Well, DUH! It Was MY Fault
Posted by terrepruitt on August 14, 2010
I wasn’t feeling well, something was bothering me, but I let it go for a while (months). Finally something else — a new thing — made me go to the doctor. She told me I had heartburn. She also said I was congested. I laughed when she said that because that would be the normal state for an allergy sufferer. I didn’t believe her regarding the heartburn. It helped that she ordered some tests. Which made me feel better.
Because I did not believe her I started looking things up online specifically regarding heartburn. Before my appointment I looked up my symptoms and basically with that route I had everything from a simple infection to coronary disease. (Eyes rolling) So looking at it from the diagnosis to the symptoms I was shocked.
I don’t eat spicy foods. Ask any one of my Spicy-Is-My-Middle-Name Yelper Friends, they ALL know I don’t do spicy—not even black pepper—at all. Also, I had never heard of coughing and shortness of breath as being a symptom of heartburn. Also, I thought heartburn arrived after you ate and left in a few hours, I didn’t know it could last for a week.
I was almost convinced that it was age. I was disappointed thinking it might be that chronic kind of heartburn.
So I researched. What did I find? In general there are two types of heartburn, one you get every once awhile (or often)* or there is GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease). GERD usually occurs because of an actually physiological situation. Gastroesophageal reflux occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) — the muscle connecting the esophagus with the stomach can’t do its job of keeping stomach acids from flowing back up.
*(I’m seeing information saying if you have heartburn once a month is is considered mild, once a week moderate, and every day severe. So to me if you have it, your body is off balance and needs to be kept in balance to not have it at all!)
But I am just talking about heartburn that is NOT actual GERD. So what are the causes?
Some foods: onions, peppermint, chocolate, citrus fruits or juices, tomatoes, fried and fatty foods, alcohol, coffee, sugar, legumes, dairy foods, carbonated beverages,spicy foods, black pepper
Practices: smoking, eating large meals, eating before exercises, eating before going to bed
Lifestyle: unhealthy stress
Other things: tight clothes, bending over, obesity
I realized that I was the cause of this. Totally and completely I take responsibility for the imbalance of acid that was going on in my body. It was my practices. Due to my current schedule I always found myself realizing I need to eat and it always ended up right before I worked out. I would GULP down my coffee in the morning, eat late into the night. I had just began eating a lot more onions. Just started eating beans and tomatoes. I was making my system unbalanced. Well, DUH! I will also share with you that I was totally stressing myself out over doing my routines. I wanted to do them perfect so I would stress out over that. So not the entire idea of Nia.
So needless to say I did not fill my prescription for whatever the doctor prescribed because I can fix this by changing my habits. The video I shared in my last post also helped me realize what was really going on. It was posted to FB the same week I was learning all of this. To me that helped a lot. It reminded me that my body is programmed to be in balance and I—me, my fault, my diet, my habits, my practice, my lifestyle was the thing that was making my body work so hard it could not even manage it.
Thank you for listening to what I learned. I would love to listen to what you have to say. Please comment, let me know.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Jill Campana said
Reflux. I’ve lived with it for years. Along with reflux comes hiatal hernias (not always, but often), which I also have. Chiropractic adjustments can help when it’s really bad, but basically it’s about everything you said (as usual, your blogs are right on and very helpful!).
Watch what you eat. Don’t gulp food down — instead enjoy the taste and texture of food, savor it.
Thanks Terre!!!
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terrepruitt said
Yes, I saw that hiatal hernias were associated with heartburn. I didn’t mention them because my post is too long as it is. I am sorry that you have these issues. Bothersome. It crossed my mind that the coffee and chocolate you sell in your shop probably don’t help, huh? All those yummy things that you have available to you everyday.
I am so fascinated with the organic machines we call bodies. ALL of the systems require BALANCE. EVERYTHING needs to be balanced and balance in some things is so hard to achieve. Moderation is the key to most things. Most people can eat fried food, alcohol, chocolate, etc. but it is when it is consumed in excess that there are issues. Just amazes me.
Thanks for stopping by. Thank you—always–for your support!
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Dani H said
Just wanted you to know that I think this is a great post. I’m not comfortable talking publicly too much about my health issues, though. I still owe you an email. Hope you’re having a good weekend. Adore you! *Biggest Squishiest Hugs*
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terrepruitt said
I am not comfortable talking about mine either, but I figured if I opened up, maybe others would too. I also thought if I shared that my discomfort and “problem” was something easily remedied by changing the habits (that were obviously not healthy) that I had gotten into, I could encourage others to maybe see if they had habits that could use tweaking.
Thanks for letting me know you liked the post. That is great! I appreciate it!!!!!! Sparkly hugs back at ‘cha!
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Becky said
Yes!!
This is perfect for me right now too Terre. As you know, I’m trying to gain control of my physical life and I’m not a person who likes to take medication to fix things. I even hesitate to take an advil for a fever! I know — that’s a bit extreme… but, I think I can control certain things myself. So… YAY you!
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terrepruitt said
I am not a person who likes to take medication either. I understand there are things that one NEEDS medication for, but there are a lot of things that can be treated with alternatives. If I had not been doing any of the things that contribute to heartburn, I might be taking whatever she prescribed, but since I could look at the list and see that there were so many things that I could change, I decided to try that first.
Thanks. And Yay US!
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John Pruitt said
I think we should test the tight clothes statement. Purely scientific mind you but why don’t I pick out this week’s clothing for you 🙂
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terrepruitt said
You are funny. Thank you for stopping by, My Love, and making me laugh!
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John Pruitt said
I love you my little honey.
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terrepruitt said
Thanks. I love you too.
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suzicate said
You know I never considered the acidity or alkalinity of the foods I consume…now, I must learn more. I was shocked (the previous post video) to learn that lemon/limes are considered alkaline because of the affect after being eaten rather than the state before. Am trying to absorb all this…no wonder my body is so out of whack at times!
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, I never considered it either, because I never had an issue, but as I said in my other comment, I think it was my HABITS and not the food so much. I think that allowing myself to get all “stressy” about a routine made for an “acidy” environment in my body so . . . . there you go.
And, yeah, that lemon thing . . . even adding lemon to water makes water less acidic. Amazing.
No wonder the sale of antacids has increased, huh? Our lifestyles (like you were saying in your blog — we just don’t “BE”) in combination with the food . . . . makes for a very acidic environment in the body. It is ALL about BALANCE, huh?
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