How to treat heartburn naturally – part 1

The small intestine is as wide as your thumb and around 5.5m long.  It is both a food blender and assimilator as it digests more of your food than your stomach.  Food stays in the small intestine  for 1 - 4 hours before moving on to the large intestine for further processing. Maintaing a healthy small intestine is all about controlling your bacteria levels and mucus build-up on your intestinal walls which can cause havoc and deplete your energy levels.  If you have bloating, gas and loose bowel movements you may have a small intestine issues such as:

• Candida
• IBS
• SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth

1. Cut out imflammatory drugs e.g. asprin, paracetamol and avoid alchol.
2. Take L-glutamine and butyric acid both of these can help heal the gut, but check with a nutritionalist first as dosage is important.
3. Drink slippery elm tea which calms inflamation of the small intestine and helps relieve IBS.
4. Up your intake of vitamins A and D - liver is an excellent sourch of these vitamins which protect the mucus membrane of the gut.
5. Eat more antibacterial foods such as garlic, honey and sauerkraut which preven the growth of Candida, fungus and yeast infections.
6. Take oregano oil (Oregnano Vulgaris) which has been shown to stop Candidan in its tracks.
7. Take probiotics daily - look for a count of 50 billion or more in each dose.
8. Take prebiotics daily - to feed the probiotics.  Or eat food prebiotic foods such as sauerkraut or kimchi.
9. Go gluten free.  Cut out gluten for an entire week and keep a food diary to check if your symptoms improve.
10. Mimosa pudica an ayurvedic herb is brilliant at wiping out parasites.
11. Eat more ant-parasitics such as garlic, thyme, chilli, tumeric and ginger.

This week it has been widely reported in the press that Hector Sants is taking time off to recover from stress and exhaustion.   While it is fantastic that he is getting the time and space he needs to recover his health, it reminded me of the importance of looking after ourselves.  So today I wanted to share my top tips for building your resilience. I say building resilience, as the key to good stress management is to build the emotional and mental strength to know that you are OK, even if you don’t feel fully in control of your situation.  While I encourage everyone to manage their time effectively, take control of what you are able to, there are times when we simply have to accept there are things we can’t control.  I was reminded of this myself this week when my landlady told me she would like me to move out by the end of the year, so her spare room is available for her cousin in case he needs it.   This came as a big shock given that I only re-located to London in August.  So while yes it was a shock, it is annoying to have to move again so quickly, I am very aware that I have the resilience to cope with moving again. So what helps build resilience?

1. As I already said taking control of what you can control and accepting what you can’t control.
2. Building a supportive network of friends to who are able to listen when you need support is essential, the old adage a problem shared is a problem halved is true.
3. Be active, whether it’s simply going for a walk in the park or going to the gym.  Physical activity helps us feel mentally stronger and helps clams us emotionally so we are able to see the root cause of our problems so we are able to find effective solutions.  I find going for a walk in a park, clears my mind and gets my creative juices flowing so I can calmly deal with my problems.
4. My next tip may seem rather strange but volunteer or do some kind of community work.  Being around people who have more challenges helps us put our problems in perspective.  For example talking to someone who is dealing with the challenges of cancer really put my needing to move again into perspective.
5. When we feel really in a rush and under pressure it is very tempting to reach for alcohol, coffee or chocolate, but in the long term these don't offer real solutions.
6. In the spirit of keep it simple, stupid, always remember that deep breaths helps the body to relax and help you to let go of whatever mental angst is going on.  When you get busy or anxious it is common to breath very rapidly from the top of your chest.  Putting your hand on your belly, and try breathing in for a count of three and then breath out for a count of three - with the aim of seeing your hand move as you breath deeply enough.
7. Remember Reiki is great if you feel all over the pace  and jaded, while massage helps release all those tight achy shoulders.

For those of your who don't know I have a background in IT.  This means I am very comfortable with technology and love my smartphone.  However I am for once a month to do a digital detox the reason is that I recognise that I live in an "always on" society.  I am inundated on a daily basis with social media updates, text messages and emails.  What's worse are "always on" society ecpects us to be contactable at all times and to respond immediatley.  Its no surprise that research has found a link between heavy smarphone usage and increased anxiety. Did you know that smartphones are actually designed to distract us?  They rob our brains of vitally important downtime preventing them from being creative.  A digital detox allows my brain to reachage and focus on the present.  No one needs to give you permission to go off grid for half a day and you don't need to feel guilty either. A digital detox can start simply as 45 minutes without using a smartphone, laptop, tablet or other device one evening a week and then build up slowly to a couple of hours.  I find regular digital detox is hugely beneficial to my state of mind and can be easily incorporated into your routine. Reference https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4500888/