Before I get into the blog, I need to say this disclaimer. I am not a professional doctor. If you are having acid reflux issues, I would so highly recommend you talk to your doctor first. The information I provide here is intended solely for educational purposes and cannot substitute for professional medical advice.
Now…let’s get into it!
I’ve struggled with acid reflux for the last 5 years (I share a little about it here). If you are curious, here are my symptoms:
- bloating – I feel bloated before and after I eat. It feels like it’s pressure built up in my upper abdominal which causes a lot of discomfort.
- Belching + throwing up – i constantly feel like throwing up. I often belch which is super uncomfortable.
- Heartburn – this wasn’t present initially but it started to get worse and worse over the years. I thought I was having heart problems.
- Throat dryness and constant clearing – I was clearing my throat CONSTANTLY. Sometimes it was excess mucus but most of the time, I had a lot of throat inflammation (more on that below).
I took PPIs, antacids, and H2 blockers. While they did help, I found myself upping the dosage or frequency at which I took these meds. I just had this feeling that this wasn’t the right thing to do. Plus, after several endoscopies, all my GI & primary care physicians told me that I didn’t have anything serious like ulcers, tumors, or bacterial overgrowth.
So about 2 months ago, I started looking into more natural ways to treat and heal my acid reflux. I have been trying all sorts of things but there have been 2 things I started doing that really has significantly improved my acid reflux. I wanted to share them with you because I want you to begin your journey to treating and healing your acid reflux.
1: Drink warm water + apple cider vinegar
The first simple and effective way to treat your acid reflux is to drink some apple cider vinegar (ACV) that’s mixed in warm water before each meal. How does that help though? Isn’t it quite acidic? It also smells and tastes pretty bad too right?
Yes to every one of those questions. According to mydr, ACV has a pH of 2-3 (so it’s naturally acidic). Now the thing to note is that your stomach acid has a pH of around 1.5-3. And if you’re like me and have low stomach acid (which causes acid reflux), this is the perfect drink for you to have. You are essentially introducing more acid into the digestive tract, which aids in digestion. In addition, ACV is a probiotic, which means you’re introducing good healthy gut bacteria into your stomach. All of this is like a badass coupon deal for your health. Drink 1 cup, get 2 benefits free type deal. Now ACV has a lot more benefits but for the purposes of this acid reflux topic, we’ll stick to those 2.
I should quickly mention that if you have too much acid in your stomach, drinking more acidic stuff like apple cider vinegar is not a good idea.
I was feeling bloated quite often, especially in the morning. Once I started drinking apple cider vinegar, I felt so much relief. I would say my symptoms went away within 15 minutes after drinking 1 cup of warm water + apple cider vinegar. I also noticed way less belching after lunch and dinner.
When you first start drinking this stuff, take it in small doses. I started out with 1 tablespoon and worked my way up to 2 tablespoons. If you think “ew” or “bleh”, you are not alone because that’s exactly what I thought when I first heard about this way for treating acid reflux. It’s definitely a journey to get accustomed to drinking apple cider vinegar, but it’s done wonders for me.
2: Sleep on an incline surface
By sleeping on an incline surface, you reduce how much acid can flow back into your esophagus. This can drastically reduce how much throat irritation you experience.
For myself, I was waking up with an irritated throat. When I say irritated throat, it felt like I had some sort of mucus build up down in my esophagus. I was constantly clearing my throat, which caused me to get sore throats pretty often. When I went to visit the doctor, he told me that it wasn’t mucus but my esophagus being inflamed and that feeling was similar to having mucus trapped in your throat.
He didn’t suggest sleeping on an incline surface nor did I immediately think of that. All I knew was that I needed to reduce the inflammation and didn’t want to eat medication to do so. After doing some research, people have proposed sleeping with your head propped up or on an incline.
This is the bed wedge I bought and used.
It’s been 1 month since I started using it and I still haven’t gotten used to it. I’m still tossing and turning, but my throat feels way less irritated. I’m waking up with less dry throat. Also, I’m not constantly clearing my throat nor do I feel like I have a sore throat every other day. I can say for sure that sleeping on an incline surface has helped reduce the pain and annoyances with acid reflux.
Hope this helps and much more to come!
I really hope these two ways to treat your acid reflux will help you as much as they have helped me. Your health matters and addressing this terrible and annoying digestive disease is key to living a better life. I am trying some more remedies that I hope will treat and eventually heal me of my acid reflux issues. So stay tuned because I’ll be sharing more about my journey!
