Best steps to prevent GERD!
Throats are like mountains and sliding boards. It’s much easier to have things go down them than to go up them. So, yes, we (as well as your spouse) would very much like you to avoid spewing fire across the table after you eat. These are the best steps to take for preventing GERD:
- Make your meals smaller.
- Lose weight if you are overweight (most important choice for those who are overweight, but it’s the most time consuming).
- Eliminate pepper, spicy foods, alcohol, and caffeine.
- Take two baby aspirins a day with a glass of warm water to help prevent esophageal cancer from developing in GERD-burned area.
- AVOID LATE MEALS. Do not eat within three hours of bedtime. If your idea of late-night entertainment is a party with a bowl of Lucky Charms, switch to lifting weights while watching Kimmel, O’Brien or Letterman. Lying down so soon after eating encourages the flow of acid back up your esophagus so you get that burning taste, which will intensify the symptoms of GERD. Some pills can also cause GERD if you don’t take them with water (these are individual to the person).
- Stop smoking, if you do.
- Elevate your head six inches when lying on your back.
- Talk to your doctor about OTC proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec. But do prevent the burn, because we don’t want you to use your stem cells on GERD-you may need them to help repair your heart or brain. Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) such as Nexium and Prilosec reduce the amount of acid in your stomach, which tames your pain from GERD. But there is still plenty left to help digest your food. In fact, even when you take these drugs, the stomach goes about its normal business, reducing stomach acid during sleep and naturally fluctuating throughout the day. Also keep in mind that digestion isn’t just confined to the stomach; your mouth (those glands that produce saliva) and intestines (and the bacteria you have inside them) do a lot of the work, too.
There are a few not-so-great things that PPIs do, though:
- They can make it harder for your body to absorb bone-strengthening calcium, so you need to add extra calcium-containing foods to your diet.
- They don’t allow you to absorb vitamin B12 from food very well. Dietary B12 is attached to protein and needs stomach acid to release it, but you can absorb supplements of B12 just fine, so you’ll need a vitamin supplement-while some prefer pills, liquid vits are often easier for GERD sufferers.
- They can affect how well you absorb some prescription drugs that require a certain stomach acidity. Make sure all your docs and pharmacists know you’re taking PPIs.
- And of course, worse thing they do…and why we do not want you to take them for more than 2 weeks at a time: they can hide a serious problem that is not just GERD.
