The relief and treatment of heartburn, acid reflux, and GERD is a huge, billion-dollar-a-year market, according to Tamas Bartfai, director of the Harold L. Dorris Center for Neurological Research. Bartfai has decades of experience as a consultant and executive in the pharmaceutical industry and has consulted with companies that are developing expensive treatments for this common ailment.
With so much money spent on heartburn relief drugs and their attendants, you’d think at least one drug would be a cure. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case. Heartburn medications seem to do nothing more than relieve symptoms. Some try to neutralize stomach acids. Others “turn off the pumps” that make stomach acids.
The pharmaceutical community seems to offer nothing to cure heartburn.
glutamine for heartburn
Glutamine for heartburn may be the answer. More specifically, L-glutamine for heartburn. L-glutamine for heartburn can not only be a cure, but also be much less expensive than other medications.
For example, in the US, L-glutamine can be purchased for around 5 cents per capsule. The prescription drug that “turns off the pumps” costs about $5.44 per capsule, at discount prices.
Why might glutamine be good for heartburn?
Cause of heartburn
Heartburn seems to be a muscular problem.
Despite the pharmaceutical community’s emphasis on acids, the real cause of heartburn is a weakness in the lower esophageal sphincter (LES).
A sphincter is a circular band of muscle like a ring around a passage or opening in the body. If you were teaching children about a sphincter, you might place a ring around a finger to illustrate.
The job of each sphincter is to relax or tighten as needed to open or close a natural opening or passageway in the body. If you made your illustrative ring of elastic, you would squeeze and relax the elastic to show the action of the sphincter.
1. A cow’s teat has a sphincter at the lower end. You relax to allow the milk to flow and you squeeze to stop the flow.
2. The human bladder has an involuntary sphincter in the neck. It is relaxed to allow urine to flow and is squeezed to stop the flow. A voluntary sphincter at the end of the urethra does the same.
3. An anal sphincter tightens to hold waste and relaxes to expel it.
4. The lower esophageal sphincter (LES) relaxes to allow food to enter the stomach and contracts to prevent food and acid from flowing back into the esophagus. It should prevent heartburn.
weak sphincter problems
If the sphincter in any of the above becomes weak, problems can occur.
1. A milking machine can make a cow’s sphincter relax for two hours. This allows bacteria to enter the teat and can lead to mastitis.
2. A weak sphincter in the bladder can cause urine to leak against its will.
3. When the anal sphincter is weakened, fecal incontinence can occur.
4. A weakness in the LES allows stomach acids to reflux back into the esophagus. This causes heartburn.
When sphincters other than the LES become weak and cause problems, the focus is on strengthening the weak sphincter. The cow’s sphincter is often subjected to cold after milking to tighten the muscle band. Exercise can strain both weak bladder sphincters and weak anal sphincters. Biofeedback, electrical stimulation, and certain medications can also be used to tighten these two sphincters.
Interestingly, neither of these approaches seems to be used for SLE. Heartburn treatments address the symptoms, but neglect the weakened sphincter, which is the real problem.
Can glutamine help for heartburn?
Glutamine for heartburn may be a solution.
Glutamine is an amino acid. Just as other amino acids are important constituents of protein, so is glutamine. Glutamine is found naturally in protein-rich foods: beans, dairy products, fish, and red meat.
Glutamine as a supplement is used by weightlifters, bodybuilders, and other athletes who want strong muscles. Glutamine as a supplement is also used to relieve muscle cramps and pain, especially in older people. By replenishing amino acids in the body, muscles are strengthened and pain is relieved.
Glutamine has been shown to increase the body’s ability to get rid of damaged cells and make new cells. Glutamine is also a powerful antioxidant. As such, it helps protect the body’s cells from free radicals. Glutamine heals the mucous membranes, including the lining of the esophagus that is being damaged by heartburn.
Some think that glutamine for heartburn might strengthen the LES, improving its ability to properly tighten. This could completely prevent heartburn, acid reflux, and even GERD.
Glutamine for heartburn could be a partial cure, if not a complete one.
Until heartburn, acid reflux, and GERD are understood and treated like the muscle problems they appear to be, doctors will continue to prescribe relief and treatments that address only the symptoms.
Disclaimer: The author does not sell glutamine in any form, nor will she profit from sales of glutamine for heartburn. The author is not a medical professional and provides this information for educational purposes only.