Taking zinc decreases anxiety especially taking it after few days of inhibitory supplements such as Thiamine.
Last few days, I have been taking thiamine HCl 25 mg two times daily. Today, I did not take thiamine. Instead, I took zinc gluconate (equivalent to 25 mg elemental zinc). I could feel good mood, less anxiety, good working memory and less post lunch sleepiness.
Daily aerobic exercise coupled with zinc for few days appears to destress and elevate mood.
I have been suffering from GERD for more than 3 years. I used to take Gaviscon liquid and Gelusil tablets 3-4 times weekly to manage the condition. It was under control. But, for the last 4 months, the reflux was severe making it unbearable. The heartburn was giving irritating pain in the chest for 2-3 hours once it starts.
Characteristics of chest irritating pain of GERD:
1. The pain starts after 2 hours of breakfast and stays there until 3 pm (around this time, I take lunch). The pain continues mildly after that and continues throughout night.
2. Increased hungry feeling
3. If I bend forward, I get irritating pain in chest.
4. I took pantoprazole 20 mg for 2 weeks. The reflux and irritating pain completely absent after 4 days of treatment. But, after stopping the drug, rebound acid was very very severe. The rebound happened in 4 days time.
5. I took famotidine also. It was not effective in controlling the symptoms.
I started exploring many ideas to control GERD.
1. The RO water TDS was checked and found to be around 40 ppm. This indicates that low mineral content in water such as calcium, magnesium etc. This might have caused the increased acidity.
2. Salt - I used to take slightly high salt for all my food. Salt is sodium chloride. The chloride ion for HCl in stomach comes mainly from sodium chloride as per a research article. SO, high salt consumption, high acidity.
3. Onion - I used to get reflux travelling up to my nose when I was 19 years old in my college after I eat onion + red chilli powder mixed with cooking oil. The reflux used to happen after 2-3 hours eating. Initially, I could not understand what was happening and why I get this. Later, I figured it out the food which caused this. After that, I stopped eating combination of onion + red chilli powder mixed with cooking oil. After that, the reflux did not happen.
4. Chilli - Red chilli powder was directly irritating to the lesions/ulcer in the GI tract. I used to add more red chilli powder to my foods. This might have caused more irritating pain.
Management of GERD:
1. I stopped adding salt to the foods I eat for 4 days. Also, I added less onion and very less red chilly powder to the food. Then, gradually, I added little bit of salt. So, after 4 days, I started to feel less reflux and less irritating pain.
2. I started to take calcium supplement (calcium 400 mg daily along with zinc 10 mg, vitamin D3 200 IU and magnesium 300 mg).
3. Instead of full cream milk powder I use for making coffee and tea, I have used low fat milk.
4. I have stopped the motor of RO water unit. This decreased the water flowing speed out of the tap but increased the mineral content. The mineral content increased 10 ppm everyday and after 2 weeks it stays around 90-100 ppm. I consume this water everyday.
After two weeks of following above above-mentioned practices, the reflux and irritating pain almost disappeared.
I have been consuming RO (reverse osmosis) water for last 11 months. The water is not very tasty but it is clean. The RO system consists of 7 stage filtration (including sediment filter, activated carbon filter and reverse osmosis membrane) with alkalining unit. So, technically, the system should produce perfect quality water.
The initial TDS of incoming water suppy was around 500 ppm.
The initial TDS of output from RO system was around 80 ppm.
After 6 months of consumption, I started to ahve the following symptoms.
1. Lower leg pain - especially after standing during lecturing for more than 3 hours. The lower calf muscle was paining the most.
2. Diarrhoea - passing watery stools two times a day; This happened after antibiotic exposure after 3 months of consumption of RO water.
3. Gastroesophageal refulx - burning sensation in the chest before meals. The hunger becomes very severe if I delay the meals, especially at lunch as I take a small breakfast.
Now, I have checked the TDS of incoming supply water and output from RO system.
The TDS of incoming water suppy is around 240 ppm.
The TDS of output from RO system is around 40 ppm.
Also, I checked the TDS of water cans (18 L) supplied locally. The TDS is around 100 ppm.
All the above symptoms, disappeared almost completely with calcium supplementation.
