Guest Author - Sharon Lasitter
Heartburn flare-ups and the medications we are offered to relieve the symptoms. How the FDA, pharmaceutical companies and conventional medicine have earned our trust and how you can become self-empowered to make wise choices for treating your heartburn.
Conventional Medicine - Does it Heal or Harm?
As anyone who suffers with it knows, heartburn is a disruptive issue that deeply affects our lives on many levels. But what do we really know about heartburn? Is it a disease, a dysfunction or is it a symptom? Literally millions of people suffer with heartburn, yet our lack of clarity about what is happening inside of our body leaves us vulnerable to doctors and the choices they offer us as remedies. We trust that “feeling better” equates to “wellness.”
When a heartburn flare-up occurs the pain can be so intense we will reach for whatever we know to be available just to get relief. We reach for what we see advertised on television, magazines and anywhere else advertisements can be placed. We reach for the pills which conventional medical doctors say will heal our esophagus and erase our pain. We reach for these products because we trust what is backing them up. We trust that the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies are stringent with their policies and intentions for keeping us safe and our health in optimum form. We trust them because they stand as our “parents for health” and have made a vow to protect our safety. As American citizens the agreement is that we are entitled to this trust and to the upholding of the trust. Yet more and more FDA approved medications are being removed from the market because they have been proven hazardous and even deadly. Still more have side effects that can cause spiraling health issues.
Most of us want to have a sense of safety and control over what happens to us. Offering reasonable questions to our trusted “parents,” as we all know is a healthy step toward empowerment; toward wise and independent choices. When clarity is achieved we have reached the ability to trust in ourselves. To trust in our own "gut feeling" that tells us what is good for us and what making us ill.
Times Are Changing
The entitlement that we have stood by is gradually giving way to empowerment. When we begin to release our sense of entitlement we realize that our health issues, our stomach issues belong to us. This allows us the ability to take control of what medications we take or will not take for heartburn and other GI tract illnesses. This allows us the freedom to look beyond the conventional pharmacy for answers. Explore your freedom to ask the tough questions: "What natural remedies for the stomach are available? What is the Eastern approach to stomach issues? Do homeopathic remedies have side effects?"
So, this is your time. Take the time to consider the pharmaceutical medications produced and made available for the health of your stomach. Are they really "healing" you? Are they making your condition worse? Or...are they causing the acid reflux and heartburn they claim to heal?
*Please know that I am not a medical doctor or a health practitioner. I cannot diagnose your stomach problems nor can I guarantee a cure. I am here to share my knowledge, which applications have worked for me and to offer suggestions of where you may go physically, emotionally and spiritually for healing and self-empowerment. If you choose to explore alternative medicine, do not independently stop taking your prescribed medications. Always consult with your current doctor as well as your new practitioner when changing your medical program.
