Hello everyone I’ve been really getting into brewing cider lately, just bottles 8 gallons. Single gallons experimentations, I’m loving it. Just wondering if anyone takes Pepcid or any other h2 blocker on the daily or quite often. I have a condition where I have to and just know that a constant h2 can allow some bacteria I guess in the digestive track cause there isn’t enough acid in the stomach. Just wondering if I’m alone out there in the brewing community and if anyone has had any problems with too much bacteria in the GI?
Thanks hope this isn’t too personal I consider you all family because we share what we love.
I have been taking omeprazole (Prilosec) every other day for the past ~15 years. What a godsend. Before that I was popping Rolaids 3-4 at a time all day every day like candy. I also eat too much junk food, I am sure that is part of my problem. I don’t know about bacteria in the gut, I don’t think that is really my issue. It’s just from an overactive stomach pumping out way too much acid. It runs in my family too, my dad and siblings all do the same. Spicy, oily, and acidic foods all affect my stomach. Tomato sauce, peppers, deep fried foods, soda, CIDER, etc., those are the biggest culprits. I drink far less soda than I used to, as it started to cause other major digestive problems. I can have one soda a day, but two is bad news. Oddly enough, beer does not give me the same level of grief, thank heavens.
I take proton blockers. I also eat active culture yoghurt, whick is full of lacto, do I’m getting good bacteria.
Add to Dave’s list fatty food, coffee (acidic), sour beers, and sometimes DIPA will set me off.
I don’t drink soda, which is a good thing, as those are acidic. Coke is about 2.5 pH.
sounds like no one here is familar with the zantac causing cancer case that is going on right now. All these meds are the same, if zantac is causing cancer, guess what? the rest will eventually too. Most cases of heartburn are due to not enough acid production in your stomach. heartburn is the putrification of food in your gut due to not enough acid to break it down. A good test to try is put a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in about 4-8oz water and drink it. if your heartburn goes away, you’re not producing enough acid and should stop taking those meds. seriously guys, pharmaceuticals only mask your symptoms, they do not cure in any way whatsoever.
i used to take it but it never really helped me and i read that those types of meds keeps the lower esophageal sphincter from closing up and cause more acid problems, anyway im no dr but i stopped all that stuff and if im getting bad acid i chug water and if that does not help i add a bit of apple cider vinegar to the water which tells my body there is enough acid and that is usually enough to close up my esophageal sphincter thus no more acid backing up
Ranitidine (Zantac) does not cause cancer. Ranitidine products were found to contain unacceptably high levels of NMDA, which is listed as a “probable” human carcinogen. This is a manufacturing issue rather than related to the drug compound itself. IIRC, famotidine is on the “safe” list of products that have been tested for NMDA.
And while we’re going down this rabbit hole, NMDA is present in beer - it’s formed during the malt kilning process. Beer was actually considered the main source for NMDA exposure many years ago, although malting practices have since changed to reduce the amount of NMDA formed during the killing process.
Thanks everyone for the replies. I take the h2 cause I get acid reflux due to my LES not closing all the way and it just worries me sometimes when I’m drinking a cider that still has yeasties and stuff still in suspension in my cider. It’s weird sometimes I get terrible anxiety later in the night and this didn’t use to happen before I started the h2 blocker. Just trying to figure things out.
Have you ever had an endoscope? Sounds like you might have a non functioning LES. I found out a year and a half ago I have Barrett’s esophagus due to refluxing into the esophagus, lil scary
I was also going to make a comment along these lines. Usually sugar and sour beers upset my stomach as well as hot peppers and sometimes onions (which I both love). A teaspoon of white vinegar usually calms my stomach down and it is way cheaper than Pepto Bismol (bismuth subsacilyate). We eat a lot of sliced fresh cucumbers prepared with onions, black pepper and white vinegar in the summer months and I never have heartburn. The vinegar in the cucumbers really helps.
It also helped when I retired from my high stress radio engineering job 13 years ago (before becoming a pro brewer) as my issues with waking up in the middle of the night with heartburn reduced dramatically.
That’s kind of a ridiculous generalization. And in this specific case, if you are prescribed an acid reducer for a reason it can prevent further damage to your esophagus.
Exactly. Without treatment, increased acid in the esophagus leads to Barrett’s Esophagus, which in turn leads to esophageal cancer. Medication doesn’t mask symptoms, it controls/relieves them.
a chiropractor can actually adjust your diaphragm which in turns helps your sphincter adjust and function properly.
its not a rediculous generalization… name me one pharma product that actually cured someone? What do you think ‘control/relieves’ is? its masking the symptoms. it doesn’t actually take care of the root cause. but you’re right, if you don’t take care of the acid getting to far up the pipe, you’re going to eventually have bigger issues.
I am skeptical of drugs and the perverse incentives in the pharma industry that results in over prescription and failure to adjust diet and exercise to improve health. However there are many drugs out there that save lives and dramatically improve lives when nothing else can. Everyone needs to work with professionals to make case by case decisions. I know lots of people extremely skeptical of western modern medicine who then blindly accept alternative cures. Some of them work and some don’t too.
pharma products in the context of emergency medicine can and do work. But when it comes to everything else, they only mask symptoms, not treat root cause. but its like you said, alt medicine (which is the ‘original’ medicine) some work, some don’t. you can’t eat a bunch of crap and take ginseng and expect anything to change.
I used to have a real issue with acid reflux. Sometimes during the day, but especially at night and my teeth and gums were affected. Omeprazole (Prilosec) was an easy remedy but I think it shuts down natural digestive processes. To be honest, and for me specifically, diet made a the largest different. Cutting out most refined sugars and few other problem ingredients when I have awareness was huge. These days, I don’t touch Prilosec at all and when I sense I’m having a bad day after a trouble meal, I just drink a little diluted apple cider vinegar to adjust my stomach pH in the right direction (and brush my teeth!).
Incorrect, only 1 out of 800 lead to esophageal cancer.
I have never heard of this chiropractic cure in my life and I belong to several forum groups about Barrett’s, have you heard of someone that did this?
Yes Prilosec is bad news I took it for 2 months after I was diagnosed and learned more about it and quit it, my GI Dr. Wouldn’t see me anymore unless I want taking it so I had to find another one. I’ve heard of others doing the vinegar I’ll have to give it a try.
my chiropractor does it to me periodically and has several other patients he performs on as well.
Couple weeks old on this thread, but I suffered from daily heartburn and reflux for years. Ranitidine was the miracle cure for me and I popped them like adult mints when I knew I should have just changed my diet. I’ve been on a keto based diet for a little over 5 months now and removing refined sugars, and all the starchy carbs like bread, rice, pasta, etc has reduced my occurrence to only rarely having issues. I stopped taking the ranitidine when I heard about the possible cancer link and have a bottle of ACVinegar for any time where I feel discomfort.
Unfortunately, the kero lifestyle has all but eliminated beer from my diet, but i am happy to be free from heartburn and heartburn meds for sure