Re: Ulcers?

I went through a stomach ulcer. The first thing that helped clear it up, in my case, was not eating any more preservative-laden foods (frozen dinners and convenience store fare are the worst). Eating lots of real food helped.

Looking back on all I've been through, I think what happens with some of us is that our stomach acid is low for various reasons related to diet and general lifestyle. When the stomach acid is low, it can't kill off the bad stuff. Then some bad bug proliferates and does the heartburn and eventual ulcer thing. Antacids make the situation much worse - they reduce what little acid you had, and they put aluminum into your body. All the while, you can't absorb as much nutrition from your food, you have trouble producing and using vitamin B12, and this terrible cycle of problems results.

My husband had a period of time where he was getting heartburn, until he was put on some Antibiotics for strep. After that, both the strep and the stomach problems were gone. Not that you want to have to take Antibiotics , but that is part of my "proof." The way my ulcer proceeded, there was queasiness and heartburn, building to the point where I didn't want to eat and slept sitting up.

I have stomach troubles if I eat too much sugar. I have "fructose sensitivity," and I think it feeds something ugly that may have survived in my stomach. Unless it's happening in my small intestine, and I just think I'm feeling it in my stomach.

One thing you can try during this time is a small amount of HCL, sold with other supplements. You don't want to overdo it, and it's not a long-term solution, but it can interrupt the cycle. More hydrochloric acid will allow you to absorb more from your food, if you switch to good food. I had trouble at first absorbing things from raw foods, especially broccoli. A bone broth alone or with other food is good, because it doesn't take anything to digest, the gelatin in it helps you absorb things, and it's full of absorbable minerals.

In the long run, you want to stay away from things that will reduce stomach acid (taking mineral supplements can be tricky, as a big dose of calcium & magnesium will douse that fire - try bone broth instead), and lacto-ferment your own foods. Dairy is probably good to avoid for a while, unless you have a cultured raw milk product, where most of the lactose is pre-digested. You can lacto-ferment beets, fruit, cabbage, and much more. Some of those good microorganisms will make it through the stomach into the intestines.

And of course, stay away from bromine (brominated vegetable oil), fluoride, and take your Iodine :)