How to Get Rid of Heartburn by Changing Your Lifestyle
Living with acid reflux can be miserable. Common symptoms include burning in the chest, throat and mouth, having a sour taste in your mouth and being unable to get a decent night of rest. If you experience heartburn on a regular basis, you simply want the pain to stop. Luckily, getting heartburn relief can be as simple as making a few minor changes to your lifestyle (GERD diet).
Many people suffer from heartburn more at night than they do at other times of the day. Typically this can be attributed to eating a large meal close to bedtime. As a rule, I would make sure that I do not eat anything within 3 hours of going to sleep. When you eat a large meal, your stomach has to produce larger quantities to acid to digest your food. Having greater quantities of acid increases the likelihood of experiencing acid reflux, particularly if you are lying down.
Eating smaller meals more frequently during the day can provide heartburn relief. As indicated previously, large quantities of food requires the body to produce more than normal quantities of acid. Eating smaller meals not only reduces acid reflux symptoms, it also helps your body metabolize fat faster.
Think about it this way… Eating smaller meals, five to six times a day, ensures that you are never starving. When you do eat, you will tend to eat smaller amounts, which will helps you stomach with the digestive process. Additionally, eating smaller meals will help you to eat less food overall, which will help you lose weight. Losing weight is crucial as obesity has been directly linked to increased probabilities of getting heartburn, or acid reflux.
In addition to watching how much and how often you are eating, pay attention to what you are eating. Certain foods are triggers for this condition. Acidic foods, such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and spices are heartburn causes. Alcohol, mint, coffee and caffeinated beverages can also lead to acid reflux symptoms.
If you are looking for heartburn relief it may be as simple as taking a look at your current lifestyle. The key is to determine the triggers that are causing your heartburn and to avoid them!