Surprising Heartburn Triggers – gerd – Health.com.

Heartburn is bad, but what’s worse are the consequences of leaving it untreated.

Having been personally afflicted with GERD, I’ve heard doctors tell me that I would be on heartburn medication the rest of my life.

What I discovered, quite by accident, is that heartburn is not necessarily a life sentence.

Mine is completely gone now.

I didn’t take any medications to “cure” it.

My snoring is gone too.

I didn’t have any operations or wear uncomfortable headgear to sleep at night.

I began exercising and eating right.

That’s it.  That’s all it took.  Four months later, I was cured.

My doctors never mentioned that I could solve the issue without meds.

I resent that.   I think that we should be told we have a choice, that the choice shouldn’t be made for us.

I think that without being supplied the necessary information, we are prone to make short-sighted decisions.

Perhaps my docs didn’t think I would follow through on a healthy diet and exercise.  Maybe they didn’t mention it because they figure no one ever does it.  Prescribe the pill, and send me home.

I blame us.

Docs are so used to us not following through, they’re not even bothering giving us natural alternatives.  Yet, we have to believe that as doctors they must be aware of these “natural fixes”.

There is much discussion about healthcare these days.  One point I believe firmly is that we need to begin by taking as good of care of ourselves as possible.  Any system that does not encourage individual responsibility is ultimately going to incubate a very unhealthy society.

And if you look at the various strata of our American society, you can see this already at play.  The poor rely on socialized medicine as it stands.  They also tend to exhibit the least healthy habits of any other group.  When the fix is on someone else’s dime, you have less of an interest in minimizing the probability of illness.  In the insurance business, it’s a fundamental principle called “moral hazard.”

It boils down to this … if you know you have a safety net, you’re pretty much going to keep treating your body the same way you did when you were a teen.

And only a teen can survive that …