Greetings. New Zealand naturopath, Eric Bakker, author of Candida Crusher. Thanks for checking out my video. I have a request from my YouTube subscriber to my Candida Crusher channel regarding hiatus hernia. Eric, can you please explain about hiatus hernia and also the natural treatment for it? What’s the most effective way to remedy this problem? I’ve got it pretty bad.
Hiatus hernia is actually not that uncommon. It tends to occur more in people like my age, 50 plus. Many people who have this problem, in fact, are not really sure what they’ve got. I think they’ve got a nerve or acid stomach. They think that they have heartburn or reflux. Let’s have a look at what a hiatus hernia is.
When we chew food and swallow it, it goes through the mouth into the esophagus into the stomach. But to do so, it has to pass through this thick area of muscle called the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a powerful part of the body that really helps the lungs to work properly and helps the lung to expand. It’s a very important part of respiration or breathing. The esophagus is a hollow tube then it goes through this big piece of thick muscle, the diaphragm. All a hiatus hernia is is basically the stomach being displaced and coming up into the esophageal region. Now, what happens is you can have some stomach acid coming back up through the diaphragm, so the bottom part of the esophagus giving like reflex or reflux disease or GERD or heartburn. It can be really uncomfortable for some people.
But there are other causes also naturally. They call hiatus hernia “the great mimic” of that condition. People who’ve got it may think, as I mentioned, that they’ve’ got something wrong with their stomach. Some people may think they’re getting a heart attack, in fact. Thinking “Oh, my god. I’ve got pain in the chest. Quick, call the doctor. I’m dying of a heart attack.”
Why does it occur? How does it occur? It tends to occur more in women than men. It tends to occur in older people. I’ve seen it in more unfit people, larger people, people that carry quite a bit of weight. People who tend to keep in good physical shape, eat the right kind of food and don’t stress so much have much less a problem with hiatus hernia. Some people also believe that it can be from repressed emotions, being peeved off or angry or I can’t stomach this anymore. Things like that. I certainly believe that there will be some kind of emotional component to some people’s presentation of it.
Under acid stomach is very common. In fact, I’m going to do some videos on hypochlorhydria. Where a person has not enough production of digestive enzymes or hydrochloric acid. That can mimic itself like an overproduction and give heartburn. There are certain ways we can fix hiatus hernia up and keep it under control.
One thing I’d like you to consider if you’ve got it and you’ve been diagnosed with it is you take up breathing, is to learn how to breathe properly. How to activate your vagus nerve properly. How to really use the diaphragm properly. By seeing an expert Buteyko practitioner and you can find them in America by going to the Buteyko website and look for a registered professional. We’ve got them in New Zealand, Australia. We’ve got them Europe. We’ve got them in the USA. These people are going to help you immensely if you’ve got a hiatus hernia.
A couple of years ago, I started searching online for a technique that would really help my patients. And I found an interesting YouTube video by a Dr. David Williams, but there are many other videos you can similarly see. I’m going to demonstrate that technique right now. It’s quite a simple technique. What we’re going to try to do is we’re going to try to relax the diaphragm and we’re going to try to make the hole a little bit bigger. I’m going to show you in a minute and then we’re going to try to force that diaphragm down a little bit and then tighten that area up again. If you do this exercise every single day and you continue it on for quite a few weeks and months and also learn how to breathe properly through Buteyko and understand the connection with eating the right kind of food and learn to back off the stress, you should be able to reverse this thing naturally and get it in check. You should not have to remain on acid blocking medication for the rest of your life like your doctor leads you to believe.
It’s a pretty dumb thing to keep medication to block stomach acid when a simple technique like I’ll show you can give you enormous relief from this condition. I want you to stand up. The first thing we’re going to do, which I’m not going to do, but I’ll show you is you get a glass. In this case, it’s a cup. Then you’re going to put probably about half to three quarters of water in the glass. You don’t have to have the water too hot, but reasonably warm water. You’re going to drink that water.
Then you’re going to relax for a minute and just breathe in and out and try to do a little bit of belly breathing. Then you’re going to lift the hands up. Then what we’re going here is we’re bringing the diaphragm up a little bit and we’re opening the hole there by doing this. What we’re going to do now when we’ve done that, we’ve got the hands in this position, and we’ve got that water in our stomach to relax our stomach. Put a bit of weight in there is you can just do a bit of gentle dropping on the ground like I’m doing now. Now, some breathing again. What we’re trying to do now is activate the diaphragm and close that hole off a little bit.
What I’ve just shown you there is a very simple technique to relax the diaphragm, expand it, put a bit of weight in the tummy and then with gravity, pull that tummy down and just hopefully close the diaphragm off properly. With proper breathing control, when you learn how to master breathing properly, nasal breathing, belly breathing, never mouth breathing, which is the essence of Buteyko and slowing your rate of breath right now. You’re going to master the ability to control hiatus hernia naturally. I can almost certainly guarantee within six months of doing this, you’re going to rarely be bothered by GERD again. Give it a go.
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