What I Learned After 3 Years of Acid Reflux
I kept going to the hospital, taking medication, getting better, and then relapsing—over and over. In the end, medication alone wasn't enough.
The most effective thing was not eating for 3 hours before bed. Just following this one rule greatly reduced the burning throat symptoms I had in the early morning. And elevating my pillow surprisingly helped too.
I haven't cut out coffee completely; I only drink it in the morning. Since trigger foods differ from person to person, it's important to track what's actually causing problems for your body. After keeping notes for about 3 weeks, it became obvious for me.
Of course, this is just my personal experience, so if you have symptoms, be sure to see a doctor.
7 answers
Fasting for 3 hours before bed is a huge difference, yeah. After I cut out late-night snacks, my early-morning thirst dropped a lot too.
Isn't pillow height a bit of a gray area? I've also heard that depending on your posture, it can actually increase abdominal pressure and make reflux worse. That seems to vary from person to person, so it's hard to say for sure.
After tracking for three weeks, you really start to see it. I thought it was coffee, but it turned out milk and chocolate were the culprits. Coffee was actually fine... I think the most important thing is having a conversation with your own body. Thanks for the great post.