Heartburn and indigestion are common with candida overgrowth and during menopause. In this blog, I will give some useful tips on how to improve your digestion. I will give information on homeopathic remedies that help digestive issues like heartburn and indigestion.
As hormones shift during menopause, you may endure a series of digestive health changes, including heart burn and idigestion. The use of hormone replacement therapy can complicate these as well. Candida overgrowth leads to disbalance in the gut bacteria and, not surprisingly to many digestive problems.
Useful steps to improve your digestion:
- Drink a cup of boiled water with ginger and lemon first thing in the morning before breakfast. Please leave it to cool down before drinking. This cleanses the stomach.
- Eat slowly and chew your food. One of the main causes of indigestion is unchewed food.
- Don’t eat “piping hot” or icy food. A useful thing to remember is that if it is hot or cold in the mouth, it is hot or cold in the stomach. This includes all hot beverages as tea and coffee. Food and drinks that are too hot or cold may disrupt enzymes and injure the stomach lining. Always wait for the food and drinks to cool down before consumption. Do not eat food straight from the fridge.
- Don’t eat on the go. Meals should be taken at a leisurely pace. If you eat on the move, there is more chance that digestion will not begin. Instead, foods in the stomach and intestine will start to ferment, producing gases that bloat you.
- Avoid eating fruit with the meal. Fruit digests faster than dense proteins, so fermentation and gas accumulation may occur when added to a stomach fool with food. Try to have fruit 30 minutes before meals or 3 hours after a meal on an empty stomach.
- Simplifying your meals. Instead of having lots of food groups at one meal, try separating them. For example, proteins need acid enzyme digestive juices, whereas carbohydrates need alkaline enzyme digestive juices. When you have to break down both types at once, you are not achieving optimal enzymatic action, leading to fermentation and gas accumulation.
- Have slightly smaller servings and think twice before opting for a second helpings. As a good rule of thumb, try to get into the habit of estimating the quantity you allow yourself using “nature’s food bowl”. Cup your two hands together as if you were using them to make a bowl. The quantity of food that would fill that “bowl” should be your maximum at any meal.
- Drink enough water. Ideally, hydrate your stomach with a glass of water half an hour before a meal.
- Add prebiotics and probiotics food to your diet.
- If you have Candida overgrowth, stick to the Candida diet until your treatment is completed with homeopathy or other forms of medicine you have chosen to use.
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Heartburn
A sensation is felt rising through the chest up to the back of the throat. This symptom refers to the burning sensation that the individual experiences as acid backflows into the oesophagus from the stomach.
Homeopathic remedies useful for heartburn are:
- Calcarea carbonica is very good at relieving chronic heartburn in chubby people who get cramps in the stomach, really burning heartburn, and belch noisily. Often they get a sour taste in their throats after belching. Milk often disagrees with them and produces heartburn and indigestion, whereas, for most people, milk helps.
- Lycopodium can bring relief when heartburn and regurgitation occur after only small snacks. Typically, the heartburn only spreads up as far as Adam’s apple, but it tends to last for hours at a time, despite antacids or milk. The stomach often feels bloated during these episodes.
- Pulsatilla is indicated when heartburn is associated with the taste of food taken hours before. Fatty foods, butter and pork, seem to cause these bouts of heartburn, and it is more likely to occur when they are peeved about something or with someone. They rarely feel thirsty.
- Arsenicum album may be indicated if a person feels anxious, restless yet exhausted, and worse from food’s smell and sight. Burning pain is felt in the stomach and oesophagus, which often is relieved by warmth and sitting up. Vomiting and diarrhoea are possible. Upsets from spoiled food or from eating too much fruit often respond to this remedy.
Indigestion
Indigestion is a pain or an uncomfortable feeling in the upper part of the abdomen, usually related to food or meals. It is called dyspepsia in medical terms. It can occur at any age, and about one in four people will experience it at some time. There are many causes of indigestion, and if it is prolonged, a medical opinion should be sought.
Some of the homeopathic remedies that can be indicated are:
- Anacardium has band-like pain in the upper abdomen, which comes on when the person is hungry and is relieved for two or three hours after eating, only to recur again. Indecisiveness is typical with someone in need of this remedy.
- Argentum nitricum is indicated for indigestion associated with nausea, gnawing pain in the upper abdomen and retching of mucus. The person needing Argentum nitricum is often hurried, full of fears, especially as they anticipate a meeting or event, and prone to bouts of loose motions.
- Nux vomica is well known to people as a remedy of excess or overindulgence. The pains classically come on about two hours after food. Like Argentum nitricum, these people are hurried, but they are less likely to be fearful. Irritability and anger are more in keeping with their temperament.
- Natrum carbonicum may be needed for sweet, gentle and selfsacrificing people who experience flatulence and dyspepsia after too many starchy or fatty foods. They cannot tolerate milk and very often have multiple food allergies. This remedy can be helpful to people who have trouble digesting and assimilating many foods and have to stay on restricted diets. Indigestion, heartburn, and ulcers can occur if offending foods are eaten. Milk or dairy products can lead to flatulence or sputtery diarrhoea that leaves an empty feeling in the stomach. Cravings for potatoes and sweets are common, also milk, but it makes these people sick, so they have usually learned to avoid it.
- Natrum phosphoricum is indicated for sour taste in the mouth, an acid or burning sensation in the stomach, sour vomiting, regurgitated bits of food, and a yellow coating on the tongue. The person may have problems after consuming dairy products or too much sugar. Another indication for Natrum Phos is craving for fried eggs.
- Phosphorus is beneficial in people with burning pain in the stomach that feels better from eating ice cream or other cold, refreshing foods. The person is usually thirsty for cold drinks but often feels nauseous or vomits once liquids warm up in the stomach. People needing Phosphorus may tend to easy bleeding and sometimes develop stomach ulcers.
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For best results, it is advisable to work with a homeopath. This will allow you to address the underlying causes that lead to this problem in the first place. If you are menopausal and your hormones are causing digestive problems working with homeopath can help you balance your hormones and resolve your symptoms, including digestion, hot flushes etc. Balancing your gut will resolve your digestive issues if you have candida overgrowth that causes your digestive problems.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and not intended to replace the advice of your physician or health care provider.