When To Get Medical Help
See your midwife or GP if you need help managing your symptoms or if changes to your diet and lifestyle do not work. They may recommend medicine to ease your symptoms.
You should also see your midwife or GP if you have any of the following:
- difficulty eating or keeping food down
- weight loss
- stomach pains
Your midwife or GP may ask about your symptoms and examine you by pressing gently on different areas of your chest and stomach to see whether its painful.
Living With Gerd: 6 Foods You Need To Avoid
Have you ever experienced a burning sensation in your chest and throat? As the discomfort persists, you may also start experiencing dry cough, bad breath, difficulty swallowing, and burping too frequently. With all these symptoms, it might be a sign that youre having gastroesophageal reflux diseasealso known as GERD.
Considered more serious than acid reflux, GERD occurs when your lower esophagus closure near the stomach becomes weak. The common symptoms are heartburn, chest pain, difficulty breathing, dry cough, difficulty swallowing, and regurgitation.
There are certain kinds of food that you eat that can make your GERD worse. If youre living with such a condition, then knowing what to avoid can help prevent you from making the situation worse! To help you out, here are six of the worst kinds of food that you need to avoid:
Consuming Aloe Vera Can Sometimes Help Reduce Symptoms Of Acid Reflux
Aloe vera might be known for being a key ingredient in creams meant to soothe sunburns, but it can also be useful for reducing the symptoms of acid reflux, including heartburn.
Aloe vera is famous as a natural healing agent and also appears to reduce gastric acid levels naturally. It is available as a living plant but the leaves or liquid form are sometimes sold separately in grocery and health food stores, bariatric surgeonDr. Michael Jay Nusbaum told INSIDER. He also said the liquid form of aloe can be used as a thickening agent when preparing certain dishes.
Liquid aloe vera can have a slightly sour taste, so you may want to add a drizzle of honey if you plan to consume it undiluted. And if you want your aloe vera to be as fresh as possible, you can keep a live plant in your home and remove its leaves as needed.
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Are There Ways To Prevent Heartburn
Changing what you eat and the way you eat may mean youre less likely to get heartburn in future. As well as eating a balanced diet to help to prevent digestive issues, try the following:
- eat smaller, more frequent meals
- cut down on fatty or fried foods, which are harder to digest
- eat lean meat and fish, as they’re lower in fat
- eat high-fibre foods, such as wholemeal bread, brown rice, fruit and vegetables, beans and oats
- drink plenty of water to help your digestion
- cut down on tea, coffee and colas, as caffeine can trigger heartburn
Making some simple lifestyle changes can also help prevent heartburn. Things to try include:
- losing weight if you are overweight
- avoiding stress, if you can, and making time for relaxation
- stopping smoking
- not lying down for at least 3 hours after eating
Causes Of Heartburn And Acid Reflux
Lots of people get heartburn from time to time. There’s often no obvious reason why.
Sometimes it’s caused or made worse by:
- certain food and drink such as coffee, tomatoes, alcohol, chocolate and fatty or spicy foods
- being overweight
- some medicines, such as anti-inflammatory painkillers
- a hiatus hernia when part of your stomach moves up into your chest
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Foods To Prevent Acid Reflux: Avoid Trigger Foods
Avoid trigger foods. Certain foods regularly increase acid production in the body causing heartburn, including tomatoes , citrus, onions, peppers, vinegar, and peppermint. Caffeinated, carbonated, and alcoholic beverages are also key food items to avoid. Occasionally certain foods will cause a person distress that are not typical trigger foods. Monitor what you are eating by keeping a food diary to see what foods cause you the most discomfort and avoid them as much as possible. This will help prevent acid reflux.
A Pharmacist Can Help With Heartburn And Acid Reflux
Speak to a pharmacist for advice if you keep getting heartburn.
They can recommend medicines called antacids that can help ease your symptoms.
It’s best to take these with food or soon after eating, as this is when you’re most likely to get heartburn. They may also work for longer if taken with food.
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Change Your Eating And Drinking Habits
You may be able to control your indigestion with changes to your eating habits.
It can help to eat small meals often, rather than larger meals 3 times a day, and to not eat within 3 hours of going to bed at night.
Cutting down on drinks containing caffeine, and foods that are rich, spicy or fatty, can also ease symptoms.
When Can I Expect The Heartburn To End During Pregnancy
Unfortunately, heartburn is a symptom youre likely to experience throughout your entire pregnancy if you have it at all.
In fact, even if you escaped indigestion early on in your pregnancy, theres a good chance youll have a surge starting around the second or third trimesters, when your uterus takes over your abdominal cavity and forces your stomach upwards.
Fortunately, the burn should clear up as soon as you give birth.
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Next Steps And Precautions
Except for bottled water, most bottled beverages — including fruit and vegetable juices and herbal teas — are preserved with ascorbic or citric acid as part of the “canning and bottling” process and therefore may have a low pH value — meaning that they’re acidic and potentially irritating. Although mint tea is enjoyed by many as a digestive aid, mint may cause the muscular valve between the stomach and esophagus to relax, allowing acidic digestive juices to leak into the esophagus. For this reason, the pediatric remedy “Gripe Water,” which often contains mint and other herbs, may not be good for acid reflux.
Finally, while diet and lifestyle modifications may be helpful for GERD, some people require acid-suppressing medication as well, so work with your doctor if you are dealing with more than just occasional heartburn.
What Foods And Drinks To Avoid
Trigger foods differ amongst individuals, but some common ones are acidic foods like tomato products, spicy sauces, and citrus fruits. You may also need to avoid most types of alcohol and other acidic beverages. Pay attention to your body, keep a food journal, and avoid any of your personal triggers. But these arent the tips you came here for lets take a look at some foods and drinks that can stop acid reflux in its tracks.
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Lifestyle Tips For Nighttime Heartburn Relief
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What To Drink For Heartburn Relief
First, its important to know what drinks to avoid when experiencing acid reflux. Citrus juices, alcohol, coffee and carbonated beverages are common triggers for heartburn, Qin explains. Unfortunately, many of those will likely make an appearance throughout the year, so heres what to drink to counteract heartburn.
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Elevate Your Upper Body
Lying down can make heartburn worse. When it comes time for bed, adjust your sleeping surface to raise your upper body.
According to the Mayo Clinic, lifting your head with extra pillows isnt usually enough. Instead, the goal is to elevate your body from the waist up.
If you have an adjustable bed, set it at a suitable angle to provide relief. If your bed isnt adjustable, you can change the angle of your sleeping surface by using a wedge pillow.
Make Heartburn Go Away
Persistent heartburn impinges the quality of lives for lot of people. It induces the sensation of stinging inside the back the throat, and occasionally within the upper chest region. When you experience all of these signs and symptoms numerous times weekly, that is probably chronic heartburn. Fortunately, there are proven natural ways that can make your heartburn go away swiftly and free you from theses suffering.
Heartburn or Acid Reflux is one of the most irritating problems to suffer from, as it leads to severe discomfort, and a lot of pain too in some cases. The human body works in such a manner that all the food we eat goes through the food pipe to the stomach. But sometimes the stomach leads to the development of acids, which reverses the flow of the food, and sends it back in the opposite direction in the food pipe.
You will feel the symptoms of acid reflux when stomach acid escapes from the stomach and enters the esophagus . Because the esophagus is not designed to cope with acidity you will feel burning and pain from the middle of your chest and up into the throat.
While minor refluxes are very common and are hardly troublesome, problems start to arise when the acid secretion is very high.
The most common signs and symptoms of heartburn include a feeling of tightness in the throat and a burning sensation in the chest area. When it comes to curing heartburn there are many medications available, however some people have found simple home remedies to do the trick.
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What Is The Difference Between Regular Heartburn And Gerd
Everyone has heartburn from time to time. Theres nothing unusual about that. Generally, taking an antacid helps. However, if youre popping Tums more than three times a week, its time to speak to your doctor.
The technical definition of GERD is mild acid reflux that occurs twice a week or moderate to severe acid reflux that occurs once a week. When over-the-counter medicines dont make a dent in the horrible heartburn, you likely have GERD.
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Foods Which Alleviate And Prevent Acid Reflux
Looking for a diet to help with acid reflux and Gastrointestinal Reflux Disease ? According to this study, which measured the effect of diet changes on GERD, the following foods could help with acid reflux: whole grains, beans, vegetables , lean fish, lean chicken, and more.
It is a good idea to experiment with different foods to see which ones trigger your own reflux. For more see the article on foods to avoid for acid reflux .
In addition to eating these foods, avoiding spicy, fatty, and salty foods can help. Caffeine and alcohol consumption should also be minimized.
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Typical Questions: Heartburn Or Heart Attack
Heartburn is a daily struggle for many Americans, which leaves many people asking questions, like:
The one question many people dread asking themselves when they experience heartburn on a daily basis is: Am I having a heart attack?
According to Harvard Medical School, the two often have overlapping symptoms. While the symptoms can feel similar, there are some ways to tell the two apart:
What Foods And Drinks Cause Heartburn
- Alcohol: Alcohol can relax the lower esophageal sphincter.
- Coffee and orange or other acidic juices are some of the beverages that can worse or trigger heartburn.
- Fatty foods, fried foods, and some acidic foods as well as spicy foods can cause heartburn.
- Additional foods that make heartburn worse.
Every person reacts somewhat differently to specific food groups. To track what foods worsen your symptoms, keep a food journal. In this journal, you should keep track of what you eat, the time you ate, any activity that worsened or made the heartburn better, and indicate which days you have heartburn symptoms. Over time, you will be able to correlate the offending foods with heartburn events. Print this and take this with you to your next doctors appointment to discuss possible causes of heartburn you may be experiencing.
Pregnancy tends to aggravate heartburn because the lower esophageal sphincter is weakened during pregnancy. This weakened resolves after delivery of the baby. Pregnancy also distorts the organs in the abdomen and the increased abdominal pressure from the growing fetus causes heartburn. These changes promote the reflux of acid and heartburn.
Approximately 17% to 45% of women who become pregnant will suffer from heartburn.
Management of heartburn during pregnancy consists of many of the same home remedies and lifestyle changes for a person with heartburn who is not pregnant .
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What Are The Symptoms Of Indigestion
Feeling discomfort in your tummy after eating or drinking is the main symptom of indigestion, but other common symptoms include:
- feeling full or bloated
- a burning feeling in your chest
- an acidic taste in your mouth
- feeling sick
- belching and farting
These symptoms can happen when acid from your stomach irritates the lining of your digestive system, causing soreness and swelling. Usually, youll notice them after youve eaten a large meal, but you can get them at any time.
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How Your Doctor Can Help
If your heartburn is frequent and it is upsetting your daily life, have it evaluated by your doctor. Chronic heartburn is a symptom of GERD and some other digestive disorders.
Un- and under-treated acid reflux may lead to complications, including esophageal cancer. Your doctor can prescribe a treatment for heartburn or acid reflux that can reduce these risks.
If you are prescribed medication for heartburn, be sure to take your medication at the same time every day. If you are prone to forgetting, set an alarm to remind you or take your medication when you do another daily activity that you dont forget doing, such as brushing your teeth or washing your face.
If you are taking an antacid more than once or twice a week, see your doctor about modifying your treatment plan.
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Don’t Lie Flat When You Sleep
When you lie flat your stomach contents press against the LES. Keeping your head higher than your stomach helps reduce this pressure.
You can elevate your head in a couple of ways:
- Place bricks, blocks, or something sturdy and secure under the legs at the head of your bed.
- Use a wedge-shaped GERD pillow under your head and shoulders.
Garlic Onions And Spicy Foods
Spicy and tangy foods, such as onions and garlic, trigger heartburn symptoms in many people.
These foods wont trigger reflux in everyone. But if you eat a lot of onions or garlic, make sure to track your meals carefully in your diary. Some of these foods, along with spicy foods, may bother you more than other foods do.
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Easy Rice And Pasta Recipe Great With Any Entree For Foods To Prevent Acid Reflux
Acid reflux with cancer treatment is a common side effect. This cancer cookbookincludes chapters to address the different side effects during cancer treatment.
This simple rice and pasta recipe from Eating Well Through Cancergoes great with any entree. Add a little more pizzazz to the dinner menu. You will like this easy recipe because the Rice and Pasta recipe is made in one pan. The entire family enjoys this easy to tolerate pasta with rice recipe. A light mild flavored dish that also packs great flavor and texture by using both rice and noodles. Also, toss with leftover chicken for a quick main dish entree.
- 1 1/2cupmedium noodles
- 3cupchicken or vegetable broth
- salt and pepper to taste
| Servings61-cup servings |
- 1 1/2cupmedium noodles
- 3cupchicken or vegetable broth
- salt and pepper to taste
Per Serving: Calories 174, Protein 5, Carbohydrate 32, Fat 2, Calories from Fat 10, Saturated Fat 0, Dietary Fiber 1, Cholesterol 11, Sodium 341, Diabetic Exchanges: 2 starch, 1/2 lean meat
Terrific Tip: There is nutrition in chicken broth making this a good option for something plain but a change.