Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition (83 page)

Try slippery elm bark.
Slippery elm bark has demulcent properties, and it’s gentle and soothing to mucous membranes. It has been a folk remedy for both heartburn and ulcers in European and Native American cultures and was used as a food by Native Americans. It can be used in large amounts without harm. Drink as a tea or chew on the bark. To make a tea, put 1 teaspoon of slippery elm bark in 2 cups of water. Simmer for 20 minutes and strain. Sweeten if you want,
and drink freely. You can also purchase slippery elm lozenges at health-food stores and some drugstores.

Use lobelia.
Massage tincture of lobelia externally onto the painful area and take two to three drops internally. This remedy is recommended by Dr. John Christopher, one of the greatest American herbalists of the 20th century.

Use ginger.
This root can provide temporary relief in a tea. Steep ½ to 1 teaspoons of powdered ginger or a few slices of fresh ginger per cup of boiled water for 10 minutes and drink. If you like, sweeten it with honey. Use freely.

Try meadowsweet herb.
Also a demulcent, meadowsweet soothes inflamed mucous membranes. To make a tea, steep 1 to 2 teaspoons of the dried herb in 1 cup of boiled water for 10 minutes. Sweeten with honey if you like. Drink three cups daily.

Repair your gut with soothing nutrients.
Taking healing nutrients will repair the damage in your esophagus. Use zinc (especially carnosine), glutamine, fish oils, gamma oryzanol, turmeric, and ginger. Eat okra.

Barrett’s esophagus is an esophageal illness caused by long-term acid reflux (GERD) that results in scarring and constriction of the esophagus, and swallowing disorders. It affects between 3 and 7 percent of adults in the United States. It’s hard to know exactly how many because 25 percent of people who have Barrett’s have no symptoms. It is more common in men than in women, and especially in people who are white or Hispanic. Smoking, getting older, and obesity increase your risk.

Barrett’s itself may or may not cause any symptoms. Barrett’s does not cause cancer, but it often precedes it. The risk of developing esophageal cancer is 30 to 125 times higher in people who have Barrett’s esophagus than those who don’t. The incidence has risen more than 350 percent since the mid-1970s. People with known Barrett’s esophagus should be frequently monitored for early detection of cancer. Only 5 percent of people who develop esophageal cancer knew that they had Barrett’s prior to being diagnosed with cancer, so people who have chronic GERD ought to be seen by a gastroenterologist for an evaluation. Barrett’s esophagus can occur in people without gastric reflux, but it is three to five times more common in people who do have it. Treatment with acid-blocking drugs sometimes improves the extent of the Barrett’s, but it doesn’t correlate with a reduction in cancer rates. Production of peroxynitrite, a damaging free radical, contributes to Barrett’s
esophagus. Vitamin C, glutathione, and folic acid are known to help reduce the formation of damaging peroxynitrites. Barrett’s is diagnosed by doing an upper GI endoscopy and biopsy.

The following healing options may help with the symptoms of Barrett’s esophagus. They may also help prevent cancer of the esophagus, which is the long-term problem to be concerned about. Very little literature about this is available, but I am working with what is known in other areas of the digestive tract and personal experience with clients. It is necessary to continue to have medical testing and to be vigilant about this illness. You may also benefit from the many suggestions in the section on heartburn and gastric reflux.

Eat a diet high in folate.
Folic acid, found in a huge variety of foods, prevents esophageal cancer and colon cancers. Research on giving folic acid supplements, on the other hand, has been mixed. Giving folic acid supplementation
may
actually increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer. It remains to be seen how genetics play a role; people who have variations in the MTHFR gene have different needs for folic acid than people with normal MTHFR expression. Nonetheless, you will do well to eat high folic acid foods, such as brewer’s yeast, black-eyed peas, rice germ, soy flour, wheat germ, liver, soy beans, wheat bran, legumes of all types, asparagus, lentils, walnuts, spinach, kale, nuts, greens of all types, peanuts, broccoli, barley, brussels sprouts, and more.

Increase antioxidant nutrients.
Several studies indicate that free radical damage helps initiate Barrett’s esophagus. Antioxidant nutrients are useful in nearly every condition. Selenium levels in people with Barrett’s esophagus are lower than in controls. Glutathione levels are reduced, while malondialdehyde and NF-kappaB levels are increased. It is prudent to increase levels of antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin C, carotenoids, vitamin E, selenium, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), lipoic acid, folic acid, and others. You can begin with a combination antioxidant supplement with 200 to 400 mcg selenium. Add an additional 1,000 IU of vitamin E, 1,000 to 2,000 mg NAC, and at least 1,000 mg vitamin C. You may want to use the vitamin C flush described in
Chapter 13
.

Try probiotics and digestive enzymes.
No published research on the use of probiotic bacteria or on the use of digestive enzymes in Barrett’s is available, but it would make sense to give each a trial.

Try gut-healing herbs and nutrients.
The use of supplemental glutamine has not been studied in people with Barrett’s esophagus, but it has been shown to
be effective in preventing radiation-induced damage and weight loss in people undergoing radiation treatment for small-cell lung cancer.