Do you have heartburn? Are you feeling extra bloated after a large meal? If so, you may have acid reflux. This condition affects millions of people around the world, yet many still don't know how to treat it. Luckily, the following article has some tried and true methods to help you deal with your acid reflux.
Try to lose some weight. If you are overweight, especially around your abdomen, it will put increased pressure on your stomach. This can contribute to an increase in acid reflux symptoms. Simply losing a couple of pounds will reduce the pressure on your stomach, which in turn will reduce acid reflux.
Acid reflux can be caused by a number of different things, not just the types of food you are eating. Look into your lifestyle too and see if you're not pushing yourself too hard, under excessive stress or otherwise need to take better care of yourself. Learn to relax, improve your diet and see if that doesn't help.
Keep a diet diary. Everyone is different, and which foods will trigger your acid reflux may not be the same as mine. Write down how you feel before, during and after each meal, and include a list of what you eat and drink all day. After a month, you should have a clearer picture of which foods cause you the most grief.
For quick relief, pick up cinnamon flavored gum. When you chew gum, your salivary glands pick up the pace which can help neutralize stomach acid. On top of that, you'll swallow more and help clear the acid out of your esophagus. Lastly, choosing non-mint and non-citrus flavors ensures you don't trigger your acid reflux.
Eat slowly if you want to reduce the occurrence of acid reflux during your meals. When you eat too fast, your body does not have enough time to process the food, which can lead to inflammation and pain within your stomach. Put down your utensils if you have a hard time doing this successfully.
While eating your meals, limit your beverage consumption. Although this may sound silly, drinking lots of beverages during your meals can actually cause acid reflux. This is because liquids increase the volume of food in your stomach. When your stomach is full, the lower esophageal sphincter has more pressure placed upon it. This muscle prevents food from coming up through your esophagus, which prevents acid reflux. You need to protect your lower esophageal sphincter as much as possible.
Eating slower has been shown to help with the symptoms of acid reflux. This gives your stomach a chance to adjust to the food that you are taking in. Try chewing your food a minimum of 25 times and really savor the food you are eating. Eat only until you are comfortably full and never till you are stuffed.
Avoid eating fatty foods such as french fries, pizza and other fried foods. Fatty foods relax the stomach muscles allowing acids to rise into the esophagus resulting in increase acid reflux. Instead of fatty foods, opt for lean proteins such as baked chicken breasts along with fruits and vegetables.
Reduce the fat in your diet. Excess fat causes your LES muscle to relax, which delays stomach emptying. As a result, acid reflux is more likely to occur. Therefore, if you consume lots of fried foods, substitute them for leaner, grilled options. This is not only good for your acid reflux, but also for your overall health.
For children who have acid reflux disease, the only thing that may work for them is time. When a person is younger, their digestive systems have not yet matured. This makes it easier for acid to produce, thus, increase acid reflux symptoms. Once they get older, the problem should go away.
Do not smoke. If you smoke now, do your best to stop and if you don't smoke, do not pick up the habit. If you smoke, quit. Smoking has the ability to cause your lower esophageal sphincter to fail and not be able to do its job of blocking stomach acid.
Try to drink mostly in between meals if you suffer from acid reflux. When your stomach is full of food an liquid, the lower esophageal sphincter is under constant pressure. This can cause it to allow the food and acid in your stomach to come back up into your esophagus and destroy the lining within.
Learn stress coping techniques. Being stressed out can cause you to tense up your body and this causes you to contract some, or all, of your stomach muscles, causing acid reflux symptoms. Learn how to better handle stressful situations and you'll find out you may have much less stomach troubles.
For those who are bothered by acid reflux, chewing cinnamon gum after a meal may help. When you chew gum, salivary glands begin working which helps to neutralize the stomach acid. In addition, gum makes a person swallow more often. This increased swallowing carries the acid back to the stomach and keeps it from causing heartburn.
If there are not enough reasons to quit smoking, here is one more. Quitting smoking will greatly reduce the likelihood of contracting GERD. The digestion process is slowed down by smoking and it also increases production of stomach acid. Smoking reduces the production of saliva which is the body's defense against stomach acid.
Pregnancy may cause acid reflux symptoms. More specifically, a link has been detected between pregnancy and chronic acid reflux. This generally stems from the fact that the weight of the baby is crowding the stomach area. Most of time, the acid reflux symptoms are relieved shortly after the baby has been delivered.
As was stated in the beginning of this article, acid reflux affects millions of adults. Instead of suffering in silence, take the necessary steps to combat your acid reflux so that you can live a happy and pain free life again. Implement what you have just learned and get ready to say goodbye to that annoying acid reflux.
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