Many people suffer from heartburn. Read here how you can treat heartburn and when you need medical advice.
A reflux disease can be stressful: belching, frequent heartburn, difficulty swallowing, burning in the throat, stomach noise.
The list of possible symptoms is even longer than this list. Those affected restrict this in everyday life. You can often no longer enjoy food and drink and sometimes sleep poorly due to the complaints. What helps?
So much in advance: The one patent solution does not exist. But there are different approaches that sick people can try.
A reflux disease can be stressful: belching, frequent heartburn, difficulty swallowing, burning in the throat, stomach noise.
The list of possible symptoms is even longer than this list. Those affected restrict this in everyday life. You can often no longer enjoy food and drink and sometimes sleep poorly due to the complaints. What helps?
So much in advance: The one patent solution does not exist. But there are different approaches that sick people can try.
Heartburn: What foods should be avoided?
Does it help to omit certain foods, stop smoking or give up alcohol? All this can be worth a try. But: Whether and how the change of behavior helps against heartburn and acid regurgitation has not yet been well studied.
Coffee, chocolate, greasy or spicy foods, citrus fruits or carbonated drinks are among the foods that may cause discomfort. It is worth watching this closely and adjusting the diet in case of emergency. However, there is no blanket guarantee that the complaints will change through a change in eating habits.
It often takes some time and patience to figure out which foods you don’t tolerate so well. Possibly in the course of this it also becomes clear that the food is not the cause of these complaints.
Heartburn: Losing weight can help
Overweight people with reflux disease are also often advised to lose weight. Reason: The extra pounds could press on the esophagus and stomach, among other things, which may interfere with the closure at the end of the esophagus. However, experts are in the light: Even thin people who eat rather low-fat could have reflux and heartburn.
For reflux complaints at night, it may be worth a try to refrain from late meals or place the upper body higher when sleeping. Another tip for testing: Turn to the left side – then the stomach closure is at the top.
Heartburn: Medication and surgery
If changes in lifestyle do not improve, medications could be a way to improve the symptoms. If this is also unsuccessful, the anti-reflux surgery is an option. A part of the stomach is placed completely or partially around the esophagus.
There is evidence that surgeons feel less restricted by heartburn and reflux than people who take medication. But this can only be said for the first year after surgery. Whether the procedure performs better compared to drugs in the long term has not yet been well investigated.
And: Just as the drugs can have side effects, undesirable consequences are also possible during the procedure – these include, for example, swallowing difficulties.
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