Posted by Larry Hoover on December 10, 2008, at 18:21:04
In reply to Re: serotonin and bone density » Larry Hoover, posted by Quintal on December 7, 2008, at 17:35:28
> Thanks Lar, I already take extra calcium and vitamin D, but wll look into the B12. I've tried H2 antagonists but they weren't as effective to start with. Sounds like they'd be a better choice for long term use.
>
> QAre you treating GERD? I used to have that, really bad. I took part in the clinical trial for Nexium (esomeprazole), a proton-pump inhibitor. I *knew* I was getting the real drug, not a placebo. They asked us to try taking it prn (as needed), rather than daily, but I just couldn't do it. I had to take it every day, or I was suffering horribly.
I had had GERD for about twenty years. I never went anywhere without a bottle of Maalox. I tried every antacid drug. I was barely getting by. The Nexium was the best drug I'd tried, but I felt so dependent on it. And I still had a lot of pain. And the reflux was giving me bad asthma, too.
One day I decided to try and learn everything I could about GERD, after reading an article that suggested that GERD sufferers released stomach acid much later after food ingestion than did normal people. They released a normal amount, but it didn't get mixed with food as it was eaten, like it's supposed to. Instead it tended to lie on top of the food, enhancing gas formation, and causing very high local acid concentrations at the top of the stomach. It didn't take much gas moving up the esophagus to carry this excess acid up with it. So, I wanted to understand how the stomach regulates and times acid secretion.
I ended up on Pubmed right through the night. I didn't realize that, until I saw the sun come up. It turns out that there is a critical step in the signalling process that depends on a methylation reaction, which itself depends on vitamin B12 as the carrier. I had already become concerned about nutrient deficiencies caused by stomach acid suppression (resulting in achlorhydria or hypochlorhydria, if you want to understand the effect), and the specific effect on B12 bioavailability. So, when I saw an acid-timing problem caused by deficient B12, I put 2 and 2 together. Vitamin B12 deficiency can exacerbate vitamin B12 deficiency, via GERD.
I started taking 1 mg B12, as well as betaine (a.k.a. trimethylglycine, a methyl donor) and bromelain (proteolytic enzyme from pineapple, to enhance protein digestion). Within a week, I no longer needed Nexium. I couldn't have gone half a day without it, ever before. After more than 20 years of GERD, I didn't have it any more. A decade later, I still don't have the symptoms.
I may not be a typical case. Who knows? But it worked for me.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:866984
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081204/msgs/867945.html