Acid Reflux or heartburn is an uncomfortable symptom that causes a regurgitation or upward movement of foods or liquid from the stomach into your food pipe. Once you have acid reflux, you have to modify your lifestyle. Your life not the same anymore. Acid reflux, if untreated aggravates to another symptom called GERD. It is an acronym for Gastroesophageal Reflex Disease. It is important to treat acid reflux. What is more important is to stop it when you can so that you can eat and live happily. I have helped scores of people cure acid reflux and GERD. Here are 5 ways to stop acid reflux. Before we head to the cure, let us understand what causes it. Prevention is the first step to cure Acid Reflux and GERD.
What triggers Acid Reflux?
The usual reasons for acid reflux is over eating or so it seems. However, I have also seen people who don\’t eat much but still suffer from acid reflux. So, we are back to the question, what causes acid reflux?
This is my diagnosis of acid reflux using pulse diagnosis. Acid reflux is primarily caused due to uncomfortable memories from your past. These memories trigger anger, resentment and unhappiness causing your oesophageal valve to not close. According to Ayurveda and Yoga shastras, the energy that causes recapitulation of memories is called Udana Vayu. When Udana Vayu triggers, it moves upward. Several symptoms manifest and Acid reflux is one of them. The other symptoms that can manifest are cervical spondylosis, wheezing and Asthma, COPD which is the acronym for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases lung condition, brain tumours, snoring and heart disease, chronic intestinal obstruction, constipation and several other symptoms.
Memories
Your uncomfortable memories trigger a need to satisfy yourself and that way you can divert your mind away from these memories. And one of the things you turn to is food. Satisfying your senses can be a tough job. This is because, you need to keep eating until your can eat no more. The mind does not get satisfied at all. By the way, I have to tell you this. When you have acid reflux, your hunger is dissipated. You eat because your mind craves for food. It\’s not hunger.
5 ways to cure Acid Reflux
1. Food
Hunger and craving are different
Hunger and craving are different. By observing your feeling in your stomach and tongue, you can differentiate between the two. Give into hunger and avoid craving. When your tongue is craving for food, I suggest you drink lukewarm water. Eat your dinner within an hour after sunset. Lunch must happen before 1:00pm. Do not tell me you can\’t do that. Your body is governed by the rising and setting sun. It doesn\’t know how else to work. It works according to nature. So, support your body. Don\’t force your body to support your abusive schedules. That way you are weakening your body\’s ability to perform its tasks effortlessly, optimally and efficiently.
2. Do not drink Alcohol
Alcohol does more damage than what you can see. Your stomach wall erodes resulting a peptic ulcer, liver over synthesises enzymes resulting in black patches on skin. The gall bladder releases more bile resulting in acidic indigestion which can progress to heartburn or acid reflux. Your pancreas get affected which may result in diabetes and pancreatitis. The small and large intestines become thinner resulting in mal-absorption and duodenal ulcers. Your muscles stiffen and skin becomes thinner resulting in rashes and bruises. Eyesight gets affected. Literally the whole body gets messed up due to consumption of alcohol.
3. Relax body and mind before sleeping
It is important to relax your body and mind before getting to bed. There are several ways of doing this!
You can shower before getting into your bed to sleep. If you feel that\’s too much, you can dip your feet in bearably hot water for 10 minutes before going to sleep. Alternately, you can sit on your bed, observe your breathing for 10 minutes before lying down.
4. Exercise everyday to maintain a healthy metabolism
Exercise maintains a healthy metabolism. The anabolic and catabolic processes which in others words mean storing and releasing of energy is the process that keeps the body active and healthy. This activity requires the body to express good hunger and a healthy digestion.
People more than often are unaware what it means to be hungry. In my years of work with people, I have come to realise that most people eat when food is kept in front of them. Hunger or no hunger, food is consumed. This may result in heartburn or acid reflux.
Exercise produces a healthy hunger. Without exercise your mind produces a craving for food. Giving into food cravings can cause you to experience heartburn or acid reflux and ignoring this symptom can manifest into GERD.
5. Finish your tasks regularly
Procrastination is bad for your mental, psychological as well as your physical health. Schedule your tasks daily and accomplish them. Further, be honest to yourself and stop accepting tasks when you cannot accomplish them.
When you procrastinate, your mind creates worries and your sleep gets disturbed. Sleep disturbance results in improper digestion of foods. Disturbed sleep can result in heartburn or GERD.
Cure Acid Reflux and GERD when they are still curable. Ignoring heartburn or acid reflux can lead to symptoms which may become chronic and untreatable.
There are no modern medical tests to show how much damage you have done to your body and when you will cross the line. The time is now to fight acid reflux and wake up to better health.
— Mahesh Krishnamurthy