Top 10 Natural Remedies for Acid Reflux

Hi Shobha, I work in the field of sleep disorders medicine and I have many patient that suffer from nighttime (only) reflux and many of them suffer from snoring and or Sleep Apnea (pauses in breathing or shallow breathing). The snoring/Apnea is an obstruction in the airway makes the person's breathing effort increase, however since the airway is compromised and narrowed it causes a "sucking-up" of the acid from the stomach into the throat when the person tries to breathe... Allot of these patients sleep at an incline with several pillows or a wedge. If you snore or have been told that you make breathing sounds or pauses in breathing while sleeping you should have it evaluated. Good luck.

Hi, My response if for Shobha from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and any other acid reflux sufferers. Before we married, my husband suffered from a severe case of acid reflux. He had to sleep on his right side propped up on pillows. He took "the purple pill" religiously after going through several other well-known "acid-reducing" meds, that one by one became ineffective as he graduated to a stronger medicine. I have always been opposed to these meds because most people suffer from too little acid and not too much acid, so taking medicines to further lower their stomach acids sounded quite "stupid" and dangerous. If you reduce your stomach acid, then your body can not break down your food for energy and nutrition. Then slowly you begin to get all kinds of health problems bascially due to "malnutrtion" and deficiencies. Kind of like starving yourself to death but with lots of bloat, constipation, and allergies and without the weight loss. Oh you'll still have all the fat broken down and stored on your hips and gut, but you won't be able to break down protein into amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of life. Without them your body cannot reproduce new blood cells, muscle tissue, etc. Anyway, back to my husband. Whenever I would try to convince him of the harm he was doing to himself, we would always end up in an argument over it. Finally, Thank God, he started his own company and lost his "company provided health insurance" that paid for a majority of his meds. When he went to refill his prescripton and they told him it was $80 for a month's supply, he turned finally turned to me to help "fix" him the natural way. I put him on a yeast-free-diet and oregano oil capsules. Basically he avoided all simple carbs (white rice, white flour products, all fermented foods and beverages, fungus foods like mushrooms, etc.) He followed the diet Mon-Fri about 95% but on the weekends he cheated alot. In less than 2 months he lost around 15 lbs and his acid reflux. No more meds needed. No more propping on pillows at night while laying on his right side. He could even bend over to wash the bottom of his car without acid coming up in his throat. That was 6 years ago. He rarely gets heartburn now unless he has been over-indulging in beer or refined carbs. And when he does get it, he uses about 1/2 tsp. baking soda in water to relieve it. No more "magic pills" for him. I suggest everyone using this stuff to do some research on the side-effects of it. You are slowly killing yourself. Proton pump inhibitors inhibit a lot more than acid production.

Why should we not eat fermented foods? I had heard that if they are the right kind of fermented foods, they are good for us?

I noticed that oatmeal is part of your daily meal. I used to eat that also in trying to make a diet to ease my hypertension; and at the same time fighting with gerd. However, I noticed that eating oatmeal makes me feel bloated and full and later on vomit. But when I stop eating oatmeal, that feeling is gone. So I suggest you take off oatmeal from your diet. Hope this helps.

To JL in Oregon, OH. You said, "i eat oatmeal for am and cereal for lunch then dinner..." You also said you don't eat much.

I am now 62 and had acid reflux (GERD) for a lot longer (my entire adult life) than you've had it. I finally figured out about 20 months ago that I have a gluten sensitivity. I removed all grains (except for occasional servings of organic brown rice) from my diet. Wheat, oatmeal, and barley are the most common sources of gluten in the Standard American Diet (the SAD). I had taken proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) drugs for 8 to 9 years. Before that I took bucket-loads-full of antacids (Tums and the like) for many years. I no longer have any acid reflux problems, and haven't taken any acid-suppressing drugs or remedies for most of the last 20 months. (It took about several weeks on my gluten-free diet for the reflux symptoms to gradually disappear.)

First of all, your high-cereal diet is probably causing you all kinds of problems, not the least of which is lack of adequate macronutrients (proteins and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Second of all, have you considered that you might possibly have a subclinical form of gluten sensitivity? Suppressing your stomach acid in the belief that this will alleviate acid reflux is a dangerous belief, propagated, of course, by mainstream allopathic doctors. And, suppressing stomach acid has dangerous side effects, the most prominent one being the inability to properly digest food and absorb the micronutrients that are so extremely important. In my case (as a post-menopausal female), the PPI drugs caused me to develop some bone loss (osteopenia) due to lack of absorbing enough minerals. A very dangerous side-effect, indeed (also for males).

Given your (apparently) high intake of gluten-containing foods, and the severity of your acid reflux symptoms, my suggestion is to eliminate gluten foods for at least six weeks and find out whether you see significant improvement. At the same time, you should increase animal-based proteins and fats (from organic, pasture-raised animals, if possible), and add digestive enzymes to every meal. (If you don't eat animal-based foods, that is, you eat a "vegetarian diet," then eliminating gluten-containing foods gets a lot more complicated). If you want to contact me for further information about how I cured myself, here is my e-mail address: rightwriter46lggmailcom.

When you said mustard is it the one in a bottle or mustard powder or some kind of grain?

I can attest to this. This worked for me. I started making tomato tea (TT) for the colds and I started taking TT last year 2011. I usually take 1-2 tablespoons daily during late fall and early spring as well as when I sense that the weather is abruptly going up and down in the winter and my body is sending early warning signals that I am getting "sniffles" that a cold is coming. The only problem I have with taking TT is that I get very bad heartburns... It feels like I am getting heart attack / pains... At that point, I immediately swallowed small mustard packets every 10 minutes or so (they are free along with ketchup, mayo, salt, pepper, etc. ) that one gets in the fast food restaurants or sandwich shops. The packets are small, do not break and easy to carry). Yesterday I took TT in the morning and late afternoon in anticipation of an oncoming cold (which did not happen). In the early evening I swallowed three packets, 15-30 minutes apart and within or less than taking the first packet my pains went down by 50%. Within 30 minutes, my heart pains totally went away... Can't live one without the other.. This worked for me..

After alot of different "tricks" for my dog's discomfort, I finally got her to take a dose of mustard, and she is almost smiling! Finally wagging her tail again. Thank you so much!

Mustard contains vinegar and turmeric, both help with digestion.

Okay, I thought WTH? I been suffering for days and can't get to the store to buy anything. I have tried Milk of Mag, and Tums. Although a couple of months ago I was taking Prevacid every day for about 30 days and had not problems for about a month after I stopped taking it. I decided to give vinegar a try because I had it on hand and it made it worse for me. I just tried the mustard about a minute before I started typing this email, and I pray it is not just my mind playing tricks on me, but I feel the difference... As of now, I would say IT WORKS!

I just tried it this morning, 2 teaspoons mustard after many days of heart burn, nausea, etc. It has been about 15 minutes and I'm feeling relief already, I hope it will last!