Why Do People Get Acid Indigestion/Reflux/GERD/Hiatal Hernias?

I spend a lot of time working with my practice members and choose to take the time to talk with them about what is going on in their lives and what creates the stress response in their lives.  Unlike most healthcare practitioners, I make sure to give them the time they need unlike the majority of offices which have perfected the 3 to 5 minute office visit.  Without taking the time to understand a health concern, it makes it difficult, if not impossible to solve the concern.  That is why I ask questions and listen to what my practice members have to say.  And it is through their communication and the questions I ask that have helped me understand why a person develops Acid Indigestion/Reflux/GERD/Hiatal Hernias, etc.  Follow along with this article and learn for yourself what is underlying your digestive concern.

Your digestion, all of it, is controlled and regulated by a tiny organ that sits under your liver.  This tiny sack of an organ is called your gall bladder and it is responsible for making the decisions in your body.  I’m sure many of you are thinking, “No Dr. Rick, my brain is what makes my decisions, not my gall bladder.”  And for the masses, this is what they think.  In an effort to not make people wrong, let me modify what I have seen to be true for over 22 years and say your gall bladder, in association with your brain, is what makes all the decisions in your body and it is the healthy balance between their communications that enables your digestive system to do its job properly.  I hope you can agree with that statement.  And if not, perhaps the information that follows will help you to conclude things in a new, more expanded way.  After all, I am confident there are things we do not know or understand, the knowing and understanding of which could change everything.  So if you will allow me the courtesy to expand your understanding, your health will appreciate it and so will your body.

It has been shown that we are more than just a mind and body.  And the two cannot be addressed independently if we would choose to solve the imbalances that exist between the two.  Therefore, going to a Psychiatrist/Psychologist/Social Worker/Counselor to talk about your problems can have a beneficial effect for how you are feeling, AND it will not eliminate the physical manifestations of your health concerns.  Likewise, having physical interventions and treatments designed to address the physical symptoms of a health concern is beneficial AND will not truly address the underlying mental/emotional causes of your health concerns.  They must be addressed together if you truly want to get to the bottom of your concern.  Both have merit, and you need both to truly solve an imbalance. 

Having spent thousands of hours assisting my practice members to improved health outcomes for more than 22 years and having always been doing this from the time I was in 3^rd grade, understanding what a person is going through is directly related to what they are manifesting in their physical body.  Unfortunately, we do not have bodies that simply stop one thing and do the opposite merely by taking some pill, physical treatment or by talking about it until we are blue in the face.  And as stated, we need to address the physical symptom yes, AND we must address the underlying negative emotional habit pattern that is creating and supporting the physical imbalance.   

So back to the underlying cause/mechanism for why we get the conditions related to digestive upset listed above.  If we look at the emotions associated with our different organs and glands, we come to appreciate what emotions are involved in the Stomach/Pancreas/Gall Bladder/Small Intestine area.  And it is through this understanding that one can begin to appreciate how complex and yet how simple we all are as far as our wiring is.  Our emotions are universal and how they impact our functions within the body are also somewhat universal.  I say “somewhat” because not everyone has the same emotional reality as everyone else.  And that is one reason why there are so many different medications to address the symptoms of these imbalances.  Everyone re-acts differently because everyone has been “programmed” differently.

To begin with an example of one mechanism for these digestive disturbances mentioned, if a person is experiencing the feeling of being “vulnerable” due to any of a number of reasons, the vulnerability is going to manifest in an uneasy feeling in the belly, just below the ribcage.  The vulnerability affects the small intestine which is counterbalanced by the heart.  A back-up to the heart is the adrenal system; the glands responsible for helping us manage our stress.  The adrenal glands are now stimulated and the heart responds with an increase in beating, leading to the stomach feeling the emotion of “anxiety.”  Once the stomach feels anxiety, the gall bladder begins looking at what is going on and, if balanced, will make a decision that remedies the whole situation and harmony (the chief heart emotion) will be restored. 

• If the gall bladder does not understand how to handle the situation, “indecision” sets in and the gall bladder must now handle the difficulty and anything associated with it.  The longer the situation persists, the indecision will evolve to “resentment” for being given something the body/mind complex does not want and cannot handle.  This can evolve into “anger” and pull the liver into the equation.  And the gall bladder still needs to handle the situation.  It will begin to cause the body to remove the situation altogether by developing several different responses, each one a little different from the other and all along the same vein. 
  
• If the gall bladder is healthy and strong, it will override the initial vulnerability and the person will handle the situation in a balanced way. 
  
• If the gall bladder has stress, is not working perfectly and cannot handle the situation fully, nausea and gas will develop.  This may be the end of it, simply feeling nauseous for a bit and possibly needing to burp.   
  
• If the gall bladder is weaker still, the nauseous feeling may expand and the gas looking to escape will lead to reflux, which is simply the attempt to get the irritation out of the body.  This is an indication the gall bladder is not strong enough to actually throw it all the way up and out.  The reflux will lead to acid indigestion (GERD) causing one to mistakenly think their body has too much acid being produced and will mistakenly go get an antacid medication.  This is usually an over-the-counter one first before eventually being prescribed a stronger medication to “block the acid.”  This form of treatment will eliminate the symptoms for sure and it will also help to create other health concerns like calcium absorption problems.  The complications of that will eventually lead to immune system problems, osteoporosis and musculoskeletal pain, like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, just to name a few.  So instead of simply masking the symptom with different antacids, it is important to address the underlying mechanism of dysfunction.  Otherwise, you will be tied to the medication for the rest of your life and begin developing the other conditions mentioned as a complication to your original indigestion.
  
• If the gall bladder is truly weak, it will cause the system to remove the interference by turning the problem to various states of liquid and, with the help of the kidneys and large intestine, it will throw it out the other end in the form of diarrhea.  This is the basis for the diagnosis of IBS or irritable Bowel Syndrome or any of the different variations. 
  

I hope you can find your personal situation in the above example and can now appreciate the mechanism behind what your body is doing.  Since all of us are creatures of habit, and since all of us are unconscious to what we think and feel 97 to 99 % of the time, it is our habit patterns of thoughts and feelings and how we re-act to our life circumstances that causes us to feel any of the associated emotions that will lead to the gall bladder stress response. 

So What Do I Do Now?

The wonderful thing about what I do in the office is I can and do address all of these relationships and I can and do help my practice member get to the underlying cause of their emotional circumstances and help them eliminate the gall bladder stress and all the roads into it feeling the stress.  Whether it is the vulnerability of the small intestine, the low self-esteem of the stomach or the anxiety from the stomach/heart/adrenal relationships, strengthening your gall bladder and helping to support the maintenance of the gall bladder is paramount.  Then by helping to understand the emotional patterns the person’s body takes when under stress and helping them to eliminate the pattern and develop a new, more harmonious pattern allows for the person to truly address the concern.  And with that comes the elimination of medication and the elimination of all the potential side-effects from stopping the acid production within the stomach. 

Who Should Be Checked?

If you are someone who experiences gas, bloating, acid indigestion, heart burn, reflux or any other form of indigestion, you will benefit from getting that checked.  Allowing yourself to understand the underlying cause of your condition is important.  Addressing that is vital for your short-term and long-term health.  Knowing what the emotional holding pattern and triggers are is necessary to remedy you condition.  Strongly consider having this evaluation.  Your future health and life depend on it. 

Dr. Huntoon has a single mission:

To support as many people as possible in their quest for health and enable them to improve and maintain their health to the highest level possible, while educating them about the benefits of Chiropractic, Natural Healthcare and Holistic Living, so they in turn can teach others to support us having a healthy community.

Your Choice

• Continue doing the same thing and nothing changes or it may get worse

OR

• Try something different and get a different result that makes you happier and healthier.