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Gerd Diet And Tips For Relief by

A diet for GERD relief must begin by understanding what it is we want to relieve. What is GERD? Technically speaking, GERD is an irritation or inflammation of the esophagus. It is believed that the condition is due to stomach acid flowing back up into the esophagus. The esophagus is the pipe that carries swallowed food from your mouth to your stomach. Where they meet, a ring of muscle called a sphincter separates the stomach and esophagus. This lower esophageal sphincter (LES) relaxes to let food into the stomach, and tightens to keep stomach acids from flowing back, and coming into contact with the sensitive lining of the esophagus.

GERD is an acronym, created for quicker, easier pronunciation and use of the term "gastroesophageal reflux disease."

* Gastro refers to stomach.
* Esophageal refers to esophagus.
* Reflux means to flow backward
* Disease is the illness.

A diet for GERD relief must recognize that the problem is muscular. The LES is not functioning properly. If this is somehow caused by food, the issue must be addressed in diet. Let's look at some possibilities.

Meal Times

A diet for GERD relief can help with GERD that occurs during sleep. How? Rather than change the type of food in the diet, the GERD sufferer should leave more time between the evening meal and bedtime. If you suffer from GERD, acid reflux, or heartburn, you may be going to bed too soon after your evening meal.

Researchers in Japan found that a shorter interval between dinner and bed is associated with an increased risk of GERD. Reporting on a 2005 study, researchers said that they saw a significant connection between shorter dinner-to-bed time and GERD.

Japanese researchers used 147 patients who had experienced GERD symptoms during the previous year and 294 matched "control" patients who had not experienced GERD symptoms during the previous year. Each was given a questionnaire to evaluate the normal time between finishing dinner and going to bed.

Study participants who went to be bed within three hours after the evening meal were 7.45 times more likely to suffer heartburn as those who waited four or more hours.

Dr. Yasuhiro Fujiwara and his colleagues from Osaka City University state in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, "It is generally recommended that patients with GERD refrain from eating within three hours of going to sleep".

A diet for GERD relief will, therefore, include early evening meals.

In addition, GERD treatment calls for smaller meals, reducing the amount of food in the stomach at any given time. This permits the stomach to work more efficiently, and reduces the amount of pressure placed on the LES.

Foods You May Want to Avoid

As stated, GERD is a muscular disorder. The LES is relaxing too much. This relaxation can be caused, for some people, by certain foods.

A diet for GERD relief should test this theory be avoiding certain foods to determine if they are at fault. The following are thought to aggravate GERD. They may or may not aggravate your symptoms.

1. chocolate
2. creamed foods
3. fast foods (most)
4. fatty foods
5. milk
6. oils
7. peppermint

If you have GERD, with inflamed lower esophagus, you may want to avoid, or at least limit, caffeinated drinks such as coffee, soft drinks, and tea. These are thought to irritate the inflammation. Citrus fruits and their juices may also irritate.

Aside from these limits, you should be able to eat other foods.

Helpful Tip

People differ. Foods that may aggravate or irritate one person may have little or no effect on another. Conduct your own, honest experiments, expecting the best. You may be able to eat most of these foods.

CAUTION: The author is not a medical professional and presents the above information for educational purposes only. Please seek the advice of a physician if heartburn, acid reflux, or GERD persist.

© 2007, Anna herself lives with a husband who used to suffer heartburn frequently, and she empathizes with your problem. She invites you to read more of her articles about heartburn, acid reflux, and GERD at http://www.heartburnreliefblog.com. Anna continues to research and post additional information on that site. If you are eager to get information about natural GERD relief, please visit Anna now.

Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Gerd---Diet-And-Tips-For-Relief/164889

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 at 6:24 am and is filed under Medical, Mobility and Special Needs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.