If you’ve ever experienced the burning sensation of heartburn — or are currently struggling with it — you probably searched high and low for relief. Heartburn, chest pain, coughing, and trouble swallowing, are among the many uncomfortable symptoms of acid reflux. Consequences of acid reflux can range from discomfort and ruined meals to oesophageal damage with prolonged exposure.
In this post, we’ll define the connection between acid reflux and heartburn, explain how to prevent heartburn, and go over how to reduce acid reflux symptoms when they arise. Read on for a comprehensive overview of acid reflux management and prevention or use the links below to navigate to a specific topic.
Before we discuss how to reduce acid reflux, let’s start with a quick description of what acid reflux is and what its symptoms, including heartburn, look like.
Acid reflux is caused by a malfunction of the lower oesophageal sphincter (LOS), a ring of muscles that restricts the backflow of stomach acid when functioning properly. When the LOS relaxes rather than constricts, stomach acid and partially digested food can escape from the stomach and enter the oesophagus. As a result of this malfunction, you may feel heartburn and other symptoms of acid reflux.
Symptoms of acid reflux can include:
Note: GORD (gastro-oesophageal reflux disease) is the chronic form of acid reflux, usually diagnosed when one experiences symptoms twice per week, or more.
Like most medical conditions, there are certain individuals that are more at risk for experiencing heartburn or developing a consistent issue with acid reflux that can lead to more severe conditions, like GORD.
According to the Mayo Clinic1, the following conditions can increase your risk of acid reflux-related disease:
While most of the aforementioned risk factors involve environmental triggers, recent studies have examined the role genetics play in gastrointestinal conditions. One study found that genetics accounted for 31% of GORD cases, signaling a strong connection between family history and acid reflux.2
In addition to genetic and environmental risk factors, there are several other personal circumstances that can intensify or trigger acid reflux, including:
Now that you know a bit more about how certain habits, environmental factors, and inherited traits can influence heartburn, let’s talk about prevention.
In many cases, avoiding triggers and other risk factors can help to prevent the onset of acid reflux symptoms. In this section, we’ll discuss lifestyle changes and healthy habits that can potentially prevent heartburn and other acid reflux issues.
Like many other health conditions, acid reflux can largely be avoided by maintaining a healthy diet. According to the Wexner Medical Center3, there are a number of foods that can help curb your acid reflux as well as some that can aggravate your symptoms — more on that in a minute.
Which foods help prevent acid reflux? Green leafy vegetables, lean meats, egg whites, oatmeal, noncitrus fruits, and healthy fats help reduce inflammation and absorb excess stomach acid, minimizing the potential for reflux. Check out our blog to find recipes for acid reflux relief.
In addition to changing whatyou eat, acid reflux experts also recommend adjusting whenyou eat. Lying down immediately after eating — like when you eat right before bedtime — interrupts the digestive process and eliminates the gravitational pull that helps keep acid in your stomach, where it belongs. Try to avoid eating late at night and give your stomach time to digest properly before lying down.
As we mentioned earlier on in this post, there are some foods that help your acid reflux and others that can make it worse. Fatty, fried, spicy, and citrusy foods are common culprits of heartburn and should be avoided to prevent acid reflux flare ups. Additionally, alcohol and caffeinated drinks can trigger reflux symptoms.
As you learned earlier on in this post, excess weight is one of many risk factors for acid reflux and other gastrointestinal diseases. If you’re wondering how to prevent acid reflux frequency and intensity, any doctor would likely start by assessing your weight. Carrying extra weight, especially near your abdomen, can increase pressure and force stomach acid back into your oesophagus, causing heartburn.
The International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders4 suggests following these simple steps toward healthy weight management:
Much like excess weight can force stomach acid back into your oesophagus, so can tight-fitting clothing. Try to opt for loose-fitting clothing while you’re eating or when you’re experiencing more consistent acid reflux flare ups.
Though it’s typically a last-resort solution, GORD surgery is one method for preventing and potentially resolving acid reflux issues. There are several types of GORD surgery — the type you should undergo depends on the severity of your condition, your medical history, and your doctor’s directive:
Some of the prevention tips we’ve discussed are much more complicated than others, but a simple adjustment in your sleeping posture could prove to be among the most effective methods for relief. Yes, you read that right — quelling your heartburn and acid reflux symptoms can happen in your sleep.
After studying why acid reflux symptoms often spike at night, physicians found that a simple adjustment in sleeping posture can provide nighttime relief and significantly reduce exposure to harmful stomach acid. Because of the way gravity aids the digestive process and helps keep acid and stomach contents below the LOS, they found that sleeping at an incline on the left side was the best position for sleeping with acid reflux and GORD. At the same time, sleeping on your back can actually agitate acid reflux symptoms.
MedCline’s patented Reflux Relief System helps you stay off your back and sleep comfortably in the recommended elevated, left-side position for reflux relief.
Here’s how it works: Using a three-component construction, our GORD pillow gently elevates your torso to keep stomach acid where it belongs and allows your downside arm to rest effortlessly within a built-in arm pocket. Clinical studies of the device found that 93% of patients experienced a reduction in heartburn after using the Reflux Relief System, and results showed significant improvement in patients with the following conditions:
Learning how to prevent acid reflux is a big part of managing your symptoms, but sometimes even when you’re doing all the right things, you’ll feel heartburn start to creep up. In this section, we’ll focus on how to reduce acid reflux using medication and home remedies for quick heartburn relief.
Over-the-counter reflux medication is one of the most common methods used to address heartburn when symptoms appear. If you don’t have a prescription from your doctor, you’ll likely have the following over-the-counter options to choose from:
Another way to reduce heartburn symptoms when they arise is to eat foods that neutralize your stomach acid5, such as:
In addition to reflux-relieving foods, both milk and papaya tea can help quell heartburn symptoms.
Depending on the severity and frequency of your symptoms, heartburn and acid reflux can cause mild or moderate disruptions in daily life — from discomfort after dinner to sleepless nights, finding relief is essential to getting your life back. As you work with your doctor to find the right course of action for your situation, keep these key takeaways in mind:
How do you prevent acid reflux?:References