★★★★★
Integrative Medicine for Gastrointestinal Disease (nih.gov)
STW 5 (Iberogast) is a commercial formula that includes nine botanicals: Iberis amara, Matricaria chamomilla, Carum carvi, Mentha piperita, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Melissa officinalis, Chelidonium majus, Silybum marianum, and Angelica archangelica.10 In three studies of functional dyspepsia that included patients with GERD symptoms, those receiving STW 5 were more likely to have improvement in symptoms than those receiving placebo. STW 5 was most effective for epigastric pain, retrosternal pain, and acid regurgitation. Adverse events were similar to placebo and included dermatitis, angioedema, digestive intolerance, and one case of allergic asthma. The product has been sold in Germany for 40 years and has a good safety profile.
Supplements
★★★★★
The abstract of the study- ( from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16948779 )
"The prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is increasing. GERD is a chronic disease and its treatment is problematic. It may present with various symptoms including heartburn, regurgitation, dysphagia, coughing, hoarseness or chest pain. The aim of this study was to investigate if a dietary supplementation containing: melatonin, l-tryptophan, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, methionine and betaine would help patients with GERD, and to compare the preparation with 20 mg omeprazole. Melatonin has known inhibitory activities on gastric acid secretion and nitric oxide biosynthesis. Nitric oxide has an important role in the transient lower esophageal sphincter relaxation (TLESR), which is a major mechanism of reflux in patients with GERD. Others biocompounds of the formula display anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. A single blind randomized study was performed in which 176 patients underwent treatment using the supplement cited above (group A) and 175 received treatment of 20 mg omeprazole (group B). Symptoms were recorded in a diary and changes in severity of symptoms noted. All patients of the group A (100%) reported a complete regression of symptoms after 40 days of treatment. On the other hand, 115 subjects (65.7%) of the omeprazole reported regression of symptoms in the same period. There was statistically significant difference between the groups (P < 0.05). This formulation promotes regression of GERD symptoms with no significant side effects."
