Milk is a very popular home remedy for heartburn. Well it may work fine during the day to soothe the stomach after heavy meal. But don’t use it before sleep to prevent nighttime heartburn. The problem is that milk is only effective for 30 or 40 minutes. Since it is a high calorie food which requires quite some energy to be digested your stomach will produce even more acid than milk originally neutralized. That is why if you had some milk before going to sleep to treat your heartburn you can expect a sleepless night.
I strongly recommend to replace it with water since it will dilute the acid and get it out of stomach faster.
Don’t try to get rid of heartburn by eating something (there are lots of beliefs that eating something will help heartburn). If it is something high calorie it will produce even more acid.
Best recommendation is to stay awake for 2-3 hours after your last meal. This will guarantee that you will go to sleep with an empty stomach and zero nighttime heartburn.
If you cannot stay awake for that long I strongly recommend getting wedge pillow. It will elevate your body in a way preventing acid from getting to your esophagus. Wedge pillow could be uncomfortable for some people but you don’t need to sleep on it entire night (except a case when you have a severe chronic heartburn which needs to be treated for several months). Usually you will need it only for first 2-3 hours of sleep.
Blog entries you may find useful
For more heartburn information read following articles:
Collection of heartburn related articles - manually selected articles to address all your acid reflux questions.
Stop acid reflux tonight with wedge pillow! - one of the proven ways to reduce nighttime acid reflux.
Hiatal Hernia and Heartburn - Hiatal Hernia as a cause of belching, shortness of breath, chest and back pain. Hiatal Hernia relation to acid reflux and heartburn. Treatment for Hernia.
Aerophagia - Swallowing air, constant or excessive burping and belching caused by aerophagia. Its causes and treatment
Excessive burping and belching - How to take it under control or even stop it
Heartburn and Caffeine - Caffeine in Hot Beverages and Soft Drinks and its relation to Heartburn
Alcohol and Heartburn - Lots of books and websites recommend to stop alcohol completely. Well it may work for some people who didn't drink before - but what to do if you like some alcohol drinks.
Food To Avoid - Food which you shouldn't eat if you have GERD. Heartburn food replacements.
Natural Remedies for Heartburn - List of natural cures for heartburn which I tried and which you can find useful.
Heartburn Free Lifestyle Guidelines - How to live happy with GERD and Heartburn.
Acid Reflux and Heartburn Recipes collection - some simple recipes for people with GERD and heartburn.
Nexium vs Prilosec - how to use purple pill for heartburn and acid reflux symptoms treatment. Nexium side effects.
Apple Cider Vinegar and Heartburn - how weight loss solution can turn into heartburn and acid reflux.
Upper GI endoscopy and heartburn - why endoscopy is needed, what to expect from it and how to prepare for it.
Heartburn remedies during pregnancy - how to relieve acid reflux during pregnancy
This entry was posted
on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Heartburn Info.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
