How to Reduce Acid Reflux

The burning, the gasping, the burping, and more burning… it all comes from acid reflux, which is where your stomach acid comes up your stomach and gets into your esophagus. This can cause burning, stomach distress, a hoarse voice, and even leave a very acidic taste in your mouth.

Whether your acid reflux is caused by food not leaving your esophagus right away, having a very acidic stomach, or having your stomach emptying process delayed, you have several options to reduce your acid reflux.

 

Look For Foods That Trigger Acid Reflux

Have you ever seen the ‘mentos in diet coke’ experiment? Place your standard mentos tablet into a bottle of coke, stand back as the chemical reaction takes place, and the coke shoots out like a geyser. It’s pretty cool, and while not as extreme, the same thing can happen in your stomach when you eat the wrong foods too fast.

Your stomach is full of acid because you must use it to digest your food. Suppose you eat foods that are designed to be acidic, such as fatty foods, spicy foods, tomatoes, onions, garlic, coffee, tea, chocolate, and alcohol, to name a few. In that case, you are dropping acidic foods into acid, which can cause quite a few reactions, none of which are pleasant for your body.

If you are eating these foods and noticing a lot of acid reflux, try to eliminate them and then add them back in one by one and see what happens. The same thing can happen with sodas and other carbonated beverages as well, so you can also try to cut those out if you drink a lot of them too fast.

Eat Slowly and Sparingly

While everyone loves the feeling you get whenever you eat a very good meal and are stuffed, sometimes eating too big a meal can cause acid reflux. Especially if you eat a meal composed of very acidic foods! If you have a full stomach, that can also trigger more reflux into the esophagus.

Eating too fast can also cause problems for your body, so make sure to slow down. If you have problems eating too fast, try to eat with others and have a conversation to slow yourself down, or watch a show while you eat and try to time the end of the meal with the end of the show.

Stay Up, But Don’t Move Too Much

One of the worst things you can do if you want to reduce acid reflux is to lie down after eating because the simple force of gravity will keep the stomach acid where it belongs. So stand up or keep yourself on an incline, and try not to eat too close to bedtime.

Also, don’t hit the gym after work on a big meal! You should avoid vigorous exercise for a few hours after you eat and try not to bend over too much. Don’t make your after-dinner workout anything less than an after-dinner stroll, which can help your food settle.

Reduce Acid Reflux With Medication

Finally, you can use medication to soothe your stomach and cool down the acid production. You can find antacids and other gas relieving tablets over the counter, but if you have more serious acid reflux, you can buy 20mg omeprazole online and get more serious help. It can treat acid reflux, heartburn, and digestion by preventing acid secretion in the stomach.

Omeprazole blocks the natural proton pumps that line the stomach. The proton pumps are designed to secrete stomach acid into the stomach to aid digestion, but sometimes they can do their job too well and worsen stomach problems. Omeprazole ensures that less acid is produced, which soothes your stomach.

See A Doctor If It Is Common

Finally, if you have tried lifestyle changes, reduced your diet to the blandest foods, inhaled medication like candy, and still have the burning acidic pain of acid reflux, don’t be afraid to see your doctor and get a medical opinion. It could be a deeper problem with your stomach or your gastrointestinal tract.

No matter what, you will soon be able to live your life acid reflux free and might even be able to enjoy your favorite foods again without feeling them come back up when the meal is over!