I thought that I would share with you a short story about the power of herbs. My partner, Adrian, has a potentially pre-cancerous condition called Barrett’s Oesophagus, where acidity from the stomach is refluxed into the oesophagus – and this damages the cells to a point where they start to show pre-cancerous changes. The acid can reflux right up into the mouth and cause burning on the throat and tongue, but the main concern is oesophageal cancer.
Despite increasing doses of antacids, and many visits to the ENT specialist, Adrian’s Barrett’s progressed to a point where the doctors were going to laser the cells in 3 weeks time, and naturally this was not a procedure that he was looking forward to.
In desperation, we decided to try a course of herbs. He started to take swigs of Aloe Vera juice about twice a day – this was to heal the mouth, throat and oesophagus. I made him a blend of powders which included Marshmallow root. This powder, he takes at night, and it performs two jobs while he sleeps: it mops up the acid, so that it cannot roll down his oesophagus and into his mouth, and it also forms a thick mucilaginous layer, protecting the lining of the stomach and oesophagus.
Within a few days, his tongue healed and no longer felt burned, and to our joy, when he had his endoscopy, they found that his cells had healed to such a degree that they cancelled the laser treatment and told him not to come back for another year.