Yoga to Cure GERD

So in my search for a GERD cure, I read some stuff about how Yoga can help with GERD.  There's a number of yoga postures that people recommend to help with digestion.  So I went to Youtube and grabbed some videos.  It's really a simple search for Yoga and GERD.  I did some of the postures, and it was alright but didn't really stick with it.

After that, I was talking to a friend of mine who goes regularly to Bikram Yoga, and she finally convinced me to go:

Bikram Yoga is a series of twenty-six Hatha Yoga postures and two Pranayama breathing techniques designed to provide a challenging, invigorating, rejuvenating and effective yoga experience. During this 90-minute class, you will work every muscle, tendon, ligament, joint and internal organ in the entire body, giving you an incredible sense of well being.

There's Bikram or Hot Yoga studios around the world, so you can definitely find them, hopefully not too far from you.

I've been doing Bikram Yoga for the last 40 days or so, and I can tell you, I feel amazing:  I've lost weight, posture is better, stomach feels stronger, and have increased my overall flexibility.

It's to the point that I really don't feel like I have GERD anymore, at at least the symptoms have virtually disappeared.  About 3 weeks after I started doing Bikram, I started to: drink alcohol again, eat spicy food, eat closer to bed time, and eat bigger meals.  I do try to keep my portions smaller than before, but overall I'm to what to me is normal.

Prevent Night Time GERD

There's tons of suggestions out there on how to prevent night time GERD.  Just know, I find that by preventing night time GERD, you can wake up to a GERD free morning too.

So here are some of the suggestions I've found out there:

1. Eat your big meal at lunch instead of at dinnertime.

This is very important to make sure you digest your food before sleep.  Going to bed with a full belly is a guaranteed way of not getting a good night sleep.

2. Eat at least two to three hours before lying down.

This will give you time to digest and go to bed with an empty stomach.

3. Avoid foods that are known to lead to heartburn.  Some foods to avoid: chocolate, mint, citrus, tomatoes, pepper, vinegar, catsup, and mustard.

Consider a high protein and low carbohydrate diet.  I'm now on a paleo diet.

4. Eliminate late-night snacking.

This has been extremely hard for me.  I use to do most of my eating as night time snacking.  Just take a look at how I got here. The thing is, that every little bit of food and liquid (including water) needs to be digested and in order to have a good night sleep most of your digestion has to be done before hand.

5. Sleep with your head and shoulder on an incline.

I raised the head of my bed by 4 inches.  I have read in many places that this helps by relieving pressure from your esophagus.  Gravity is a great thing for us GERD sufferers.

6. Sleep on your left side.

I prefer to sleep on my back, but I have found that sleeping on my right side doesn't feel as comfortable.

7. Make sure your bed clothes are loose-fitting.

This really applies to everything.  Forget the tight clothes, they restrict everything in your body. Loose clothing helps your body's circulation.

8. Stop smoking.

Considering all the other problems that smoking causes, this is just not a surprise.

9. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and carbonated drinks.

This is quite painful.  It means no going out to bars, unless it's to drink water, and no morning coffee.

10. Eat your food slowly.

I find this is very helpful.  I use a small teaspoon, cut my food into tiny pieces, and make sure I pay attention to what I'm eating and how I'm eating.  For this, you may need to turn the TV off while eating.  Just pay attention, slow it down, and chew a lot.

11. Eat smaller portions.  

I think I've cut my food portions by more than half.  Sometimes it's because I really can't eat any more.  Smaller portions will help you not over eat, which very important in controlling your GERD.

12. Avoid fatty/greasy foods. Try lean meats.

I mostly only eat poultry and fish now.  I'm not looking forward to this summer though, because I've always enjoyed a big burger. I've just found that everything to control grease.  I find that eating greasy food will give me what I call my "GERD attack," which is sudden shortness of breath and painful bloating and burping.

GERD Hell / Symptoms / Suffering

So my Nexium medication ran out, except for 1 pill I had in my bag, a few weeks ago.  I took my last capsule on a Thuraday.  I went out with friends that night.  I tried to be good but we ate quite late.

The next day I felt ok.  Saturday was not too bad, but I started to feel like I couldn't eat as much.  By Sunday, I was already feeling stomach distress.  That Thursday I had to take off work.  I was trying hard to keep things under control.  I ate tiny meals, every two hours.  But at some point it wasn't enough.  I was quite weak.  I weighed myself and I had lost almost 4 pounds in what was about 7 days.  That's virtually impossible for me.  I rushed to get Pedyalite.  I recommend Pedialyte for anyone that thinks they might be dehydrated.  It works fast, and to me, it doesn't taste horrible, bad yes, but not horrible.

It was probably Friday, so 1 week after I quit Nexium that the pain started.  It's hard to describe pain that never goes away.  I had the following symtoms:

Stomach pain
Stomach burning
Lightheadedness
Head pressure (from the back of my head to my skull)
Shortness of breath
Nausea
Constantly clearing my throat
Taste of acid in the back of my throat or slowly rising from my stomach
Painful bloating for hours
Extreme weakness
Sore Throat
Constant burping (particularly after eating or drinking)

I rarely felt hungry because I was in almost constant pain.  It was agonizing that when I did feel hunger, I was too scared to eat.  I knew I had to, so I forced myself to eat, but always with the same consequences.  Worse, even water made me sick!!

I realized after the first few days of being at home that whenever I drank water with my meal: before, during, or immediately after, I felt the acid in my stomach rising up my esophagus.  This is torture because I love water.  I only drink water or alcohol.  So, I did some researched and found out that  water is actually not good to have during meals if you have GERD.

As soon as I read this, I stopped drinking water, which did cut down on my feeling all the acid flowing up my esophagus.  However, I needed to do more, and so I set out to look on the internet for natural ways of curing/treating my GERD.

Enjoying Nexium

I have read a lot of blogs the last few weeks and currently feel quite fortunate that Nexium did work for me.  It seems there's many out there that take PPIs twice a day, in addition to other medicines but nothing works.  I was lucky in that 1 Nexium in the morning was enough to keep me, mostly, symptom free all day.

Alright, so what is Nexium and what are PPIs?

Nexium:

Nexium (esomeprazole) belongs to a group of drugs called proton pump inhibitors. Nexium decreases the amount of acid produced in the stomach.
Nexium is used to treat symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other conditions involving excessive stomach acid such as Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Nexium is also used to promote healing of erosive esophagitis (damage to your esophagus caused by stomach acid).
Nexium may also be given to prevent gastric ulcer caused by infection with helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), or by the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Nexium is not for immediate relief of heartburn symptoms.
Nexium may also be used for other purposes not listed in this medication guide.

Nexium Side Effects:

Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction to Nexium: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
Stop using Nexium and call your doctor at once if you have any of these symptoms of low magnesium such as:

• dizziness, confusion;
  
• fast or uneven heart rate;
  
• jerking muscle movements;
  
• feeling jittery;
  
• diarrhea that is watery or bloody;
  
• muscle cramps, muscle weakness or limp feeling;
  
• cough or choking feeling; or
  
• seizure (convulsions).
  

Less serious Nexium side effects may include:

• headache, drowsiness;
  
• mild diarrhea;
  
• nausea, stomach pain, gas, constipation; or
  
• dry mouth.
  

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs)

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are medicines that work by reducing the amount of stomach acid made by glands in the lining of your stomach.

• Relieve symptoms of acid reflux, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a condition where food or liquid travels backwards from the stomach to the esophagus (the tube from the mouth to the stomach)

• Treat a peptic or stomach ulcer

• Treat damage to the lower esophagus caused by acid reflux

Types of PPIs

There are many different names and brands of PPIs. Most work as well as another. Side effects may be different for different ones.

• Omeprazole (Prilosec), also available over the counter without a prescription (Prilosec OTC)
• Esomeprazole (Nexium),
• Lansoprazole (Prevacid),
• Rabeprazole (AcipHex)
• Pantoprazole (Protonix)
• Dexlansoprazole (Kapidex)

Although I was scared, I started taking the Nexium every morning as soon as I got up.  At first, I felt just as sick, like the side effects were worse than the disease; within a week most side effects were gone.  It became a habit, something I just didn't think about.  I just knew I had to take my medication and couldn't drink too much.  Mainly limited my drinking to 1-2 drinks.  That definitely slowed my social life.  I wasn't 100% but I was close enough where I just didn't think I was sick anymore.

After 1 month on Nexium I tried to stop it.  I felt fine the first day, so I went on my usual super drinking and eating.  The following day I was so sick I ran to get another refill.  As the end of my 3rd month approached, I realized I had to some how find a cure for whatever was wrong with me.  At least that's how I was thinking: I just need to cure myself naturally.  No more drugs.  No more risk of 101 side effects.