How to Prevent Acid Reflux at Night

Many people are under the erroneous belief that there is nothing they can do to prevent acid reflux at night. They simply continue to drink that nasty pink liquid by the gallon and pop those chalky antacid tablets by the handful before bedtime, with little to no success.

Fortunately, the treatment of acid reflux is sometimes a matter of changing your lifestyle.

Instructions

• 1

  Do Not Eat Within 3 Hours of Bedtime - To prevent acid reflux from occurring at night, many times the simplest solution is to simply avoid eating near bedtime. While you are awake, gravity lends a helping hand and keeps stomach acid where it belongs. When your body begins breaking down your food into essential nutrients and fluids, the stomach is called upon to produce large quantities of acid to aid the digestion process.

  If you should lay down while this acid is doing its job, it is much more likely that some may escape into the esophagus resulting in the painful burning associated with heartburn.

• 2

  Do Not Overeat - When you overeat, your body is forced to compensate by producing more acid. To make matters even worse, the increased pressure exerted on the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) may cause it to open inappropriately allowing acid to leak out into the throat. To help prevent acid reflux, try and eat 5 or 6 smaller meals throughout the day.

• 3

  Do Not Drink Carbonated Beverages - The LES is a valve that controls what goes in and out of the stomach. It also regulates the pressure in the stomach by allowing gas to escape if the pressure exceeds a certain threshold.

  Drinking carbonated beverages adds to this pressure and may cause the LES to open. Regurgitated foods often washes back into the throat as a result of drinking too many carbonated beverages near bedtime.