Vinegar And Acid Reflux/heartburn

[Fiddle-Faddle]

So I've read in several places that a teaspoon of vinegar can "cure" heartburn. I've been on Nexium for over a year now, and Prilosec and Zantac before that, so I would love to stop taking meds.

I forgot to take my Nexium this am, and the heartburn is coming back with a vengeance. I took a teaspoon of vinegar (BOY, was that nasy going down!), and it DID seem to help for a good 20-30 minutes or so. But now the heartburn is coming back again.

I found this: Open Original Shared Link, but there are countless sites recommending vinegar for heartburn, too. How do I know what to believe?

Has anyone been able to discontinue Nexium? Is there a strategy, or do you just quit cold turkey? Is there a rebound period?

[RiceGuy]

The vinegar which is known to aid in curing/relieving heartburn is apple cider vinegar. Be certain it's the real thing though, not just flavored vinegar.

It's been awhile since I looked it up, but I seem to recall that there is a particular compound in the vinegar which encourages the stomach lining to do its job, or some such thing.

Some people need to use it a few times before the stomach operates more normally for longer periods of time. I read it might seem like the heartburn gets a bit worse initially, but after a little while the stomach's activity apparently normalizes. Others find it just doesn't do enough, but it's difficult to tell if they used it properly or for a long enough period of time.

[CarlaB]

Raw apple cider vinegar is alkalinizing to the body and will help with heartburn. You can take a tsp. in 8 oz. of water three times per day.

Regular vinegar and regular apple cider vinegar has an acidic effect, though, it has to be the raw vinegar.

It seems to help those in my family with heartburn. It's good for other things, too. I take it for the Herxheimer reaction from Lyme treatment.

My hubby swears by it ... he's been drinking it for years and never gets sick!

[Guest cassidy]

I was on aciphex twice a day before going gluten-free and still had terrible heartburn. I really only get heartburn when glutened but it took about 3-4 months of being in the diet for it to go away. When I'm glutened it lasts for 3 weeks - even from a crumb.

I stopped all the aciphex and just did vinegar and it worked. I had to drink a lot to keep it away so I switched to apple cider vinegar tablets because they didn't taste bad. I used more than the recommended dose but the health food store said it was fine. I was able to tamper down and stop but that was because mine was due to celiac.

From what I have read, heartburn can be caused by too little acid. Too little acid (which the nexium causes as well) doesn't trigger that upper muscle to shut so the acid has a free path back up. If you put some acid (the vinegar) down there it triggers the muscle to close and the reflux stops.

I have had heartburn my entire life until going gluten-free. I had surgery for it when I was 10 and almost had another surgery last year before finding out it was all due to celiac. In my experience the vinegar works. Good luck.

[key]

I have tried apple cider vinegar when I have heartburn. I don't know if it works long term for everyone. It is very nasty and I just couldn't bring myself to drink that all the time. It only seems to work for me for about 30 minutes too. I did have bad indigestion the other night though and it helped instantly, so it must help some.

Right now I am not suffering from heartburn as bad. I can't seem to tolerate Nexium or Prilosec. My food just seems to not digest and my stomach hurts when I take it. For now I am taking Aloe vera juice, carrot juice, flaxseed oil. Cutting back on coffee right now and trying a lowfat diet. I think fat is probably the worst thing for heartburn. I also read somewhere that staying "regular" helps. If people have constipation, they are also more likely to have heartburn. Aloe vera juice is good for digestion. As far as Carrot juice and flaxseed oil, I am using those just for my health in general. You could also try digestive enzymes taken right at meals. Also I am taking Colostrum, which has some benefits to the GI tract. Of course all herbs probably don't have "scientific" evidence for sure, but I do believe they are helping me.

Goodluck.

Monica

[Guest WashingtonLady]

RAW Apple Cider Vinegar, with an equal portion of a good honey, in hot water can be drunk like tea all day long. (Usually 1 Tbl vinegar & 1 Tbl honey w/8-10 oz hot water.) My dad has always sworn by it and a lot of people drink it as a morning tonic to jump start their daily ph balance. Just be sure to keep the honey in the same proportion or you'll walk around all day feeling like an Italian salad dressing! Once you get used to it, it's like drinking tea...though the first glass is the hardest.

An excellent "cure all" for when you feel a cold coming on, too. Seriously, it works! I haven't had as good a reaction with the vinegar pills, but I didn't take them regularly. Many people swear by them, though!

Just remember to get the raw kind from the health food section. Distilled vinegar won't do much more than get you read for egg dying at Easter!

Speaking of which, can anyone tell me exactly how much gluten is in regular vinegar? I eat a lot of salsa, which has vinegar in it, but have seen that on the "no-no" list. What's the scoop?

[RiceGuy]

Speaking of which, can anyone tell me exactly how much gluten is in regular vinegar? I eat a lot of salsa, which has vinegar in it, but have seen that on the "no-no" list. What's the scoop?

From what I've read, white wine vinegar is gluten-free. It's the grain vinegars that we need to look out for, so you'd have to know which type is in the product in question. Sometimes the company posts this info on their website. If they don't then contacting them might get you the info you need.

[Cat5]

My experience was that if you have a low acid stomach the vinegar may help but if you had over active stomach acidity it could make it worse. I did the Bragg's Vinegar thing in the water and my stomach got Much worse. I have been too scared to try it again for the acid reflux, so now I am trying the Organic Aloe Vera juice and organic raw garlic cloves and plain Dannon yogurt. I eat about 4 Tbsps. of the yogurt every other day as sometimes the yogurt (dairy thing) can cause a mucous over-reaction which makes my nose start to run etc.

I wish I could find a natural cure for my acid reflux. It comes and goes and sometimes I don't have it for several days at a time, then other times its there every day all day no matter what I try.

[VioletBlue]

I tried the apple vinegar but could not stomach the smell. The taste was not the problem for me, but the smell was too much. I tried apple cider vinegar pills and those worked without the issue of smell. They were not a miracle for me, but they did help. Unfortunately I couldn't handle the malic acid content in the end and they started burning all the way down. But mostly, after nine months being gluten-free I don't need anti-acids again. The only time I do is when I've been glutened.

Violet