Post by @mollypelletier.rd

The coffee. The tomatoes. The citrus, the chocolate, the wine. You cut all of it, and reflux is still here. Food is important, but for most people it is one of 5 to 7 root contributors. When we only chase the food, the mechanisms actually driving reflux stay unaddressed. These are the 5 I see most often in my practice. An under-supported lower esophageal sphincter (LES). This is the muscle that keeps stomach contents where they belong. It is rarely “broken.” More often it is under-supported, whether from anatomy like a hiatal hernia, connective tissue laxity, or your nervous system state. What we practice here is the LES Lock: 1 to 5 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing with 360 ribcage expansion immediately after meals, up to 5x daily. This strengthens the crural diaphragm around your LES. Nervous system dysregulation. Your vagus nerve is the communication line between your brain and gut, and it helps coordinate digestion and LES tone. When your autonomic nervous system is dysregulated, that coordination gets disrupted. This is why the same meal can feel fine on a calm day and awful on a stressful one. Try the 5+1 Method before meals: 5 slow breaths plus 1 moment of gratitude to shift into rest and digest. Motility issues. When digestion is sluggish, food and acid sit in the stomach longer, raising the pressure against your LES. Mealtime Mindfulness helps. Chew to an applesauce consistency and slow down, since chewing drives a large share of your digestive juice production. Slow gastric emptying (gastroparesis). A more pronounced version of that. The 3-hour buffer supports this: avoid food for 3 hours before bed so your stomach can empty before you lie down. Beverages are okay. H. pylori or a microbiome imbalance (dysbiosis). Bacterial factors can shift acid dynamics and irritate tissue, and are worth testing with your provider. Autonomic dysregulation disrupts LES tone and motility (Sobrino-Cossío et al., 2025, Cirugía y Cirujanos, review, PMID 40199278). Head to my bio 🔗 to take my free Reflux Relief Quiz. Follow for more, and share with someone still blaming breakfast. #AcidReflux #GERD #LPR #GutHealth #VagusNerve