Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda Question

Dear Cathy:

Should I use baking soda first? I just skipped right to the ACV/baking soda. On an average, how long before I see noticable improvements? Really anxious to get off prilosec/tums and get on with my life.

Depending on your conditions. A friend of mine in Bangkok started with ACV right away and ended up with an acid tongue. His was a severe one, his tongue were bleeding. So I told him to back down and just take baking soda for a couple of weeks.

Now for most people baking soda and acv will do quite fine. The reason is my friend is unique. He is a muscle builder, takes high protein regularly, and is also a big consumer of hydrogen peroxide therapy.

It is obvious that not only he is extremely acidic with high protein diet, exercises increases lactic acid, and hydrogen peroxide further pushes his oxidation to the limit. In this case he went to an extreme. If that is your situation, then start with baking soda first for at least three weeks. My friend's condition normalized on the second week and improving.

As to your conditions it seem obvious you have acid reflux/heartburn issue. I need to stress that in the beginning, I did not expect that acid reflux were to become such a hot topic at earthclinic. It was a nice benefit for some of people who do take ACV. But ACV alone is not enough. It depends on the causes. We need to cover all the cause and find all the possible remedies needed.

As a result, I find it necessary to put in more details then necessary. There are several causes of acid reflux that I must mention, pathogens (helicobacter pylori), candida (fungus), nanobacteria, electrolytic imbalance, vitamin imbalances, pH, buffers, and the newest one antioxidant status (ORP) being the most obvious at the moment.

If pathogens are the issue, then taking one drop of lavender oil internally, or taking a teaspoon of lemon oil maybe 2-3 times a day would elminate the pathogen issue. These also include parasites if there ever was one have certain weakness, primarily, the components of lemon oil is d-limonene often kills them but they are safe for humans as it is only a lemon flavoring used in ice cream. 1/8 teaspoon of borax is a common old fashion remedies too to get rid of the pathogen/parasite issues.

As to the candida problem being the cause, this is a bit harder to tame as they are quite difficult to get rid of. However, molybdenum, baking soda, selenium, zinc, are common ways to rid of this. Licorice extract and glycine has been shown to help reduce the fungus caused acid reflux.

As for me, I once had an acid reflux and I resolved that with potassium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, 1 drop of clove oil (some things it is hot, so one toothpick of clove oil might be better), and I took plenty of selenium. I completely cured myself when I started taking vitamin B complex regulary.

Apparently the vitamin B complex family along with the magnesium chloride normalized my digestive system. As for my own mother, her digestive system normalized with royal jelly just one teaspoon and one dose does it. For my own mother's condition, she was suffering from some kind of food poisoning that resulted in a severe form of acid reflux. She couldn't eat for three days straight.

Magnesium chloride didn't work, vitamin C were of no help. So any good substitute for royal jelly. I used a fresh frozen royal jelly for my mother, but some might have trouble obtaining it, so a good substitute might be vitamin B5, at 250 mg.-500 mg being as close to the does the Royal Jelly. Perhaps bee pollen might work in some cases, but this is a matter of just trying out to see if it works for you or not.

Nanobacteria as a cause for acid reflux is a rare one, but I have seen it. Apparently the calcium was quite high, and taking magnesium chloride, raising ones immunity with zinc, selenium, and vitamin B complex clearly helped. Electrolytic imbalances can be easily handled quite easily by taking those electrolytic salts used for people with diarrhea problems and atheletes. Unfortunately these electrolytic salts is missing one key element of salt: magnesium chloride, which you must take separately.

Most of the vitamin imbalances I have seen with an acid reflux, is primarily one of vitamin B complex. So taking them often enough should reduce the problems. Usually pH, buffers and antioxidant may go hand in hand when dealing with an acid reflux problem, a more updated formula is to add Vitamin C (sodium ascorbate, or sodium ascorbate ascorbic acid) 500 mg 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda 1-3 tablespoon of ACV.

Chemically speaking vitamin C is a strange beast. It is both a prooxidant and an antioxidant depending on its pH status. Its mentioned in the field of biochemistry, but is virtually unknown in other fields. To make vitamin C into an antioxidant, you simply add more baking soda and make it alkaline. Once you raise your antioxidant status, your acid reflux can be dramatically cured, as in the case of me and my mother. But yet you have to be flexible enough to know what works for you and what does not. As in case of my mother it was gone in a matter of hours. The only way to know which works is just to try it out.

PLEASE read the labels. Aspartame IS NOT helpful with acid reflux in the long run. Take simple baking soda with some lemon juice or vitamin C, plus ACV if you have to. Aspartame is well known to breakdown into methanol alcohol which is toxic to the body and I found one case to cause acid reflux over the long run by damaging nerves. Methanol is known to damage nerves or cause blindness and paralysis in extreme form of direct poisoning. Whenever you see calcium carbonate, you ought to supplement yourself with magnesium too, to maintain a critical magnesium calcium balance. Ted