January 22, 2016

The Cure for Acid Reflux? with Dr. Norman Robillard

35 minutes

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Norman Robillard explains the cure for acid reflux.

Dr. Robillard is a man on a mission! Over 100 million people have SIBO-related conditions including IBS, Acid Reflux, LPR (reflux into the larynx), Rosacea, Asthma, Fibromyagia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autoimmunity, Leaky Gut and many more. His goal is to inspire 10 million people to get off drugs and off antibiotics via holistic and dietary solutions.

He is the Founder of The Digestive Health Institute and is a gut health expert. He is the author of the Fast Tract Digestion series and creator of the science-based, non-drug and antibiotic therapy, Fast Tract Diet for SIBO and its related conditions.

Main Questions Asked:

What is SIBO and how can it cause heartburn, reflux, and GERD?

How do proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) cause SIBO and thereby fueling heartburn?

Do medications actually create more SIBO?

Can you talk about the specific diet that you put together?

Would your diet completely eradicate SIBO and be the cure for acid reflux?

Do you have to stay on the diet for the rest of your life?

How long after starting the diet should you see a difference?

Key Points made by Dr. Robillard:

You should suspect SIBO if you have abdominal pain or cramps, or altered bowel habits like diarrhea, constipation as well as gas and bloating, and reflux, flatulence, nausea, dehydration and fatigue.

Some people have more severe symptoms like weight loss, failure to thrive for children who don’t grow as they should for their age, difficulty digesting fats, anemia, and bleeding.

By definition, SIBO is when there’s an overgrowth of intestinal bacteria in your small intestine. When they look at these bacteria, most are strains that should be in your large intestine so they’re migrating from that area where we have a lot of bacteria to help us digest all of these complex carbohydrates to our small intestine which should have fewer bacteria.

The biggest thing in terms of the cure for acid reflux is avoiding consuming too many hard-to-digest carbohydrates which fuel SIBO.

I started doing research on how we digest fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. When I got to the small intestine, a light bulb went off involving gut bacteria. I remember two important points about these intestinal bacteria: they get the bulk of their energy from carbohydrates and most of them produce a lot of gas.

A theory popped into my head: perhaps these excess dietary carbohydrates, if you consume too many, will be malabsorbed and were promoting a kind of gut dysbiosis.

According to this idea, acid reflux occurs due to microbe induced gas pressure. Imagine a volcano in your intestines and reflux is the lava overflowing into your stomach and forcing its way into the esophagus. Stopping the pressure is the cure for acid reflux.

When you think about your digestive tract, it is compartmentalized. So where exactly these balloons of gas producing bacteria are occurring may be different for different people.

Some people don’t want to go through all the testing so I tell them that you can try the diet and see how you feel. Other people really want to know. You can get a lot of information from testing.

I break it into three buckets. One type of treatment is treating the symptoms. You can use antibiotics. The last one is diet. I would preface it with science-based diet because we now have much more science going on in studying diets and how they can improve functional gastro-intestinal disorders.

I think diet-based solutions make better sense as a cure for acid reflux.

The Fast Tract Diet limits all fermentable carb types, not just some. It’s a quantitative approach so you’re not cutting everything out but you’re limiting it in terms of grams that you consume per day of the carbohydrates that will be available for these bacteria to use to overgrow.

The first step is to cut back on the amount of these fermentable carbohydrates. That’s what the Fast Tract Diet does.

I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I must say that my digestive system is very, very tolerant now. I almost never get any kind of acid reflux. Once in a while an occasional belch. Even when I eat some of the foods I shouldn’t around holidays or on occasions. I know that I can go 3 or 4 days eating the way I shouldn’t but if I persist eventually my symptoms will come back.

Does that mean I can’t eat the way I used to? Yes, but I can on the short term because I have my digestive health intact because of the way I eat on a regular basis.

You really have to look at what the problem is and then you can better assess how effective a dietary control would be and what’s the timeline you’re looking at.

Resources Mentioned:

Book – Heartburn – Fast Tract Dtioigesn: LPR, Acid Reflux & GERD Diet Cure Without Drugs

Book – IBS – Fast Tract Digestion: Science-Based Diet to Treat and Prevent IBS and SIBO without Drugs and Antibiotics

Dr. Robillard’s website

Dr. Robillard’s facebook group page

Fast Tract Diet App: Your Gut Health – Fits In Your Pocket

Book – Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again

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