Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux Relief

I have been using ACV for THREE years for my reflux which has worked beautifully. I have been basically symptom free until last week when my reflux came back with a vengeance. I have pressure in my chest and I feel it burning my throat. I have not done anything differently and the ACV doesn't seem to be working. Has this happened to anyone before??? Is it just a slight relapse that will go away?? PLEASE HELP!

I have being having acid reflux/ gerd for years but I don't take a lots of antacid or prescription drugs, I couldn't find the organic apple cider vinegar or the one with mother here in Jamaica but I have started yesterday with apple cider vinegar instantly I felt a little relief, I intended to continue using it but my main concern with this is I am scary that I will start losing weight and don't want to my weight is not a problem I could do with more, my next concern is how much should I take per day an also on the glass bottle it is marked diluted with water. Should I add more water to this or drink it directly, anticipating a quick response thank you.

I have tried apple cider vinegar for acid reflux. I have been taking it for few days with half glass of water. It has showed me some good effects but still I get some burning sensation after meals. At night I have to take a digene tablet to get the acid down. Still have not found 100% solution

I am amazed. Apple Cider Vinegar (plus other remedies/ changes) actually works!

I have had GERD since I was 16, now 24, I have used medication for the last 8 years. Wow, 8 years!

I started with Ranitadine, and "graduated" to Omeprazole a couple years ago when Ranitadine 150mg twice a day pretty much stopped working. I started on 20mg Omeprazole once a day and a few months ago was put on 40mg twice a day. Rediculous, it got so bad that even THAT wasn't completely stopping my symptoms, I felt like my stomach was retaliating as soon as it could create acid again. And on top of it, ever since I was diagnosed with GERD if I ate any "trigger" foods (Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, spicey, acidic), I would get such an immense pain in my chest like something was trying to claw it's way out of me. No doctor can figure that one out, I got an endoscopy all is fine, so I was told to just avoid those foods. Fine, I can do that, except that after I was taking my Omeprazole 40mg THAT was tiggering the pain! You can imagine the doctors where clueless to that as well.

Now I think I finally know why the medicine stopped working and even hurt me, the medication was just funking up my body. My stomach had no idea what to do, and was sensitive to EVERYTHING. I wanted off medication, but was scared to do so. I had tried about a year ago and had bad results. My GERD causes acid to go into my throat, usually while sleeping but sometimes during the day too. And when I tried a natural remedy before, yep, acid in the throat. Not a pleasent way to wake up I must say. But I felt, after finding this site and reading up elsewhere, that I was ready to try again. I have now been off of it for about 9 days, and am doing well.

I made a plan for myself, as I felt that simply taking ACV like a medication would actually work. It was part of the "Plan". My routine starts in the morning with a tablet of DGL Licorice, have it before anything else and wait a few minutes. The DGL (Hopefully) helps your stomach create more of the protective mucus lining that helps prevent and treat ulcers. Since I am drinking acid and know that with GERD I am at risk for Barret's esophagus I think this extra step of caution is a good one to take. Then I take around 2-3oz aloe vera gel (it's just a thickened juice, you can get regular juice I just think this feels better going down). I get this organic one in a glass jar at Whole Foods, primarily because they don't use Citric Acid, but instead lemon juice and it is in a glass jar- no BPA! :) I cannot remember the name, but I think it's the only organic one in a glass jar there. I had the Aloe Vera Juice from Trader Joes and it was like drinking pure acid, it hurt so much to drink and tasted horrible. Not worth saving like $10 a month just so you scorch your throat in my opinion. Okay, so after I take DGL and Aloe I have breakfast, small meals are very key to controlling GERD/Acid Reflux in my experience. Do NOT drink water with your meal, you should chew, chew, chew to let your saliva moisten the food, this way the enzymes that naturally neutralize stomach acid help you in your quest to be drug free! Then drink, drink, drink! You need a ton of water to help your stomach digest, and to dilute acid the rest of the day. If I am doing good, I will pee about every 60 minutes, maybe sooner. Lol. But it is worth it. I Don't seem to wake up at night though, so that's good. In the afternoon, if I can, I juice, vegetables really help neutralize stomach acid and are healthy for you anyways! Though I don't think you have to do this, I have had much success with out a lot of juicing. I try to make my lunch the largest meal of the day, that way I can work hard and digest for a long time afterwords. Then comes possibly the most important part for me personally, the night routine. I have dinner NO LESS than 3 hours before laying down, I SIT UP or STAND for the whole three hours before bed. This way gravity is on your side while digesting your relatively small dinner. After I eat I will wait about 20 minutes typically then I drink only like 1 teaspoon ACV (Organic, unfiltered) in a couple oz of water, then I chase it down with just water to try to get the ACV off of the throat. (Sometimes after lunch I will do a ACV and Baking soda mix, you can probably do this for dinner as well if you like. Sounds counter intuative, but your body actually neutralizes the ACV anyways, but it still stays acidic enough to help aid your stomach with digestion. When you mix these two it takes the burn away when you drink it, find the Ted's recipe, he explains it more. ) Then right before bed I will drink about 4 oz water with a slightly heaping teaspoon of baking soda to neutralize whatever's left in my stomach and I am ready to sleep on my slanted bed. Slanting your bed is SO important, again gravity is on your side by keeing acid away from your throat.

So my lifestyle and diet changes summarized:

-Avoid foods that can cause issues (Esp. Chocolate and Coffee! These contain methylxanthine witch relaxes the LES allowing food and acid into the throat. Eat Carob as a chocolate substitute. :)

• -Take DGL and Aloe in the morning
• -If needed take ACV in afternoon
• -If time Juice vegetables in afternoon (especially cabbage! )
• -Take ACV mixture After Dinner
• -Wait 3 hours after last meal... NO Snacks! If you snack you have to wait another 3 hours before bed. This allows your stomach time to stop producing acid, the second a food hits it ir produces a lot of acid, so one cookie, even one bite of a cookie, will send it into overdrive!
• - Drink Baking Soda water mixture right before bed
• - Have a slanted bed, or a wedge (though I always slid off those things, that is why my bed is slanted)
• -Smaller meals, have like 4 a day instead of 3.
• -Lose weight if needed, I weigh like 112lb after losing 7lb, and still need to lose like 10lb, every pound you have just goes to pressing your stomach making it harder to keep food and acid in!
• -Drink WATER! Drink, drink, drink!!! Ideally almost the only thing you will drink is water. Sugars cause your stomach to create more acid. Milk is certainly no longer my friend, heartburn every time I drink it, at first it feels good, then heartburn like crazy around 30 minutes later.

Anyways, I really hope this helps people like I does me. I will say I am not 100% symptom free, I get heartburn, but not as bad as if I did nothing, and I have yet to get acid in my throat. I am happy with the results and feel everyday my stomach is getting back to the way it was before I wrecked it with caffeine, stress, and ibuprofen, naturally. :)

I have had acid reflux for over four years. My valve isn't working properly. The doctor recommended the purple pill and a bland diet. I tried the pill but it is almost as bad as the reflux, so I stopped. For the last four years I have chewed gum and if necessary used an over the counter liquid. It has worked okay until I ate too much one night and burnt my esophagus. Bad move. The doctor placed me on another type of pill. I took it for 14 days (he recommended twice the dose for thirty days, I only took one for 14) not feeling a lot better. I saw your site and decided, the day I finished my first suggested doses of medicine, to start ACV. I used one tablespoon in 16ozs of drinking water, morning and evening. Immediately helped. I eat an apple before my lunch, and a lot more water than normal. I have been doing much better, especially for sleeping at night. I am going to try the bicarbonate soda too to see if it works better. I'm still waiting to see a specialist just to ask some questions and get his opinion. I have totally changed my diet but it needs some tweeking. When I'm stressed I have a little more of a problem. The apples help that. I have noticed more benifits to this situation. My sinisus have cleared up, my teeth are whiter and I have lost five pounds. I wish I had known this a lot sooner. Not perfect but I am grateful for the help. Thank you, Lynda

P.S. I'll let you know how the addition of the bicarbonate soda works.

Well, its been four weeks I've been taking the ACV and honey. My cough is better! not gone, but better! This may be the answer.;-)

I am 21 years old and have been suffering with acid reflux and heartburn since I was a lot younger. I was on nexium for about 3 years and on prilosec for about 5 or more. After reading about all the harmful side affects with long use I was desperate to find a natural cure. I found this website and it is quite a blessing to me. I stoped taking prilosec completly on Feb 1st and started taking 2 teaspoons of braggs organic apple cider vinegar in 8 ounces of water the next day. The first day i took it when I woke up about a half hour before eating anything and I had no symptoms of acid reflux till yesterday. I think I messed up by taking it after I ate. I still have mild heartburn but Im willing to suffer with it and try to make this work! Any other things I should try? let me know! Thanks

hi this is the first time i have ever replied to a website like this. so here it goes. for the last couple of wks i have . recently i have had severe chest pain, earache, and flu like symptoms on one day. yesterday at work i was in really bad shape my chest felt like i had a 500lb person sitting on it and i am only 117lbs so that is alot. i though i was havin a heartattack. on top of that i took four asprin not all at once but during a 8 hr pd.so i woke up today and took tums. they relieved some of the pain but i didnt really have much. i figured i would look on the internet to see about acid reflux due to i remember havin it a few yrs ago but not thtat bad. i read the acv article and decided to try it. well i have had it in my system for two hrs now and it seems to have helped alot. except for the whole fact of the taste is really bad. lol. i really hope it works and stays away. but we will see. thanks for the advice though and i love this site.

I have been on omeprazole for about 6 months, after an endoscope revealed an esophageal ulcer. It healed after a couple of months, and I've been trying to wean myself off the pills ever since, without success. So I tried the ACV, first time about 5 days ago, and so far, so good.

Now, my question is this: Do I need to keep taking ACV? If so, for how long? Forever? Or does it "reset" the stomach to go back to "normal" amounts of acid production?

So in my mind, a "treatment" would necessitate taking this continually, whereas a "cure" would mean that you take it for some duration, then you are able to stop taking it without further symptoms.

And second question: I have been unable to find a consensus about dosage. I have been taking two teaspoons about 4x each day, spread throughout the day. This seems to be working, but is there a better, optimal protocol?

thanks
Dana

9/8/2008: Dana writes: "Hi again, another question. What are the long-term ramifications of taking the ACV?
And I am taking it plain, in water, with no baking soda. I have mild blood pressure issues, so I don't want to add sodium to my diet. Is there any problem with taking this ACV straight into the water, without sodium bicarbonate?
thanks

Dear Jane and Jacky, I've only recently started having esophageal spasms myself (the first was 2 months ago), and they are so painful. My doctor had no idea what was causing them, but gave me prilosec anyway. Thanks doc. I've also been going to acupuncture every week for about a month and thought it might be helping until 2AM this morning when a severe spasm hit. Now, I'm scouring the internet in the middle of the night. After reading your postings about being fellow spasm sufferers, I tried my first glass of ACV and honey. The taste was certainly not great, but I think I feel a little relief already. Here's hoping that this inexpensive, natural remedy will be an end to the painful spasms.

I am, at this very moment, trying the ACV cure for Acid Reflux. I developed reflux symptoms after a greasy meal 3 months ago. I don't eat much grease and I guess it was a shock to my system. I've been on Aciphex for 3 days and today I felt worse than ever. I really do not want to take another pill so, after reading all the praises of ACV and honey, I'm giving it a shot. I also have anxiety/panic disorder and the Aciphex and pain from reflux has made it much worse. I bought a bottle of ACV 3 weeks ago. Without reading about mixing it with water and honey, I just tried a spoonful of it and couldn't bear the taste so put it away. I'm desperate tonight as its 2:30 in the morning and I'm in such pain I don't know what else to do. I only used about a teaspoon in a cup of water, and a big squirt of honey and I'm sipping it. The taste is not great, but bearable. Part of my symptoms are esophageal spasms from my esophagus trying to keep the acid from leaking out. And today I have this horrible lump in the back of my throat that feels like a ball of acid. I've gotta say, I think I'm feeling a bit better from it. I will continue to take it 2 or 3 times a day, as well as the apples. I just can't take another PPI. I sure hope this works. Thanks so much for offering me some hope of a natural cure.

I am just going try the ACV I have been on priolosec, prevacid, aciphex, protonix, etc. Its really does not work very good. So here it goes for me I will let you know the results...My first swig of it burned but it onlyu lasted a half hour and my throat started feeling better...

I have not yet tried the ACV but plan to do so today. For those few who say that their symptoms get worse with ACV those people truly have too much stomach acid. ACV only works on those who do not have enough stomach acid and have been diagnosed in error. I first heard of ACV in relation to acid reflux from a show on PBS - Brenda Watson's H.O.P.E. and that was what she said. If you ever get a chance to read her book or see her video she is amazing. So if ACV does not work for you - you truly have too much stomach acid. IF it does - you do not have enough.

Read your web page about natural cures. After many different drugs I had tried and not had any relief so I tried your remedy. After reading several different comments from people who had done the vinegar I thought it made sense. I also read some other information on chewing gum helps create more saliva which adds more enzymes that aids digestion. With these 2 natural things I have had about 80 percent relief! YAAAAAAAAAAAA!