Pressure-Packed Lifestyle And GERD

One of my friends named Janice hasn’t been keeping well lately. On talking to her, she revealed that she is going through a lot of stress and anxiety, as she was facing difficulty coping with her job while taking care of her school-going children and her husband was often busy in his business tours. Underlying stress and anxiety made her suffer from GERD. She frequently skipped her meals and indulged more in fast food, as she didn’t get enough time to have her meals. Gastrointestinal symptoms have been associated with stress, anxiety, and fear.

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is a digestive disorder where acid from the stomach comes up into the esophagus resulting in a burning sensation in the chest, throat, sour belching, nausea, vomiting, eructation, upper abdominal pain, headache, and difficulty or pain when swallowing.

The USA’s National Center for Biotechnology Information’s published research in 2013 and numerous clinical studies have shown the correlation between anxiety, stress, and GERD. So, stress can result in GERD. Let’s learn more about it.

How Stress Can Affect the Digestive System?

Stress plays a vital role in affecting your digestive system adversely and leading to GERD. Keep reading to learn all about it.

• Disturbed Sleep:

Ongoing stress causes sleeping problems, and, sound sleep is very important for digestive health. So, disturbed sleep exacerbates the GERD complaints.

• Smoking:

People often engage in smoking as a way to cope with stress, as nicotine creates an immediate sense of relaxation, improves mood, and decreases anger and stress. Smoking, in turn, increases GERD complaints, as it causes increased acid secretion in the stomach. Nicotine interferes with the muscles that help to move food forward from the esophagus. Also, smoking affects the lining of the esophagus and stomach that protects it from acid damage. Smokers produce less saliva, and saliva helps combat the effects of acid reflux. Lesser production of saliva fails to alleviate the effects of acid reflux.

• Food and Drinks:

When depressed, stressed, and anxious, people often incline to have something that makes them feel better. Often, people drink alcohol and caffeine and eat a lot of chocolates which triggers acid secretion.

• Skipping Meals:

Skipping meals and then consuming a huge meal at the end of the day can increase the gastric pressure and the risk of reflux. When you continue to follow such improper eating habits for a prolonged period, it may cause GERD.

• Pain Sensitivity:

Stressful life events increase the sensitivity to reflux acid and increase the sensitivity to pain resulting due to heartburn.

• Bacteria:

Stress can change the balance of bacteria that naturally live in your gut resulting in an imbalance in good and bad bacteria. This may lead to GERD.

• Chronic stress

Chronic stress increases levels of cortisol that lead to an increase in your appetite resulting in obesity. Obesity or excess weight around the midsection causes pressure on the stomach that forces your stomach’s contents back up the esophagus, resulting in GERD.

Luckily, most very mild cases of GERD may be controlled with diet and lifestyle changes, and the remaining cases can be well-controlled with medicines. Conventionally, it is treated by following the acid-suppressing medication daily.

Homeopathy can treat GERD effectively and safely without causing any side-effects. The further progress of the disease can be controlled and the symptomatic relief can be achieved considerably. Moreover, since homeopathy treats the disease at the root level, its further progress and deterioration of the condition can be stopped so that you are not likely to face any complications in the coming years of your life.

Besides medicines, there are the things that you can do at home and that may help relieve you of the symptoms of GERD. These healthy practices include simple changes in food and lifestyle habits. The lifestyle changes comprise practicing relaxation techniques, yoga, meditation, and regular exercise, such as going for walks. Eat healthy foods, and avoid caffeine, caffeinated beverages, alcohol, and spicy foods. Don’t skip meals, eat on time. Eat smaller and more frequent meals. Eat low-fat high protein foods. Avoid lying down immediately after eating, for at least two hours after your meal.

Many patients, who are suffering from GERD, are very apprehensive about using medication to treat this awful condition, particularly the conventional medicines, as they have read a lot about the long-lasting side-effects of the conventional medications. So, in such circumstances, Homeopathy is the right choice to treat GERD effectively and safely at the root level without any side-effects.

So, if you happen to experience the symptoms of GERD any time, get in touch with us at Life Force and receive the best homeopathic treatment for GERD and obtain a long-lasting relief without any side-effects.