Curcumin vs. Omeprazole for Heartburn, Which Is Better?

Published: September 28, 2023

Vitality101 Newsletter

Woman with Heartburn

Hello Reader,

Research on the treatment of heartburn published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine has shown that the herbal extract curcumin (500 mg four times a day) and the PPI acid blocker omeprazole (Prilosec, 28 mg once daily) produced comparable results over a two-month period. These findings represent the first head-to-head comparison demonstrating the efficacy of curcumin in treating functional dyspepsia compared with omeprazole.

This finding is good news for the 60 million Americans who suffer from heartburn symptoms at least once a month, not to mention the 15 million who suffer from it every day.

Heartburn symptoms are onerous, including burning in the chest after eating at night, pain that worsens when lying down or bending over, or bitter or acidic taste in the mouth. Contributors to the discomfort are often spicy or acidic foods, alcohol, and caffeinated beverages.

To optimize digestive health, I recommend:

  1. CuraMed® 750 mg, 1-2x day.
  2. DGL licorice to heal the stomach’s protective lining. Chew 1 extra-strength tablet 20 minutes before a meal. May take up to 3 extra-strength tablets per day.
  3. CompleteGest® digestive enzymes, 2 capsules with larger meals. Speeds digestion so food doesn't just sit there and reflux back up.

If in addition to the above, medication is initially needed, I strongly recommend Pepcid (famotidine) 20-40 mg instead of PPI acid blockers (e.g., omeprazole or esomeprazole) which IMHO are quite toxic for long-term use.

All four of the above can be used together, and over time. After 2-3 months of healing the stomach, these can then be used as needed.

Podcast: A Step-By-Step Action Plan For Recovery from Long Covid (Part 2)

Podcast

In this two-part interview on the "Intelligent Medicine Podcast," Dr. T speaks with host Dr. Ron Hoffman about Long COVID, and Dr. T's approach of blending natural therapies with judicious use of medications to explain how recovery can be achieved.

We published part 1 of this podcast in our previous newsletter. Here is part 2.

Featured This Week

AI Generated Art Is Amazing

AI Generated Art

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been getting a lot of press lately. Software engines using large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are demonstrating astonishing ability to author well-written long-form responses to short human prompts. Even original stories, poems and songs.

A little less talked about but equally amazing are new generative AI engines capable of creating original works of art, also based solely on text prompts. Input a descriptive text of anything you want to see and within seconds out pops your vision. New worlds, fantasy characters, ultra-realistc scenery. Literally anything. The three shown above are examples created using the AI platform Midjourney. The image on the right was created by simply entering the words "vintage rustic watercolor cars on street, city, old, New York, warm tones autumn landscape white background." Wow!

Jacob Teitelbaum, MD

is one of the world's leading integrative medical authorities on fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. He is the lead author of eight research studies on their effective treatments, and has published numerous health & wellness books, including the bestseller on fibromyalgia From Fatigued to Fantastic! and The Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Solution. Dr. Teitelbaum is one of the most frequently quoted fibromyalgia experts in the world and appears often as a guest on news and talk shows nationwide including Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah & Friends, CNN, and Fox News Health.

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