When you hear the term heartburn, you feel that it is something related to the heart. Well, it is not a cardiovascular problem. Heartburn is a condition when your stomach acid regurgitates into the esophagus, and hence it is also called acid reflux.
This condition is known as GERD (gastro-oesophageal reflux disease) in medical terms. GERD itself is not a harmful condition, but it can lead to other severe problems. In fact, if not controlled in time, it can affect your lungs and heart as well.
The most common cause of GERD is the overproduction of acid in your stomach, and there can be several causes for it, including genes. However, your lifestyle can ameliorate your GERD condition. With proper medication, you can neutralize acid and limit its overproduction.
If you have a complaint about heartburn, you will have to change your lifestyle, and diet plays a very important role to heal the inflammation caused by your food pipe.
Tips to relieve GERD
As you know, it is a condition when acid starts going up into your esophagus. It can cause inflammation there. If not paid attention soon, it can turn into an ulcer and further damage your organs. This is why it is essential to bring immediate changes to your lifestyle. Here is how you can improve your GERD:
-
Start morning walk
Stress is a primarily responsible factor for GERD in people. Acidity worsens it, and stress causes acidity. If you live in a stressful environment, you should try to avoid taking stress. The sooner you manage your stress, the better it is.
Morning walks can help you manage your stress. It prevents overproduction of acid in your stomach that allows relieving GERD. However, walking alone is not enough to improve your heartburn. You should stay away from a stressful environment for some time.
Make sure that you do not hold a negative thought that flashes across your mind. If you keep thinking about negative events, your stress level will go up. Eventually, your acid will creep up into the esophagus.
-
Eat sparingly
Stomach acid will more likely hit your esophagus sphincter when your stomach is full. Large meals are often recommended to avoid because they expand your stomach and increase upward pressure against the lower oesophageal sphincter.
Instead of binging on a large meal until your stomach gets full, you should eat small portions oftentimes. You should eat a small amount of food after every two to three hours so overeating does not irritate the oesophageal ring, and your body could consume stomach acid.
-
Avoid certain foods
Food that you eat is responsible mainly for exacerbating or relieving GERD symptoms. If you are serious about improving your health, you will have to switch to a plain and ordinary diet. As stress triggers acid reflux, certain foods also trigger it.
Foods that you should avoid to improve GERD symptoms include fatty foods like cheese, meat, beef, etc., spicy food, red and green chilies, coffee, tea, garlic, ginger, raw onions and tomatoes, chocolate, alcohol, sugary drinks, carbonated beverages, mint, smoking, citrus fruits, processed snacks including pizza, sweets or anything that consists of extreme sugar.
-
Foods that you should include in your diet
It can be disappointing to know that several items mentioned above cannot be on your menu until your GERD symptoms improve. Thankfully, there are still a lot of food items that you can include in your diet. You should consist of fibrous food because that will make you feel fuller for a longer time than restricts overeating.
Therefore, you should include all green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, and whole grains like oatmeal.
There are some foods that are alkaline. These foods can offset stomach acid. Alkaline foods include bananas, melons, watermelons, cauliflower, nuts, bananas, celery, cucumber, lettuce, herbal tea, carrots, and the like.
-
Stay up after eating
You should not go to your bed immediately after having dinner. When you directly lie down, acid creeps up into your lower esophagus and causes acid reflux. You may feel a burning sensation in your chest. You should avoid lying down after eating food.
Make sure that you do not go to bed unless one hour is over. You should try to have dinner quite early. When you are up after eating food, the acid will remain in the stomach because of gravity. After eating food, your body starts producing more acid to aid digestion.
This is why you are recommended not to go to bed after eating for at least one hour. Ensure that you do not eat snacks during the night because it can impair the stomach lining due to acid reflux.
-
Avoid vigorous exercises
The walk is fine if you want to do exercise. As far as it is about doing exercise in the gym, you should avoid strenuous workouts, especially those requiring bending over. You can walk after having dinner; of course, a mild one.
Morning walk is the best exercise to improve acid reflux. However, make sure that you avoid a brisk walk. Consult your doctor to know what exercises you can do with GERD. In case you do not have enough money to consult your doctor, you can take out high acceptance payday loans with direct lenders.
-
Drink a lot of water
Intake of water can neutralize the acid in your stomach. You should try to drink more water than you usually drink. The more water you drink, the better it is.
The bottom line
GERD is a very common condition, but you can deal with this problem by changing your lifestyle. However, if you still have symptoms, you should consult a doctor. There may be severe inflammation inside your body.
If you do not have enough money to pay for the consultation, you should take out loans for bad credit with no guarantor and unemployed.
Make sure that you will not have any problem with the repayment of the debt. Otherwise, you will end up in a debt spiral.
