Embarrassingly simple things that helped put my GERD and reflux throat symptoms into remission.

Three embarrassingly simple things that helped put my gut into remission. 🌿 None of them are impressive. That is sort of the point. 1. A real afternoon snack. Something like the apple yogurt bowl I am making here. A mini meal, not a handful of something at 4pm. This one change let me eat a lighter dinner, which meant I could actually keep a 3-hour buffer before bed without going to sleep starving. Two reasons that works. First, the buffer itself. In a matched case-control study of 147 GERD patients and 294 controls, people whose dinner-to-bed time was under 3 hours had 7.45 times higher odds of GERD compared with those who left 4 hours or more (Fujiwara et al., 2005, American Journal of Gastroenterology 100(12):2633-2636, PMID 16393212). Beverages in that window are fine. Second, the volume. In a manometry study of 15 adults, the rate of transient LES relaxations, which is the main mechanism behind reflux episodes, rose directly with how distended the upper stomach became. It climbed from 1.4 per hour fasting to 5.4 per hour in the first 30 minutes after eating (Scheffer et al., 2002, Neurogastroenterology and Motility, PMID 12464087). A smaller dinner keeps that in check. 2. Chewing my food really well. Slowing my meal speed down gave my stomach time to accept the food and let the cephalic phase of digestion actually start. Your body begins preparing to digest before food ever arrives, and eating fast skips right past that step. Here is what I teach my clients. I call it Mealtime Mindfulness: Sit down Fork down between bites Chew until it is smooth Stop around 80% full 3. Taking something soothing. Slippery elm and DGL were massively helpful for me. They are the reason I formulated @sequoiasoothe, because I wanted the doses I was actually using in practice in one place, without the sharp flavors that make an irritated throat worse. Head to the link in my bio to learn more. A snack, slower chewing, something soothing. Not impressive. Just consistent, for a long time. That is what healing actually looked like for me, and it is what it looks like for most of my clients too. Follow for more. 💚 Small hinges swing big doors. 🌿 #AcidReflux #GERD #LPR #GutHealth #RefluxRevolution