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Acid reflux and GERD are common digestive conditions that affects millions of people's daily comfort, sleep, and overall health. Understanding what triggers reflux, how to manage its symptoms, and when to seek professional medical guidance are important parts of finding lasting relief.
Acid reflux occurs when stomach acid flows backward into the esophagus, the tube connecting your mouth to your stomach. This backflow happens when the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), a muscle at the base of the esophagus, doesn’t close properly. Most people feel this as a burning, sour sensation known as heartburn. While nearly everyone experiences reflux occasionally, frequent episodes can indicate an underlying issue that requires attention.
Chronic acid reflux, when diagnosed, is usually referred to as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD for short). GERD is almost always more severe than normal acid reflux. Those who have GERD tend to describe worse symptoms, frequently interrupted sleep, and acid reflux that regularly occurs more than twice a week.
Some people experience acid reflux without many of the typical symptoms, like heartburn. This is usually called silent reflux, or laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR for short). With silent reflux, acid flows up into the throat, past the esophagus. People experience symptoms like a constant cough, a recurring need to clear their throat, hoarseness, and the feeling of a lump in their throat. This form of reflux can be confusing to figure out, as its symptoms are easily confused with allergies or the common cold.
Understanding what 'type' of reflux you have is key to how you approach it and when a medical evaluation is required, as each usually requires a different strategy for full effectiveness. However, for most people, there is a common process that can generally be followed: relieve symptoms, make lifestyle and diet changes, find and tackle the root causes, and ease back to normal.
For most people, relieving symptoms and getting a formal diagnosis is one of the first steps in the process.
At this point, depending on if your acid reflux is considered GERD or not, you may be dealing with reflux ranging from being an occasional annoyance to a daily nightmare. Either way, there are common things you can do to help yourself to feel better.
Medical professionals will typically advise you to avoid common diet and lifestyle triggers. This often includes:
• Well-known triggers like tomato-based foods, spicy foods, chocolate, mint, alcohol, citrus fruits, carbonated beverages, and coffee.
• Eating large meals or eating too quickly
• Lying down right after eating
• Eating too close to bedtime
• Smoking
• Stressful environments
• And others
Be aware that what trigger one person may not always trigger another, particularly with diet-related triggers. Chocolate may not bug your stomach, while severely irritating someone else's. Conversely, what someone else claims to soothe their stomach may trigger yours. Many find it useful to begin tracking their diet and symptoms at this stage, so they can find patterns and have more data to make informed decisions later on.
Some people also may also find temporary relief through over-the-counter antacids. For GERD and other severe cases, medical professionals often proscribe protein pump inhibitors (PPIs). PPIs are a type of medication that are meant to reduce stomach acid production. Typically, PPIs are taken temporarily, and are usually used to calm symptoms while the person tackles the root cause(s) of their problem. PPIs can have long term risks, so ensure that you are taking them under the guidance of a medical professional. Learn more about if meds are necessary here.
This step also may include getting diagnosed by a medical professional, especially if you are experiencing what could be GERD. Getting a formal diagnosis is needed in order to begin using PPIs to calm symptoms, as they require a prescription. Medical professionals may also be helpful for investigating root causes, and sometimes recommend an endoscopy to investigate further and check for any structural causes.
After the initial effort to relieve symptoms, with some getting formally diagnosed as well, what comes next? This next part is a mix of optimizing your diet and routines for acid reflux or GERD, while at the same time starting to investigate potential root causes.
Dietary and lifestyle adjustments can reduce both the intensity and the frequency of acid reflux. Common diet recommendations include:
• Avoiding trigger foods (such as the ones mentioned above)
• Avoiding fried, greasy, and fatty meals
• Building a reflux-friendly diet
• Losing weight if necessary
• Eating smaller portions
• Spacing out meals
• Chewing thoroughly
Diet changes normally lead to at least some improvement, but they are usually not sufficient by themselves. Common lifestyle recommendations to put into place alongside a reflux-friendly include:
• Not eating within 2-3 hours of going to bed
• Avoiding intense exercise and weight lifting, especially after meals
• Quitting smoking, drinking, and vaping
• Reducing stress through light exercise, walking, deep breathing exercises, etc.
• Sleeping on your left side
• Losing weight if necessary
• Using a wedge pillow or elevating the head of your bed
These suggestions are not exhaustive. It is important that those with acid reflux or GERD take their diet and lifestyle seriously. Many find themselves stuck in a never-ending cycle of reflux, without realizing that there are simple things they can do to help reduce it and eventually overcome it.
For some, lifestyle and diet changes alone may help their acid reflux to go away. For others, especially those dealing with GERD, diet and lifestyle changes are an important part of finding relief but not the complete solution. When lifestyle and diet changes alone don't fix it, then finding the root cause(s) becomes even more important.
Acid reflux and GERD are often a symptom of underlying factors. After (or alongside) relieving symptoms and putting reflux-friendly practices into place for your lifestyle and diet, the next thing to do is to investigate the potential underlying cause(s) of your reflux.
Common causes of acid reflux and GERD include:
• Other gut health conditions
• Having a hiatel hernia
• Certain medications
• Diet and lifestyle factors
• Past or recent illnesses
• Pregnancy
• Stress
• Being overweight or obese
• And others
Identifying your personal causes, whether dietary, structural, or lifestyle-related, is an important part of effectively overcoming reflux, GERD, or LPR. It may be due to one factor, or multiple. This is one reason why tracking your diet and symptoms over time is important: you begin to spot patterns and understand how your reflux may change. We built NoBurn to help make this easy, but you can also use a journal, a notes app on your phone, or a different resource. If you are working with a medical professional, they often recommend a procedure called an endoscopy to find or rule out various causes.
This part of the process can be short or it can take a while, depending on the severity of your reflux or GERD. With persistence, you should be able to figure out what is likely causing your problem, and can begin to tackle it. Addressing weight, modifying eating habits, adjusting medications under a doctor’s guidance, managing stress, or whatever your cause is will help control reflux at its source.
In more severe or persistent cases, surgery is sometimes recommended. Surgeries usually involve tightening your LES. However, this is relatively rare, and is typically reserved for those who do not respond to diet, lifestyle, and/or medication approaches.
Similarly to finding the cause(s), addressing them can be short or long. Simple things like lifestyle or diet adjustments may have already caused it to largely go away (and for some, go away entirely), but some causes (such as a hiatal hernia) often take a lot more time to resolve.
Patience it key! Getting over acid reflux, GERD, or LPR is usually a marathon, not a sprint.
Once you've tackled the root cause(s) of your condition, the end process can be quite varied.
Those who were able to get over their acid reflux through diet and lifestyle changes can often go back to their normal routine relatively quickly. Many find it helpful to stick to some of their reflux-friendly practices, while adjusting others back to what they used to do.
If a person's acid reflux or GERD was due to factors like obesity, smoking, drinking, etc, it is important to stick to their current state. If they return to their previous lifestyle or health, acid reflux or GERD will often return.
For those whose reflux was due to things like pregnancy, stress, or other temporary factors, it is often easier to return to a normal diet and routine, assuming they are past whatever caused their problem.
For those dealing with GERD, it may take longer to get back to a normal pre-reflux routine. Oftentimes, they will gradually taper off of PPIs under the guidance of a medical professional. Occasionally you may experience rebound acid, which is a normal part of the process. Eventually, most should stop needing PPIs and can use diet and lifestyle adjustments to manage their reflux. Some may still take PPIs occasionally, to deal with reflux flares.
Thankfully, acid reflux, GERD, and silent reflux are all common, treatable, and have tested methods to use to overcome them. With patience and the right approach, almost everyone can successfully overcome their issue.
