Today we’re going to be going over five reasons for acid reflex, GERD, heartburn and what you can do to get relief quick. This is the number one thing that I see in working with people, especially when it comes to health and wellness.
It’s something that I had a battle with after my injuries. I was taking a lot of Ibuprofen. If you take it on a long-term level, it can irritate the stomach lining along with many other issues.
Ultimately, I was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, IBS. I had to deal with managing and having strategies for when I got an upset stomach or had acid reflux. This was key for my healing and the healing of my clients. What are these reasons and what can you do about it?
#1. Eating too much, or overeating. Once we’ve chewed our food, it creates this food bolus. It goes in the back of our mouth, and then it goes down our esophagus. Between the stomach, our liver, our spleen, and our pancreas, we have our small intestine that are around 20 feet long. The food then goes through a sphincter. We have all these sphincters in our body, and they’re basically these little gates that open up. We have the lower esophageal sphincter which opens up and the food goes down.
When we overeat or we eat too much, the LES (lower esophageal sphincter) opens up slightly so the stomach acid goes into the esophagus. That’s where we get that irritation and constriction because the stomach acid is not supposed to be up there.
What I recommend is to always eat until you’re 75 percent full. Digestion is a very demanding task on the body, this is going to give you more energy as well. You never want to overeat, because our stomach, if we have too much of that compression, it’s going to open the LES which causes lots of those problems.
#2. Eating too late. Growing up were programmed to have our biggest meal at night. Once you look at anatomy, physiology, and how we digest food, we should have our biggest meal sooner in the day.
Try not to be eating too late or right before going to bed. We need that time to be walking around and having the food be moved through our digestive system. Our digestive system is around 30 to 32 feet long. What happens when we eat too late and then we lay down?
When we lay down our LES opens up slightly. At night is when a lot of people have acid reflux and these other issues after you’ve had a huge meal. Especially if you’ve had a lot of animal protein. This can cause a lot of issues.
Try to eat your last meal three to four hours before you go to bed. See if that helps with your symptoms.
#3. Eating irritating foods. If you’re having issues, what I recommend is looking at irritating foods. What are these? These are high fat foods. Fried, greasy foods, processed foods. Citrus can also be an irritant, as well as tomato sauce. Tomato sauce can be very acidic. Peppers too, especially green peppers, spicy food, garlic, ginger, and vinegars. Especially red wine vinegar.
When you’re having issues with your body, you have to allow your body to go through a reset so it can heal. I recommend taking out these foods. We’re going to talk about the elimination diet in a minute. But, we have to take out these irritating foods that are causing issues. It’s amazing how quickly our body starts healing.
#4. Foods that weaken the LES. Foods that weaken the LES are…
- Chocolate
- Alcohol
- Red Wine
- Coffee
- Tea
- Mint Products
Even toothpaste can weaken the LES. These foods can start having issues with that acid reflux and coming back up into the esophagus, and also can be an irritant.
I recommend taking out these foods anywhere from a few weeks to three months. It could be longer. I have clients, and I know for me, just taking out these foods within two days, you start feeling so much better.
It’s amazing when we can navigate and know how to heal the body. We don’t have to give up these foods forever, but we should know what irritates the stomach and the lower esophageal sphincter.
#5. Being overweight. The fat that’s around the organs, and if you have a lot of fat around your waist, is going to put a lot of pressure on the organs. It’s going to make the stomach go up a little higher, which is going to open the LES.
What I recommend is to have strategies on how to lose weight, which I go into detail in the Harmony Method. To start little by little. I always say start in the beginning. Start making small steps, so that you can start losing the weight. That’s going to help the situation.
In general when you are dealing with this, what I recommend is elimination diet. We have to eliminate foods that are irritating and causing inflammation. Then, we can add them back in after three or four weeks. We might need a longer time if we have more severe issues with the stomach lining, or with digestive issues.
Do you suffer from any of these digestive issues? If so, comment them below. I want to help you find relief from them!
