Off to See my ND... Wait... ND?

Redux

          I wrote in this article about my personal battle with GERD.  I wrote about how badly I wanted to get off the PPI drugs now that my esophagus is healed enough to give it a shot.  Well, I tried.  It was hard, and ultimately, I realized I didn't have all the information I needed, so I stopped.  Fortunately I made this decision in time to enjoy a little bit of Christmas time coffee/chocolate and a wild night out on New Years Eve.

          As a quick reminder, the basic assumption I'm making here is that low stomach acid is actually the cause of GERD, because the esophagus will not close if the stomach's environment lacks a certain amount of acid.  I have found many resources explaining that a "cure" for GERD is to take acid pills to rectify this problem.  I decided to pull off the drugs, although I didn't have any acid pills handy.

Oh, the Powers of Vitamin D

I refuse to feel like this.

          I'm still at home for the holidays, and this winter season, some disgusting sinus infection decided to visit my family.  Well... except for one of us.  With my entire family sick, I started feeling the first hints of the sniffles.  No!!!  I'm going on vacation down South with my girlfriend on Friday, and I refuse to get a sinus infection now.  I bumped my daily 5k iu of vitamin D up to 10k for two days.  Sinus infection?  Gone.  Before it even began.

          Please keep in mind, 10k iu of vitamin D is not something you take for the long term.  You need to run blood tests to determine how much vitamin D you need to take daily, although the Vitamin D Council recommends about 5k iu per day for an adult.  Vitamin D is an incredibly powerful immune system boosting tool, and there is anecdotal evidence that taking a megadose for a day or two when symptoms of infection start to pop up can reduce the duration of your illness.