Acid Reflux / Gerd / Heartburn – Find Natural Cures To Manage Night Time Symptoms

acid reflux article

Acid reflux sleep easy!

Gastroesophageal Reflux , Gerd is also commonly known as acid reflux or heartburn. Acid refux can be unbearable at night with sufferers becoming extremely tired and rundown very quickly as sleep is disrupted continuously throughout the night. The reason for this is quite simple, as we generally sleep on pillows, your body is inclined to bend in the middle which allows stomach acid to go part way up the oesophagus, thus acid becomes trapped causing extreme discomfort and pain.

For many sufferers the consequences of this continual action over a period of time can cause damage to the oesophagus as it literally burns with acid erosion. In extreme cases stomach acids are breathed in causing irritation to the bronchial sacs, this may cause subsequent bleeding from the lungs which becomes apparent when coughing.

Ok, so this is not news to you, and the reason I decided to share my remedy with you is because I suffer from acid reflux, however this was manageable until I became pregnant. Particularly in the latter months of pregnancy, I was up and down all night , it was unbearable and in fact debilitating. Every time I went to bed the pain and discomfort would start and it was causing me to have bouts of being sick, I was tired all the time anyway but the acid reflux was making it much worse and I was miserable.. As I complained to my midwife, to my delight she didn’t tell me to buy a packet of rennies or a bottle of milk of magnesium!

My midwife actually recommended sleeping on a bed wedge, as she explained that her husband suffered badly with heartburn and this had worked for him for many tears,… yes, that’s right, a bed wedge, so I dutifully went out and bought one out of sheer desperation (I usually take much more convincing than that before I part with my money!!)

Diet is something else to consider as certain foods can exacerbate the problem,
there are, as I am sure you are aware, many suggestions with regards to diet not all of which will work for everyone. For instance pastry and spicy foods disagree with me consistently heightening symptoms, therefore I completely avoid them. Experiment, find out what your triggers are and banish the culprits from your diet indefinitely!

I never looked back as far as managing the symptoms were concerned, I bought my reflux wedge pillow with a nodular surface which was kinda cool and had a massaging effect on the back as you move around and I use it to this day. Like many ailments of the modern day there are always drugs available to alleviate symptoms which is not a long term cure, drugs such as PPI’s proton pump inhibitors are reported to be effective however they are expensive and not recommended for long term use.

It really can be as simple as modifying your diet and elevating the upper torso to keep acids at bay, the key is to manage your symptoms long term rather than using an interim fix with drugs that very often cannot be used for sustained periods of time for health reasons. It’s worth consideration and I would urge you to give it a try..... Good luck!