Today on the exam room.

Reducing stomach acid is what the medications are designed to do and it's a great way to cut symptoms.

And in some cases, really important for the process of healing, but that doesn't really get to the root of the issue, which is the reflux that's actually occurring.

And so now what we have is we have new research, Chuck,

that's come out in the last few years

that has shown us that people who trade in the standard American diet

and they replace it with a high plant Mediterranean diet,

they get an improvement in their acid reflux

that's on par with what you achieve with medication.

Welcome to the exam room podcast, brought to you by the Physicians Committee. Hi, I'm Chuck Carroll, Raising Health IQs coast to coast and around the world.

Hi to the exam room. He's listening in Peoria, Illinois, Rochester, New York,

and Krakow, Poland. Wherever you are, we appreciate you helping to make the world a healthier place.

This is episode 27 of season 9, number 726 overall. And today we are going to be talking about something

that millions of people deal with every

single day. Heartburn. So really, if you want to dive into the numbers, how common is heartburn?

Well, check this out. Nearly one in five Americans will experience heartburn or acid reflux at least once a week. And for many,

it's not just an occasional thing. This is a chronic condition. And I did distinctly mention

heartburn and reflux because while they're somewhat interchangeable, Dr. B is going to break down the difference for us today.

So we're also going to be talking about gastroesophageal reflux disease, better known as GERD,

and that also is a common condition affecting about one in every five people as well.

So get this, we now, you add all that stuff up, are talking about 60 million of us

experiencing heartburn at least once per month here in the US. Can't imagine why. So if you've

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