1. Heartburn: Foods to Eat, Foods to Avoid Slideshow Pictures
2. Digestive Disease Myths Slideshow Pictures
3. Take the GERD Quiz

Medical Author:

P John Simic, MD

Coauthor:

Vincent W Yang, MD, PhD

Medical Editor:

John P. Cunha, DO, FACOEP

John P. Cunha, DO, FACOEP

John P. Cunha, DO, is a U.S. board-certified Emergency Medicine Physician. Dr. Cunha's educational background includes a BS in Biology from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and a DO from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in Kansas City, MO. He completed residency training in Emergency Medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey.

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In some cases symptoms may be relieved by changing habits, diet, and lifestyle. The following steps may reduce reflux.

• Don't eat within 3 hours of bedtime. This allows your stomach to empty and acid production to decrease.
• Don't lie down right after eating at any time of day.
• Elevate the head of your bed 6 inches with blocks. Gravity helps prevent reflux.
• Don't eat large meals. Eating a lot of food at one time increases the amount of acid needed to digest it. Eat smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day.
• Avoid fatty or greasy foods, chocolate, caffeine, mints or mint-flavored foods, spicy foods, citrus, and tomato-based foods. These foods decrease the competence of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES).
• Avoid drinking alcohol. Alcohol increases the likelihood that acid from your stomach will back up.
• Stop smoking. Smoking weakens the lower esophageal sphincter and increases reflux.
• Lose excess weight. Overweight and obese people are much more likely to have bothersome reflux than people of healthy weight.
• Stand upright or sit up straight, maintain good posture. This helps food and acid pass through the stomach instead of backing up into the esophagus.
• Talk to your health care professional about taking over-the-counter pain relievers such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), or medicines for osteoporosis. These can aggravate reflux in some people.

Talk to your health care professional if you need tips on losing weight or quitting smoking.

Over-the-counter medications also may help relieve your symptoms. Check with your health care professional before trying any of these.

Antacids (Gaviscon, Maalox, Mylanta, and Tums): These are effective when taken 1 hour after meals and at bedtime because they neutralize acid already present.

• Some are combined with a foaming agent. Foam in the stomach helps prevent acid from backing up into the esophagus.
• These agents are safe to use every day over a few weeks, but if taken over a longer period can cause side effects:
• Diarrhea
• Impaired metabolism of calcium in the body
• Build-up of magnesium in the body, which can damage the kidneys
• If you use these daily for more than 3 weeks, inform your health care professional.

Histamine-2 receptor blockers (H2-blockers) prevent acid production.

• H2-blockers are effective only if taken at least 1 hour before meals because they don't affect acid that is already present.
• Common H2-blockers are cimetidine (Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid), ranitidine (Zantac), and nizatidine (Axid).

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