Heartburn bitters
Before meals, to set the stomach up
$34
A bitters formula for people who get reflux. Counter-intuitive, but bitters before a meal often calm a stomach that produces too little acid, not too much.
Ingredients
Gentian root (Gentiana lutea), dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale), marshmallow root (Althaea officinalis), licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), brandy, water.
How to use
Three to five drops on the tongue, fifteen minutes before a meal. The taste is sharply bitter — that's the point. Don't dilute it.
Size
Made to order — ships within 3 days.
From the herbalist
Notes on heartburn bitters.
Most over-the-counter heartburn medicine works by reducing stomach acid. That helps in the short term, but a lot of reflux is actually caused by under-acid stomachs that can't break food down quickly — so the food sits and the lower oesophageal sphincter weakens.
Bitters do the opposite. The bitter taste, on the tongue, triggers a cascade — saliva, gastric acid, bile. The stomach gets ready to do its job before the food arrives.
I dry the gentian root for six weeks before extracting it. The extract sits in brandy for twenty-eight days, gets pressed, and is then aged another two weeks before bottling.
If you've been on a proton pump inhibitor for a long time, talk to me before starting this formula. There are ways to taper.
Sourcing
Where it came from.
Gentian root
Gentiana lutea
Wildcrafted from the French Alps — the only place I source it from. Dried slowly at low heat.
Marshmallow root
Althaea officinalis
Bulgarian organic.
Licorice
Glycyrrhiza glabra
Small amount only. Italian-grown.
