Aciphex and GERD relief diet

Many  doctors recommend relieving GERD symptoms by adjusting the diet. However,  before you start doing so, you should understand what GERD is in the first  place. If put simple, GERD is a conditions caused by the irritation of  esophagus. The esophagus is a tube that connects your throat with the stomach  and carries food after it has been chewed and swallowed. This tube ends with a  small sphincter that connects it with the stomach and doesn't allow the food to  get back into the esophagus after it has entered the stomach. When this  sphincter is weak or there are other causes for its malfunctioning, the  contents of the stomach can reflux up into esophagus and damage its sensitive  tissue (due to potent acids from the stomach). This is when the symptoms of  GERD occur.

When  speaking about a diet for relieving GERD symptoms, you have to keep in mind  that in most cases it's a muscular problem. It's the malfunctioning of the  sphincter in the esophagus that causes the problem. However, if you adopt a  special regimen you may reduce the severity of symptoms in addition to the use of  special medications. Here are some things you should consider:

Meal timing

As most of  you may know, GERD symptoms are usually very intense in the night time. So when  speaking about a diet for GERD, it's not the type of food that matters but  rather the actual time you're eating it. If you are bothered by heartburn, acid  reflux and other symptoms of GERD it's quite likely because you're eating too  close to bedtime.

Japanese  researchers have conducted a study that revealed the increase of GERD risk with  the reduction of time between food intake and sleep. There was a direct  relation found between the symptoms of GERD and
how much  time passes between dinner and bedtime.

The study  involved 147 patients with GERD symptoms and 294 volunteers who didn't have any  problems for reference. matched "control" patients who had not  experienced GERD symptoms during the previous year. Each participant had to  fill out a questionnaire determining the usual time between their dinner and  sleep.

It was  observed that people who went to bed within three hours after eating their  dinner were 7.5 times more likely to experience GERD symptoms such as heartburn  than people who had a larger period of time between these activities.

Therefore  it is highly recommended to eat at least four hours before going to bed if you  do not want to enjoy medication treatment with drugs like Aciphex. Moreover, it  is recommended to keep the evening meals small in order to reduce the amount of  food processed by the stomach during this time of the day. If you tend to eat  large meals in the evening this puts more pressure on the stomach and the  sphincter connecting it with the esophagus. By eating less, you will ease the  pressure and avoid having GERD symptoms.

Moreover,  there are specific foods that are believed to cause GERD symptoms:

• chocolate
• creamed  foods
• fast  foods
• fatty  foods
• milk
• oils
• peppermint
• caffeine  drinks

Try  avoiding these foods in the evening and it may turn out that you won't need  Aciphex or other special drugs for GERD at all.