Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a chronic condition in which a person suffers from acid reflux at least twice a week. Symptoms include heartburn, stomach pain, difficulty breathing, coughing, and more. This condition is hardly life-threatening. However, the effects can eventually give way to something more dangerous like esophageal cancer, so people with GERD should try to reduce episodes of it as much as possible by using home remedies and having a healthy lifestyle.
Managing GERD is as simple as following a healthy lifestyle and monitoring your symptoms. Below are our seven helpful home remedies for GERD.
1. Manage Your Weight
You’re more likely to have GERD if you’re overweight or obese. That’s because excess fat can squish your organs together, leaving little wiggle room for your stomach to expand whenever you eat a lot. If your stomach can’t expand outwards, it expands upwards and into your esophagus.
As such, aside from medications, your doctor will probably encourage you to eat healthy foods and exercise regularly if you have GERD. This is one of the best home remedies for GERD!
2. Avoid Certain Foods and Drinks
Some foods are notorious for triggering bouts of acid reflux. Perhaps the most famous of all are drinks like coffee, soda, and alcohol—one cup of any of these can trigger acid reflux instantly! Feeling those drinks slosh around your tummy while the acid eats away is not a pleasant experience, so the least you can do is eat something with it to reduce symptoms.
Other foods that trigger acid reflux are tomato-based foods (e.g., spaghetti, pizza), high-fat fried foods (e.g., burgers, French fries),
3. Eat Smaller Meals Properly
It’s important to eat smaller meals when you have acid reflux. As you know, the sphincter between your esophagus and stomach is looser and cannot close as well. So, it’s best to keep food as far away from it as possible, which means refraining from eating large meals that stretch your stomach and push against the sphincter.
It’s also important to eat meals properly. That means eating your meals while you’re sitting down. If you eat meals while lying down on your back or your belly, gravity works against you and pushes the food back up your esophagus!
4. Consume Foods that Reduce GERD Symptoms
Once you have GERD, there are no foods and medications that can completely get rid of it, we’re afraid. However, aside from avoiding foods that trigger acid reflux symptoms, some foods reduce the symptoms!
For starters, eating meals that are low in fat but high in protein and fiber can help you feel fuller for longer. The former reduces your symptoms while the latter makes you feel fuller for longer.
Light, easily digestible carbohydrates like crackers or bread can also be helpful. If you feel like there’s a lot of acid in your tummy, you can eat these and they will absorb that acid.
Lastly, chewing gum surprisingly has a lot of benefits for people with acid reflux. They encourage saliva production, which mitigates acid in the esophagus and tummy.
5. Quit Smoking
When you smoke, you damage the lower esophageal sphincter. This muscle is in charge of keeping the stomach acids from going back up the esophagus. The weaker it is, the more acid can leak up and damage your esophagus. This causes the heartburn and breathing difficulties characteristic of GERD!
Even if you don’t smoke, secondhand smoke you get from family members, spouses, friends, and coworkers can still contribute to GERD. So, if you smoke, try your best to quit as soon as possible. If anybody around you smokes, encourage them to quit smoking for their health or at least get away from them if they ever light a cigarette.
6. Use Herbal, Home Remedies for GERD
Herbal remedies aren’t the most regulated of foods, and much of their effects on our body still require research, but consuming them isn’t going to harm you. In fact, many people would encourage you to take them, whether it’s due to old wives’ tales or hesitance to visit the doctor. Just make sure that the herbs don’t interfere with other medications you’re taking and that they are coming from a reputable source.
Common herbs used against GERD include chamomile, licorice, and marshmallow. They can be infused into tea but are also available in supplement form.
7. Wear Loose Clothing
Your body naturally expands when it’s eating meals. Thus, if you’re wearing something that’s super tight and doesn’t allow your body to expand to accommodate food, then you risk that food pushing against your esophagus. This is especially the case with tight bottoms and jeans—there’s a reason people unbutton their pants during special occasions, after all!
If you know you’re going to eat a lot in an upcoming meal, wear looser clothing. This is home remedies for GERD without it actually being a home remedy!
