What Is Acid Reflux Disease and What Are The Signs?
Did you know that despite much of the press Acid Reflux Disease is getting these days, many people still aren’t clear on what it is? If you think you might have this condition, it’s important to know what exactly it is and what many of the symptoms are so that you don’t chalk this condition up to the average case of heartburn and don’t seek treatment.
Acid Reflux Disease and Your Digestive System
Acid reflux disease doesn’t affect your entire digestive system, just the upper digestive system; namely the esophagus and stomach. When you suffer from this digestive disorder, the muscle at the bottom of the esophagus doesn’t form a tight seal, which will allow acid to climb into the esophagus. This can cause the painful burning sensation you might be commonly experiencing.
While the stomach is specially lined to be able to handle the acids, your esophagus is not and over time, untreated acid reflux can cause severe pain due to sores or damage to the esophagus, which doesn’t have the special protective coating. If you wind up suffering from this condition, it’s likely that you will feel it in the form of heartburn.
Signs of Acid Reflux Disease
If you think you might have this condition, you need to know many of the acid reflux symptoms can cause so that you can seek the treatment which is right for you.
- Frequent heartburn, or chronic heartburn that occurs more than two or three times weekly is one of the most common symptoms.
- The burning feeling under the breastbone or up in the chest area.
- Burning chest pain when exercising or bending over
- Symptoms become much worse after you eat or lie down
- Trouble sleeping
- Asthma which becomes worse with heartburn
- Scratchy or rough voice when you are suffering from heartburn
You should know that you might also experience symptoms which feel more like you’re having a heart attack, which should prompt you to seek medical attention immediately for your problem.
What Can You Do?
You might be surprised to find that there are many things which you can do to work towards healthy digestion right at home to stop your acid reflux disease in its tracks. By eating smaller, healthier meals and making sure to drink plenty of water, you can help to ease your symptoms and by identifying the “trigger foods”, you can actually avoid acid reflux altogether.
Also, you should know that smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee can actually make your symptoms worse, so if you think you might be suffering from acid reflux, you should consider avoiding these things and sticking to a correct acid reflux diet.
Acid reflux is uncomfortable and in some cases severe, so you need to know what the symptoms are and how to treat this condition so that you can stay healthy, happy and acid reflux free for life.
4 Ways to Alleviate Night Time Acid Reflux
If you suffer from night time acid reflux, then you know how hard it can be to get a good night of sleep. It’s frustrating to wake up night after night with the same painful sensation. You should know that there are some really simple steps which you can take that will help you to alleviate your night time heartburn with little or no work on your part.
1. Consider Your Diet
You should know that one of the biggest contributors to acid reflux in general is your diet. One of the best ways to ease any sort of ongoing heartburn is to take a good look at what you eat on a day to day basis. For instance, how much coffee do you drink? How much greasy food do you eat? Have you been eating lots of spicy foods or drinking more alcohol than usual? All of these factors will contribute to your heartburn, so if you are working to fight your problem, you need to change you diet. Changing your diet will also help to ease night time acid reflux as well, so it’s really worth it to take a good look at all you consume throughout the day.
2. Caffeine Intake
Eliminate caffeinated beverages in the afternoon, as these often contain high amounts of acid, which can increase your chances of getting night time acid reflux. You should also cut down on the amount of greasy or fried foods that you eat and focus on lean protein, whole grains and fresh fruits and veggies. Stay away from acidic fruits such as pineapple, oranges and grapefruit, but make sure to get plenty of leafy green veggies and other, milder fruits.
3. Consider What Time You Eat
In order to make sure that you are able to avoid night time acid reflux, you should eat your evening meal earlier than you ordinarily would. Sometimes, when we eat too late, we find that our food hasn’t had the time it needs to fully digest. So, when we lie down to go to bed, the result is night time acid reflux. As an added problem, when you go to bed, your body slows down and this includes your digestive process. So, not only are you struggling with your heartburn at night, but you are suffering with it all night because your stomach isn’t digesting the way it would during the day.
Reduce your chances for night time acid reflux by making sure to eat your dinner earlier, or staying up later so that your food has enough time to digest before you lie down. Make sure to stay upright for at least an hour after you eat so that you can properly digest your meals.
4. Consider How Much You Eat
Do you eat until you feel as if you might pop? This is not good for your waistline and it’s not good for your poor stomach, either. Even when you’re very hungry, one serving of a meal should be enough to help offset your hunger and keep you going. The body wasn’t designed to eat large amounts of food at one time, so when you shove large amounts of food into your body, you are only going to make yourself suffer from night time acid reflux. When your stomach is too full, it thinks that it needs to produce more acid to digest the extra food, so do yourself a favor and stop eating too much.
By following a few simple steps, you will find that you can ease your night time acid reflux and get the good sleep that you have been craving, without the painful interruptions of heartburn.
