Using Nutrition to deal with Heartburn

[chi sao]

Ok, I'm 19 years old and I've had a consistent heartburn problem for awhile now. I visitied the doctor and almost had to go through a 'oscopy' (for the esophagaus, I forgot what it's called.)

Nexium was working but I don't want to be hooked on any type of medicine for months at a time. There should be a more natural approach to this. Not herbal or anything, but antacids contain 'Calcium Carbonate' and isn't that just a form of calcium that goes into your bloodstream faster? I would think that maybe I should increase my calcium intake during the day but milk doesn't really help and even makes the heartburn worse sometimes.

I think my heartburn problem is pretty severe too, because I'll be exercising and get heartburn, I'll wakeup with heartburn, I get heartburn while I play basketball. Anything that has to do with running will give me heartburn. How can I use supplements/vitamins/minerals/ food to battle this and make me normal again?

Things I'm already looking out for:

- Not eating 2 hours before bedtime
- A more cleaner diet with minimal 'pop' or hydrogenated oils
- lots of water each day

I also take a multivitamin called Centrum everynight before I go to sleep. Is that a good time to take a multivitamin or should I take it earlier during the day?

[yovwmon]

Hi There, I have a few suggestions.

Back in the day I experienced frequent heartburn, at one point it got so bad I would often wake-up choking on stomach acid. My heartburn was caused by a combination of things, so I will tell you what I changed/did and you can implement whatever you think works for you.

First and foremost – if you smoke, at all, you have to quit, your heartburn will not stop until you stop.

Secondly – It probably gets worse at night, try elevating your shoulders so you at least get gravity on your side.

Third – you need to watch what you eat, I found myself spitting-up a lot of grease when eating greasy foods, and my heartburn would tend to be a lot worse, some peoples stomachs can’t take it.

Fourth - Watch how much you eat, your stomach can’t digest food as fast as you can eat, if you are overeating it will back-up into your esophagus.

Fifth – Try drinking milk, a full glass of milk will help keep that stomach acid where it belongs.

I hope this helps you.
Adam

[RacerBill]

In addition to what Adam said...

Avoid caffeine in any form -- coffee, tea, pop. It will aggravate heartburn something fierce.

You might want to think about moving the vitamin to the morning. Centrum has I think 100% of the US RDA for vitamin C, which is ascorbic acid.

Check out www.johnberardi.com and read his material about acid-base balance.