If you have an ulcer, eating can often be a bit of a challenge. Ulcers can cause meal time to be painful if it’s a gastric ulcer, or can result in pain hours after eating if it’s an ulcer located in the duodenum. If you have one, you may be wondering what to eat when you have an ulcer. Here are a few tips and tricks that may make meal time a little less painful while your ulcer heals.

1. No matter what you eat, make sure you do so in small portions. Large meals will overwhelm your already sensitive stomach, and can even result in an overproduction of acid, which will exacerbate an existing ulcer. So, rather than eating a few large meals every day go for smaller more frequent ones. That helps your body’s digestive system and makes the healing process go more smoothly.

2. Focus on easily digestible foods, like whole grain seedless breads, certain low acid fruits and vegetables, low fat dairy products (the fats found in milk and cheese can be hard to digest, causing excess acid in your stomach, so aim for low fat products), lean meats, fish and creamed nuts (like low fat peanut or almond butter).

3. Above all, focus on maintaining a balanced diet. Providing your body with the proper nutrition will help it heal much faster.

4. Avoid the following foods if you have an ulcer: Vegetables like onions and tomatoes, anything high in acid; breads that are high in fat like croissants; high acid fruits, like grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and citrus juices; whole milk products and creams; highly seasoned meats, poultry and fish; deli meats; sardines; fried foods; nuts; gravy; and high fat desserts, like cakes, cookies, pastries and donuts.

5. The important thing to remember when you’re trying to let your ulcer heal is to avoid foods that upset your stomach regularly, or can cause heartburn. Things like spicy foods, alcohol, caffeine and garlic can all irritate the stomach and result in additional stomach acid your ulcer doesn?t need.

Here are a few things to add to your new dietary habits that may help your ulcer improve:

1. Reduce your stress level. If you know a meal is going to be painful, try to relax about it. Stressing over it will only make the pain worse. Stress signals your body to produce more stomach acid, which will irritate your ulcer. So, if you feel stress coming on in any situation whether it’s the morning commute, something at work, or your kids at home stop and take a deep breath. Avoiding stress now can have a pretty major impact on pain later.

2. Stop smoking and focus on a healthy lifestyle. Smoking is known to increase stomach acid production. Smoking also slows the body’s ability to heal. Eating healthy and exercising regularly will help your body heal faster.

Practicing all these techniques should help your ulcer heal normally so you can move on with your life.

Still want to know more? Well, stop wondering what to eat when you have an ulcer and head over to refluxremedy.com for more tips and tricks.

Hiatal Hernia & bleeding tend to only go together if the hernia is severe, or has gone untreated for far too long. The bleeding occurs as a result of damages done to the esophagus. It?s important to catch a Hiatal Hernia before it reaches this point, and treat it accordingly.

Normal Symptoms

Normal symptoms of a Hiatal Hernia can mimic heartburn pretty closely. However, it would be a sudden onset of frequent heartburn for those who don?t normally suffer from the problem. These symptoms can include acid reflux (or burping up stomach acids), heartburn pain, general indigestion, burping and hiccups.

Additionally chest pain can sometimes accompany a Hiatal Hernia. However, it?s important to distinguish between Hiatal Hernia chest pain and chest pain from a heart attack. Hernia pain can be caused by spasms in the stomach and chest area due to the stomach being displaced. It is not generally accompanied by anything other than heartburn symptoms. Chest pain due to a heart attack will be accompanied by shortness of breath and numbness in one of your arms. If you experience these symptoms, seek medical treatment right away!

It?s important to be aware of the normal symptoms of a Hiatal Hernia if you suspect you might have one, so that you can keep it from escalating to a state of bleeding.

What can you do?

A Hiatal Hernia is rarely life threatening and, when caught in normal stages can be treated with simple lifestyle changes. It?s important to keep in mind when dealing with a Hiatal Hernia that your body just needs time to heal and de-stress. Therefore, making the digestive process easier for your stomach is often the best way to help a hernia, and keep it from coming back.

For example, eat smaller meals more often. That way you prevent the onslaught of food that your stomach has difficulty dealing with. If you eat too much, it causes pressure to build and excess stomach acids to accumulate. This causes irritation and can further aggravate your hernia. Eating smaller meals provides your stomach with a more steady flow of food, keeping it from getting too stressed out.

Additionally, try not to eat right before bed. In fact, you shouldn?t eat about 2 hours before you lie down, even if it?s just for a nap. You see, gravity naturally helps food progress down through your digestive tract, and if you lie down immediately after eating, gravity can?t do its job and food and acids can put pressure on an already upset stomach. So, while it may be tempting to lie down on the couch after that huge holiday feast, don?t do it! Relax by sitting up, and rest your head on a pillow. Stay upright for as long as you can, and your stomach will thank you.

Try doing things like quitting smoking and removing stress from your life. This will prevent the overproduction of stomach acids, which can irritate your sensitive stomach. Plus, smoking slows the body?s natural ability to heal, so quitting will help your body heal that much faster.

With all these techniques in place, you should be able to prevent Hiatal Hernia & bleeding from becoming a problem.

For more tips and tricks for treating a Hiatal Hernia, visit www.refluxremedy.com today!

A sliding Hiatal Hernia is the more common form of Hiatal Hernia, and it happens when the stomach pushes through an opening in the diaphragm and encroaches on the esophagus. It can be rather painful and cause sudden, and severe, heartburn.

While most Hiatal Hernia?s are not severe, medication can be prescribed to assist with the symptoms. However, there are actually several things you can do as far as self help for a sliding Hiatal Hernia. But, please note, these techniques are not meant to replace medical treatment. Always consult with your physician if you suspect you have a Hiatal Hernia or other gastrointestinal disorder, and together you can decide on the best course of action.

Some things you can do to help your sliding Hiatal Hernia include simply maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Eating right and providing your body with proper nutrition helps it have the appropriate building blocks to heal. You can even focus on foods that are high in vitamins and antioxidants to try and speed the healing process ? things blueberries and other so called super foods should help.

Also, add things to your diet that will help with digestion. The fatty acids found in foods like Fish, or digestive enzymes found in papaya help to break down food and minimize stress on your stomach at meal time.

Eating smaller meals more often may also help with digestion and reducing heartburn and pain. If you flood your stomach with food all at once, it gets stressed out and overproduces stomach acids in order to break everything down in a timely fashion. However, this excess of acid irritates your stomach, and can prevent your hernia from healing. So, by presenting your stomach with smaller amounts of food over a longer period of time, it can better handle the digestive process.

Smoking is also very detrimental to all of your body?s health systems, including the gastrointestinal system. Smoking actually sends stomach acid production into overdrive, which irritates a hernia. It also slows the healing process, which means it will take all that much longer for your stomach to go back to where it belongs. Quitting will eliminate all these factors.

Believe it or not, a massage may help. Put your fingers just below your breast bone and rub downward. Do this a few times a day for one minute each time. It may be painful at first, so go easy, but ? like exercise ? over time it will become less sensitive. If you do it over the course of a week or two, it will help push the stomach back down where it belongs.

Reduce the stress levels in your life. This will help keep stomach acid production at a normal level, and will relax muscles around the affected area, allowing it to naturally fall back into place. Try practicing meditation, take deep breaths, if you feel stress coming on count to ten or put on some soothing music. This will help your body heal quickly and naturally.

For more self help for sliding Hiatal Hernia, read The Reflux Remedy Report at www.refluxremedy.com. It has a huge range of natural remedies for all kinds of causes of acid reflux, including Hiatal Hernias. So what are you waiting for? You could be on your way to healing right now!