Our digestive system is a long tube we grew around. It has many holding tanks, i.e. the stomach, small intestine, large intestine, etc. and stop valves, big circles of muscle that squeeze tightly keeping food stuffs in the appropriate tank. These valve muscles are called sphincter muscles, the best known being the anus. Pretty much all muscles at rest maintain a certain amount of tautness. This is called muscle tone. This muscle tone results almost entirely from a low rate of nerve impulses coming from the spinal cord, which are in turn controlled at least partly by ol’ brain.¹ So, the digestive system receives information from spinal cord and from a nerve coming directly from the brain. Interestingly enough this brain nerve, the Vagus nerve, arises from the area of the brain associated with which I call the mood and ‘tude (attitude) area. So it is easy to understand how emotions can play with our digestive function. Ever heard of the nervous stomach, irritable bowel syndrome, or how about getting so nervous you have to rent space in a rest room. Nerve function plays a tremendous role in not only the proper function of the digestive system, but is key in maintaining the balance of the whole body.

Let’s talk about heartburn for a moment. Say your sphincter muscle is not doing its job, or let’s say it doesn’t have the proper tone. Stomach acid can escape and irritate the lining of the esophagus. What if your sphincter has too much tone, not allowing food to get to the stomach? Food collects. If this problem remains for a long time, food can putrefy. Now we have the creeping crud, an infection, sore, you name it - it hurts - heartburn. These are not the only two ways you can get heartburn, but these are not the only two ways your nerves can affect your digestion either. When approaching this type of problem, I tend to look for nerve pressure keeping the body from functioning at 100%, much like an electrician would see if an appliance is plugged in before replacing wires. Chiropractic and Osteopathic research has isolated areas of nerve pressure associated with digestive dysfunction.² Many times through a chiropractic adjustment nerve pressure is relieved allowing the body to do what it does best, function normally. A chiropractic check up may be in order.

We must also pay attention to habits. If dairy irritates your system, stop it, or at the very least make it a rare occasion. There are many other more favorable sources of calcium. Point being, we want to be looking for the reason our magnificent machine, our body, is malfunctioning rather than symptom cover-up.

Let’s talk about symptoms, the body’s alarm system. Taking care of symptoms helps one obviously feel better, an admirable goal. However, when one symptom-free, the cause of the problem should be explored.

There seems to be two schools of though concerning the symptoms of heartburn. The first, most prevalent, thought is heartburn results from too much stomach acid. These folks gobble antacids like crazy. If they do this for about 10 – 15 years chances are they will have side affects. Antacids also depress the rest of the digestive process, so now even if one eats well; they still start out playing with half a deck. Jump 10 – 15 years down the line functioning with a depressed digestive system and ask yourself how healthy you would be. Get my drift. What may help is sipping 1 TBS apple cider vinegar while eating a meal. Do not drink any other liquids with the meal. Calcium carbonate supplements, common calcium supplements, tend to have antacid properties.³

The other school of thought is your stomach is secreting too little acid. Food sits around in your stomach until enough acid accumulates signaling passage to the small intestine. Food digested too slowly can escape back to the esophagus. High fat foods are notorious for slow digestion, thus their association with heartburn. The goal here would be to help stimulate stomach acid. For some, this can be as simple as drinking a glass of water (purified-distilled) 30 minutes before eating. 1TBS of apple cider vinegar in 1/3 cup water (hold your nose, sometimes it does not taste so good), or 500 mg of Vitamin C (powder) in a glass of water (purified – distilled) just before a meal helps acidify the stomach. Betaine hydrochloride (HLC) is made of the same acid your stomach makes. Try between 2 – 20 grains (or follow directions on the bottle), building up slowly. If you feel a burning in your stomach, too much. Don’t use betaine HCL during attacks of heartburn or with ulcers.⁴ Remember you know your body the best. What is best for you often takes time and investigation. Have a Happy New Year!