Doctors and Pharmaceutical giants know that their drugs and antacids do not cure heartburn or acid reflux. They have known for a long time that their drugs simply suppress the condition and continue the cycle of heartburn, acid reflux, and drugs. If you have fallen prey to this medical cycle, for sure you are headed toward serious malnutrition. The inability to feed your body the nutrients it needs will result in the diseases that you now see in most elderly people. Because your mouth and stomach are the first step in getting nutrients into your body, you don't want to get this step wrong. If you are taking Prevacid, Prilosec, Aciphex, Protonix, Nexium, or even antacid, its time you re-evaluated the use of these drugs. Fact1: Your stomach is designed to have a pH of 3.0 or less, more acidic Fact 2: When you stomach pH is consistently higher than 3.0, more alkaline, you create disease Fact 3: Taking heartburn or reflux drugs or antacids raises and keeps your stomach pH above 3.0 and higher. When your stomach has the proper pH, it digests your food so that, The meat you eat is broken down into amino acids that you absorb later Vitamins are created from the food you eat Vitamins are separated out from the food you eat Minerals are kept in solution for later absorption Stomach digested food moves into the duodenum at the proper pH level and triggers digestive juices from the pancreas and gallbladder. Bacteria overgrowth is prevented and eliminates their interference with the absorption of vitamin B-12 When your stomach pH gets higher than 3.0, It secretes more acid to keep its pH below 3.0. When heartburn or acid reflux medication interferes with stomach acid by raising it pH above 3.0, the stomach is no longer functioning like a stomach. It is now creating chemical combinations that are not usable by your body. What it now produces is affecting the function of subsequent processes in the duodenum and colon. It causes these body organs to malfunction and they fail to digest and absorb the nutrients from the food you ate. The cascade effect of a stomach with a high pH over a long period of time results in numerous ill conditions that are not traceable to an inefficient stomach. So it's your job is to keep your stomach's pH at the proper level and look to solve your heartburn and acid reflux issues using natural remedies. If your condition, has evolved into GERD then you may have to consult a doctor or an alternative practitioner to recover from this disease.