Best Acid Reflux Treatment Reviews

What Are Some Natural Solutions For Acid Reflux?

The most common way to prevent symptoms is changes in eating patterns. Specific modifications may include: eating small meals, reducing coffee and alcohol, losing weight, eating frequent, lighter meals, and eating a diet high in water soluble dietary fibre (raw fruits and vegetables).

Begin an exercise program. Sleeping with the head and shoulders elevated will reduce the chances of acid reflux disease. Sleep only 3 hours after your last meal of the day so your stomach has enough time to digest your food. One should always check with their Doctor before undertaking any such changes.

Why Treat Acid Reflux Naturally?

While this may seem like a common symptom that is experienced by a lot of people, the discomfort that it brings is certainly not something that one might wish to live with or deal with for a very long time.

Oesophagitis can develop into oesophageal bleeding as the frequent contact of stomach acid to the oesophagus creates ulcers. Although not a very severe or dangerous disease, Acid reflux can cause the erosion of the lining in the throat and is one of the known risk factors for oesophageal cancer.

Generally speaking, Diet and Lifestyle changes can significantly reduce the symptoms of Acid Reflux Disease without the need for medications which may cause other complications.

Getting to the root cause of this condition and pinpointing the specific triggers will provide the opportunity to make the necessary changes to eliminate symptoms.

Acid Reflux And Sleeping – Acid Reflux Wedge Pillow

Acid reflux sufferers find that sleeping has a tendency to make this problem worse. It is has been estimated that 8 out of 10 people who have acid reflux problems and heartburn, have this at night-time and during sleeping.

Among the solutions and recommendations for treating and controlling the problem, sleeping on an acid reflux wedge pillow has been shown to be very effective.

The oesophagus is supposed to carry food in one direction, from the mouth to the stomach. Once in the stomach enzymes and acid is made to digest the food and turn it into nutrients that the body can use. Your stomach has been designed to both handle and contain acid, however your oesophagus is sensitive and can’t.

When acid leaves the stomach, and moves back into the oesophagus, you feel the sensation of heartburn caused by the acid reflux. When this is occasional, it isn’t serious and can usually be relieved by an over the counter antacid.

However, when this becomes a persistent and frequent occurrence, acid reflux can become GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease. Left untreated, this can become a serious problem, leading to a number of other conditions, even including cancer of the oesophagus.

When trying to prevent or treat acid reflux, some of the primary recommendations are: eating smaller meals for dinner, avoiding late night snacks, eating 2-3 hours before going to sleep, and waiting at least an hour before even lying down after eating.

The reasons for this are related to bigger meals requiring more acid and a longer time for digestion, resulting in more opportunity for acid reflux. This occurs because acid reflux is worse when lying down, and thus while sleeping when you are lying down the longest.

While you are reclined, the acid does not have to fight gravity to leave the stomach, and cam move back into the oesophagus more easily. This is a reason why acid reflux may be worse in the morning, including the waking up with a cough, hoarseness, and sore throat. Hence, the recommendations for how much, and when you eat, before going to sleep.

And did you know that you should sleep on your left side? It has been shown that sleeping on your left side will help with the removal of stomach acid, while sleeping on your right side has a tendency to make heartburn worse.

Additionally, it is recommended that you sleep with your head and shoulders on an incline. This will help by not pushing the contents in the stomach against the lower oesophageal sphincter, which is a muscle that is intended to prevent acid from going back into the oesophagus.

Simply lying on a pile of pillows to raise your head does not work in preventing acid reflux. Actually, this may even make it worse, because when you only elevate your head, you have a tendency to bend the body in a way that the acid goes part way up your oesophagus and gets trapped there.

You could try to raise the head of the bed with blocks in an attempt to create an incline. But the easiest, and probably most effective way to do this, is by sleeping on a wedge shaped pillow that has been specially designed to raise your head and shoulder to the proper incline.