ACID REFLUX

So, we are trying to come up with similar content to answer most of acid reflux

.
those 
questions. It is sage advice that prevention is better

than cure, also medications may seem the easier way out on short term basis – just pop one

pill and you’re done. But doctors and researchers agree that non-medication

related changes and life improvements are much sustainable and more effective on a longer

tern So, keeping that in mind. In this video we’ll

discuss a few things you can do to manage acid reflux without medications.

I’m Dr. Umar Malik from medsimplified, let’s begin.

1. Eating sparingly and slowly When the stomach is very full, the pressure

inside increases. This leads to more food which tries to push

and reflux back into your oesophagus. k/a grazing.

Eat small balanced meals Eat frequently

And avoid eating large meals 3 times a day. This will reduce the pressure on your lower

oesophagus and helps to control reflux

2. Avoid certain foods People with acid reflux were once instructed

to eliminate all but the blandest foods from their diets.

But that's no longer the case. People with reflux can easily manage symptoms by avoiding

not all but few very common culprits. These are foods that are more likely to trigger

reflux, These include mint, fatty foods, spicy foods,

tomatoes, onions, garlic, coffee, tea, chocolate, and alcohol.

If you eat any of these foods regularly, you might try eliminating them, to see if doing

so controls your reflux, and then try adding them back one by one.

For more food tips for people with acid reflux and GERD – click the banner on the top to

Watch our video on the topic – if you haven’t already.

3. Don't drink carbonated beverages The fizziness of carbonated beverages comes

from the gas that is pressurized into them. When you drink these beverages, gases are

released, which in turn make you burp, Burping sends acid into the esophagus and

worsens reflux Drink flat water instead of sparkling water

and cold drinks

4. Stay up after eating When you're standing, or even sitting, gravity

helps keeps acid in the stomach. When you lie down on a full stomach, food

pushes up into the esophagus and eventually causes reflux.

For this – make it a habit to Finish eating meals three hours before you go to bed.

I know it’s very irresistible, but to decrease your chances of reflux you should Avoid naps

after lunch, avoid late suppers and avoid midnight snacks.

Also, its probably best to avoid vigorous exercise for a couple of hours after eating.

An after-dinner stroll or casual walk is fine, but a more strenuous workout, especially if

it involves bending over, can send acid into your esophagus.

5. Sleep on an incline Another way to let Gravity do its job is inclining

your bed when you sleep. When you incline your bed, gravity prevents

upward rise of food and liquid into your esophagus, essentially preventing reflux.

Ideally, your head should be 6 to 8 inches higher than your feet.

You can achieve this by using "extra-tall" bed risers on the legs of the bed to support

the head of your bed. You can also try using a foam wedge support

for your upper body. Just ensure you provide yourself uniform support

and don’t obstruct your natural sleep.

6. Lose weight. The muscular structure that supports the lower

esophageal sphincter, helps to keep it tight and closed.

When a person is overweight- there is stress on this muscular structure which leads to

weakness of the esophageal sphincter. This is the initiating point of reflux problems.

Studies have concluded that obesity is associated with statistically significant increase in

risk of reflux, GERD symptoms, erosive esophagitis, sore throat and esophageal cancer. They also

found that this risk progressively increases with increasing weight.

Doctors agree that its Better to eat less, exercise more and lose weight rather than

undergo surgery or taking medications for acid reflux

7. If you smoke, quit Nicotine, a key part of tobacco, is thought

to relax the ring of muscles in the lower esophagus that keeps acid in the stomach.

Whenever you smoke that ring relaxes and acid trickles up and causes that burning sensation.

Smoking also decreases the mucous your body normally produces.

Mucous is important to prevent acid from attacking the stomach and esophagus from the inside,

so, when mucus decreases - reflux symptoms increase.

Also, most smokers have chest related problems that make them cough more than often. Cough

increases pressure inside the abdomen, this increased pressure increases reflux. Each

time you cough, acid gets sent upwards and heartburn increases.

Nicotine gums and patches are safer bets for overall health. They will help you overcome

your habit and they are less likely to give you heartburn. One small study found no increase

in heartburn risk in people who used a nicotine patch.

I do not need to emphasise how much smoking destroys our body from inside.

if you have gastroesophageal reflux 
disease or gerd or

acid reflux so first off what is gerd

so gastroesophageal reflux disease is a

condition involving

lower esophageal center les weakness and

inappropriate opening

leading to reflux of gastric contents

into the esophagus

so if we look at this image here this is

the stomach and this

right here is the lower esophageal

sphincter or les and what it's supposed

to do is it's supposed to

remain closed after you eat so

gastric contents which are very acidic

do not go

into the esophagus but in this condition

there is weakness in the les which means

that it opens

inappropriately and this leads to

gastric contents entering into the

esophagus

essentially leading to burning of the

esophageal mucosa

so there's a couple reasons why this

happens lower esophageal center weakness

is one of them and then

delayed gastric emptying where food sits

in the stomach for a long time this can

increase the risk for food and gastric

contents

leaving the stomach and entering into

the esophagus so that's another way

so what is commonly found in this

condition is burning chest pain so

that's the heartburn

oftentimes symptoms are worse with

recumbency which means that they are

worse when lying down flat

and then the symptoms improve with

sitting up but the

topic of this lesson is that certain

dietary selections

can worsen symptoms of gastroesophageal

reflux disease they can worsen

acid reflux because certain diets

certain dietary selections can

increase lower esophageal sphincter

relaxation

and or delay gastric emptying so they

can

cause these mechanisms we talked about

before to get worse

and lead to worsening of symptoms so

what are some of these foods and

beverages to avoid

so most of the foods and beverages we're

going to talk about

in this lesson come from this article

entitled risk factors for

gastroesophageal reflux disease the role

of

diet so the first group of foods we're

going to talk about which

are best to avoid if you have gerd are

the acidic or citrus fruits so acidic

fruits can exacerbate symptoms of gerd

and cause increased acid reflux

so what are some examples of citrus

fruits so some of these include

oranges limes and lemons so very acidic

so an alternative to eating citrus

fruits is eating non-citrus fruits

consumption of non-citrus juice may be

better for patients with gerd so if

you're going to choose between

a fruit to eat it's best to try to

consume

non-citrus fruits what are some examples

some of these include apples

melons and pears so again it's best to

avoid a reduced consumption of acidic or

citrus fruits

so it'd be better to eat non-citrus

fruits and some of these examples

include

apples melons and pears another category

of

foods and beverages to avoid include

those that contain caffeine so caffeine

can worsen symptoms of acid reflux by

causing relaxation

of the lower esophageal sphincter so we

talked about that is one of the reasons

why we see

symptoms of gerd occurring because of

relaxation or weakness of the lower

esophageal finger well caffeine can

actually increase relaxation of that

sphincter so

that's why caffeine can worsen symptoms

of acid reflux so

examples where we're going to find

caffeine include caffeinated coffee tea

soft drinks and energy drinks and you

can see caffeine and other things as

well we're going to talk about that in

the moment here

and one of those is chocolate so both

milk and dark chocolates

both contain caffeine and theobromine

so we mentioned that before caffeine

causes relaxation of the lower

esophageal sphincter increasing

acid reflux now cocoa also increases

serotonin levels

within the gastrointestinal system so it

causes release of serotonin from

gastrointestinal mucosal cells

and serotonin surge is also known to

cause less relaxation as well so cocoa

contains tryptophan and serotonin so it

actually contains serotonin but can also

induce the release of serotonin

from cells in your gastrointestinal

system which all

lead to increased relaxation of the

lower esophageal center

so again caffeine best to avoid reduced

consumption

because it causes relaxation of the

lower soft gel sphincter

and then also avoiding chocolate because

chocolate contains caffeine as well

and then cocoa itself can increase the

levels of serotonin

which is also known to cause relaxation

of the lower esophageal sphincter

another category of foods that it's best

to reduce or avoid eating are spicy

foods

so spicy foods contain capsaicin that is

what causes them to be spicy

so a lot of times you're going to see

capsaicin in things like red chili

peppers

and capsaicin slows gastric processing

it leads to delayed gastric emptying we

mentioned this before that

one of the mechanisms why we see acid

reflux occurring is because of delayed

gastric emptying

so capsaicin itself will lead to delayed

gastric emptying

so some examples of foods that contain

capsaicin

as we mentioned before include red chili

peppers and

hot sauces that are often based on red

chili peppers and then some other

peppers as well

another category foods that's best to

reduce or avoid

if you have gerd include fried foods so

fried foods increase symptoms of acid

reflux due

to delayed gastric emptying gastric

contents are not

released as quickly from the stomach

when we eat fried foods

like spicy foods so this increases the

risk of gastric contents entering

into the esophagus so again spicy foods

best to avoid

because they have capsaicin which delays

gastric hemping and then fried foods

also delay gastric emptying both

increasing the risk of gastric contents

entering into the esophagus and causing

acid reflux

another category of foods that is best

to reduce or avoid if you have gerd

include high fat foods

so again the reason is the same fatty

foods exacerbate symptoms of gerd by

delaying gastric emptying

so these foods are more difficult

to digest so they are left in the

stomach

longer than other types of foods so

because of that delay gastric emptying

they sit in the stomach and they

increase the likelihood of those gastric

contents entering

into the esophagus causing acid reflux

examples of high-fat foods include fast

food and some

cheeses and then another category

includes

processed snacks and foods

so processed foods often have high fat

content so

same reason as why it's best to avoid

high fat foods this high fat content

leads to delayed gastric emptying

and then examples include potato chips

bacon

and ham so again high fat foods and

processed

snacks and foods which also have high

fat content best to avoid

because they delay gastric emptying

increasing the likelihood of gastric

contents entering into the esophagus

causing acid reflux or worsening

symptoms of gerd

we can also see tomatoes being a cause

of worsening gerd symptoms or worsening

acid reflux so tomatoes are very acidic

they contain both

citric acid and malic acid and because

of this it worsens acid reflux

so consuming tomatoes themselves but

it's also important to think about other

things as well like

tomato based sauce and pizza pizza

contains both tomato based sauce and

cheese which we have talked about before

both

worsen symptoms of acid reflux so

pizza is best to avoid due to this

reason

onions are also another food that can

worsen

symptoms of gerd especially raw onions

so consuming raw onions can induce

heartburn through its ability to relax

the lower esophageal sphincter so onions

again

best to avoid consuming especially raw

onions so again

tomatoes best to avoid because they're

very acidic so you want to think about

avoiding things like

pizza and then onions especially raw

onions

can worsen heartburn worsen acid reflux

because they can relax the lower

esophageal center

another reason why onions are best to

avoid is because they contain

fermentable fiber which can

cause belching that often worsens acid

reflux so

the belching leads to opening of the

lower esophageal sphincter

allowing gastric contents to enter into

the esophagus as well

now something else that can worsen

symptoms of gerd includes mint

so consumption of mint actually leads to

worsened

acid reflux symptoms because it actually

itself irritates the esophagus

so some examples include peppermint

spearmint peppermint tea

and even toothpastes that contain mint

as well

so these can all increase acid reflux

symptoms because they irritate the

esophagus

another thing we can see worsening gerd

symptoms includes

high consumption of salt especially when

you're adding

salt to food so when you add salt to

food this is associated with exacerbated

gerd symptoms although this

could be more correlated with other

types of foods like

fried foods and high fat foods so might

not be the salt

itself but it could just be the

association of eating

or consuming high salt because that is

also associated with

fried foods and other types of foods so

it may not be the salt itself but it

could be a correlation

with other types of food consumption so

again

mint consuming mint causes irritation of

the esophagus and then salt

especially eating added salt is

associated with

worsened bird symptoms although this

could be correlated with

consumption of other types of foods now

let's talk about some beverages to avoid

with gerd we talked about caffeinated

beverages but

what are some other beverages that can

worsen acid reflux

these include alcohol so alcoholic

beverages so consuming alcoholic

beverages can worsen symptoms of gerd

and can lead to damage of gastric and

esophageal mucosa

examples include beer wine cocktails and

other beverages

and then carbonated beverages can worsen

symptoms of gerd as well

so the reason is because carbonated

beverages can cause stomach to become

distended

so it can lead to increased pressure

within the stomach

leading to pressure on the lower

esophageal sphincter which can

lead it to becoming open it can open

inappropriately and there can also be

belching as well this can also open

the lower esophageal sphincter so some

examples of

carbon beverages include sodas soft

drinks beer and some wines

so as you can see some of these

beverages like beer and some wines have

a double effect in that they

are carbonated which means that they can

cause gastric distension putting

pressure on the lower esophageal

sphincter to

open inappropriately leading to

increased acid reflux

and the alcohol in these beverages can

also lead to damage

of gastric and esophageal mucosa so it's

best to try to avoid some of these

alcoholic beverages if you have

gerd so again alcohol consumption

worsens gerd because

alcohol can lead to damage of gastric

and soft geomucosa

and it's best to avoid carbonated

beverages because carbonated beverages

can

put pressure on the lower esophageal

sphincter through gastric distension

leading to inappropriate opening of the lower esophageal finger and increased acid reflux symptoms.