Hello,

I am no stranger to GERD I have been suffering with acid reflux since I was a baby as well as constipated very hard dry big stool. I ended up getting both under control with probiotics, BioCleanse & Plexus Slim from the company Plexus Worldwide, all products which are marketed for helping restore the gut Microbiome. I decided to go on hormonal birth control the beginning of 2018 after having a miscarriage in the fall of 2017. My gynecologist said it would help balance out my hormones after the miscarriage. I had never struggled with hormonal imbalances that I know of. Fast forward to November of 2019 after eating a lot of tofu in one sitting I ended up getting stool stuck it was half way in & half way out & too hard & too big to pass. It took a few hours to pass after a couple of enemas, walking & nearly passing out. After that I started suffering from breathing issues, I do have asthma so I just attributed to that until I started feeling acid reflux again then soon after I started choking on anything mashed potatoes, water ect. from the time the breathing problems started to the time I started choking on things it had been about a month. During this time I started researching how to help acid reflux naturally as I was no longer taking the supplements mentioned above for quite some time at this point. I ended up taking enzymes with every meal & getting on some SBO probiotics from Ancient Nutrition. This combination cleared my acid reflux up within a month or less & my bowels seemed to be better. Fast forward to last April I contracted Covid-19 which flared up my acid reflux really bad. At this time I was taking probiotics from Wholesome Wellness 100 Billion Cfus & Plexus Cleanse. I stopped taking the Cleanse bc the vitamin C in this supplement was making my heart race too fast. I had trouble with my heart beating too fast from the sickness. After recovering from Covid I ended up having an anaphylactic reaction to the probiotics & so I was off probiotics for 4-5 months. In around August of last year my stool ended up being so hard it gave me a severe anal fissure. After about 2 weeks I put myself on a liquid diet to give my fissure time to heal. I did this for around 3-4 weeks. I could tell my acid was coming back during this time but by the 4th week my acid reflux came back I felt like I was aspirating on acid & having breathing problems. I stared eating mashed potatoes nothing on them or a plain baked potatoes, plain veggies sometimes oatmeal, & quinoa. watermelon, & pears. All of this brings me to now my acid reflux is still flared up it goes through phases where it is slightly better & I can eat different food. My acid reflux has never gone back to the way it was before it got bad back in August/September. I’m sleeping on a recliner every night sometimes all the way sitting up. I went through several probiotics that didn’t work for me bc  developed an allergy to fillers & certain stands of probiotics flair my lungs up so I finally settled on Ancient Nutrition SBO Probiotics Gut Restore & I take 100 Billion cfu everyday, I drink 4 ounces of George’s Aloe juice along with 4-5 Aloe Vera Capsules 20-30 mins before eating. I tried taking the enzymes I took before from One MD but it didn’t do anything for me this time even when I doubled the dosing. I ended up finding out that hormonal birth control can mess up your digestion so I went off of it a little over a month ago. January the 30th was my last day to take the pill & by Feb 13th my acid reflux felt significantly better for about a week & a half. I thought my acid was done flaring & I started having terrible sweet cravings I thought bc my hormones were shifting since normally I don’t  have a sweet tooth. So during this time I ate cookies, skittles, tacos, cheese burgers ect. All vegan bc I don’t  eat dairy or meat. I think all of the junk food retriggered my reflux bc my acid started inflaming my lungs again. I started going to an acupuncturist for acid reflux & I plan on going to balance my hormones. I have tried HCL & it burned my esophagus anything like lemon or acid makes my reflux worse. My question is what probiotics would you recommend & how many cfus also any other suggestions for supplements to help with digestion & how to balance your hormones naturally?

Thanks so much for your time,

Rebecca