Highly acidic foods are the biggest cause of acid reflux ( GERD ) in sufferers. This is accompanied by weak muscles that lead to your stomach that are there to assist in the transport of food at the start of your digestive tract.
Your muscles will assist the food you eat for the entire journey through your body until the waste products are expelled. Once the food enters your stomach youre your body will churn the food up ready for proper digestion and absorption with the contraction of muscles, and with the excretion of digestive juices.
At the top of your stomach you have a muscle called the lower oesophageal sphincter ( LES ) which prevents food and digestive juices from re-entering your oesophagus. The weakening of this muscle is what causes food to shoot back up into your oesophagus which then causes the burning sensation behind your breastbone.
Low stomach acid levels can also cause the food to re-enter your oesophagus as the food takes longer to digest and will stay in your stomach longer than it should. This can give you the problem of eating another meal before the one you last ate has left your stomach.
This will give your stomach a very full feeling, and food can and will re-enter your oesophagus even if you have a healthy lower oesophageal sphincter. This is usually the type of acid reflux people generally suffer over teh Christmas period because of all the overeating they do.
Being overweight is a major cause of acid reflux, and wearing clothes that are too tight around the waste can cause pressure in your stomach that will slow down digestion, and will cause the food to enter your oesophagus from your stomach.
If you are suffering from acid reflux more than you should be then youre diet may also be the cause. Diets high in fatty foods will cause your stomach to produce a lot more acid than normal so these types of foods should be avoided.
Other foods and drinks such as chocolate, coffee and alcohol can cause a temporary weakness of the LES so food and stomach acid will enter your oesophagus.
A healthy diet that contains lots of fresh fruit ( avoid citrus ) and vegetables, lean cuts of white meat and multigrain foods will help you lower the chances of suffering from acid reflux.
Many sufferers of GERD will continue to suffer from this disease for the rest of their lives, and controlling it is the only way to effectively stop the suffering.
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