Yesterday I talked a little about Diabetes. Today I want to talk about gastroesophageal reflux (GERD). Because of our increasing weight in this country, we are seeing more and more of this disease. What it causes is persistent heart burn and indigestion.
The first thing is to lose weight - see yesterday's post - all that is there on losing weight pertains to this disease as well. There are a couple of other things you can do to take control here. Cut down on caffeine and alcohol intake. Both of these will make the symptoms worse.
Eat so that you have 3-4 hours before you go to bed. Eating and immediately lying down will make the symptoms worse. Try to stay up right after eating for at least 2 hours.
Eating smaller more frequent meals will also help. If you eat a big meal you are more likely to feel the symptoms increase, due to the increase pressure in the stomach from all the food.
Lastly reduce your intake of fatty foods and chocolate. Both of these will relax the sphincter that is between the stomach and the esophagus which will allow more acidic stomach contents to come up into the esophagus and cause a burning sensation.
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