How to Treat Acid Reflux

Because almost everyone will suffer from it at some time or another, it’s a good idea to know at least a little about how to treat acid reflux. Many times simple home remedies will be enough to take care of the problem, but not always. Severe cases may need more drastic measures, including prescription drugs or even surgery. Fortunately, it doesn’t get to that point in most situations.

*****************************

Effective Heartburn and
Acid Reflux Treatment without Drugs?!
Find out More Here

*****************************

As with any problem, you will get the best results if you treat the underlying cause rather than just the symptoms. Because of this, it’s good to keep in mind just what causes heartburn and acid reflux.

The word reflux refers to something backing up. In this case, it’s referring to acid from the stomach backing up into the esophagus. Acid in the esophagus causes irritation and the characteristic burning sensation we intuitively refer to as “heartburn”.

When you think about it, it’s remarkable that we all don’t have problems with the lining of our GI tract being irritated all the time. After all, we can swallow just about anything, including steak, and the digestive juices in our intestines will break it down into microscopic components. It’s amazing the stomach doesn’t dissolve itself.

This doesn’t happen because different parts of the GI tract have specific protective mechanisms. These mechanisms protect the lining from the type of material normally there. It normally works great, but can go wrong if something backs up where it’s not supposed to be. Like acid backing up into the esophagus.

So that’s what causes heartburn. How do you treat it?

Ideally, you’d prevent the acid from backing up into the esophagus. You can do this with simple measures or drastic measures.

The simple measures include not eating large meals, losing weight, not eating before going to bed at night and raising the head of the bed or using an acid reflux wedge pillow.  These measures are aimed at reducing the pressure in the stomach and using gravity to prevent reflux.

The more drastic way to prevent reflux is to have surgery to recreate a high pressure zone between the stomach and the esophagus. Fortunately this is usually only required in severe situations.

Diet has an influence on acid reflux so it’s good to be aware of heartburn foods. The exact foods that will trigger symptoms vary a lot from person to person so you can’t make any 100% blanket recommendations. However, there are some foods that commonly cause symptoms and you should try avoiding. Tomato sauce is one such food.

There are also heartburn home remedies that are worth trying. Some things like eating a banana or an apple work great for some people. Apple cider vinegar is another treatment that many people swear by. You can also check out this page for other natural reflux cures: Herbal Remedies for Acid Reflux.

Many people use various medications to treat reflux. Most of these work not by preventing reflux but by reducing the acid in the stomach. The old standby are antacids which neutralize acid that has already formed. Antacids are available in both liquid and solid forms. For heartburn it’s usually a good idea to take the liquid form because it coats the esophagus and neutralizes acid that is already there.

Newer classes of drugs are H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors. These drugs work by blocking production of acid in the stomach. While these drug can be helpful for controlling symptoms in the short term, many people worry about their long-term use. After all, acid production is a normal part of digestion. Keeping it blocked indefinitely doesn't sound like a very normal thing to do.

An occasional episode of heartburn and acid reflux is more annoying than dangerous. However chronic reflux is nothing to take lightly. It goes on long enough without being treated it can lead to severe problems including bleeding, scarring of the esophagus or even cancer.

One of the best comprehensive nutritional approaches I've seen to treating reflux is outlined in the program Heartburn No More. You can read a review of it here, or click on the links below to get more details.

 Heartburn No More