today I'm going to talk about acid reflux contrary to what many of us have been led to believe acid reflux as a result of too little stomach acid not too much let me explain a little bit further about what I mean stomach acid is absolutely essential for digesting proteins and absorbing minerals and other nutrients and as we age the internal production of stomach acid declines and if our supply of stomach acid is low and not digesting proteins properly then food tends to sit around in our stomachs for longer than it should and it ferments then gas builds up and leads to belching and bloating and blows open our Safa Geel Specter the esophageal sphincter is what separates your stomach from your esophagus and this in turn leads to your digestive juices bubbling up into your esophagus giving you acid reflux now when you're eating your esophageal sphincter should be open and loose but all other times it should be tightly closed so acid reflux is really just having a loose sphincter and it doesn't mean that there is too much stomach acid it means that your stomach acid is in the wrong place it's in your esophagus and unlike your stomach the lining of your esophagus does not have mucus in it to protect it from the digestive juices so when they do bubble up into your esophagus it can really hurt so in addition to low stomach acid there may be many causes of acid reflux including main deficiency eating in a rush or stress state drinking too much liquid with our meals and I'm going to explain each of these in just a minute so I'm going to share with you some of my go-to solutions for acid reflux number one you want to slow down and chew your food so many of us rush through our meals barely chewing our food and your digestive process really begins in your mouth with your saliva breaking down the foods so the more digestion that can occur early on the less work your stomach has so just by chewing each bite twenty to thirty times can eliminate your acid reflux I know this sounds so simple but sometimes it's the simplest remedies that have the most profound effects so really trying to make a conscious effort to slow down and chew your food be really mindful when you're eating number two I drink as little liquid as possible with your meals engrained in our dining culture is this practice of drinking water and other beverages when we eat I mean think about when you go into a restaurant the first thing you're served is water but when we drink beverages with our food we dilute our stomach acid which makes it less potent which leads to belching and bloating and acid reflux ideally you want to hydrate twenty to thirty minutes before a meal and about an hour and a half to two hours after a meal and breaking the habit of drinking during meals can be really hard I know I've done it and we're just so used to drinking with our food but whether or not you have acid reflux this is something really important to to do is to stop drinking so much liquid with your meals number three you want to eat less at one time sometimes our esophageal sphincter is blown open by the sheer volume of food we're putting into our stomachs so try and make an effort to stop eating when you're about 80% full next number four you want to fix any magnesium deficiency you may have if you happen to watch my video on constipation you may recall me talking about the prevalence of magnesium deficiency in our population well here too low magnesium can play a part in acid reflux low magnesium can make our esophageal sphincter spasm erratically so you want to take a magnesium supplement if you suspect that your magnesium deficient and I also recommend you ultimately get tested for that number five you want to stop eating the foods that are causing your esophageal sphincter to spasm and this is probably going to be the hardest solution because unfortunately so many of the foods we love are the foods that irritate your esophageal sphincter and some of the foods that can be a trigger include things like cooked tomato sauce coffee citrus juices soda alcohol particularly wine chocolate spicy and fried foods and things with mint so you really want to make an effort to try and avoid these foods and that can really help eliminate your acid reflux number six don't eat or drink anything two to three hours before bedtime reflux tends to be worse at night and if you're eating right before going to bed you're not going to be digesting your food properly which can really exhaust your abs and reflux and then finally number seven you want to experiment with acid replacement if you do suspect that low stomach acid is causing your acid reflux you want to try taking two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar mixed in with one to two ounces of water with every meal and the idea here is to put something more acidic in your stomach at the right time so those are my seven solutions for acid reflux I hope you find them helpful and finally I'm just gonna say a few words about acid reflux medications antacid medications such as tums are only treating the symptoms they do nothing to remedy the root cause and long-term use of these medications can actually make your acid reflux worse and if you're taking a proton pump inhibitor or PPI such as prilosec or nexium you need to be aware that long-term use of these medications can really be dangerous and when I say long-term use I mean more than a couple months and the reason it's dangerous is because PPI is act by reducing your production of stomach acid and as we've just learned it's low stomach acid which can lead to acid reflux so pee pee eyes are preventing the digestion and absorption of proteins and minerals and over time this can be the true root cause of many diseases such as diabetes and osteoporosis heart disease depression so if you do want to stop taking a PPI which I recommend you try to do you want to go slowly you don't want to stop cold turkey try to wean off the medication over one month period of time that's all I have today next time I'm going to be talking about calcium I hope you'll join me then have a great week everyone