Acid Reflux or Gastroesophageal Reflux (GERD)

Acid reflux as a sign of indegestion is something that most of us have suffered from at some time or other. For this reason, when people start suffering the effects of acid reflux more frequently, they often put it down to something they've eaten and take a swig of antacid. Unfortunately, this is not the best course of action. If you frequently suffer the effects of acid reflux, you could be suffering from a more serious condition.

Acid reflux (correctly termed gastroesophageal reflux or GERD) is a real pain in the neck. Literally. Well, more often than not it’s a pain in the chest, but in really bad cases like mine, that burning sensation it can travel right up to the back of my throat. My dad has an even more severe acid reflux disease than me, sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night choking on the acids that have backed up his esophagus.

It’s a pretty scary and painful condition at times, but acid reflux or GERD it is not normally life threatening. However, the damage it can cause to your esophagus does increase your chances of esophageal cancer, so it is important to treat it. So what causes it, and what can you do to get rid of it?

Acid reflux and GERD are used interchangeably in describing the same condition. It sounds complicated, but is quite simply a condition in which the acids from the stomach are irritating or damaging the esophagus. The sphincter muscle that contains stomach acid to the stomach doesn’t always work perfectly. Minor imperfections present at birth, damage due to a hernia or excessive vomiting, or even just the eroding effects of age can all reduce the effectiveness of the muscle to the point where it regularly lets stomach acid escape.

Unfortunately, if you are having heartburn frequently enough to qualify as acid reflux or GERD, you can’t do anything to ‘cure’ it completely. You are always going to have to take measures to keep your symptoms under control. The good news is there are a lot of things to treat the symptoms and to prevent further damage from occurring.

Here is some non-medication oriented tips to help you reduce your acid reflux or GERD symptoms. Firstly, don’t overeat, and avoid very greasy foods. Overeating puts excessive pressure on your sphincter muscle, making it more likely to fail. Also, greases are better at getting past the muscle. Even worse than overeating is lying down or sleeping right after eating. This will also put a lot of pressure on your poor abused sphincter. It’s generally agreed that you should wait at least three hours after eating before lying down. This is good advice whether you have acid reflux disease or not, as you can actually develop the condition by sleeping too soon after eating on a frequent basis.

One final tip to help reduce the symptoms of acid reflux or GERD is to raise the head of your bed at least eight inches. This will further reduce the pressure on your sphincter while you are sleeping. It will look like a lot when you first do it, but you’ll be surprised how soon you get used to it, and how helpful it is in reducing your symptoms.

Of course, the most important thing you need to do if you think you have acid reflux or GERD is to see a doctor. All these tips aside, you’ll probably also need to take some form of medication, many of which are available only by seeing a doctor.