August 12, 2021 • 25 mins
15. Welcome back to the Season 2 of the Hungry for Truth Podcast. This season is all about gut health. Episode 15 specifically focuses on a common digestive issue called GERD, also known as reflux. Listen to my personal experience of having a child with infantile reflux, and how I successfully help clients improve digestion and thrive again. I also discuss the potential dangers of using PPI's or proton pump inhibitors and why stomach acid is necessary for optimal gut health.
Visit my website for the links to the references discussed: https://brigittefactor.com/uncovering-gerd-and-ppis/
Join my private community for free: authentictable.mn.co
Take the Happy Gut Key Quiz:
https://brigittefactor.com/happygutkeyquiz
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brigitte Factor (00:13):
Hello, and welcome to the hungry for truth
podcast. I'm your host, BrigitteFactor, truth seeker,
researcher, scientists,nutritionist, teacher and truth
teller. An awakening is coming.
Get ready for it. Hello, andwelcome back to another season
(00:47):
of hungry for truth podcast. I'mreally excited to get back to
recording some more episodes, Ihave a lot that I want to share
with you this season. And thisis going to be a really great
series for you. First, I want togive you an update about what's
going on with me, when in myworld. Well, the legislation
(01:09):
that those of us at the Missourinutrition Alliance have been
working on for three yearsfinally passed and is has gone
into effect this month, which isreally exciting. This is
effectively opened the doors forhealth coaches and nutritionists
to practice to their fullability in the state of
(01:31):
Missouri. So we have paved a wayfor this industry to blossom,
and I'm so excited for this, Godhas definitely gone before us
and made this happen. I havethis note on my whiteboard here,
as I'm recording that says hehas given us victory. And I
wrote that on the whiteboard atthe beginning of this journey,
(01:55):
believing that he was going togive us victory that he had
already given us victory, it wasjust us too. For for us to
claim. And so I just want toshare that with you. It's really
exciting. So I'm really excitedabout what the future holds. And
really excited about what thefuture holds for this podcast as
well. So this season, I'm reallygoing to dive into into what my
(02:18):
expertise is in which is in guthealth. I'm going to be sharing
with you why gut health is socentral to our overall health
and the way that gut health offelt affects other conditions of
the body and what thatconnection is and in ways that
you can support your gut healthand dig a little deeper into
(02:40):
that if you want.
Today's episode is specificallygoing to focus on reflux, also
known as GERD. And GERD orG-E-R-D stands for gastro
esophageal reflux disease. But Iwant to talk about digestive
wellness in general, and reallygoing on with reflux in ways
(03:02):
that we can naturally supportthis. But I want to take you
back to a story when my youngestwas an infant. This was several
years ago back in the time whereit took a lot of effort to get
everybody in the car to go tothe store. And one day we were
going to go to the mall. Soremember packing the car with a
(03:22):
stroller and the diaper bag andtrying to get everybody in the
car in their car seats buckledin and ready to go. Because we
were going to go shopping at themall. And we were walking
through Macy's. And all of asudden my youngest, who was
probably around nine months oldat the time, I want to say in
(03:44):
that infant range, and just, youknow, reflexes or vomits or
spews everywhere, all over thefloor and not just a little bit
but a lot where we have to getsomebody to help us clean up the
mess because just a few papertowels aren't going to cut it
right. And this happened quitefrequently. So my youngest
(04:08):
really struggled with thisinfantile reflux for many, many,
many months where we took him toget a barium scan of his
intestines to see if he hadpyloric stenosis because nothing
that we were doing was working.
And what the doctors were usingto try and treat this was a PPI
or a proton pump inhibitor. Nowthis was at a time before I had
(04:33):
started studying nutritionformally, and studying how the
digestive system works. And Ireally wasn't sure what was
going on. And I was just in thisplace where I was just trusting
the doctor's guidance because Ididn't know how to help my son
and I could tell he wasuncomfortable and knew it wasn't
(04:55):
normal because my first sondidn't deal with this issue, but
what I've learned since then I'mgoing to share with you because
I think it's very powerful. Butinfantile reflux is typical.
It's common among infants. Andthis is where splitting up peaks
around three to four months.
Normally, it goes away aroundsix to 12 months. And you're
(05:20):
told to just give smallerfeedings and burp more
frequently. And commonly, thepediatricians will prescribe a
ppi. To treat this issue in theway a PPI works, it's a proton
pump inhibitor, it turns off thepumps that produce stomach acid
(05:42):
in the stomach in a way to lowerthe amount of stomach acids that
is there in hopes that thatdoesn't cause them to basically
bubble over and spit it back upproblem with this is that
there's very little evidence forusing PPIs and infants. And
(06:03):
there is evidence of thepotential harm that this could
cause downstream. And I want togo through that today's so I
want to share a little bit ofthe research that we have now
just to give you a glimpse intothis.
These are some quotes from thethis journal called the Canadian
family physician. And thisjournal is looking at some of
(06:26):
the review articles that havebeen done on PPI use and infants
and how it has affected GERDsymptoms and crying and
irritability and reduction ofgastric acidity. So reducing the
acids in the stomach. And hereit's looking at a systematic
review, including five placebocontrolled studies and infants
(06:48):
looking at PPI's and concluded tat they were not effective in r
ducing GERD symptoms of feding related crying or infant i
ritability. And the conclusion tat the authors have is the use o
PPIs. In the management of ifants with excessive crying, b
sed on a presumptive diagnosis oGERD remains a common p
(07:11):
actice among pediatric cregivers, despite the lack of a
y evidence based treatment, eficacy or utility in these p
tients. So we have evidence in te literature, showing that t
ere's not a significant rduction in symptoms from the u
e of these ppis in infants.
So the question remains, why arethey using this as a treatment?
(07:35):
And I honestly think thatthey're just trying to do what
they can to see what works. Andfor some people there they
notice a difference. I'm notsaying that some people haven't
experienced results from usingppis in this case, but when you
look at the data as a whole,there is a significant benefit
(07:57):
from this approach. And itcompletely misses the question
of why is this happening. So Iwant to give a quick overview of
how our digestive system issupposed to work. And the
understanding of why stomachacid is important not just to be
(08:18):
able to digest your food, butfor many other reasons as well.
And so when you take a bite offood and you begin chewing it,
your stomach is preparing totake in that food you start that
I always say the digestiveprocess starts in the brain
because your brain is what issignaling the stomach juices to
(08:40):
start being produced. So chewingyour food slowly giving your
body a time to respond toproduce those juices. You have
some enzymes in your saliva thathelp start break down
carbohydrates, you swallow thatfood, it goes into your stomach,
and then your stomach isproducing these digestive juices
that contain hydrochloric acidwhich is very acidic, as well as
(09:05):
pepsin, which is an enzyme thatbreaks down protein and some
other things as well. If thereisn't enough stomach acid
present, the pepsin does not getactivated because the pepsin has
to be activated at a very low pHour stomach is designed to be at
a very low pH. And if you're notproducing enough stomach acid
(09:30):
and you're not activating thepepsin, then you're not properly
breaking down the proteins inthe stomach. Also, the acidity
of your digestive juices arewhat we call chyme, once it
mixes with the food in thestomach is what triggers the
release of the contents of thestomach to move into the small
(09:51):
intestine which then triggersanother cascade of digestive
juices to be released from thepancreas including your
digestive enzymes and somebicarbonate. So yes, when
someone takes some proton pumpinhibitor to reduce the
production of stomach acid thatcan temporarily reduce the
(10:12):
amount of reflux someone may beexperiencing. But then that begs
the question, if stomach acid isso important for the process of
digestion, what happens when weshut that down. And that's what
I want to dig into.
So the British Medical Journalpublished an article called the
(10:33):
estimates of all cause mortalityand cause specific mortality
associated with proton pumpinhibitors among us veterans.
And so this particular study isanalyzing the outcomes, the
health outcomes of people thatare using ppis for a long period
of time. And what they found wasthat taking ppis is associated
(10:59):
with an increase of specificmortality, including death due
to cardiovascular disease,chronic kidney disease and upper
gastrointestinal cancer. This isa result of long term use of
shutting down your digestivesystem is there's downstream
(11:20):
effects that can occur. And Ihave personally witnessed in
clients other things that haveresulted in the use of ppis,
especially in children, rangingfrom nutrient deficiencies,
being diagnosed with failure tothrive, I've seen that happen a
(11:42):
few times where the child is puton a proton pump inhibitor to
help deal with the reflux andthe colic and the crying, and
then all of a sudden, they stopgrowing. And it's because
they're not able to properlyabsorb the nutrients that their
body needs. So there's thesedownstream effects. And one of
the downstream effects issystemic inflammation, or
(12:06):
inflammation that is circulatingthroughout the body because of
the deterioration of gut healthas a result of shutting down the
digestive system. So if you area parent, like I was, where your
child is suffering, and you'relooking for ways to help them,
and you're desperate foranswers, because you want to
(12:27):
ease the suffering, and stop theconstant reflux and spit up,
that was happening, which, bythe way, absolutely destroyed
our carpets, and we had toreplace them after that. But,
you know, what do you do? How doyou get to the bottom of this,
and it wasn't, until after myson started to grow out of this
(12:51):
and recover from this issue thatI really dug into learning how
the digestive system works. And,you know, realize that there
were a lot of things I couldhave done differently. And so
that's just the that's justlife, you know, you live and you
learn and you move on. But Iwant to share some of the things
in hopes that it's helpful toyou. And what actually
(13:12):
contributes to reflux. Well, onething is just immature
digestion, baby's digestivesystems are still developing,
still forming, still learning tofunction. And so there is that
piece of it as well.
Now, commonly, we're told thatthe there is LES dysfunction or
(13:34):
lower esophageal sphincterdysfunction, and that's the
little muscle that sits at thebottom of the esophagus, on top
of the stomach that closes oncefood passes through to keep it
in the stomach and keep it fromcoming up into the esophagus. So
when that sphincter is notworking properly, and it opens
(13:56):
back up, then the contents ofthe stomach can leak through up
into the esophagus and then out.
And so this is commonly what whypeople experience heartburn too,
because the contents of thestomach are very acidic, which
our stomach is designed to beacidic, it has this mucosal
layer that protects it from theacid. But our esophagus is not
(14:17):
designed to be acidic. So weactually feel that burning when
that material that chyme comesback up into the esophagus. And
so if that sphincter isn'tworking, then that can happen.
Well, then, that still leaves uswith the question of why isn't
that sphincter working. Andagain, some of it could be just
(14:39):
the the immature digestivesystem learning to develop or
waiting to develop because achild's gastrointestinal tract
isn't fully developed and fullysealed until about 2, 18 months
to two years of age. So this iswhy you don't give children
certain foods until a certainage as well.
(15:03):
So, but other contributors, andthis is what's true, in my case,
our food sensitivities, both formom and baby. And I'll go into
that in just a little bit, aswell as dysbiosis. And dysbiosis
refers to an imbalance of thegut bacteria in the digestive
(15:25):
tract, we are more bacteria thanwe are human, we have more
bacteria in and on our bodies.
And we do humans, I've talkedabout that before. So we have a
lot of bacteria in our digestivesystem that plays many, many
roles, which I will spend futureepisodes discussing those roles
and why it's so important. Butwhen we have an imbalance of
(15:46):
those bacteria, that leads toproblems that can lead to leaky
gut inflammation, which can alsoeventually lead to food
sensitivities. Well, a baby getstheir first dose of good
bacteria or beneficial bacteriafrom their mother as they move
(16:08):
through the birth canal. Andthat inoculates their gut to
start that process. So a baby,you know, if you remember, or
have had have children or aroundchildren, they like to put lots
of things in their mouths,that's a way of them sensing the
world, but it's also a way toinoculate their system to help
establish that gut flora. And sobabies get their gut flora,
(16:33):
their start with our gut florafrom mom. So if mom has
dysbiosis, that imbalance canpotentially be transferred to
the baby as well. Also, in mycase, if the baby is born via
c-section, then the baby ismissing out on that first
inoculation and is actuallybeing inoculated from the
(16:54):
medical staff that are handlingthe child in the beginning
because the baby's not passingthrough that birth canal to get
that, so dysbiosis can set inplace starting at birth. And
that's why one of the questionsI ask all of my clients is about
(17:15):
their birth, you know, how arethey born? What happened around
their birth. The other thingthat can contribute to this
dysbiosis is the use ofantibiotics, which is becoming
more and more frequent. And sothe child has an ear infection,
or sinus infection or some kindof other issue. Antibiotics are
(17:36):
frequently prescribed,antibiotics will wipe out all of
the bacteria. But just like whenyou weed your garden, that
creates open space for moreweeds to come in unless you
plant something in its place. Sothat creates again, this open
space for dysbiosis to set in.
(18:00):
So you know anti-biotics are afrequent contributor to this.
And antibiotics can alsocontribute to pyloric stenosis,
and pyloric stenosis is wherethere's this twist in the
intestines that causesprojectile vomiting in children.
(18:21):
So this is rare and only happenswith one 500 children, mainly
boys. But there are studiesshowing a link to a rethrow
myosin use, which is anantibiotic used for ear
infections to the prevalence ofpyloric stenosis. So there's a
(18:41):
link there. Again, going back tothat dysbiosis formula feeding
can also further exacerbatedysbiosis because the baby's not
breastfeeding. And then maternalstress. So when mom is stressed,
that stress can be translated tothe gut and create dysbiosis and
(19:02):
then that dysbiosis can be thentranslated to the baby as well.
So those are different thingsthat can contribute to this
dysbiosis and as well as foodsensitivities. So food
sensitivities again result in ain a child from part of that's
from the immature digestivetract, part of that is from this
dysbiosis that can occur thatallows the body or the gut to be
(19:28):
more reactive to certain foods.
And that can all lead to thisreflux that is occurring this
inflammation and reflux in thedigestive system.
So the way that I help myclients address these issues is
to bring balance back to the gutbacteria to support natural
(19:51):
digestive function with theright nutrients, things like
vitamin B 12 and zinc. Zinc isvery key to being able to grow
and use enough stomach acid, aswell as different things that
you can bring in to help supportthe motility of the digestive
tract as well. And also toremove those foods that baby is
(20:15):
sensitive to or that mom issensitive to, especially if
she's breastfeeding. Becausethose inflammatory compounds
that are produced in response tomom being sensitive to the food
can be passed on to the babythrough the breast milk. This is
all stuff that I didn't know atthe time that my youngest was
dealing with these issues. Andthat that I learned about after
(20:38):
the fact, you know, and you havethat moment of frustration of
why didn't I know this? Whydidn't my doctor know this. So
that is why I'm sharing thisinformation with you in hopes
that it helps you along yourjourney, or you can share it
with someone that isexperiencing the same challenges
and looking for references orways to support them. So I just
(20:59):
kind of want to summarize thatstomach acid is important,
you're supposed to have it inthe right places. And if it
starts refluxing out of thestomach, asking the question,
why is this happening instead ofjust trying to shut it down.
PPI's are not approved for longterm use. So really digging into
(21:24):
why is this happening andgetting to the root cause is
going to help with long termresolution of this issue is a
well as overall improvement ofyour digestive and gut health.
And also, you are not taking onthe additional risk of what can
happen or what's been linkedwith long term PPI use. Again,
(21:48):
some of those risks includenutrient deficiencies in
children and adults failure tothrive in children, increased
risk of bone fractures, kidneydisease, cardiovascular disease,
depression, and other mentalhealth conditions and there's
even an increased risk ofcatching pneumonia. I will put
(22:11):
references to these researcharticles in the show notes so
you can link to them and look atthem.
And if reflux is something thatyou are struggling with, or that
your child is struggling withreally digging deep and asking
the right questions as to whythis is happening, what could be
contributing to it, working witha functionally minded or trained
(22:34):
practitioner. And in thefunctional nutrition world, and
the protocol that I use toapproach this issue is called
the five R protocol. And itstarts with removing anything
that can be irritating to thedigestive tract, you know,
removing those foods that you'resensitive to, or the child is
(22:55):
sensitive to. And then replacingthe nutrients necessary for good
digestive function. Zinc is acommon one that is needed that I
see. And you also want torebalance or repopulate the gut
with good gut bacteria. Sobringing in those fermented
(23:16):
foods and sources of probiotics,as well as bringing in food and
nutrients that help support thelining of the gut and reduce the
inflammation. And then the fifthR of this protocol, which is
often overlooked is thelifestyle factors which we call
rebalance. Rebalancing thoselifestyle factors like sleep,
(23:37):
and stress and exercise. Becausepoor sleep, lots of stress and
improper exercise can allcontribute to dysbiosis and gut
inflammation. I have seen greatsuccess with my clients taking
this approach, I have helpedchildren that were dealing with
reflux or stomach pain or beingdiagnosed with failure to
(24:00):
thrive, to get back on track andstart thriving, again without
pain, so that they can be thehappy, healthy children that
they're designed to be.
I hope you have found thisinformation helpful. Again, I
will post links to resources inthe show notes so you can
research this, I also invite youto join my free online community
(24:23):
at the authentic table. Andthat's at authentictable.mn.co.
It's a mighty network community.
And it's free to join where Ishare tips and tricks and
recipes and ways for families toget on board with adopting a
real food lifestyle. And I doworkshops every now and then as
well. So it's a great freeresource for you to connect with
(24:47):
other people and to connect withmyself as well. So check that
out. I'll put a link to this inthe show notes as well. And then
look forward to other episodes.
Subscribe to this podcastbecause I have more episodes on
gut health and the gut immuneconnection and ways to support
(25:08):
gut health in immune healthcoming up, so you'll want to be
notified of those episodes. Andthank you so much for listening.
Until next time, Grace and peaceto you.
Hello, and welcome to the hungry for truth
podcast. I'm your host, BrigitteFactor, truth seeker,
researcher, scientists,nutritionist, teacher and truth
teller. An awakening is coming.
Get ready for it. Hello, andwelcome back to another season
(00:47):
of hungry for truth podcast. I'mreally excited to get back to
recording some more episodes, Ihave a lot that I want to share
with you this season. And thisis going to be a really great
series for you. First, I want togive you an update about what's
going on with me, when in myworld. Well, the legislation
(01:09):
that those of us at the Missourinutrition Alliance have been
working on for three yearsfinally passed and is has gone
into effect this month, which isreally exciting. This is
effectively opened the doors forhealth coaches and nutritionists
to practice to their fullability in the state of
(01:31):
Missouri. So we have paved a wayfor this industry to blossom,
and I'm so excited for this, Godhas definitely gone before us
and made this happen. I havethis note on my whiteboard here,
as I'm recording that says hehas given us victory. And I
wrote that on the whiteboard atthe beginning of this journey,
(01:55):
believing that he was going togive us victory that he had
already given us victory, it wasjust us too. For for us to
claim. And so I just want toshare that with you. It's really
exciting. So I'm really excitedabout what the future holds. And
really excited about what thefuture holds for this podcast as
well. So this season, I'm reallygoing to dive into into what my
(02:18):
expertise is in which is in guthealth. I'm going to be sharing
with you why gut health is socentral to our overall health
and the way that gut health offelt affects other conditions of
the body and what thatconnection is and in ways that
you can support your gut healthand dig a little deeper into
(02:40):
that if you want.
Today's episode is specificallygoing to focus on reflux, also
known as GERD. And GERD orG-E-R-D stands for gastro
esophageal reflux disease. But Iwant to talk about digestive
wellness in general, and reallygoing on with reflux in ways
(03:02):
that we can naturally supportthis. But I want to take you
back to a story when my youngestwas an infant. This was several
years ago back in the time whereit took a lot of effort to get
everybody in the car to go tothe store. And one day we were
going to go to the mall. Soremember packing the car with a
(03:22):
stroller and the diaper bag andtrying to get everybody in the
car in their car seats buckledin and ready to go. Because we
were going to go shopping at themall. And we were walking
through Macy's. And all of asudden my youngest, who was
probably around nine months oldat the time, I want to say in
(03:44):
that infant range, and just, youknow, reflexes or vomits or
spews everywhere, all over thefloor and not just a little bit
but a lot where we have to getsomebody to help us clean up the
mess because just a few papertowels aren't going to cut it
right. And this happened quitefrequently. So my youngest
(04:08):
really struggled with thisinfantile reflux for many, many,
many months where we took him toget a barium scan of his
intestines to see if he hadpyloric stenosis because nothing
that we were doing was working.
And what the doctors were usingto try and treat this was a PPI
or a proton pump inhibitor. Nowthis was at a time before I had
(04:33):
started studying nutritionformally, and studying how the
digestive system works. And Ireally wasn't sure what was
going on. And I was just in thisplace where I was just trusting
the doctor's guidance because Ididn't know how to help my son
and I could tell he wasuncomfortable and knew it wasn't
(04:55):
normal because my first sondidn't deal with this issue, but
what I've learned since then I'mgoing to share with you because
I think it's very powerful. Butinfantile reflux is typical.
It's common among infants. Andthis is where splitting up peaks
around three to four months.
Normally, it goes away aroundsix to 12 months. And you're
(05:20):
told to just give smallerfeedings and burp more
frequently. And commonly, thepediatricians will prescribe a
ppi. To treat this issue in theway a PPI works, it's a proton
pump inhibitor, it turns off thepumps that produce stomach acid
(05:42):
in the stomach in a way to lowerthe amount of stomach acids that
is there in hopes that thatdoesn't cause them to basically
bubble over and spit it back upproblem with this is that
there's very little evidence forusing PPIs and infants. And
(06:03):
there is evidence of thepotential harm that this could
cause downstream. And I want togo through that today's so I
want to share a little bit ofthe research that we have now
just to give you a glimpse intothis.
These are some quotes from thethis journal called the Canadian
family physician. And thisjournal is looking at some of
(06:26):
the review articles that havebeen done on PPI use and infants
and how it has affected GERDsymptoms and crying and
irritability and reduction ofgastric acidity. So reducing the
acids in the stomach. And hereit's looking at a systematic
review, including five placebocontrolled studies and infants
(06:48):
looking at PPI's and concluded tat they were not effective in r
ducing GERD symptoms of feding related crying or infant i
ritability. And the conclusion tat the authors have is the use o
PPIs. In the management of ifants with excessive crying, b
sed on a presumptive diagnosis oGERD remains a common p
(07:11):
actice among pediatric cregivers, despite the lack of a
y evidence based treatment, eficacy or utility in these p
tients. So we have evidence in te literature, showing that t
ere's not a significant rduction in symptoms from the u
e of these ppis in infants.
So the question remains, why arethey using this as a treatment?
(07:35):
And I honestly think thatthey're just trying to do what
they can to see what works. Andfor some people there they
notice a difference. I'm notsaying that some people haven't
experienced results from usingppis in this case, but when you
look at the data as a whole,there is a significant benefit
(07:57):
from this approach. And itcompletely misses the question
of why is this happening. So Iwant to give a quick overview of
how our digestive system issupposed to work. And the
understanding of why stomachacid is important not just to be
(08:18):
able to digest your food, butfor many other reasons as well.
And so when you take a bite offood and you begin chewing it,
your stomach is preparing totake in that food you start that
I always say the digestiveprocess starts in the brain
because your brain is what issignaling the stomach juices to
(08:40):
start being produced. So chewingyour food slowly giving your
body a time to respond toproduce those juices. You have
some enzymes in your saliva thathelp start break down
carbohydrates, you swallow thatfood, it goes into your stomach,
and then your stomach isproducing these digestive juices
that contain hydrochloric acidwhich is very acidic, as well as
(09:05):
pepsin, which is an enzyme thatbreaks down protein and some
other things as well. If thereisn't enough stomach acid
present, the pepsin does not getactivated because the pepsin has
to be activated at a very low pHour stomach is designed to be at
a very low pH. And if you're notproducing enough stomach acid
(09:30):
and you're not activating thepepsin, then you're not properly
breaking down the proteins inthe stomach. Also, the acidity
of your digestive juices arewhat we call chyme, once it
mixes with the food in thestomach is what triggers the
release of the contents of thestomach to move into the small
(09:51):
intestine which then triggersanother cascade of digestive
juices to be released from thepancreas including your
digestive enzymes and somebicarbonate. So yes, when
someone takes some proton pumpinhibitor to reduce the
production of stomach acid thatcan temporarily reduce the
(10:12):
amount of reflux someone may beexperiencing. But then that begs
the question, if stomach acid isso important for the process of
digestion, what happens when weshut that down. And that's what
I want to dig into.
So the British Medical Journalpublished an article called the
(10:33):
estimates of all cause mortalityand cause specific mortality
associated with proton pumpinhibitors among us veterans.
And so this particular study isanalyzing the outcomes, the
health outcomes of people thatare using ppis for a long period
of time. And what they found wasthat taking ppis is associated
(10:59):
with an increase of specificmortality, including death due
to cardiovascular disease,chronic kidney disease and upper
gastrointestinal cancer. This isa result of long term use of
shutting down your digestivesystem is there's downstream
(11:20):
effects that can occur. And Ihave personally witnessed in
clients other things that haveresulted in the use of ppis,
especially in children, rangingfrom nutrient deficiencies,
being diagnosed with failure tothrive, I've seen that happen a
(11:42):
few times where the child is puton a proton pump inhibitor to
help deal with the reflux andthe colic and the crying, and
then all of a sudden, they stopgrowing. And it's because
they're not able to properlyabsorb the nutrients that their
body needs. So there's thesedownstream effects. And one of
the downstream effects issystemic inflammation, or
(12:06):
inflammation that is circulatingthroughout the body because of
the deterioration of gut healthas a result of shutting down the
digestive system. So if you area parent, like I was, where your
child is suffering, and you'relooking for ways to help them,
and you're desperate foranswers, because you want to
(12:27):
ease the suffering, and stop theconstant reflux and spit up,
that was happening, which, bythe way, absolutely destroyed
our carpets, and we had toreplace them after that. But,
you know, what do you do? How doyou get to the bottom of this,
and it wasn't, until after myson started to grow out of this
(12:51):
and recover from this issue thatI really dug into learning how
the digestive system works. And,you know, realize that there
were a lot of things I couldhave done differently. And so
that's just the that's justlife, you know, you live and you
learn and you move on. But Iwant to share some of the things
in hopes that it's helpful toyou. And what actually
(13:12):
contributes to reflux. Well, onething is just immature
digestion, baby's digestivesystems are still developing,
still forming, still learning tofunction. And so there is that
piece of it as well.
Now, commonly, we're told thatthe there is LES dysfunction or
(13:34):
lower esophageal sphincterdysfunction, and that's the
little muscle that sits at thebottom of the esophagus, on top
of the stomach that closes oncefood passes through to keep it
in the stomach and keep it fromcoming up into the esophagus. So
when that sphincter is notworking properly, and it opens
(13:56):
back up, then the contents ofthe stomach can leak through up
into the esophagus and then out.
And so this is commonly what whypeople experience heartburn too,
because the contents of thestomach are very acidic, which
our stomach is designed to beacidic, it has this mucosal
layer that protects it from theacid. But our esophagus is not
(14:17):
designed to be acidic. So weactually feel that burning when
that material that chyme comesback up into the esophagus. And
so if that sphincter isn'tworking, then that can happen.
Well, then, that still leaves uswith the question of why isn't
that sphincter working. Andagain, some of it could be just
(14:39):
the the immature digestivesystem learning to develop or
waiting to develop because achild's gastrointestinal tract
isn't fully developed and fullysealed until about 2, 18 months
to two years of age. So this iswhy you don't give children
certain foods until a certainage as well.
(15:03):
So, but other contributors, andthis is what's true, in my case,
our food sensitivities, both formom and baby. And I'll go into
that in just a little bit, aswell as dysbiosis. And dysbiosis
refers to an imbalance of thegut bacteria in the digestive
(15:25):
tract, we are more bacteria thanwe are human, we have more
bacteria in and on our bodies.
And we do humans, I've talkedabout that before. So we have a
lot of bacteria in our digestivesystem that plays many, many
roles, which I will spend futureepisodes discussing those roles
and why it's so important. Butwhen we have an imbalance of
(15:46):
those bacteria, that leads toproblems that can lead to leaky
gut inflammation, which can alsoeventually lead to food
sensitivities. Well, a baby getstheir first dose of good
bacteria or beneficial bacteriafrom their mother as they move
(16:08):
through the birth canal. Andthat inoculates their gut to
start that process. So a baby,you know, if you remember, or
have had have children or aroundchildren, they like to put lots
of things in their mouths,that's a way of them sensing the
world, but it's also a way toinoculate their system to help
establish that gut flora. And sobabies get their gut flora,
(16:33):
their start with our gut florafrom mom. So if mom has
dysbiosis, that imbalance canpotentially be transferred to
the baby as well. Also, in mycase, if the baby is born via
c-section, then the baby ismissing out on that first
inoculation and is actuallybeing inoculated from the
(16:54):
medical staff that are handlingthe child in the beginning
because the baby's not passingthrough that birth canal to get
that, so dysbiosis can set inplace starting at birth. And
that's why one of the questionsI ask all of my clients is about
(17:15):
their birth, you know, how arethey born? What happened around
their birth. The other thingthat can contribute to this
dysbiosis is the use ofantibiotics, which is becoming
more and more frequent. And sothe child has an ear infection,
or sinus infection or some kindof other issue. Antibiotics are
(17:36):
frequently prescribed,antibiotics will wipe out all of
the bacteria. But just like whenyou weed your garden, that
creates open space for moreweeds to come in unless you
plant something in its place. Sothat creates again, this open
space for dysbiosis to set in.
(18:00):
So you know anti-biotics are afrequent contributor to this.
And antibiotics can alsocontribute to pyloric stenosis,
and pyloric stenosis is wherethere's this twist in the
intestines that causesprojectile vomiting in children.
(18:21):
So this is rare and only happenswith one 500 children, mainly
boys. But there are studiesshowing a link to a rethrow
myosin use, which is anantibiotic used for ear
infections to the prevalence ofpyloric stenosis. So there's a
(18:41):
link there. Again, going back tothat dysbiosis formula feeding
can also further exacerbatedysbiosis because the baby's not
breastfeeding. And then maternalstress. So when mom is stressed,
that stress can be translated tothe gut and create dysbiosis and
(19:02):
then that dysbiosis can be thentranslated to the baby as well.
So those are different thingsthat can contribute to this
dysbiosis and as well as foodsensitivities. So food
sensitivities again result in ain a child from part of that's
from the immature digestivetract, part of that is from this
dysbiosis that can occur thatallows the body or the gut to be
(19:28):
more reactive to certain foods.
And that can all lead to thisreflux that is occurring this
inflammation and reflux in thedigestive system.
So the way that I help myclients address these issues is
to bring balance back to the gutbacteria to support natural
(19:51):
digestive function with theright nutrients, things like
vitamin B 12 and zinc. Zinc isvery key to being able to grow
and use enough stomach acid, aswell as different things that
you can bring in to help supportthe motility of the digestive
tract as well. And also toremove those foods that baby is
(20:15):
sensitive to or that mom issensitive to, especially if
she's breastfeeding. Becausethose inflammatory compounds
that are produced in response tomom being sensitive to the food
can be passed on to the babythrough the breast milk. This is
all stuff that I didn't know atthe time that my youngest was
dealing with these issues. Andthat that I learned about after
(20:38):
the fact, you know, and you havethat moment of frustration of
why didn't I know this? Whydidn't my doctor know this. So
that is why I'm sharing thisinformation with you in hopes
that it helps you along yourjourney, or you can share it
with someone that isexperiencing the same challenges
and looking for references orways to support them. So I just
(20:59):
kind of want to summarize thatstomach acid is important,
you're supposed to have it inthe right places. And if it
starts refluxing out of thestomach, asking the question,
why is this happening instead ofjust trying to shut it down.
PPI's are not approved for longterm use. So really digging into
(21:24):
why is this happening andgetting to the root cause is
going to help with long termresolution of this issue is a
well as overall improvement ofyour digestive and gut health.
And also, you are not taking onthe additional risk of what can
happen or what's been linkedwith long term PPI use. Again,
(21:48):
some of those risks includenutrient deficiencies in
children and adults failure tothrive in children, increased
risk of bone fractures, kidneydisease, cardiovascular disease,
depression, and other mentalhealth conditions and there's
even an increased risk ofcatching pneumonia. I will put
(22:11):
references to these researcharticles in the show notes so
you can link to them and look atthem.
And if reflux is something thatyou are struggling with, or that
your child is struggling withreally digging deep and asking
the right questions as to whythis is happening, what could be
contributing to it, working witha functionally minded or trained
(22:34):
practitioner. And in thefunctional nutrition world, and
the protocol that I use toapproach this issue is called
the five R protocol. And itstarts with removing anything
that can be irritating to thedigestive tract, you know,
removing those foods that you'resensitive to, or the child is
(22:55):
sensitive to. And then replacingthe nutrients necessary for good
digestive function. Zinc is acommon one that is needed that I
see. And you also want torebalance or repopulate the gut
with good gut bacteria. Sobringing in those fermented
(23:16):
foods and sources of probiotics,as well as bringing in food and
nutrients that help support thelining of the gut and reduce the
inflammation. And then the fifthR of this protocol, which is
often overlooked is thelifestyle factors which we call
rebalance. Rebalancing thoselifestyle factors like sleep,
(23:37):
and stress and exercise. Becausepoor sleep, lots of stress and
improper exercise can allcontribute to dysbiosis and gut
inflammation. I have seen greatsuccess with my clients taking
this approach, I have helpedchildren that were dealing with
reflux or stomach pain or beingdiagnosed with failure to
(24:00):
thrive, to get back on track andstart thriving, again without
pain, so that they can be thehappy, healthy children that
they're designed to be.
I hope you have found thisinformation helpful. Again, I
will post links to resources inthe show notes so you can
research this, I also invite youto join my free online community
(24:23):
at the authentic table. Andthat's at authentictable.mn.co.
It's a mighty network community.
And it's free to join where Ishare tips and tricks and
recipes and ways for families toget on board with adopting a
real food lifestyle. And I doworkshops every now and then as
well. So it's a great freeresource for you to connect with
(24:47):
other people and to connect withmyself as well. So check that
out. I'll put a link to this inthe show notes as well. And then
look forward to other episodes.
Subscribe to this podcastbecause I have more episodes on
gut health and the gut immuneconnection and ways to support
(25:08):
gut health in immune healthcoming up, so you'll want to be
notified of those episodes. Andthank you so much for listening.
Until next time, Grace and peaceto you.
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