5 tips on how to stop acid reflux
Acid reflux, also known as heartburn is an affection that has nothing to do with the heart, but with your digestive system. The pain, burnings and discomfort people suffering of acid reflux feel is given by the rising up into the esophagus of partially digested food and gastric acid.
Besides burnings felt in the lower chest, other symptoms of acid reflux are: swallowing with difficulty, sore throat that seems to persist no matter what you do, chronic hoarseness or dry cough, bitter taste in the morning and after eating and even bad breath.
Acid reflux has to be treated. If left to become chronic, it can lead to esophagus cancer which is a more serious condition.
There are a few things you can do in order to prevent acid reflux. It is important to make a few changes in your lifestyle. This means that you can adopt a different way of living in order to avoid situations that lead to an increase of the symptoms of the acid reflux.
1. Take care of your body position.
The thing that easily keeps acid reflux far away from your esophagus is gravity. After eating it is important to keep your posture upright and avoid lying down for one or two hours. During this time your stomach will digest your food and pass it down to the intestines. Once the stomach is empty you can lie down as there is nothing left inside it to run towards the esophagus. If you have acid reflux during the night then it is best to lift the head of your bed with 4-5 inches.
2. Avoid exercising after eating.
If you know you have acid reflux problems then it is best not to practice any sport right after eating. Abdominal muscle contractions can make the food you just ate to come back on the esophagus. This would not be a problem, but gastric acid that got to be secreted during eating will get to the esophagus too, eroding it step by step.
3. Eat the right food for you.
This means that you must avoid aliments that are known to produce heartburn (peppermint, whole milk, saturated oils and fats, creamed soups and foods, tomato and juices like oranges and grapefruit) and replaced with aliments that will not cause acid reflux (fish, chicken, turkey meat, vegetables, cereals, bread, low-fat milk and aliments that have low fat content).
4. Beware of alcohol, cigarettes and coffee
As much as we all might like to have a small addiction to something, try to focus on something else besides these three known to produce acid reflux ‘drugs’. You will observe after a while that not only your acid reflux is not bothering you so much, but your whole health status has improved.
5. Follow an antacid treatment.
If you think you might have acid reflux, go to the doctor and see what he has to say about this. He will most likely recommend you some antacids and proton pump inhibitors. Here are a few examples of brands of antacids include Maalox, Mylanta and Riopan. The proton pump inhibitors such as Prilosec, Aciphex and Prevacid are good for decreasing the acid production in the stomach.
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Comments
In a discussion with my ear, nose, throat doctor during a checkup. he mentioned that acid reflux could have been a cause in my tongue cancer. My jaw dropped! I never thought I had acid reflux as I might have, maybe 1 or 2 indigestion and heartburn issues per year. the doctor did prescribe Previcid, so it must be an issue.
Thanks for the great tips in this article!
In the tips it mentions to not lay down within a few hours. I would add something to that. When you lay down either right after a meal or within a few hours, try to lie on your left side. The reason is because the esophagus is actually on the right side of the body and also connects to the stomach on the right side. If you lie on your left side the acid has a further distance to travel to get up into your esophagus consequently there is less chance of reflux. Also no one has mentioned H pylori which is often the cause of reflux. I actually know another good site that really helped me with my reflux. Stopacidreflux.info ,,, Anyway I hope that helps.
Jasmin
I am having same problem with my stomach everytime I eat. Maybe I need to cut down my coffee intake and choose carefully the food I eat. Thank you for informing me about this.
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