Person Suffering From Acid Reflux Resulting in Acid Taste and Heartburn

Hi Ted I thought I'd discovered a gold mine, when I discovered this website and have eagerly read most of questions/answers regarding reflux & the tongue. I have despaired in the hands of conventional medicine and would really appreciate if you would answer my questions. I suffer from reflux, resulting in an acid taste in my mouth plus occasional heartburn. Treatment with Antacid pills makes no difference. Daily Gaviscon after all meals for a week seems to assist with healing the oesophagus and eliminating heartburn. I took Losec for a year which prevented acid build up & heartburn. However for the entire year I suffered weeks of bad nausea, plus bouts of diarrhoea. I was then given antibiotics to treat suspected giardia (which gave no immediate result) and underwent further investigation - biopsies, gastroscopy of the stomach, scans of liver, spleen pancreas, gallbladder & kidneys. All testing results were normal. In order to undergo this testing I had to stop Losec and the nausea disappeared and the diarrhoea stopped. So I have concluded that the Losec was making me nauseous together with lack of acid to digest food thereby causing diarrhoea. After this performance I have decided to try the apple cider vinegar remedy. However I am a little weary as I use to take 1 tablespoon ACV in a little water twice a day but my throat felt raw, also I have highly reactive tongue. Approx 1-2 minutes after eating or drinking certain foods (kiwifruit, pickled onions, raw pineapple, chilli, tomato based products, cooked tomatoes or spinach?), certain liquids (vinegar, lemon juice) separately or in combination?? my tongue can become: - Swollen (making my speech slurred), puffy & burning. - Cracked ; cracks approx 2mm deep by 5mm long or chunks missing - Patches where the top layer of the tongue has been completely stripped, & hemmed with red raw edges & burning. Covering the tongue in white sugar alleviates the burning immediately, otherwise it takes approx 1 week for the patches to recover; and months for the cracks to close up, all provided I don't consume any further aggravating foods/liquids. I have now just started some steroid cream to hopefully assist healing the tongue. Also I am a habitual cheek biter & chew the inside of my mouth, intially due to stress & anxiety but now a continual habit. My pH, taken 4 times a day over 4 days averages approx 6.7 for the urine & 6.6 for the tongue. My blood results are normal, good B12 & folate. I take 2 multivitams plus 2 iron (due to being a vegetarian) pills a week, together with acidophilus pills after every meal. Plus daily St John's wort for depression. After taking various courses of antibiotics I have been careful to then take supplements to re-establish the enzymes in the gut and mouth/throat. Following your former advice I was going to take the following:

1. For 2 weeks take 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda plus juice of ½ a lemon (which seem to be double the size of a small lime) in ½ cup water, once in the morning on an empty stomach & once before bed.

2. Then add 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar to the above remedy and take as per the above. Do this for 1 week on and then 1 week off.

3. Take a B complex vitamin pill, once a day for a month. Is the above treatment correct and is there anything else required? Do I need to take the apple cider vinegar remedy through a straw to avoid passing over the tongue or will the baking soda neutralize any damaging effect to the tongue? I assume the apple cider vinegar remedy is a health tonic that can be consumed indefinitely, or is there a specific period I should take it for? Do I need to a mouth wash as well? How should this be prepared & how long should I take. Thank you so much for your time and advice. Lisa, from New Zealand