Help, I think I'm dying of heartburn

[slipknotpsycho]

pickles
DILL pickles

and lots of then like 3 - 6 average size pickles
or 1 or 2 of the huge ones thats some stores sell single if you can get them is even better.

i have tried all kinds of things the nexium pills work pretty good but nothing works like dill pickles, i dont know why it works i think its its the dill, or the vinegar idk i only know it works

.................................................. ................. pickles or anything acid is one of the WORST damn things for em to eat/drink when i've been hit...

if it works for you, then more power to you, but that's one of the absolute 'must avoid' aspects for me... it just complicates it and makes it worse.... when i get the symptoms... they come in waves over my throat, about every 10 seconds.... i feel the gburning in my stomach, and rapidlly works it's way to my thoat...

now if i 'm to drink any acid, whatsoever... it'll come in waves of every 3 seconds...

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Birdgirl, did you know that antacids that contain calcium are the least effective antacids? Calcium stimulates acid production by the stomach so calcium carbonate will neutralize stomach acid initially but will cause your stomach to produce more acid 30-60 minutes later? Preparations containing aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide are much more effective! Now everyone is going to say "stay away from aluminum!" This is why milk will provide initial relief too because it is slightly basic but then the calcium starts things back up so overall it isn't very effective.

On another interesting note, antacids themselves actually deplete calcium. Which is why I find it so misleading when the antacid commercials say "and we've added calcium, something your body needs anyway". Nonsense! You're just trying to replace some of what your product is already destroying; don't try to act like you're actually giving us something! (lest you should incurre the wrath of the Wizard )

Actually, the antithesis of acid is something basic. Sugar water might provide some relief ( I've never tried it) but not because it is neutralizing acid. Sugar water should be close to neutral on the pH scale. Did you ever mix vinegar and baking soda to make those foam volcanos in school? That is because they are neutralizing each other and forming salts while giving off gas. Vinegar is the acid, baking soda is the base.

I believe the antithesis of an acid is a base (or "basid" as I've heard, but I'm not sure if this is right). Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure sugar does neutralize an acid. I originally learned this from a restaraunt manager who told us that sugar is the most effective thing to neutralize a spicy food that's burning your tongue (which I later tested and confirmed). As I learned later in biology, spiciness is causes by a high-acidity, and so I put two and two together.
You mention the experiment of putting Baking Soda and Vinegar together, 2 PH opposites, to create a volcano. We probably wouldn't want a volcanic eruption in our stomach though! Thus why I suspect sugar is the closest neurtralizing agent on the PH scale without a foamy reaction.


I could be wrong on this though, my PH-scale knowledge is very rusty at this point. Please correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

[fatsackville]

.................................................. ................. pickles or anything acid is one of the WORST damn things for em to eat/drink when i've been hit....

yeah i know other acid thinkgs like OJ or pizza sauce tear me up but pickles alway work.

i think maybe some acids can nuralize other bad acids ??

[FakeBoobsRule]

On another interesting note, antacids themselves actually deplete calcium.

I am pretty sure antacids are not calcium depleting. Antacids (not to be confused with PPI's or H2 blockers such as Zantac or Pepcid) never are absorbed systemically. It has been several years since I had organic chemistry but I don't think changes in pH level of the stomach affects calcium absorption either. Stomach acid is HCl so you aren't destroying calcium either.

I believe the antithesis of an acid is a base (or "basid" as I've heard, but I'm not sure if this is right). Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure sugar does neutralize an acid. I originally learned this from a restaraunt manager who told us that sugar is the most effective thing to neutralize a spicy food that's burning your tongue (which I later tested and confirmed). As I learned later in biology, spiciness is causes by a high-acidity, and so I put two and two together.
You mention the experiment of putting Baking Soda and Vinegar together, 2 PH opposites, to create a volcano. We probably wouldn't want a volcanic eruption in our stomach though! Thus why I suspect sugar is the closest neurtralizing agent on the PH scale without a foamy reaction.


I could be wrong on this though, my PH-scale knowledge is very rusty at this point. Please correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

Well as Mr. Devious you called sugar water the anithesis of an acid but now as Gandalf the Grey you are backing off that statements (for those who don't know they are the same poster but with a name change). Acids provide H+ ions while bases provide -OH ions. Using an oversimplified explanation you take something with a positive charge and it combines with something with a negative charge and that is how you get something that is neutral. So take hydrochloric acid ,HCl from the stomach and one of the bases used in many antacids magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)2 you get the reaction:

Mg(oh)2 + 2 HCl = MgCl2 + 2 H2O.

You have ended up with water and a salt magnesium chloride. Sugar doesn't really provide H+ ion or a -OH ion(yes I know the chemical formula of sucrose is C12H22O11) and solutions of sugar are almost neutral themselves. If sugar water is providing relief it isn't through turning H+ ions into salt and water.

Yes baking soda when used as an antacid will make a lot of gas and this is to be expected, it isn't called baking soda for no good reason (used in baking to give off gas to make dough rise, etc). That is a side effect and because of this it isn't used often as an antacid for stomach problems but sometimes that might be all that is available and if the choices are having my stomach on fire or burping I would take burping and I am sure many others would too. The degree of gases released depends on the acids and bases that are reacting. For instance MgOH2 isn't as bad as baking soda when used to neutralize HCl. Also, sometimes they add simethicone to help with the gas.

Have you ever heard of capsaicin or the Scoville scale? Capsaicin is what makes peppers hot (it is capsaicin content that determines how hot a pepper is not so much what your biology teacher told you about acid) and the Scoville scale measures it. Yes sugar water was involved in determining Scoville scale but there is a difference between neutralizing the burn on your taste buds (this is not a chemical burn by the way) and neutralizing stomach acid. I have heard that about sugar water and spicy foods but actually many will say milk is better. Whatever but like I said there is a world of difference between taming the burn on your tongue from a chili pepper and taming the acid in your stomach. I suggest you let restaurant managers manage restaurants and get your healthcare info from those in the health care field.

[birdgirl73]

Birdgirl, did you know that antacids that contain calcium are the least effective antacids? Calcium stimulates acid production by the stomach so calcium carbonate will neutralize stomach acid initially but will cause your stomach to produce more acid 30-60 minutes later? Preparations containing aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide are much more effective! Now everyone is going to say "stay away from aluminum!" This is why milk will provide initial relief too because it is slightly basic but then the calcium starts things back up so overall it isn't very effective.

This is good to know--and it would have changed things back in my own GERD days had I known that. I've had the organic chemistry and, of course, my first-year physiology, but I certainly didn't translate it there with the antacid recommendation, did I? Glad you told me, though, because that can make a tremendous difference to people I know, and maybe it was the calcium-driven acid production reasoning behind my own internist advising against milk. I took lots of Reglan back in those days. One of the few good things about having a post-peritonitis re-fashioned digestive system is the fact that GERD no longer gives me any trouble.

Thanks--and keep up the good work, FBR!