Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Acid Reflux Pillow - A Nighttime Solution to Acid Reflux
Altering your lifestyle by sleeping with an acid reflux pillow can provide you with a brand new way to manage your disease by giving you control over the night. This is especially true if you are like the majority of acid reflux sufferers, who find the most common time their symptoms flare up is at night when they lie down.
When you lie down to sleep, acid is more likely to travel up your esophagus and into your throat. As a result of this natural effect of gravity, you may experience increased acid reflux just after bedtime when sleep can become elusive due to the pain from the acid.
If you do not lie completely flat, the acid does not flow upward. Traditionally, sleeping while partially sitting up is highly recommended by physicians as a means of treating acid reflux. Sitting in this position controls acid reflux by reducing the effect of gravity, and the flow of acid and food stops at the base of the esophagus just as it should. However, as you might guess, many sufferers find it difficult to sleep sitting up.
You, too, may find it challenging to find the ideal angle for deterring acid reflux during the night. A marvelous new invention, the acid reflux pillow can provide you with the optimum angle for sleeping without the usual pain that accompanies nighttime acid reflux so that you can get the rest you need.
The innovative wedge shape of the acid reflux pillow works by elevating your head higher than the rest of your body. Sleeping with your head elevated while you sleep naturally reduces the flow of acid up your esophagus. By sleeping at this angle, gravity keeps acid flowing naturally from your esophagus down to your stomach while you are once again enjoying a relaxing night’s sleep.
There is an added benefit is sleeping on such an incline. Sleeping in this position is reportedly good for your back, in addition to controlling reflux. Another advantage is that the acid reflux pillow has absolutely no impact on your partner’s sleep style. The bed remains level and your acid reflux pillow raises only your head.
Of course, since no other special equipment is required, nothing could be simpler than replacing your traditional pillow with a comfortable acid reflux pillow. With an acid reflux pillow, your memories of painful and sleepless nights will become the stuff of dreams.
Finding the Perfect Acid Reflux Remedy
At some point in our lives, nearly everyone, regardless of age or culture, experiences some degree of heartburn. One in every ten adults in North America experience what they identify as heartburn on a daily basis. Worse yet, for some, this heartburn is accompanied by food and stomach acid being regurgitated from the stomach upward into their esophagus, which then becomes inflamed. This painful and recurring heartburn is referred to as acid reflux. Symptoms of acid reflux include extreme discomfort, nausea and pain throughout the digestive tract.
Searching for acid reflux remedy and relief from this most-uncomfortable form of heartburn becomes a mission for sufferers. Most patients, desperate for a quick solution, turn to medical treatment. There is no shortage of quick fixes on the market today. These are promoted by manufacturers relying on patients’ lack of awareness about acid reflux, and how to find an enduring acid reflux remedy and relief.
Medical treatment of acid reflux for most focuses on quick relief from the burning sensations caused by reflux. Most remedies accomplish this by reducing the amount of acid in the stomach and preventing the stomach acid and undigested contents from flowing upward into the esophagus.
An Acid Reflux Remedy that Works
Patients come to rely on these quick solutions to this painful acid reflux condition. However, medical studies show that, even though medication may begin to work quickly, this particular acid reflux remedy does not work beyond the current acid reflux episode. The sufferer will need the same drug again after every meal in order to achieve similar relief. The patient finds himself dependent on a temporary acid reflux remedy he needs to take three times a day. The only one who wins is the pharmaceutical company who knows the patient will come to consider the acid reflux remedy part of his diet.
In reality, no acid reflux remedy in the form of medication solves this medical condition. Studies even show that in many cases a medical approach to acid reflux exacerbates the situation. Medications quickly and effectively reduce the patient’s stomach acid. However, the body needs to maintain a specific level of acid in the stomach in order to digest food properly. Improperly digested food can reduce the body’s natural defense mechanisms. Doing so increases the chances the acid reflux sufferer may contract food poisoning from food in the stomach that fails to digest. Instead of helping the acid reflux sufferer, acid reflux remedy in the form of medications can worsen acid reflux by failing to promote the benefits stomach acid serve to aid in healthy digestion.
Knowing What Your Acid Reflux Treatment Options Are
Acid reflux is a gastro-esophageal reflux disease commonly referred to as simply GERD. This disease occurs when the sphincter located at the base of the esophagus fails to perform its job. When this sphincter fails to function properly, food that has traveled down through your esophagus and into your stomach reverses its flow. As a result, food and acid move back up into your esophagus and even into your mouth. This reverse flow process causes a burning sensation in your chest and throat. If you do not seek acid reflux treatment, your esophagus can experience long-term damage.
Acid reflux treatments vary among individual sufferers. Changing your lifestyle usually is the initial step toward controlling the pain and discomfort caused by this disease. These lifestyle changes begin by avoiding foods known to trigger your symptoms. A number of foods cause acid reflux. However, it is likely there are foods that generate symptoms for you that have no impact on another sufferer. You should create a customized list of the foods you need avoid in order to control your acid reflux symptoms. Keep a diet journal This will help you create a more complete list of foods to eliminate from your lifestyle.
In addition to being selective about what you eat, avoid eating too much. If you are overweight, losing those excess pounds will not doubt be advised as part of your acid reflux treatment plan. Another lifestyle change involves reassessing your sleeping habits. Lying flat exacerbates acid reflux symptoms. Raising your upper body about eight inches while you sleep can help you achieve a more restful night’s sleep, due to the reduction or elimination of symptoms.
Sometimes, even a complete lifestyle change just is not enough to counteract acid reflux. In this case, over-the-counter antacids may be the acid reflux treatment for you. If antacids do not provide the acid reflux relief you seek, you may need to resort to another acid reflux treatment option, prescription medication. If that is the case, it is imperative that you understand you will need to follow this acid reflux treatment habitually and indefinitely.
If you are unable or unwilling to take the acid reflux medication faithfully or if this type of acid reflux treatment is ineffective, you have to turn to surgery. This surgery, done by laparoscopy, has been a successful acid reflux treatment option for many acid reflux patient. This particular acid reflux treatment is a procedure that strengthens the barrier between the esophagus and stomach, preventing acid reflux from occurring.
Acid reflux is a painful and often serious disease that is easy to diagnose. Fortunately, the numbers of acid reflux treatments available also make it much easier to live with.
Stress and Anxiety - Untreated They May Lead To Serious Health Issues
Stress and anxiety affect every living person. Men, women, young and old. No one is immune. The causes of stress and anxiety are all around us: high-pressure jobs, bad relationships, money problems, weather, crowding, poor diet, and loneliness are just a few.
Even the well-off, educated and healthy experience stress. Some people seem prone to create their own stress when nothing is actually wrong. They will create things to worry about. Today environmental pressure is greater and most of us are exposed to this mentally taxing situation.
Long-term stress is the culprit that causes the body to break down over time. Everyone experiences stress, but not everyone handles it constructively. Our body, unless afflicted by a dread disease, can handle stress, whether physical or mental. Most people cope with it and move on. If the stress is short-term, then the chances are good that it does little harm.
The stress-related symptoms, or “nerves”, some suffer do in fact effect the parts of the body that are relate to the nervous system, especially in the digestive and intestinal systems. The first signs of stress-related digestive disorders may be an ulcer attack or colitis. Irritability, high blood pressure, headaches and neck aches, diarrhea, dizziness, and loss of appetite are some disorders brought on by stress. More serious illnesses occur if the stress that produced theses symptoms is not dealt with.
So what can one do to reduce stress and anxiety? Relaxation, although difficult at first for chronic stress sufferers, alleviates stress. Try to visualize a time or place when you had no stress. Go to a quiet place such as a park and practice this visualization. I know it has helped me cope on numerous occasions. Also very important is exercise. Exercise causes the release of serotonin which creates a general feeling of well-being throughout the mind and body.
A proper diet is also extremely important. The disorders that arise from stress are often the result of nutrient deficiencies; the body doesn’t handle nutrients well during this time. B complex vitamins are important for proper functioning of the nervous system. They aid in improving brain function and reducing anxiety.
Besides B-complex vitamins there are other important to consider in the fight against stress and anxiety:
• Calcium and magnesium
• L-Tyrosine which is an amino acid that helps reduce stress and is an effective and safe sleeping aid.
• Vitamin C which is essential to the adrenal gland function, which id depleted by stress.
• Lecithin
• Multivitamin
• Vitamin E for immune function
• Zinc for immune function
Get started as soon as possible in your efforts to fight stress. Consider what you can do with diet and exercise to reduce the effects of stress and anxiety against health.
Investigating Your Best Natural Remedy for Acid Reflux
Finding your personal solution and natural remedy for acid reflux requires diligence, experimentation and patience. You will likely need to undergo some diagnostic tests. You may need to try several different solutions before you find the natural remedy for acid reflux that works best for you. However, the result will be eradication of the acid reflux symptoms from your system. Finding that natural remedy for acide reflux can be a complicated but worthwhile process.
Your first step in your search for a natural remedy for acid reflux involves your investigating into your own acid reflux experience. You need to narrow down what causes you to experience acid reflux by identifying which foods and beverages aggravate your specific symptoms. It may not be immediately obvious whether you are reacting to the foods themselves or if your own genetic makeup is causing you to experience a unique negative reaction.
There are medical tests available to assist in determining whether diet or genetics -- or both -- are the culprits in your case. Ask your physician to conduct these tests. The tests are painless and minimally invasive. You may, however, experience some after effects and there may be more complicated subsequent testing required.
In addition to these tests, your physician will help you determine the best natural remedy for acid reflux. Even your physician will likely recommend a dietary solution to prevent your acid reflux symptoms.
As long as you continue living an unhealthy dietary lifestyle, your body will remain at the mercy of acid reflux and you will likely experience other digestive problems. An unhealthy diet will inevitably have a negative impact on other systems of body and result in more health problems.
A natural remedy for acid reflux could be as easy and simple as identifying the correct balance of healthy foods and beverages in your diet then incorporating this knowledge into your lifestyle. Your body may be slow to adjust to your dietary change. However, with a little patience and a generous transition period, you can introduce to your body the healthy nutrition necessary to live a healthy lifestyle free from acid reflux. Prevention and a healthy lifestyle is, in and of itself, your best natural remedy for acid reflux.
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