Stomach, ulcers and indigestion

by Brought to you by Covad | 19 May 2015

I’m Peter Krasenstein, I’ve been a Pharmacist for nearly 45 years and I’d like to discuss your health.

No doubt about it, life is pretty complicated.

And hectic too, and the often stressful lives we lead and with the copious amounts of drugs and supplements we ingest can often irritate the lining of the stomach causing pain and discomfort.

It can often be more complex than this but for many stomach and digestion ailments it boils down to the fact that we put the wrong things in to it to start with.

We need to remember that the stomach is a vessel, a container. Mind you it’s a really sensitive one.

So, like it or not, if we continue to fill it with all the wrong things then, sooner or later, it’s going to have an unpleasant reaction. It’s going to make it known, loud and clear, that it isn’t happy.

You see, when the stomach lining becomes inflamed it becomes like this ...... Then the brain becomes like this ....We get more anxious and stressed and our  fuse gets shorter and shorter.

Stress causes us   to pump more acid into the stomach  and it becomes like an erupting volcano.

As a pharmacist I’ve often resorted to things like Mylanta and Gavascon to reduce the pain and discomfort, followed by Zantac or Somac. But truthfully, these are only band aid measures and only give symptomatic relief, and temporary relief at that.

I’ve also had extraordinarily good results with a whole range of natural products and my favourite is Nux Vomica 30, which can be taken every 15 minutes until the pain has eased.

But let’s think about what happens in broader terms, let’s consider this before we put all that bad stuff in our mouths that we know we’re going to regret, but we do it anyway!

For example, when we go for long periods without eating our stomach produces acids to digest the foods which we are about to eat. If no food goes into the stomach then these acids are sloshing around anyway and if they’ve got nothing to work on then they start to eat into the stomach lining. Sad but true. That’s their job.

To overcome that happening, I recommend you eat small amounts throughout the day so that the acid we produce gets to do its’ job, without making you feel like you’ve swallowed a grenade.

So, eating small things often could include a small handful of almonds, a great natural product which does excellent things for digestion. But there are also many other tasty helpful things we can eat in small quantities and often too.

The key principle though is the doing of it.

My interest is in hopefully convincing you that eating small and eating often is how you can help to overcome so many stomach and digestion ailments.

It won’t overcome serious digestive illness but it sure as heck can help the vast majority of us to not suffer that burning hot poker in the chest when we finally get around to having a meal on the run.

But there’s so much more to it than just that and in two minutes I can’t hope to address every remedy. What do I want to do though is to share with you what I know for a fact, from 40 years of pharmacy, does indeed work for people.

In addition to all that, I can also tell you from experience that we ALL need to reduce our stress.

Like anything, if we don’t consciously focus on fixing it, well, it isn’t going to help itself.

So, we need to do things which help us to reduce our daily stress and we need to look at ways we can rectify our health imbalance.

Don’t forget, the more we focus on restoring the balance of our health, the less we need to take drugs. Putting any synthetic in our body is not the ideal thing. If we take small precautions and measures to overcome that need, as much as we can anyway, you’ll be amazed at the transformation you can achieve.

Quite seriously, you can un-stress yourself. Now, I’m not suggesting that this is some sort of cure all, there isn’t one, but I can vouch that it helps, a lot.

I’d encourage you to try my very simple and inexpensive natural approach to de-stressing, which also helps enormously to reduce stomach and digestion ailments too. Four real easy steps –

1. Firstly, juice an apple
2. Then, add half the juice amount again of whole milk
3. Then, whip out a spoon and stir it up and drink it right then, fresh
4. Do this first thing in the morning and again before you go to bed

Importantly though, there’s no short cuts here. It has to be made fresh every time as it produces an enzyme which lines and coats the stomach, helping to easing the problem.

I’d encourage anyone to do this for at least 1 to 2 months. Then I’ll guarantee you’ll be hooked and the difference will see you continue to do so.

And, with an iridology examination, I can actually see your stomach lining going from red to pink to skin coloured in this time. It works.

No strange gooblydegook, such fresh ingredients, in the right combinations and that’s what your body needs. It craves it, I promise you. What’s more, it’ll reward you to. And in a big way. You’ll feel better, less bloated, less stressed, less chest pain, it works.

There are a host of other safe and trusted measures I’d encourage you to consider too.

For example, a good probiotic with lots of good bacteria will only do you good. Particularly if you take it regularly. Our stomachs and digestive tracts never get anywhere near the levels of good bacteria they need. Any good probiotic taken regularly will aid that enormously.

Likewise, an anti-stress tonic like SF88, which has calmative herbs, can be very beneficial. And I mean really beneficial.

Mind you, I can speak from experience in telling you that a regular massage does wonders to relax the stomach and aid better digestion.

And of course, the two golden rules.

Sorry, I know I say these things a lot, but it’s hard to bypass the fundamentals, particularly when they work time and time again and for so many people.

It’s true though that a good night’s sleep helps the body to repair itself. So getting 8 hours regularly, if you can, is crucial and watch yourself begin to feel better.

Last, and certainly not least, drink 8 glasses of filtered water a day. You’ll end up peeing like a racehorse but I promise you, hand on heart, you’ll thank me when you do.

And always, always, if in doubt or if you experience any discomfort or if any pain persists then you must please go and see your local chemist or other local healthcare professional.

For more information look through the Covad Channel content library on our website or send me an email to [email protected], I’m always happy to help if I can.

And remember, please take care of your health and your body will take care of you.

I’m Peter Krasenstein for Covad and thanks for joining me to talk health.

Note - We just want you to be healthier, seriously. But because of the way of the world today we’re obligated to say that the comments and opinions offered in this video are not intended to substitute for medical advice from your own pharmacist or GP. These comments and opinions have been developed from experience and great success with patients over many, many years, but the information offered is of a general nature only and no one is invited to rely on any of it for any reason whatsoever without the express written permission of the author and of Covad Pty Limited.

© Peter Krasenstein M.P.S Ph.C and Anthony Huxley, Covad Pty Limited 2015