WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN STRESSED?

[Grumpy Cat]

To work as a placebo, though, wouldn't I have to believe it was a real remedy? I tried it, but I never actually believed it would work. Regardless, my GERD stopped completely long after I stopped drinking that cocktail. Could a placebo completely cure an actual condition if you didn't believe in it?

If a doctor had told you that lemon juice and coke would cure your GERD, it would have most likely.

We were just talking about that at work over the weekend. An older nurse said there used to be orders to give doses of "saline" every third dose of pain medicine and she said it ALWAYS worked because the patient believed they were getting the pain med. They consider doing something like that now as highly unethical.

 

[Judge]

Placebos have no place in my world of GERD. I have only "trigger foods" and considerations of the existing level of acid in my stomach based on what I already ate, or considerations of my acid level rising based on sudden emotional stress.

I have to admit, taking Nexium OTC has helped. Not over the "trigger" foods, but more incidental cases of reflux as my acid level is diminished more evenly over time.

I tested it out on a trigger food- fried chicken. Got severe reflux after eating it for a few minutes. Without the Nexium I'd normally get reflux in seconds eating fried chicken. You just learn all those trigger foods and avoid them like the plague. Of course that amounts to a lot of foods in my case. Or as my brother would say, "I'm allergic to food".

 

[Grumpy Cat]

I'm so pissed off! Not to be graphic, but today is only the third day of class and I can't get out if the damn bathroom! My IBS is getting really bad. At least I'm not having pain.

I was just thinking about another example regarding cancer patients. I've seen it more than once - if a person doesn't know they have cancer they seem to be in better spirits and healthier and once the doctor gives them the diagnosis, it goes downhill from there and the patient usually dies within a couple months. I believe the less a person knows the better, imo, for myself.

 

[icesyckel]

The doctor didn't tell me anything, though. I heard this from a guy I didn't trust at all (someone with my PPO). The idea of a placebo is to trick someone, and I didn't trust this at all. I tried it b/c I was desperate and found my medications weren't working. Again, I stopped everything, did the lemon/diet-coke thing for a few weeks, and then no more GERD. I think it was a coincidence, but I had it bad for months before that. When the GERD stopped, I quit the lemon/diet-coke mixture. No return of GERD.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

if you didn't think it would work and you didn't trust that guy, why did you do it? (I don't believe in coincidences)

 

[Judge]

The doctor didn't tell me anything, though. I heard this from a guy I didn't trust at all (someone with my PPO). The idea of a placebo is to trick someone, and I didn't trust this at all. I tried it b/c I was desperate and found my medications weren't working. Again, I stopped everything, did the lemon/diet-coke thing for a few weeks, and then no more GERD. I think it was a coincidence, but I had it bad for months before that. When the GERD stopped, I quit the lemon/diet-coke mixture. No return of GERD.

I suspect a big factor in such things is one's overall routine diet relative to acid content every bit as avoiding possible "trigger" foods. If the food and medications inherently elevate your acid content, you need to factor that all in. I know I take meds like Loratidine and Ibuprofen certainly don't help. And I still enjoy certain spicy foods like anything Mexican or Italian. I moderate what I eat...but generally only outright avoid trigger foods that I know will give me instant reflux.

But it does distresses me to discover more and more trigger foods...and that the scope of what I can eat seems to get less and less over time, infringing on my perceived quality of life. Paralleling it all is a propensity for arthritic conditions, so there are other foods I must watch in terms of how much I eat.

 

[icesyckel]

if you didn't think it would work and you didn't trust that guy, why did you do it? (I don't believe in coincidences)

It is in my nature to experiment before disregarding advice like that. What was the harm? I was already in pain.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

Someone needs to give me a placebo for this IBS crap!

 

[Grumpy Cat]

You didn't think that was bad advice? Lemon is an acid and the coke is also extremely bad for heartburn. I'm just wondering if there was some part of you trying to see if it would actually work trying to prove his odd theory right.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

Off to school. Hopefully no lockdown today.

 

[Judge]

You didn't think that was bad advice? Lemon is an acid and the coke is also extremely bad for heartburn. I'm just wondering if there was some part of you trying to see if it would actually work trying to prove his odd theory right.

As I recall, Coke will take tarnish off a copper penny. I know taco sauce will!

 

[icesyckel]

I'm just wondering if there was some part of you trying to see if it would actually work trying to prove his odd theory right.

Some part of me? All of me was doing exactly that: trying to either prove or disprove his theory. Either it would work, and that would be nice, or it wouldn't, and then I'd try something else. It's how I am.

 

[Etzelaire]

When I am stressed I cannot even write due to my incessant handshaking. In some occasions I run or go to the gym. And sometimes, I just think I'm nuts cause I live most of my time inside my head instead of in the real lige.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

Some part of me? All of me was doing exactly that: trying to either prove or disprove his theory. Either it would work, and that would be nice, or it wouldn't, and then I'd try something else. It's how I am.

I meant that maybe there was a part of you that wanted it to work so much (just so his theory could be correct) that it ended up working.

 

[zurb]

Actually, when I was researching home remedies, drinking a mild acid was one of the suggestions as lack of acid can be the actual problem. Lemon should have citric and ascorbic acids right? And I think coke has phosphoric acid doesn't it? Though the caffeine won't help.
15 Natural Remedies for Heartburn & Severe Acid Reflux

 

[Nanda]

The question is about what we do when stressed so we can get out the situation or what we do/ feel because of the stress?

If may i answer your question (no criticism intended).
It start with Miss Organization kicking in. A v e r y single thing has to be in place. Some times my face swollen because of stress.

Under a lot stress, i hyperventilate, i get nervous, i start to hear every single sound (Well, it happens all the time. That's why i hate clocks and similar timed noises. It drives me crazy every time! ) i start to rub my face or hair The bad thoughts come, i strat to hear all togheter and can't concentrate, if its a familiar and comfortable environment i can rock a bit, or fidget. Than comes the endless tiredness, the indifference to the world around me, i start to get more quiet and distant . Just get it all today because college (dude, this is overwhelming!!).

It's this a shutdown? If it is, so... i get into shutdown mode.

 

[icesyckel]

I meant that maybe there was a part of you that wanted it to work so much (just so his theory could be correct) that it ended up working.

That's not really how I am wired. I do a lot of investigating at work. One thing my clients seem to like about me is that I reserve judgment and don't get emotionally invested until I have all the facts. I investigate, experiment, test, etc., but I don't really engage in hopeful/wishful thinking before the results are in.

Many NT's have trouble understanding this about me. I will test something even if I am skeptical. Why assume something won't work when I can actually test and find out? I do make guesstimations when testing/experimentation is impossible or impractical, but here the most I was risking was an aggravation of my GERD. If it had gotten worse, then I would have stopped this test. It didn't, so I kept at it.

I do question the results however. In medical matters, it is difficult to have a truly experiment. While this cocktail might have cured my GERD for reasons I cannot fathom, there are other more believable reasons for my recovery that don't involve the cocktail or the placebo effect, which doesn't really make sense since I didn't believe the cocktail would work (I actually expected it to aggravate the problem). Possibly something in my diet I was unable to identify was triggering it that I stopped consuming without realizing. My diet wasn't consistent. Alternatively, the human body sometimes just recuperates from injury/illness. Despite the experiment, I just don't see how throwing acid on acid would help with a condition caused by acid.

Anyone have a theory why this would actually work scientifically? I would be interested. For the record, I also tried apple cider vinegar on a recommendation, but that aggravated my GERD, so I stopped.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

That's not really how I am wired. I do a lot of investigating at work. One thing my clients seem to like about me is that I reserve judgment and don't get emotionally invested until I have all the facts. I investigate, experiment, test, etc., but I don't really engage in hopeful/wishful thinking before the results are in.

Many NT's have trouble understanding this about me. I will test something even if I am skeptical. Why assume something won't work when I can actually test and find out? I do make guesstimations when testing/experimentation is impossible or impractical, but here the most I was risking was an aggravation of my GERD. If it had gotten worse, then I would have stopped this test. It didn't, so I kept at it.

I do question the results however. In medical matters, it is difficult to have a truly experiment. While this cocktail might have cured my GERD for reasons I cannot fathom, there are other more believable reasons for my recovery that don't involve the cocktail or the placebo effect, which doesn't really make sense since I didn't believe the cocktail would work (I actually expected it to aggravate the problem). Possibly something in my diet I was unable to identify was triggering it that I stopped consuming without realizing. My diet wasn't consistent. Alternatively, the human body sometimes just recuperates from injury/illness. Despite the experiment, I just don't see how throwing acid on acid would help with a condition caused by acid.

Anyone have a theory why this would actually work scientifically? I would be interested. For the record, I also tried apple cider vinegar on a recommendation, but that aggravated my GERD, so I stopped.

"While this cocktail might have cured my GERD for reasons I cannot fathom, there are other more believable reasons for my recovery that don't involve the cocktail or the placebo effect,"

You mean other "confounding variables"?

 

[Grumpy Cat]

That's not really how I am wired. I do a lot of investigating at work. One thing my clients seem to like about me is that I reserve judgment and don't get emotionally invested until I have all the facts. I investigate, experiment, test, etc., but I don't really engage in hopeful/wishful thinking before the results are in.

Many NT's have trouble understanding this about me. I will test something even if I am skeptical. Why assume something won't work when I can actually test and find out? I do make guesstimations when testing/experimentation is impossible or impractical, but here the most I was risking was an aggravation of my GERD. If it had gotten worse, then I would have stopped this test. It didn't, so I kept at it.

I do question the results however. In medical matters, it is difficult to have a truly experiment. While this cocktail might have cured my GERD for reasons I cannot fathom, there are other more believable reasons for my recovery that don't involve the cocktail or the placebo effect, which doesn't really make sense since I didn't believe the cocktail would work (I actually expected it to aggravate the problem). Possibly something in my diet I was unable to identify was triggering it that I stopped consuming without realizing. My diet wasn't consistent. Alternatively, the human body sometimes just recuperates from injury/illness. Despite the experiment, I just don't see how throwing acid on acid would help with a condition caused by acid.

Anyone have a theory why this would actually work scientifically? I would be interested. For the record, I also tried apple cider vinegar on a recommendation, but that aggravated my GERD, so I stopped.

Did you drink it on a full or empty stomach? I have these peppermint pills for IBS that are supposed to be taken on an empty stomach otherwise they will cause a lot of heartburn.

 

[icesyckel]

You mean other "confounding variables"?

Yes.