Holiday Indigestion

Ho ho ho ……hmmmm 

Toast the winter holidays with glasses of bubbly.  Feast on delectable appetisers, heavy, sauce-laden main courses and rich, sumptuous desserts.  Wash it down with velvety wines. Perhaps a cordial or a liquor-laced coffee to follow? You may indulge   with family and friends when it’s cold and stormy outside. If your insides stage violent storms of protest, afterwards, reach for a remedy. Read on to treat discomfort after eating, stomachache, acidity, constipation, diarrhoea, bloating and flatulence.   Ho ho ho hhmmmmm

What you eat matters. You don’t want a tummy ache.

Certain foods can aggravate: citrus, skins of fruits, cooked cabbage, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, beans and pulses, nuts, bread, pork, spices, wine, fizzy drinks and rich, fatty consumables, for instance. Tea, coffee and sugar sometimes interfere with stomach function. Wheat and dairy have adverse effects for some people.  Add cumin, ginger or aniseed to cooked foods to help with digestion. Drink 2 – 3 litres of filtered water daily. Try peppermint, raspberry leaf or fennel tisane to quell stomach flatulence and indigestion.

How you eat matters.  You don’t want heartburn. Relax before and after eating. Slow down when you eat.  Too much or too fast can aggravate.  Don’t eat late at night.  

How to avoid recurrent stomach problems   

Indigestion, heartburn and bloating or flatulence may be caused by poor diet, a compromised immune system or stress, agents that stick around until you pay attention. Manage the gastrointestinal pains – and the anxiety, anger, fear, resentment and impatience that may have sparked it – in a holistic, natural way. Below is helpful advice and six homeopathic remediesthat often alleviate specific symptoms.   Your mood will improve, your patience will expand and you will feel and look better as bodily systems revert to balance states.

Because we all experience stress and react to it in different ways, you may be uncertain which remedy suits you best. For an acute problem, give me a ring and I might be able to hone in on an effective homeopathic remedy.  We can also look at specific problems like IBS or smelly farts.  Or come see me for a half-hour complimentary talk to address the origins of the problem and ways to re-balance.

Of course you can go the conventional root. Antacid or laxativesymptoms disappear, with only a few side effects. They may well return. Tracing the problem to its root is a first step toward removing it forever, or for longer. If you suspect allergies, you might eliminate a suspected culprit – wheat or dairy or certain spices – for six weeks. You could test your tolerance for certain foods.  Hypoglycaemia, candidiasis, gastric reflux, ulcers, hernias or oesophagus stricture could be behind discomfort. Kidney or gallstones can cause stomach problems; in the case of kidney troubles, antacids are not safe to take. Perhaps new medications are bothering the system. Engage in exercise every day. When something looks wrong and especially if it endures, pay attention. Abdominal pain could flag something serious like appendicitis. If there is persistent pain and fever or if symptoms exacerbate, have them checked. To manage the pain yourself, consider the following.

Homeopathic Remedies for Indigestion

Recommended dosage: one tablet or pill, repeated at half-hour intervals – reducing as symptoms lessen. Take 30c potency unless otherwise indicated. 

During acute attacks take one pill every 15 minutes for up to 7 doses. Thereafter take the remedy 3 times daily and reduce on improvement.  Below are some main remedies to consider.

Carbo veg 30ch. For bloated feeling in stomach and abdomen and flatulence even after eating plainest foods. When digestion is slow with faint burning sensation in stomach about a half hour after eating.  Better for burping, though usually only temporary relief. System feels sluggish and heavy. Craving for fresh air.

Arsen alb 30ch  Unremitting anxious feeling with burning pains.  Usually acute gastrointestinal troubles including vomiting and diarrhoea. Better for hot (worse for cold) drinks. Discomfort from fruit and salad.  Often indicated for tidy, organised people who are concerned for their health and often fearful. Patients are usually chilly and exhausted.

Lycopodium 30ch Abdomen bloated. Noisy flatulence.  Long-lasting burning sensation. Appetite strong yet even a small meal causes full feeling. Bread, pulses or cabbage often make bloating worse.  Desire for hot food and drink. Symptoms worse between 4 and 8 pm.  Helpful for reflux.

China 30ch  Indigestion from fruit and dairy products.  Fullness not relieved by belching. Colic and burping ease after movement and bending double. Sharp pains across stomach lessened when clothes are made looser.

Nux Vom 30ch  Hangover from overindulgence of rich food and drink, especially stimulants like coffee, liquor and tobacco.   Heart burn and sore bruised feeling in stomach and abdomen. Possible constipated.  Often appetite is good. Flatulent distension and trapped wind after eating. Hard working overindulgers benefit from from this Rx. Useful remedy for hiatus hernia and reflux.

Pulsatilla 30ch  Stomach and abdomen discomfort after rich, fatty foods or dairy.  Often a craving for the very foods that cause the most discomfort.  Gas, bloating heartburn or sore stomach. Better for sympathy and fresh air.  Little thirst, despite dry mouth. Like Carbo veg, there is pain in the stomach about a half hour after eating. 

HOW TO TAKE homeopathy remedies: Twenty minutes away from food or drink.  The dose (one tablet or pill) should be tipped into the cap of the vial, ideally under the tongue. It will dissolve without water. (One pill is enough per dose: frequency of dose intensifies the effect, not number of pills taken at one time.)

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