A breakthrough in the treatment of acid reflux: how we found out that the cause of reflux is not gastric acid

My colleague Tibor Gergely and myself, Zoltán Iklódi have long applied manual therapy, medical massage, osteopathic treatment, as well as counseling. We also co-operate with physiotherapists.

In 2013 we had a patient who had long been suffering from back pains caused by improper posture.

Posture correction often involves a simple exercise: lying on the ground you put your hands to your shoulders, and keeping your arms straight push your torso upwards while keeping your pelvis down on the ground, so your waist and back form an arch. Tamás, the aforementioned patient did this and other exercises very diligently. Two weeks later he came back, with the good news that his back pains were gone. BUT – and he was quite surprised by that – so did his reflux!

And so our research commenced.

Our first thought was that it was the nerves transmitting information to the digestive tract and the cardia that were under pressure in Tamás’ case. This can occur. A blocked – compressed – vertebra may affect the proper functioning of the nerve and certain organs. So, our initial thought was that the exercise freed such a “blocked” – compressed – nerve.

To test this theory we experimented treating acid reflux by the mobilization of the nerve exit points and the application of segment massage, with no success.

So we had to continue our search for the explanation of whatever had happened in Tamás’ case.

By arching his back, he also stretched his cardia, and "expanded" his abdominal cavity which used to be under constant pressure in his daily routine of sitting 12-16 hours a day. The acid reflux was induced by the increased abdominal pressure.

Certainly, this increase in the abdominal pressure may not only be induced by constant sitting. Eating food that causes bloating, consuming large portions of food in one sitting, or simply putting the abdominal region to excessive training, may also have the same effect.

With this realization we started to systematically develop our own method to treat acid reflux.

You can read more about abdominal tension and its effect on the cardia HERE

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