What treatments are available for acid reflux relief?
For mild heartburn remedies, lifestyle changes are recommended as a first step. There are a number of great natural remedies for acid reflux, which medicine isn’t required for. These lifestyle adjustments could include things like:
- Quitting smoking
- Sleeping on your left side, which puts the entrance to your stomach from your esophagus at the top, making it harder for acid or food to get into your esophagus
- Avoiding foods that you know trigger symptoms
- Raising the head of your bed (JUST the head) 6-8 inches to lift your esophagus above your stomach and reduce the opportunity for anything to re-enter the esophagus from your stomach
- Losing weight to reduce abdominal pressure on your lower esophageal sphincter (LES)
- Avoiding late meals, so your body can fully digest food before you lay down to sleep
When these lifestyle changes aren’t enough to control your acid reflux, treatments like over-the-counter antacids or histamine receptor antagonists may be suggested as a first step; especially if you’re still only experiencing mild symptoms.
In some cases, when symptoms are more long-term or severe, your practitioner may suggest Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) as an acid reflux treatment.
They will also likely encourage you to re-evaluate any lifestyle changes that you could still make, which could potentially reduce the severity of your need for meds for stomach acid control.