Heartburn feels horrible! You think about it 10 times an hour because it burns so much! You can’t concentrate. You sit doubled over slightly. You lay your hand on your stomach. It wakes you up at night. Sleeping on your right side worsens the symptoms. Bending over, for example while gardening, is painful because you get stomach acid in your throat. And heartburn remedies help for a while but then it returns. What causes that heartburn and how can you get rid of it?

Medicine sold most: gastric acid inhibitor!

It might be interesting to know that gastric acid inhibitors are one of the 3 most commonly sold drugs, 7 million per year just in the Netherlands! They may have cute names, but check to see if one of these words is on the package: Omeprazol, Pantoprazol or Esomeprazol. You can also take one of those seemingly innocent antacids. These medicines give almost instant relief, but long-term they cause a huge problem. They hinder the production of stomach acid by obstructing the function of the stomach acid pumps, the “proton pumps”. Long-term you then have a hue problem because your entire digestive system becomes disrupted.
Read also article 3: You Don’t Just Get a Stomach Ulcer; It Takes Effort, in which you can also read about the relationship between stomach problems and medicines.

The relief is temporary because the symptoms return. And then you have a choice. What are you going to do? Keep taking the medication, or look for the source of your stomach problems?

Love your stomach acid!

If you have problems with heartburn, it’s an alarm signal from your body. Dr. Batmanghelidj writes, “Heartburn (…) is one of the most important thirst pains of the human body.” 

From his book “Water, for Health, for Healing, for Life”.

If you’ve got heartburn, your body is already seriously dehydrated. It has a shortage of water. Every night you lose a liter of fluids. Replenish that during the day with water or tea, not with other fluids. This is one of the big problems. Fluid is not the same thing as water. And if you knew how important your stomach acid is for your digestion and your health, you would take much better care of it and lovingly cherish it!

Causes of heartburn

1. You don’t have enough space in your stomach, which pushes stomach acid towards your esophagus. Three things can cause this: your clothing is too tight around the waist, your intestines are clogged up or you’re pregnant. In the last case, congratulations!
2. You don’t produce enough stomach acid. That’s possible if you’re older or because you’ve been taking gastric acid inhibitors for too long. Your stomach produces too little stomach acid. You’ve actually got a shortage of stomach acid!

How do you recognize a shortage of stomach acid?

There is a valve that is supposed to open and close and which forms the connection between your esophagus and your stomach, called the “sphincter”. This valve shuts when there is enough stomach acid that is acid enough. If there isn’t enough stomach acid or it is not acid enough, the muscle doesn’t close. It’s possible that movement or lack of room forces the little stomach acid there is up into your esophagus. What you then feel is:

– A painful, burning sensation.
– A heavy feeling after eating meat (the meat digests too slowly).
– Sometimes, intense stomachache at the top of your stomach.
– After eating meat, you have to belch. Because of the slow digestion and because your intestines use bacteria and yeast for further digestion. This causes gasses, which create a bloated feeling and make you burp. And those burps smell terrible.
– Fatigue because you have a shortage of nutrients. By not having enough stomach acid, you develop a shortage of minerals and vitamins, iron, zinc, copper and calcium. But also vitamins such as B9 (folic acid) and B12. Proteins are not broken down properly so your body can’t properly use them, for example for the production of sleep hormones.

Solution for heartburn

1. With constipation:drink water. Your bowel movements will be glad about this. Your intestines can finally get rid of the stools that remained stuck. It may take a week for things to get moving.
2. Pregnancy:drink water. Your child needs enough water to develop properly during pregnancy. And you need extra water to not become constipated.
3. When using gastric acid inhibitors: slowly reduce the dosage, while changing your eating and drinking habits. These medicines are a dead-end street with the end result of even more problems. If you suddenly stop taking them, you will temporarily cause more stomach acid so be sure to consult your primary care physician about reducing these medications (and check whether it is medically responsible).
4. Drink water. Your body causes heartburn when it doesn’t have enough water. Drink water to supplement this shortage and to improve the normal production of stomach acid.

The MIR-Method and heartburn

If you do the MIR-Method then you can deal with the causes of heartburn. The MIR-Method takes its time doing this because it works from the inside outward. It can take several weeks for you to have a lasting effect. 

The stomach meridian is cleansed via step 4: Clear meridians. If your stomach meridian is disrupted, that can be caused by emotions such as concern, disappointment, discontent, fear of not having enough, fear of the future, worrying, fear of reality or stress. Step 4 slowly removes these emotions from your system.

Step 5: Supplement all shortages allows you to feel what you need. It could be that you (temporarily) feel less need for meat because you can’t digest it properly yet. And your need for water and mineral-rich food will increase, just as your need to ingest more vitamins B11 and B12. Follow closely what you crave! Unhealthy cravings indicate that you still have too many old emotions in your system.

Through step 6: Balance hormone system, your hypothalamus (inside your head) comes into better balance so that you can feel your thirst better. You feel like drinking more water.

As you work on your internal sense of security by doing the MIR-Method, via step 7: Fulfill basic needs, the above-mentioned emotions will have less influence. You will become more stable, have more self-confidence, be able to relax more and face life with more resilience.

Drinking alcohol will decrease. The MIR-Method makes you less easily influenced by group pressure and the emotions that cause you to drink alcohol lessen. You can refuse a glass more easily and are stronger about stopping after 1 glass. See also the video, “Overcoming Your Addiction with the MIR-Method”.

And how about you? Have you got rid of your heartburn by doing the MIR-Method? I’d love to hear about it! And also whether you have been able to stop using gastric acid inhibitors. Please write about it below. Thank you!

My wish for you is that your stomach feels wonderful!
Mireille Mettes

P.S. Will you help spread the MIR-Method? You would do me a big favor by forwarding this article to other people! Feel free to post it to your Facebook page or send it via e-mail, Twitter or Linked-In! Use the icons on the left-hand side or below! Thank you!

P.S. Not familiar with the MIR-Method yet? Please go to the homepage. You can watch the video there and also the instruction video. Sign up for our newsletter and 6 weeks of coaching e-mails for extra support!