Acid Reflux and Lifestyle: 7 Tips to Reduce Symptoms

Our overall health can be influenced by lifestyle choices to a surprising degree. Acid reflux is one of those areas, and if your doctor has diagnosed this condition, you will want to investigate how you can control the symptoms as much as possible to live more comfortably. The disease won't easily go away, unfortunately, but its effects can be tamed and sometimes prevented by making a few lifestyle changes. The following seven tips are a great place to start.

1. Control Meal Size

Many people eat two or three big meals each day, but experts believe that eating five or even six small meals is preferable. This can certainly prevent overeating at any one meal. Gastric pressure increases with a full stomach, and often leads to acid reflux symptoms. Choosing to eat smaller meals, and eating more slowly, can help avoid this.

2. No Bedtime Snacks

For at least two hours before retiring to bed, do not eat or drink. If you are one of the lucky ones who enjoy an afternoon nap, you can try doing so in a chair. Lying down with a full stomach can cause the contents of your stomach to be pressed against your lower esophagus, which increases the chances of acid reflux.

3. Become a Picky Eater

Acid reflux can be triggered by a host of common foods and beverages. They either increase acid production, and thus gastric pressure, or relax the lower esophagus muscle, leading to the reflux. Foods that trigger your own heartburn should certainly be avoided. Write down a list of what you know cause this in you, perhaps spicy foods, juice or citrus foods, coffee, and so on. These irritate the esophagus lining in many people. Especially at dinner, avoid these foods and you can avoid nighttime heartburn. If you don't have a list of heartburn suspects, keep a record for a couple of weeks to keep track of foods to avoid.

4. Avoid Alcohol and Smoking

Smoking is implicated in dozens of health problems and diseases, and acid reflux is among them. It stimulates the production of acid, among other things. And alcohol does the same thing, along with relaxing the lower esophageal muscle and potentially allowing acid reflux to occur. If you wish to drink alcohol in very small amounts, you might be okay, but always gauge your reactions. Obviously, if you start a journal or food record, this would be a good thing to keep track of in there.

5. Smarter Sleeping

The acid in your gut responds to gravity, so keeping your head higher than your waist will help to some degree in keeping the acid down. You might want to purchase a big, wedge-shaped pillow, which will help elevate your shoulders and head. Some people also purchase an adjustable bed, which allows them to incline the head of the bed. A cheaper (though slightly risky) alternative is to prop up your current bed's legs.

6. Loosen Up the Waistband

Tight clothing can constrict your stomach, squeezing food in your stomach against your lower esophagus. Of course, we know where this will lead! So loosen that belt, or buy clothing with adjustable waistlines or elastic support. Be free and loose, and your stomach will thank you.

7. Avoid Stress

Stress may not have a close relationship with heartburn, at least researchers have not found one yet, but it still may be implicated in acid reflux. Stress may be more of a precursor to the problem. In any case, it is a good idea to use relaxation techniques to help reduce stress, and help you avoid heartburn inducing behavior.

So, that was not so bad, was it? Those seven tips can do a lot for relieving acid reflux symptoms. Although there is no single known cause, a variety of small contributing factors can result in problems. So why not take these small steps, as you are able, and see how far they can help you in relieving your problems.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Author Fallon Cullerne is a columnist for a variety of online magazines, on alternative health care and health product topic areas.
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