related: a simple way to eliminate acid reflux is to gently raise the 'top' of your bed, for example by putting a book or a small brick under the posts of your headboard, sleeping with a gentle incline. also, be nice to your body and eat vegetables more often!

source: my father is a doctor.

How do vegatables help?

if someone is susceptible to heartburn or acid reflux they really should take a hard look at their diet, my bet would be that is where simple improvements could lead to dramatic benefits, without the need for any store bought drugs or prescription medication.

I submit that chewable antacids like tums provide short term releif but make heartburn worse in the long run

Probably true. They do provide temporary relief but perhaps at a price.

I used to get horrible heartburn, sometimes to the point of vomiting at night. Then I changed the way I eat. Now, not heartburn at all.

Yes, I believe they are! Pardon the soapbox, I have had this on my chest for a long time.

I had what amounted eventually to trouble digesting fats (bacon and coffee together gave me weird stomach pains) and my doctor put my on Omeprazole (Prilosec), which really dampens down the acid production in the stomach. Well, despite what Larry the Cable Guy and the Big Pharma would like you to do, this is not a good practice at all- it depletes the body of calcium, prevents you from getting the full nutrition from foods, and undigested food leads to leaky gut syndrome, which causes inflammation and all other sorts of bad, bad things.

The worst part was, there is some sort of balancing mechanism that tries to keep the ph balance in your stomach in whack. So if you ever vary your dose, that mechanism thinks your ph situation has changed (which is has, of course) and tries to compensate. If you go off of them cold turkey, like I did, there can be a HUGE acid rebound effect. That gave me permanent throat damage- acid reflux came up into my throat and damaged my vocal cords. For a year I couldn't swallow properly and had to watch my diet VERY closely. I still have problems with certain foods. Doctors don't even warn you about this, and in fact will deny its reality even though evidence for it is incontrovertible.

Why? Because of big Pharma, of course. Antacids are by a WIDE margin the most purchased over the counter med in the US. We have this attitude that by God we should be able to eat whatever the hell we want- if I'm 45 and want to eat a mountain of ribs, I should be able to. But that is a bad, bad attitude- our digestive health changes over time as we age, and we need to be aware of these changes and respond accordingly. Our grandparents understood this- my own grandparents changed their diets over time and seemed to have a meal plan in mind for just about every ailment. But the idea that we can eat whatever we want is an idea created by our consumption society, just to keep us buying lots of stuff. And big Pharma helps enable it- and profit hugely from it.

In other words: a conspiracy. For real.

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I just mix it with the water first, then drink it down!

Isnt it the case though that heartburn , gerd and things like that are related to a weakness muscles that are supposed to prevent stomach contents finfing their way back into the oesophagus. Cannot that be tackled? And how does this situation come about?

All true, baking soda is some amazingly useful stuff. I don't get heartburn but I use baking soda for many things.

It is wise to drink a glass of water before a meal because it stimulates digestive enzymes in your stomach to help food digest.

I have heartburn when I eat spicy food late at night, I wake up in the morning sometimes feeling terrible. Drink a glass of water, and it goes away.

Maybe it is not this way for everyone but water seems to cure any acid reflux issues I have.

Want to get rid of heartburn? Cut wheat and other grains out of your diet.

I used chewable antacids and would end up with a sinus infection every time.

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facepalm NOW you tell me.

I used to take them too. I got rid of my heartburn by cutting out soda. I haven't had a coke in over a decade unless it's got Jim Beam or Jack Daniels in it.

I have read that milk makes heartburn worse. I find the opposite to be true. If I feel a little heartburn come on now, which is extremely rare, a glass of milk stops it.

+1 for the milk theory. I get acid reflux which ends up causing pain in my neck face and head.

Not sure about antacids, but this is the case for many lip treatments.

Ah the conspiracy subreddit, where something with no proof will likely reach the frontpage.

If it were proven, it would belong in /r/conspiracyfact rather than here. This is the place of speculation, conjecture, knee-jerk reaction, and hatred of any organization larger than "1".

Lrn2Reddit! ;-)

you can get addicted to them just like chapstick

Not a conspiracy.

I submit that chewable antacids like tums provide short term releif but make heartburn worse in the long run

this is true about anything that treats the symptom rather than the cause. same with Visine, same with non-medicinal throat lozenges. the falsehood you are stating here is that they "make it worse". no, your heartburn is just going entirely untreated and GETTING worse on its own

so you will buy more!

no. this is just a byproduct of what i stated before. your heartburn is not being treated, your symptoms are. you're letting your heartburn get worse on its own and now you buy more antacids to try to curb the issue. it's a cycle.

not everything is a conspiracy

anything you read about antacids will outright state that the treatment is a symptomatic one, especially for cases in which you have more advanced and underlying causes of heartburn. the lesson here is do your research before you start self diagnosing and self treating

A few years back I had bad acid reflux and was popping them like crazy and happened to look at the back and saw I was only supposed to take a few of them. I called a nurse hotline and she pretty much laughed at me for worrying that I could be poisoned or something.

I think there are probably other explanations for why you didn't get heartburn last night while chewing antacid tablets didn't work in the past.

The best solution is a long term dietary change . . . check out paleo related diets.

Paleo is a fad that makes it worse. The Paleo diet isn't actually paleo.

"Fad" is just a word meant to denigrate the diet. Can high carb high sugar diets that most Americans eat be called a "fad" because they have only existed for a short time?

And most people that eat a paleo diet don't try to mimic exactly how paleolithic people ate. That's not the point. It's not some exercise in living history. It's trying to eat in a way that our bodies are better evolved to eat. The idea is our bodies are not evolved to eat the high sugar and high carb diets of today and that these are harmful.

In my usage, I intended to denigrate the diet because even though it calls itself "paleo", it in no way represents the true ratios of foods Humans ate during that period. It's far too meat-heavy.

Our bodies are best evolved to eat a lot of gathered plants - fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables, etc., with a very little bit of lean meat on an infrequent basis.

Well, my understanding is there is conflicting historical evidence about how much meat humans ate. It varied by location . . . are you telling me humans next to huge supplies of easy prey like buffalo or fish didn't eat a lot of this? Anyway, the paleo diet is not intended to replicate the exact diet of a specific time . . . it's a bit of a misnomer. It's the basic concept that gives the diet its name.

Our bodies are best evolved to eat a lot of gathered plants - fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables, etc., with a very little bit of lean meat on an infrequent basis.

Which pretty much describes the paleo diet. Except the paleo diet wouldn't worry about the meat being lean, and they would eat the organs and fat, etc. Are you telling me humans only ate the lean cuts of meat and threw away the marrow and organs, etc? Anyway, in nature the meat would be leaner than it currently is anyway.

Also, people have a misconception about paleo thinking it's all about meat.

Buffalo and fish are lean meat. People using the fad paelo eat a lot of... what? Buffalo? Fish? No, beef and pork.

Humans during paleo ate primarily meat that was naturally lean, yes, because it was hunted, wild game rather than factory farmed. It was buffalo and deer and fish and pheasant. Some might eat organs and more grisly cuts, but they also would hand those less desirable pieces over to their dogs who needed to eat, too.

I understand that paleo includes plant-based food. The part I disagree with is it over-emphasizes meat and doesn't differentiate between lean, more healthy meat and the fat-laden burgers and sausages that are all too commonly consumed now.

Back to the original topic and the reason I replied, the Paleo "diet" won't help with acid reflux all that much because it still contains so many things that make it worse.

People using the fad paelo eat a lot of... what? Buffalo? Fish? No, beef and pork.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You are creating a strawman and stereotype you know nothing about and knocking that down.

Go do some real research instead of talking out of your ass. Most paleo people do in fact eat a lot of Buffalo and fish. Almost all of them eat grass fed beef, when they eat beef.

Yes, many paleo people part ways with conventional dietary guidelines when it comes to the dangers of eating fat and the effects on heart disease and cholesteral. But if you take the time to look into it you will see that there is a lot of justification for this. Standard medical practices, like our standard diet, have misled us on the dangers of cholesterol, for instance.

I understand that paleo includes plant-based food. The part I disagree with is it over-emphasizes meat and doesn't differentiate between lean, more healthy meat and the fat-laden burgers and sausages that are all too commonly consumed now.

Again. You have little understanding about the subject you are pontificating about.

The Paleo diet eats a hell of a lot more vegetables and fruits and nuts than the standard American diet or the food pyramid diet that most conventional American dieticians would recommend.

Here's a sample diet:

http://ultimatepaleoguide.com/paleo-diet-meal-plans/#meal-plan-visual

And as far as making acid reflux worse, what are you smoking? That's ridiculous.

The main feature of paleo diets is eating a lot of vegetables. And cutting out sugar and alcohol. My doctor (who is very conventional) told me cutting out alcohol and fried food and soda were some important things to do. And guess what the paleo diet avoids? All of those. Some paleo diet people avoid dairy which evidently causes acid reflux (but like another poster here I personally found that milk helped me and my doctor said that people are different and to use what worked).

Yes, the paleo diet has a lot of high fat meat and other fats like avocado and coconut oil, but these probably have a much less of an effect than things like fried food and soda, etc. Also, paleo people would drink caffeine and dark chocolate, but I find that this doesn't cause me problems when the rest of my diet is good.

You answered your question in the last paragraph in your own response. High fat meats. That's not "paleo" (the real paleo, not the fad diet paelo) and it contributes.

I wasn't aware that caffiene and dark chocolate were "paleo" either. I wonder how cave men got those. They certainly contribute to acid reflux too, to hear my colleagues who ingest them talk.

I wasn't aware that caffiene and dark chocolate were "paleo" either. I wonder how cave men got those. They certainly contribute to acid reflux too, to hear my colleagues who ingest them talk.

You keep insisting on mischaracterizing the paleo diet. That's intellectually dishonest. Again, for the vast majority of people it's not about exactly replicating paleolithic man's diet. It's people like you who pretend this so you have something to nitpick about it.

And yes, people who eat a paleo diet read up on modern science and eat modern foods . . . so they know that chocolate and caffeine cause acid reflux and would certainly promote limiting these things. Most paleo diet guides allow just a little bit of dark chocolate as the one dessert you get to have (along with fruit). Most would also say to limit coffee intake (and some have you put an egg or coconut oil into the coffee).

High fat meats. That's not "paleo" (the real paleo, not the fad diet paelo) and it contributes.

So man only ate lean meats in the past? He ate the meat that was around, and when animals were domesticated he ate those (like cows and pigs). What's your position? That man only ate lean meats (on rare occasions) and avoided fatty meats?

Our bodies are incredible machines. They can fix most of their problems on their own . It's when you fix problems with an external source that they can't recognize the problem, so it just keeps getting worse.

Nope. Life expectancy has increased after advents in modern medicine - clearly showing that our body need us to intervene for a lot of our problems.

Does life expectancy have to do with better hygeine or medial science?

yes, it does.

Better water and food along with the hygiene.

I think so too. Listen to the side effects to EVERY pill on the market.

Oh but wait they make pills to counter act those liver and kidney problems you are going to develop. Those pills also make you have the potential for anemia or low blood iron. But wait, these iron supplements will take care of that... now you just need blood pressure meds to regulate everything.... AAAAAAAAnnnnnndd your dead leaving behind a massive medical bill for your kids.

Edit : Side effects may include Gas With Oily Discharge.

This is /r/conspiracy, did you not know that "modern medicine" was brought into the mainstream by Rockefeller who himself didn't believe in this new medicine and lived to an old age by only using homeopathic and holistic treatments for himself. Yes, modern medicine has the ability to extend our lives by treating the symptoms of illness and not the underlying causes of them. We live longer, but will become dependent of outside treatments and our body won't learn to fix itself resulting in more treatments and a life of more suffering and dependence.

homeopathy has been debunked. Read up.

He did mention holistics also. Some get confused and think natural medicines such as herbs are homeopathic.

yeah. a certain man named Steve Jobs tried "holistics" when he got diagnosed with cancer. despite living a pretty healthy, fruits and veggies and exercise life. When something works, it's called medicine.