start with nut butters.

I use almond butter to make my almond milk. There are always questions if all of them are raw or not. I just make sure it says raw on the label and it has worked OK for me.

The ones that say "Raw" on the label are still not raw, it simply means they start with raw (non roasted) almonds, but the processing of them into butter generates more than enough heat to cook the butter anyway.

[raweater]

Thanks everyone for all your responses.
I was 134 lbs when the GERD began in May this year and now I am 114 lbs. So I have lost 20 lbs. People are commenting and it's getting me down. I am concerned about gaining weight on this diet. Is it possible to gain weight? I am kind of scared to even blend nuts/seeds (I hope I can do that when my esophagus heals) because it seems to irritate my throat and I seem to get acid too.
THuang

I also had crohn's disease, a very severe form, and am completely cured since going raw. You should also look into how to quit your medications as soon as possible especially since you are already raw, but do not quit them cold turkey, many drugs will kill you if you do that (and all drugs will end up killing you if you take them daily for life, they are the #1 cause of disease and #3 cause of death).

As you can see in my signature it's very possible to gain weight eating raw but only if you start weight training, it's the only way to gain weight on this diet.

[rayofsunshine]

I have added coconut oil/butter to my smoothies and it really bothered my stomach, so I don't do that any more. I try to properly food combine when I can.

The almond milk I make is from "Raw Food Real World" by Matthew Kenney and Sarm Melngailis. It's called 30-second Nut Milk. You can use any nut butter you want if your are worried about the almond butter not being raw. I have used cashew butter that is found in the refrigerater section and it came out very good too. (There are questions about all raw nut butters being truly raw, but that is the best form for me to consume them. I have seen major improvements in my health. There may come a time when I no longer use them, but I am not there yet. You can do a banana search on this site and find lots of information and view points on this.)

2 heaping tablespoons raw almond butter, or other raw nut butter
2 cups water
pinch of sea salt
2 TBSP agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

blend in blender.

Hope your feeling better soon!

[rayofsunshine]

Oh, I do find sprouted nuts are much easier on my digestive system when eating them within food combining guidelines. There should be a recipe on this site for raw almond milk. I have made my own raw almond milk before and still like to add the vanilla and agave. It just takes much longer and more effort than the 30-second nut milk.

[annavon]

Thuang: I noticed that you mentioned you had bananas at night. I find bananas give me horrible heartburn/relfux if I eat them at night. I have to be very careful to eat only a small amount of bananas at any time and they have to be very ripe (I usually freeze them because I don't like the texture of ripe bananas). You might try avoiding bananas for awhile.

[michigan roman]

ive g.i. tract issues myself and have found juicing pineapple is soothing .
so is an almond milk / pineapple / ice smoothie .

[Thuang]

Thanks everyone for your info. I'm kind of scared to drink pineapple juice because I thought it was acidic. I've also heard it turns alkaline once in your body so I'll have to get up the courage to try that sometime.
I have put off going on these medications for 4 months and I have tried every natural therapy possible but my esophagus and stomach burn so much that I felt I had no choice as I don't want Barrett's Esophagus or Esophageal Cancer. I have to stop the acid somehow from splashing up into my esophagus. I am depressed that I am taking medicine but I have to get my esohagus to heal and then I'm really hoping that going raw (I am on Day 10) is going to change my body and then I can gradually wean myself off. I have always tried to do natural things for 15 years and for some reason, I can't get over this GERD. I have already tried 4 different medications and they didn't work. My Gastroenterologist put me on a new one today. I wish I knew what was causing it so I can fix the cause. I hate to cover up the symptoms but I am desperate for the burning to go away.
Thanks everyone for your input. I am so excited to hear that Crohn's Disease can also be overcome through going raw. I really believe it is the way to eat. Cooked food doesn't even sound good anymore to me.
Thanks again! I'm grateful for everyone's input.
Thanks for the almond milk recipe and also the idea of sprouting nuts. I will have to try that. I don't really know how to sprout yet but will learn as I go.

[Thuang]

Last night, I was in so much pain and I am desperate for help. As you all know, I have been diagnosed with GERD and I am on my 5th medication to see if it helps. So far, I am still having acid come up and it is so painful in my esophagus and chest. It has effected my swallowing where I have to blend my food and even that doesn't go down very well.

My husband, after doing some research, has found these causes of GERD.
This is a list of what we discovered that causes GERD. SORRY! IT IS LONG!

It Starts With the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES)
This muscular tissue opens and closes the lower end of the esophagus. The LES helps maintain a pressure barrier that keeps the contents of the stomach from moving up into the esophagus. This is done by an area of smooth muscles and hormones. If the muscles weaken and lose tone, the LES can't close completely after food enters the stomach, which allows acid from the stomach to back up into the esophagus. There are several things that cause the LES to malfunction:

Impaired Stomach Function
More than half of GERD sufferers have abnormal nerve or muscle function in the stomach which, in turn, causes food and stomach acid to be digested too slowly. This will cause a delay in stomach emptying its contents, increasing pressure in the stomach and increasing the risk of acid reflux.

Pregnancy and Hormones
Hormones also affect the LES. For example, the increase of the hormone progesterone during pregnancy relaxes the LES. Thus, it's not abnormal for pregnant women to experience heartburn.

Diabetes
People with diabetes, especially Type 1 diabetes, often develop a condition called gastroparesis. This condition affects about 20 perecnt of diabetics and is characterized by delayed stomach emptying. Pressure within the stomach can increase, which in turn can result in reflux.

Hiatal Hernia
The hiatus is a small hole in the diaphragm muscle, and the esophagus fits through as it joins the stomach. This hole is usually a snug fit, but for some people it may weaken and enlarge. When this happens, part of the stomach may protrude into it, producing a condition that is called hiatal hernia. The hernia may impair LES function. So far, there is no evidence that a hiatal hernia causes GERD, but it may increase GERD symptoms in persons with both conditions.

Abnormalities in the Esophagus
There are some studies that show that most people with atypical GERD symptoms, such as feeling like there is a lump in the throat, hoarseness or chronic cough, have abnormalities in the esophagus. These abnormalities include:

Motility Abnormalities
Problems with spontaneous muscle action in the esophagus, called peristalsis, commonly occurs in GERD sufferers. Studies haven't determined if peristalsis is the cause or the result of long-term GERD.

Has ayone had any of these causes and the raw food diet has helped?

Has anyone used Therapeutic Enzymes to help these causes?

I am currently taking Aciphex and was taking Zegerid but I have not felt relief. The acid is still coming up my esophagus strongly.

I appreciate any of your thoughts and comments.

[Thuang]

juliesvoyage2
How did they diagnose that you needed a Fundoplication? Was it the Lower Esophageal Sphincter that was weak and if so, how did they test for that?
Help me understand why you think that the Raw Food Diet would have fixed this for you if you didn't have the surgery?

[Thuang]

rayofsunshine
Do you know what actually caused your GERD?
I am trying to get to the root cause and figure out my situation.

[Thuang]

rayofsunshine
May I ask what medication you are on and has there been any interactions or effects with certain foods and the medication?

[rayofsunshine]

I can give you what I think is causing my GERD. I can get a lot of abdominal gas and pressure from my IBS. I think that pressure has weakend and hurt my sphincter muscle. I have a lot of pressure in this area even when on medication if my IBS is acting up. (I am on no medication for the IBS) I had also been drinking a lot of peppermint tea (soothing for IBS cramping) and later learned it can weaken the sphincter muscle. Before discovering raw foods I had switched to dark chocolate for a healthier treat and learned it too weakens the sphincter muscle.

I am on nexium and it took a while for it to take effect. It has been a little over 2 months and I don't have that feeling of acid being sprayed in my mouth and chest everytime I eat or drink. My tongue and bottom lip use to feel numb in the morning and that has improved. If I eat cooked or raw foods that are hard on my digestion, the gerd symptoms can really come through even with medication. Sometimes I feel like my esophagus spasms like my colon.

For months I tried natural remedies (raw ACV, baking soda, DGL) and nothing improved it so went to the doctor.

I have high hopes that raw food will help me heal and that I will wean myself off of the medication. I think the raw foods healing the IBS and GERD will go hand in hand.

[dennisdangerfield@shaw.ca]

For four years have had acid reflux. Very nasty for 2 years and then hit and miss in trying to control diet. Non matter what I ate in any combination at the least there was still acid taste all day in mouth and worse when sleeping.
Have just discovered the wonders of having celery with a meal or by itself as a snack . Did Internet search to verify if anyone else was trying this. Happy to find this site.
Symptoms of acid reflux have gone , ....such a simple healthy remedy . Now will investigate raw diet as well as apple cider vinegar / honey drink.

today I am much happier about my diet than have been in a long time.

Great to find this site.
Dennis

[ArcturusXIV]

Hi there Terri,

I have Crohn's as well, and have been doing raw foods for it. I also have bad acid reflux, mainly because I used to drink a TON of coffee (3 pots a day). Raw foods have eliminated all that, and my Crohn's is gradually healing. I would start with blended green smoothies and eat lots of fats and avacados. And yes, I agree with the celery juice suggestion. Might I also suggest ginger and wild ginseng juice mixed together for Crohn's. That is almost guaranteed to cure it...and the ginger is great for digestion. Also, get some powdered slippery elm bark. It helps detoxify the colon. I mix it in with my green smoothie, or with cacao beans and walnuts. The taste isn't too bad.

[iris54]

Has anyone tried orange peel extract for acid reflux? Apparently you have to take a 1000 mg for 20 days but every other day - so 10 doses. I'm curious whether it works.

[WL01]

The results of my research have been compiled in a book titled
" Cure Your Heartburn" And the book fully explains how to diagnose your heartburn or acid reflux symptoms and gives you the proper solution needed to correct them. Every single one of them!!

[Trickponies@gmail.com]

I have serious Acid Reflux so my doctor recommended I move over to an alkaline diet and he also recommended the book "The Glycemic Index Diet". So far it's working and the more I read and study it all points to have a balance of alkaline/acid. Also get the book called "Great Taste No Pain". Exceptional program. It's all about eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts etc. Good luck.:)