Are you punishing yourself every time you eat your favorite foods?
Do you eat pizza and sit there just waiting for the unstoppable fire to consume your chest and bottom of your esophagus. Some of the following are quick and easy ways to relieve heartburn and acid reflux…
Baking Soda
If it seems like there’s very little baking soda can’t do, it’s because it can do just about everything. All you need is a half teaspoon or a teaspoon of the wonderful white powder. Mix it in with a small glass of water and drink it down.
Very important: Don’t use more than 3.5 teaspoons a day and don’t use this remedy for more than a week straight. Besides, if the problem is that serious, you need to start considering other remedies.
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Almonds
Eat a few (3-4) almonds after you eat anything. They can help neutralize the acid that’s seeping its way into your esophagus. As an added bonus, they provide a good source of fats and some extra nutrition. However, you’ll want to make sure you buy organic. Some people experience heartburn after eating too many almonds. So keep it down and you should be fine. If your body says otherwise though, it’s time to move on to the next remedy.
Ginger Tea
Fresh is always best. So you could try just buying the pre-made tea bags, but I wouldn’t bet my throat on it. All you need is about a 1/2” of ginger root and about 2 cups of water. Simmer for about a half hour (covered so you don’t lose all the water). Pour it in a cup and drink 20-30 minutes before you eat.
Lifestyle Changes
If you eat late at night, do your best to stop. Drink a glass of water if you get really hungry within the 2-3 hours before bed. Most of the time it’s not that you’re hungry, it’s that you’re thirsty. Anyway, eating too close to your bedtime can cause acid reflux and heartburn. So avoid that.
Figure out what causes your heartburn and stop eating it. You could do this, but it may not be the best way to go through life and it’d ruin the whole point of this article. But if nothing else works, this is what you’re left with. Keep a food journal and write down how you feel after. Once you notice commonalities, remove those foods from your diet.
Stop smoking and drinking. The less you’ve got irritating your throat and stomach, the better. Plus you’ll experience some fringe health benefits. Like a reduced chance of cancer and your liver will definitely thank you.
Sleep with your head on an incline. Men, if you’re condemned to the couch, put your head on the arm. You may want to stuff a pillow or two under the top of your back to provide something of a bridge. Otherwise you risk a stiff neck and back in the morning. Yes, I’m speaking from experience.
If you still get to sleep in the bed, put a wedge pillow under the mattress. You could try stacking pillows, but you’ll probably fall off.
The Surprising Cause of Acid Reflux
Acid reflux is a strange thing. By strange, I mean that the cause of it seems to be a bit counterintuitive. Your stomach acid is splashing up into your esophagus, so naturally you’d think that you’ve got too much stomach acid, but you’d be wrong.
You’ve got a lower esophageal sphincter. For the rest of the article, I’m renaming it the “blast door”. So you’ve got a blast door between your stomach and your esophagus. When it senses danger, it closes. The problem is that you’ve got so little acid in your stomach that the klaxon never blares. Your blast door doesn’t know danger is approaching, so it doesn’t close and the acid splashes up into your esophagus.
So what should you do?
Increase your stomach acid so that the blast door knows danger is coming. You can do this by taking a betaine HCl supplement. Start with the smallest dose possible and work your way up until you don’t notice any more reflux.
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