SMART Methods to Eliminate GERD or Any Health Concern

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Who couldn’t use a simple, scientific approach for addressing their health issues?  Here are my suggestions.

SMART Methods to Eliminate GERD or Any Health Concern

Everyone’s different. We have heard it a million times. No two people are exactly alike. We share a similar physiology but with minute differences that often manifest in big ways. Our bones, our organs, our blood and our brains all differ from the rest of the species in slight ways that make us unique. So why have we allowed ourselves to be convinced that one pill or one treatment, with one daily dosage, will cure all? Isn’t it clearly more accurate to say that one specific treatment with specific dosages or treatment parameters will be right for that one individual—and as time passes you’ll need to adjust the dosage intermittently to keep up with how your body changes?

As the inventor of a simple formula that eliminates heartburn symptoms in acid reflux sufferers, I have a vested interest in accepting the cure all approach. A small correlational trial did have a 100% positive response, which would almost indicate it is true in this case. It would be great if I truly had found one treatment that had universal applications. But I know better. Human beings are VARIABLE beings. There are always exceptions. And even my treatment does take into account the individual differences characteristic because each person has to find their own particular dosages of the formula ingredients.

Human beings are also social beings. Perhaps that’s why they expect an easy answer. We rely on each other for information so that we can grow and learn. Therefore, when we hear that a pill or treatment worked for someone else, we think, ‘I have that same problem. It should work for me too.’ Communication of that sort is wonderful. The problem is created when we stop there. If we try it and it doesn’t work . . . then we stop trying altogether. Then we think, ‘That was the cure and it didn’t work for me so nothing will. I failed.’ Failure can be depressing and it can make you want to give up. But don’t forget that you often learn more from failure than from success. Health discovery is like a maze. Just because you ended up at a dead end doesn’t always mean you should start over at the beginning. So don’t give up so quickly. The answer is out there somewhere.

Human beings are also hierarchical beings. Some people are smarter and we should listen to them. Maybe the cure-all philosophy perseveres because that’s what we’ve been taught by those who are more learned, like doctors. What we may not be realizing is that the more education one receives, the more that education begins to narrow in its subject matter. I’ll never forget the pyramid schematic used by the late Rick Snyder, one of my professors, author of The Psychology of Hope (New York: Free Press, 2004) and a friend of mine. The illustration demonstrated how from elementary (at the bottom of the pyramid) on to MD or PHD (at the top) levels of schooling, students go from a wide range of subjects and experiences to a much more rigid, narrower group of lessons that fixate in one area. When you think about it, it makes sense. There are no general arts doctorates.

So after college, medical school, a residency and a fellowship an MD would have been in school between 12-19 years, placing them at the top of that pyramid I mentioned. At this point, they are conditioned to respond to certain problems in certain ways. For most MD’s there are pharmaceutical and surgical interventions; everything else is either unnecessary or unknown. You have problem A then you get a prescription for treatment B and you’re on your way. When we rely on their knowledge and their knowledge alone, we’re limiting our own exposure to other ways of healing that are outside their scope of training.

The point is to expose yourself to as many different perspectives as possible. Somewhere within the throng of experts out there is someone that has seen your condition before and has great, novel suggestions for you. The right person will teach you how to heal your body rather than rely on a drug that simply masks the symptoms caused by your disorder.

Finally, make the process as scientific as possible to determine what ingredients and what dosages of the treatment work for you. It sounds difficult, but it becomes much easier once you’ve done it for a while.

1. Build a strategy so you know what you want to accomplish. First you need to learn which supplements or treatments have been shown to help others with your health concern. It can be as simple as: Make my immune system stronger by taking Vitamin C or Get rid of GERD using Joe Washington’s formula (shameless plug, I know).
2. Keep a notepad and record your progress daily like a diary, listing all your supplements, how you took them and what the effects were.
3. After enough time has passed (depends on the health concern), spend fifteen minutes per day analyzing your diary and try to discern a pattern emerging that will tell you what is working and what is not working.
4. If nothing has changed after an acceptable amount of time, then adjust your methods or dosage. Once you’ve exhausted all your options with that treatment and you still aren’t better, then it’s time to try another treatment.

All the while you should still be seeing your doctor and taking his advice. If you have a great doctor that’s open to differing health perspectives, enlist his help in your experiment. With many supplements and treatments there’s no reason you cannot do both, but talk to your doctor just in case.

The guarantee is steadfast. Some treatments simply won’t work for some people and none will work for everyone. The trick is to never give up until you find that one treatment that does work for you.