Quick tip to reduce night time heartburn

Sorry for the delay in writing – I was on short vacation. I hope you find my blog interesting and useful. Even though it is not very personalized I try to put as much useful information here as possible.
There were a couple of occasions recently when I was drinking beer or wine. Usually when I drink it over some certain amount I’m guaranteed to have night time heartburn. Usually my limit is 1 glass. Anything more than that = pain (usually minor but still pain).

So I tried to come up with some idea on how to reduce this pain even when you overindulge. I though that when you drink much you usually have alcohol staying in your system for some time. I read that alcohol usually stays from 1 hour to 10-12 hours. So the goal is to get rid of this alcohol as soon as possible. Doing this has two benefits. First it will reduce the night time heartburn (or hopefully it won’t show up at all). And second it will reduce the hangover.

So here are couple advices.

  • Eat food while you drink. Food, especially high protein food such as meat, cheese and peanuts, will help slow the absorption of alcohol into your body.
  • Drink water 1 hour before going to sleep (after being done with drinking). Alcohol pushes out water from the body. At the same time water pushes alcohol from the body too. This will also reduce morning dehydration and hangover (if you were drinking way too much)
  • Incliner Sleep Wedge is an innovative sleep solution. It was scientifically designed just to help acid reflux sufferers. It relieves acid reflux by elevating your head, shoulders and upper body as doctors recommend. It helps you to sleep in a natural position for controlling heartburn, respiratory problems and digestion ailments. An alternative to sleep wedge pillow is Mattress Genie
  • Over the course of living with heartburn and acid reflux I found only one herbal treatment which is very effective. It is Slippery Elm. I mostly use it in the form of the powder and make a tea out of it. Tea isn’t very tasty but it covers stomach and esophagus with gel like liquid which protects them from acid. Usually one cup of tea is good enough to have zero heartburn through the night and in the morning.

When it comes at night (hopefully it won’t) don’t suffer in the bed. Stand by and sip some water. This will dilute acid in your stomach and also help your stomach to clear up. Also wait for some time 10-20 minutes before going to sleep again. Water and acid will leave stomach sooner when you’re standing or sitting.

I hope these advises will help you to win a fight over the heartburn!

Non acidic alcohol drinks – wine story

Having heartburn sucks, but what sucks even more is not being able to relax with friends having a pint of beer or shot of vodka.

All web sites recommend completely avoiding alcohol when having heartburn. But at the same time they claim that heartburn is a life long condition. Well does it mean you will have to avoid alcohol for the rest of your life? No way!!!

We already know that wine in moderation is good for your health. But wine is the most acidic liquid you probably can find around except vinegar. And it will definitely cause heartburn in 3-5 minutes after consuming.

Many wine lovers with heartburn just try to stand the pain and take tiny pieces of pleasure before heartburn starts. But I doubt that it is really fun experience. So if you love wines you can try following.

For one month switch from usual red wines to sweet wines. Right, you probably never heard what the heck is that. No – it is not only ports (even though ports are nice ;) ). There are lots of sweet and semi-sweet wines which are very very popular in certain parts of Europe. And yes, it is not that hard to find them in US.

If you think that these wines taste like grape donut – you’re wrong! I personally respect such wines much much more than any sour ones. Good sweet wines taste better than lots of dry wines.

So if you want to get full list of such wines please go to “wine list page” where I have a list of wines which are very tasty and won’t hurt your stomach.

Please note that an alcohol is still an alcohol – so drink it in moderation. Even too much of sweet or semi-sweet wine could put your stomach on fire.

But just imagine – drinking glass of wine and not having heartburn. And if you won’t have it for a month – there is a very good chance you can start drinking dry wines in moderation too. Just don’t drink too much.

Check out more remedies from heartburn and heartburn safe food at my remedy database and food database

Air swallowing is not the cause heartburn

According to following study belching is not the cause of acid reflux. So if you belch more it won’t make your heartburn worse. Researchers measured how many times people with heartburn belch versus people with healthy stomach. Patients with gerd had 287 occurences of air swallow why healthy people had 176. Also patients with gerd had 52 occurences of belching while healthy people had 32. But when researches infused some air into patients’ stomachs it didn’t worsen symptoms of acid reflux. Same happened with healthy people – no increase in reflux at all.So if you belch more today it does not mean your heartburn would be worse.On a personal note I saw quite an opposite connection. When I belch more I have less heartburn… Strange isn’t it?
SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, August 2006