Prevention of reflux actually isn’t all that hard without medication. First and foremost, weight loss and exercise greatly reduces the incidence as does a reduction in spicy, acidic or heavily caffeinated foods or drinks. Also, having more frequent but smaller volume meals also will have a big impact. Some of these steps actually reduce the incidence of reflux by increasing the tone of the esophageal sphincter thus stopping your stomach contents from going the wrong direction. If you delay lying down for a couple of hours after meals you recruit gravity to your health team as well.

Treatment with over the counter and prescription medication is readily available as we all are very aware. The ads are unrelenting since this is a huge problem here in the U.S. Now realize before we go on any further that the following treatments are solely aimed at decreasing your acid load by either neutralizing the acid, decreasing its production or stopping its production all together.

You still reflux but since the acid isn’t present, there isn’t any burning but the sphincter still isn’t working correctly. Tums and similar products simply neutralize the acid and are very quick acting but offer short lasting results. Pepcid, Zantac and Tagamet are popular over the counter and prescription medications that belong to a group known as H2 blockers. They decrease the production of acid in the stomach and typically last around 12 hours. Prilosec, Nexium, Aciphex, Prevacid and Protonix are another group of meds available over the counter and via prescription that are known as PPIs. They block most of one’s ability to produce acid and last in general around 24 hours and typically are more expensive.

Beyond the scope of this article is the fact that there are some medications that actually do increase the muscular tone of the esophageal sphincter thus stopping the reflux itself. There are also surgical procedures whose aim is to make it almost impossible for you to reflux but these are specialized scenarios.

Pure and simple if you have reflux frequent enough that you are seeking medication as relief, try the above preventive measures. If these do not effectively resolve your problem, then try the over the counter medications as suggested. Your physician is your health care partner, we strongly urge a consultation. There may be a more serious underlying problem so please take this “heartburn” issue seriously!

We hope this has taken some of the unknown out of this disease process and informed you of the treatments available as well as the potential consequences of GERD.