Health Update +

I can't remember how much of this I have shared before so forgive me if I am repetitive.  For many long years now I have had major issues with heart burn and/or GERD.  This has really had a huge negative impact on my life in so many ways.  I have been taking Raninidine (?sp) for many years, two pills in the morning and two with dinner and I would still end up eating TUMS all. day. long.  And sometimes I still felt miserable.  There were good days and bad days but, in general, it has been a thorn in my side for many long years.

So, the other night I was reading the education forum I read frequently and I happened to run across a thread about heart burn/GERD.  The original poster was discussing her issues with this and what she should do, as she didn't have insurance.  Several people posted that she should make sure the issue she was having was due to too much acid (HCl) in her stomach, rather than too little.  Several people shared experiences about this where they actually had too little HCl so their food did not digest well.  They said all of the symptoms were the same and the docs just tended to immediately assume their issues were from too much acid and put them on medications to reduce the acid levels.

I started researching it and boy was it an eye opener.  I discovered that, due to my age, I was at least 40% likely to have too little HCl rather than too much.  I also discovered that it can cause gall bladder disease.  I had to have my gall bladder removed a number of years ago.  It can also cause thyroid disease and I also take a low dose of thyroid medication.  The more I read, the more interested I became and the more it made sense.

It was pretty easy to try this out to see if this was my problem.  After reading more about it and discussing it with my doctor husband, I decided to give this a try.  I bought HCl dietary supplements and started taking them with meals.  I am absolutely amazed at the results.  At this point, there is no doubt in my mind that my issue is (and probably always has been) that I have too little HCl in my stomach.  I already feel so much better and have had very few problems since I have started taking the supplements.  I have not taken any Raninidine since I started taking the supplements and I have hardly had any heart burn/GERD symptoms at all.  I am still playing around with the dosage so I have had to take some TUMS a couple of times but, oh my goodness, not even close to the number I would have taken in a day before the added HCl.

I am obviously very happy about these results.  I have also started taking a B12 supplement, as people who have been suppressing their levels of HCl to this extent are normally very low on B12.  I probably need to have some testing done to see what else I may be low on.  When the HCl is so low, the body does not absorb the vitamins and minerals very well.  No wonder I have felt the way I have for so long.  Amazing.  I am absolutely amazed that I went to so many different specialists and not one of them thought of this.  One Gastro doc even told me that I was swallowing too much air and I needed to stop doing that (low HCl also causes bloating, belching and such...lovely huh?). 

I really can't believe how much better I feel already.  And I have so much more energy too.  I can't help but wonder how much damage has been done to my body over the years because of this.  It has been at least 10 years, if not 11 or 12. 

I am just so very thankful to God that I finally have a solution for this and I am feeling so much better now.

In other news, we had a great day with school today.  We have added almost every subject now for 1st grade.  The only other things we will add are Explode the Code, which we will use for spelling and phonics review and also Wordly Wise for vocabulary.  We did Science today for the first time and the boys really enjoyed it.  We are studying the human body and this week they are learning about cells, blood vessels, veins, arteries, and organs.  They loved it.  We will do an experiment on Friday (we are schooling Friday this week because we missed Monday).  Tomorrow is a history day and we have two history projects to do.  We will likely do one of them on Saturday, along with our first art project.  I know they will really enjoy that.

They are doing really well with their narrating.  I am astounded at how much they remember about what we read and they are really good at forming their responses in complete sentences.  Currently I ask them questions about the passage I read aloud so I am walking them through how to narrate a paragraph or short story.  Eventually, they will be able to do it without the questions from me.

I had better sign off, as it is much too late and I have teacher, mom, wife, housekeeper, patient (I have a dr. appt. tomorrow - skin issues, which can also be caused from low HCl), cook, daughter, sister, etc. duties tomorrow.