Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease: Dos and Donts

GERD gastroesophageal reflux disease, this disease is fairly common in the population particularly in obese people. This disease usually occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter tone is decreased leading to reflux of acid from stomach to esophagus. Few symptoms of this disease are heartburn, belching, asthma, acid reflux in mouth, bad teeth. I am not going to discuss about the whole disease here i am going to give a few lifestyle modification advices which will help you to reduce the symptoms.

Dos:-

• Elevate the head end of your bed to around 20-30 degrees. This helps to keep the food in the stomach due to gravity during sleeping.
• Divide your meals in several small parts during the whole day rather than taking one large meal. E.g. youcan divide your lunch into four separate meals 2hrs apart.

Donts:-

• Dont go to bed immdiately after a meal.
• Dont eat a heavy meal as it will not allow the lower esophageal shincter to close properly.
• Dont drink tea, coffee or eat chocolates too much as these affect the normal physiology of lower esophageal sphincter and reduce its force of contraction.
• Dont drink lots of water just after the meal. You should wait for atleast 45 mins to drink water after meals.
• Do not smoke or atleast try to quit as nicotine also decreases lower esophageal shincter tone.

Hope this information helps you keep yourself  heathy . Do read some other articles on the blog.