If you or someone you love suffers from acid reflux (also called heartburn or GERD), your immediate reaction may be to go to your family doctor for a prescription drug, which you could end up taking for the rest of your life.

Sadly, most of these heartburn drugs also have the potential for harmful effects including abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, headache, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, taste alterations and more.

Antacids simply do not cure your heartburn, they only offer immediate relief from the heartburn symptoms and as long as the underlying cause of your heartburn is still there . . . it can never heal itself.

Plus antacids interfere with the normal digestion process, depleting your body of vital nutrients you need to heal. Worse, they often cause symptoms of other health problems such as heavy metal poisoning and even kidney disease.

You are not alone!

More than 60 million Americans suffer needlessly from heartburn daily and globally the statistics are staggering. If the real cause of your heartburn is left unchecked, it can lead to many other potential health problems.

Did you know more than 12,000 Americans die each year from esophageal cancer, and its first immediate warning sign is heartburn. Heartburn not only leads to GERD, but bleeding ulcers or heart problems can develop as well.

So reaching for immediate relief of heartburn is okay once in a blue moon, yet as you know leaving the cause unchecked is only asking for chronic acid reflux and serious heartburn issues.

The good news is there is a safe and clinically proven effective solution to eliminating your heartburn once and for all . . .

It’s the same thing that also prevents heartburn before it happens and it’s the same thing that reverses heartburn even in the later stages. It’s called making dietary and lifestyle adjustments.

By tuning up your metabolism and turning down unhealthy snacks, beverages and foods, immediate relief of heartburn is easy, plus eating properly will increase your overall health as well.

For immediate relief of heartburn try a teaspoon of aluminum free baking soda in a 10 ounce glass of carbon filtered water . . . for long lasting relief from heartburn get off the Standard American Diet (SAD) and get some mild level exercise on a regular basis . . . you’ll be glad you did.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass

Health Advocate

If you’re looking for a home remedy for GERD, you may find that there isn’t any one sure fire way to get rid of your specific GERD. There are a lot of different things, and different combinations of things that you can try. That means if one particular thing doesn’t work for you, there are plenty of other things to try.

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, or GERD, happens when the muscles that control the flow of food down into the stomach weaken and allow acids to pass up into the stomach. This causes damage and irritation to the esophagus. People that have GERD suffer heartburn in a frequent and chronic way, often experiencing symptoms of heartburn more than twice a week.

Although this can be a debilitating problem that interferes with day to day activities, there are a number of home remedies and simple lifestyle changes that can be implemented to help relieve the symptoms of GERD.

Home Remedies for GERD

There are a few different kinds of tea that have been known to soothe symptoms of GERD. Chamomile and fennel teas can be very effective at calming the effects of GERD.

Additionally eating a handful of almonds a few times a day has been shown to neutralize stomach acids and reduce heartburn associated with GERD.

Ginger is also a very effective way to relieve all types of stomach problems, including heartburn that results from GERD. It can be consumed as tea, most effective as hot or warm tea, or eaten as candied ginger.

You can also try drinking a glass of water if you’re experiencing a particularly bad session of heartburn. Although it may sound too easy, the fluids help to flush your system and dilute any acids that remain behind, thus calming your digestive tract and soothing any irritation therein.

Papaya tablets have also been found to be effective at helping break food down and prevent heartburn as they make the digestion process easier for your body. They can be taken immediately following a meal and should be chewed thoroughly so that your saliva can react with the enzymes that will provide aid to your stomach and keep acids from becoming to prevalent.

Lifestyle Changes for GERD

There are also a number of things you can do to help keep GERD at bay as far as making simple routine changes in your lifestyle.

One of the easiest and most low impact things you can do is to alter your eating habits. Cut back on how much you eat at any one time, and increase the number of times you eat in a day. That way you’re still consuming the same amounts of food, just not all at once. That helps reduce stress on your stomach and digestive system, so that it doesn’t produce too much acid and aggravate your GERD.

Another thing you can do is change when you eat. If you’re in the habit of eating late at night or right before you lie down for a nap, simply stop doing that. Eating right before you go horizontal makes it difficult for your body to keep food and acids in your stomach. If you lie down on an empty stomach, there aren?t any excess acids available to move freely into your esophagus and cause irritation.

For more information on finding the right home remedy for GERD, visit refluxremedy.com today!

GERD and heartburn tend to go hand in hand, although just because you have heartburn doesn’t mean you have GERD.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease is caused by a weakening of the muscles surrounding the esophagus and diaphragm that keep food flowing in one direction. When these muscles get too weak, food and stomach acids are allowed to flow up into the esophagus where they don’t belong. Prolonged, frequent, or chronic exposure to stomach acids can cause GERD and long term damage to the esophagus.

People who suffer from heartburn more than twice a week are often diagnosed with GERD. Other symptoms of GERD include regurgitation of bile, hiccups, belching and a general feeling of discomfort in the stomach.

Causes of GERD and Heartburn

GERD and heartburn tend to have very different causes. GERD is caused by aging, is a condition you are born with, or can be the result of a recent bad stomach bug that caused prolonged periods of vomiting or straining of stomach muscles.

Heartburn is caused by any number of things, including the food you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, your lifestyle, how much stress you’re feeling, what type of clothes you wear, and whether or not you smoke.

Help for GERD and Heartburn

Because heartburn is often the result of GERD, they can be treated in much the same way. If you have either GERD or heartburn or both, you should avoid foods that spurn heartburn for you. If you don’t know what those foods are, keep a log of what you’re eating and then you’ll be able to look back and point directly to what caused your most recent episode. Then, moving forward you can avoid that food.

You should also modify the amount of food you consume at any one time. GERD complicates the digestive process because of the weakened muscles, so eating less in each sitting makes digestion easier for your body. To compensate for the loss of food, eat more often.

Additionally, work towards de-stressing your life. While day to day activities cause normal amounts of stress, and sometimes it can’t be avoided, due to things like death, breakups, kids, finances, etc., you do have control over the way you respond to certain stress triggers. If you need help learning how to cope with life’s stressors without causing your body harm, consider seeing a therapist. They can help you learn healthy ways to purge stressful reactions from your life. Stress is known to result in too much acid in the stomach, causing heartburn and pain and doesn’t allow GERD to heal at a normal rate, so reducing stress can be extremely beneficial.

Another thing you can try is modifying when you eat. Take strides not to eat right before bed, as that gives food and acids easy access to your esophagus, especially where GERD and the weakened muscles meant to keep food down are involved. Try not to eat less than two hours before you lie down for a nap or get into bed and you should have better luck keeping GERD and its symptoms away.

GERD and heartburn are often closely associated with one another. For more information on these two conditions, how they’re related, and how you can naturally cope with them, visit refluxremedy.com today.

Sleeping elevated with a pillow on your left side has been clinically proven to reduce acid reflux.

Using a pillow to help reduce acid reflux really works well, in fact I know of one company that has designed an acid reflux pillow called the Medslant Wedge Pillow.

Not only does this pillow help reduce acid reflux attacks, it’s also been shown to help with sleep apnea and more . . .

If you are suffering from acid reflux, heartburn Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), acid indigestion elevated left side sleeping can really help.

Studies have also shown that stopping the habits that trigger acid reflux will cause acid reflux to go away too. So until you’re able to stop eating animal fat, refined sugar, smoking, taking caffeine and alcohol, using an acid reflux pillow and sleeping on your left side will help.

The worst thing you can do is eat late and lie on your stomach, then you’re sure to be asking for an upsurge of acid reflux.

People who are unwilling to actually cure their acid reflux may end up taking Proton Pump Inhibitor drugs (PPIs). These dangerous drugs block the cells in your stomach from making more acid.

Before you go there be absolutely sure that you are suffering from an ‘over production’ of stomach acid, because a stomach acid deficiency can also trigger the same exact acid reflux symptoms.

There is a well documented danger to taking PPIs. PPIs are drugs that can cause another man-made disease called acid rebound.

Plus a Denmark study recently found patients who have already had a heart attack increase the risk of having another heart attack by 30% more when taking PPIs, acid reflux pillow or not.

These proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are scary. Health experts have shown them to make the heart more prone to palpitations and inflammation because by blocking nutritional cofactors they can lower available oxygen to dangerous levels.

These PPIs block nutrient absorption, interfere with liver function and increase risk of bacteria infestations of the gut.

Clearly making a few lifestyle and dietary changes and sleeping with an acid reflux pillow are the best options . . .

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass

Health Advocate