Friday, October 5, 2012

Acid Reflux

I've just recently had a client & 2 patients suffer from acid reflux bouts. Which aside from being uncomfortable to painful, if it occurs often enough, can cause pre-cancerous cells in the esophagas. So how does one prevent it?

To start, watch your water intake during meals. I preach drinking lots of water, you shouldn't quit but when you drink a lot of water during your meal you flush away the gastric acids you need to digest your food. Then, the food stays in your stomach digesting longer creating uncomfortable gas which can lead the bubbling up of acidto acid or constipation because your food hasn't fully digested. So give yourself at least 15mins before your meal & another 15 after w/out liquids, to help prevent this. If your going to have wine or beer w/ your meal, just be sure to sip it slowly, savor it.

Secondly, to help prevent it, watch the amount of acidic foods you eat. Such as; citrus fruits, coffee, tomatoes, alcohol, etc. Stress level also greatly affects acid reflux. So try to chill out the best you can. And all though when its bad all you want to do is lay down, you shouldn't. It can encourage the upward flow of the acid. So try to stay sitting up at least slightly.

When in a bout of acid reflux, drink water slowly, avoid all things acidic as well as dairy and sorry but, stick to a bland boring diet at through your bout and a day or two after to insure it won't just get irritated again. BRAT - bananas, rice, applesauce (sometimes it can be a no-no) and toast.

Good luck keeping that tummy healthy & your stress down!! The enteric system (stomach & intestines) are our second brain & we need to treat it well!!