Acid Reflux

Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux

admin — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:34:40 +0000

Have you ever felt that the only one who is benefiting from your acid reflux is the drug companies that you throw endless amounts of money at to try to relieve your pain and suffering? Trust me; you are not alone in this belief. Many people have tried to find ways of helping themselves reduce their pain.

One of the best approaches to take with any disease is an overall look at what your current diet and lifestyle is like and break it down into areas that can do with improvement. The outcome of potentially better health is certainly worth the effort involved in appraising your current situation.

Here is a list of natural remedies that have been proven effective in the treatment of heartburn and acid reflux. Some of them you may not like, but they are effective.

Change Your Diet
- Reduce the levels of caffeine in your diet, soft drinks, alcohol.
- Be aware of all of the foods that contain a high level of acid ñ pineapples, citrus fruits, tomatoes.
- Reduce the amount of fatty foods you consume.
Give up smoking
- Smoking increases your chances experiencing acid reflux by 70%
Start a healthy exercise program
- One of the leading factors in people experiencing acid reflux is being overweight or obese.
- Moving and being active aides in digestion.
Lifestyle changes
- Avoid lying down right after a meal.
- Try not to eat up to 2 hours before sleeping.
- Elevate the end of your bed 6-8 inches
Apple Cider Vinegar
- Has been used by many for years
- It is believed to help with many conditions such as allergies, acne, flu, high cholesterol, chronic fatigue, dermatitis, sore throats, gout, arthritis and acid reflux
- It may not be effective instantly; it will take some time to work.
- It’s cheaper than most medications
- Dosage rate: two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in water at least three times a day.

If you are honest with yourself these five simple lifestyle tips may help you combat the negative effects of acid reflux in your life. By making these changes in your life, you are starting your own healing journey and taking control of your own life. A life free of discomfort is certainly worth making the changes.

Foods to Avoid With Acid Reflux

admin — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:30:27 +0000

For many of us going to the fridge and grabbing whatever we like to have a snack on is quite normal. Our food gives us nourishment, we enjoy eating and we stay healthy. Unfortunately there is a group of us, for one reason or another, who have to look at food as not nourishment, but as something that can cause them immense pain and discomfort.

People who suffer from acid reflux are one such group of people. In their case, the food that they eat needs to be thought about very carefully. They need to plan their meals and even think about how long to go between meals. Grabbing a simple snack from the local takeaway is probably not an option for them if they wish to remain pain free.

Acid reflux is a condition where the stomach acids, because of a malfunction in the lower oesophageal sphincter, go back into the oesaphageous and cause intense burning pain. If this condition is not treated or goes on for some time, it can develop into GERD, a painful chronic condition that can cause serious complications.

An easy way to tell if you have acid reflux is if you experience symptoms like a burning sensation in your chest or upper abdomen, sour taste in your mouth, tightness in your throat, difficulty swallowing food and perhaps bad breath.

It is important to discuss any of these symptoms with your doctor to ensure that there is nothing else going on with your health and they can gauge the seriousness of your situation.

There are some foods that are known to cause people with acid reflux problems:

Alcohol
Spicy foods
Tomato based products
Fried and fatty foods
Coffee
Chocolate
Peppermint and spearmint
Some fruit juices
Onions
Garlic
Citrus fruits

Sometimes it can be something as simple as a change in your diet to cause dramatic health changes within your body. Making lifestyle changes can often seem overwhelming and difficult. Your medical practitioner may be able to help you adjust to your new diet. There are many support groups who can assist you in the transition. The internet is full of excellent products and ideas to help you become healthier. The big benefit to you is that once you start to change your lifestyle to reduce your occurrences of acid reflux, you will notice many areas of your life start to improve as well.

Acid Reflux Medicine

admin — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:27:51 +0000

Acid reflux is an extremely uncomfortable condition to experience. It seems that when you are suffering from heartburn, you will try anything to give yourself some relief.

So that you are better able to understand how acid reflux medication works in your body, let me explain to you what acid reflux is and how it affects your body. The part of your body that is affected by acid reflux is called the gastrointestinal system. This system is made up of your mouth, or oral cavity, your oesophagus, your stomach, your small intestine, large intestine and, finally, your anus. The primary role of your gastrointestinal system is to take in food, break down the food into usable energy and expel the waste products as faeces.
The area of this system that we will concentrate on is the oesophagus and stomach. When there is a problem with the cardiac sphincter that sits between the oesophagus and the stomach, the acids , used to break down your foods are allowed into the oesophagus, causing pain and discomfort. These acids are called pepsins and are an essential part of the digestive process.

It is quite normal for people to have some sort of liquid reflux from the stomach. People who suffer from acid reflux have a much higher acid level in their acid. Some scientists believe that there could be a genetic predisposition to the creation of higher levels of pepsin.

When medication is prescribed specifically for the treatment of acid reflux its purpose is to either reduce the production of pepsin by the cells in the stomach or neutralize the acid that is being produced.

One of the most common types of medication prescribed by your health care professional is called a Histamine Blocker. The purpose of this medication is to block the production of hydrochloric acid in your stomach. This in turn reduces the acid concentrations within your stomach allowing the oesophagus to heal from the burning of the higher concentrations of acid. The drugs that are histamine blockers are Cimetidine, Famotidine, Nizatine and Ranitidine. The last three are duel purpose in that they not only block the production of acid, they heal any damage to the oesophagus that may be already present.

Most of us are more familiar with the over the counter types of medication whose purpose is to put a layer of soothing substance between our volatile stomach acids and our tender oesophagus. Often that is as far as our involvement in medication for acid reflux needs to be. When we learn which foods trigger our discomfort, give up smoking and reduce alcohol, we can dramatically reduce its impact on our lives. Understanding how your gastrointestinal system works will now give you the knowledge to treat acid reflux as it arises.

Acid Reflux Disease Symptoms

admin — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:15:26 +0000

Generally when people mention acid reflux, they are referring to a condition where the stomach acids regurgitate into the oesophagus causing a significant amount of discomfort. Most people will experience reflux, or heartburn as it is also known, at some time in their lives, generally after eating a spicy meal. The symptoms indicating the presence of acid reflux varies from person to person and in severity.

To understand more about the symptoms of acid reflux, it is important to know what is involved when your body is experiencing an episode of heartburn. During the digestive process our body uses gastric acids to break down the food we eat. These acids are found in the stomach. The muscles of the digestive system move the food along to the small and large intestine for extra digestion. In people who have acid reflux disease, there is a malfunction in the valve that sits between the stomach and the oesophagus. The contents of the stomach then regurgitate back up into the oesophagus and cause pain and discomfort.

Some of the typical symptoms of acid reflux include:

Heartburn. During an episode of heartburn, the person feels a painful burning feeling in their chest and may extend to their neck or throat. It will generally happen after a heavy meal, lifting, bending over, or resting flat after a meal. The majority of sufferers will experience this pain at night.
Dyspepsia. Dyspepsia is indicated where there is pain and distress in the upper abdomen, nausea after a meal and a feeling of fullness in your stomach. These symptoms do not necessarily mean that you have acid reflux.
Regurgitation. Regurgitation occurs when the contents of the stomach move back up into the oesophagus and sometimes even the mouth.

It must be noted that there can be many other symptoms indicating the presence of acid reflux. These symptoms are referred to as extraoesophageal symptoms and include:

Throat Symptoms. Symptoms in the throat are generally not common. Sometimes people may suffer from hoarseness, feeling a lump in the throat, a dry cough or a symptom called acid laryngitis. There can be difficulty swallowing. In critical instances, food may get stuck in their throat and cause choking or severe chest pain. Other throat issues could be persistent hiccups or a chronic sore throat.
Nausea and Vomiting. Nausea which lasts for weeks may be attributed to acid reflux. There are some cases where vomiting has occurred on a daily basis.
Respiratory Symptoms. When the acid from the stomach interferes with the airways it can result in coughing a wheezing.

Acid reflux is a condition which can last for a very short time or for several months if it is not treated correctly. As with any medical condition, it is worth speaking with your health care professional if you are exhibiting any of the symptoms of acid reflux.

What is Acid Reflux? Who Does it Affect Most?

admin — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:47:44 +0000

The medical term for “Acid Reflux” is referred to as GERD or Gastro Oesophageal Reflux Disease. When someone is suffering from GERD, their body produces an abnormal amount of stomach acids. These acids burn the oesophagus, causing damage to the delicate mucous membranes. GERD is considered to be a chronic condition, whereas acid reflux may happen to any of us at any time. Some of us may be fortunate to only ever have one or two episodes of acid reflux in their lifetime.

The usual cause of acid reflux is the increase in acidity or gastric acid production in the stomach. Being overweight or obese, during pregnancy or even wearing tight fitting clothes can all add to the increase in acid production. It is also thought that yeast infections can also be one of the causes of GERD-like symptoms.

Acid reflux is an uncomfortable condition that will affect most of us at some time in our lives. In most cases acid reflux is found predominantly in infancy or adult life, although sometimes children can suffer as well. Other names for acid reflux that you may be more familiar with are heartburn or indigestion.

In medical terms, to be classed as suffering from GERD you need to be experiencing more than one episode of acid reflux in a week. If these episodes went on for a period of time it would be possible that you would then develop GERD.

Each person is unique in how their bodies respond to foods that they eat. What may cause pain and discomfort for one person may not be an issue at all for someone else. Interestingly enough, different stages in our lives cause our reactions to food to vary as well.

Some of the more common triggers for acid reflux are considered to be eating spicy, acidic foods, going to sleep after a heavy meal and consuming alcohol on an empty stomach.

The symptoms of acid reflux include:

Burning at the back of the sternum
General discomfort in the lower chest region
Coughing
Voice changes & hoarseness
Constant earache
Sinusitis

While it is certainly an uncomfortable condition, acid reflux is something that we will all experience at some stage in our lives. Being aware of what foods we need to be eating can contribute to our management of the condition. It is certainly worth finding out all we can so that we can avoid developing GERD later.