Houston Heartburn and Acid Reflux Center is setting a new goal for the new year: Empower patients to cure acid reflux. Do you suffer from daily or weekly heartburn, chest pain, sore throat and food regurgitation? Do you wake up at night choking and coughing? Have you been taking antacid medications for the past few years? Is your quality of life deteriorating? Are you concerned about esophageal cancer?
Let 2016 be the year you understand acid reflux disease. Knowledge is power and Houston Heartburn and Reflux Center is raising awareness across the greater Houston area to educate and empower acid reflux and heartburn sufferers.
Acid reflux is a chronic but potentially curable problem. Rather than adopting the “status quo” treatment plan of long-term daily proton pump inhibitors, patients are invited to consider our approach to GERD. We want to make a difference in Houston and change lives forever. We want to alleviate a problem not simply mask symptoms. Here are the steps:
- Consult with an Acid Reflux Specialist. Don’t be satisfied with your PCP or gastroenterologist opinion. Ask an expert in the field. There is more to acid reflux than a pill.
- Change your lifestyle. Stop smoking and reduce alcohol. Loose weight and eat healthy. Exercise. Not only will your heartburn improve, but also your overall health will benefit.
- Avoid OVEREATING. This is a major cause for acid reflux in our society today. Large meals are destroying the delicate barrier against acid reflux. Eat small meals throughout the day and give your stomach a break. Please don’t fast. Starvation is not a solution for weight loss or acid reflux.
- Avoid trigger foods. Certain individuals are sensitive to certain food items that trigger an acid reflux episode. If fried chicken gives you heartburn go for baked chicken. Don’t take a proton pump inhibitor and eat a bucket of fried chicken. You may not feel the symptoms but the reflux is occurring and you are slowly damaging your anti-reflux valve without knowing it.
- Stop using proton pump inhibitors. Consider less powerful medications if needed to control symptoms. Proton pump inhibitors are associated with a growing number of serious side effects. Osteoporosis, renal failure, cardiac arrhythmias, pneumonia, clostridium difficile colitis, and changes in the gut microbiome. No wonder why so many acid reflux patients I see in the office suffer from irritable bowel syndrome
- Take control of your acid reflux today and change your life forever. If your symptoms are difficult to control with lifestyle changes, consider the Nissen fundoplication. This minimally invasive, anti-reflux surgery, when properly performed, is the most reliable treatment for acid reflux disease
Houston Heartburn and Reflux Center invites you this year to understand acid reflux disease to better control your problem. No matter how severe your symptoms are we have the appropriate solution for you.