How to Reduce Acid Reflux and Prevent Heartburn

If you’ve ever experienced the burning sensation of heartburn or are currently struggling with it, you know just how miserable acid reflux and heartburn can be. Symptoms like chest pain, coughing, a sour taste in your mouth, or even trouble swallowing can make daily life uncomfortable. And if ignored, frequent reflux doesn’t just hurt, it can cause long-term damage to your esophagus.

The good news? There are natural, everyday ways to ease the burn and keep it from coming back. In this post, we’ll define the connection between acid reflux and explain how to prevent heartburn. We’ll also explain how to reduce acid reflux symptoms when they arise. 

Before we discuss how to reduce acid reflux, let’s start with a quick description of the connection between acid reflux and heartburn, what acid reflux is, and what its symptoms, including heartburn, look like. 

What’s The Connection Between Acid Reflux And Heartburn?

Acid reflux happens when stomach acid sneaks back up into your esophagus (the tube that carries food from your mouth to your stomach.) When that acid irritates the lining of your esophagus, you feel a burning pain in your chest. That burning feeling is heartburn.

So, we can say acid reflux is the action, and heartburn is the symptom. You can have reflux without feeling heartburn, but most people notice the burn first.

What Are The Symptoms of Acid Reflux?

Symptoms of acid reflux can include:

• Heartburn

• Coughing

• Chest pain

• Sour or bitter taste in your mouth

• Hoarseness

In general, acid reflux happens when the lower esophageal sphincter (LES)—the small ring of muscle that normally keeps stomach acid in place—doesn’t work as it should. Instead of staying tight, it relaxes and allows acid and partially digested food to flow back into the esophagus. That backflow is what triggers the burning sensation of heartburn and other uncomfortable symptoms.

Note: GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease is the chronic form of acid reflux, usually diagnosed when one experiences symptoms twice per week, or more.

What Are the Risk Factors for Acid Reflux and Heartburn?

According to the National Library of Medicine, risk factors that trigger acid reflux and heartburn include the following:

• Obesity

• Pregnancy

• Smoking

• A bulge of the top of the stomach into the diaphragm (hiatal hernia)

• Connective tissue disorders (i.e., scleroderma) 

• Delayed stomach emptying

Like most medical conditions, certain individuals are more at risk for experiencing heartburn or developing a consistent issue with acid reflux. The problem can lead to more severe conditions, like GERD.

While most of the aforementioned risk factors involve environmental triggers, recent studies have examined the role genetics plays in gastrointestinal conditions. One study found that genetics accounted for 31% of GERD cases, signaling a strong connection between family history and acid reflux. 

In addition to genetic and environmental risk factors, there are several other personal circumstances that can intensify or trigger acid reflux, including:

• Smoking

• Drinking alcohol or caffeine

• Eating large meals

• Eating late at night

• Taking medications such as aspirin or ibuprofen

Now that you know a bit more about how certain habits, environmental factors, and inherited traits can influence heartburn, let’s talk about prevention.

How to Prevent Acid Reflux and Heartburn

In many cases, avoiding triggers and other risk factors is the key to relief. If you’ve ever wondered how to prevent heartburn, the answer often starts with simple lifestyle changes and healthy habits. In this section, we’ll look at how small adjustments can lower your chances of acid reflux and keep that burning feeling from coming back.

1. Modify your diet and eating schedule

Like many other health conditions, acid reflux is largely linked with what’s on your plate. You can avoid it by maintaining a healthy diet. 

Certain foods can actually help keep reflux in check, while others may trigger or worsen symptoms. We’ll dig into both sides what to eat and what to avoid in just a moment.

• Which foods help prevent acid reflux? Green leafy vegetables, lean meats, egg whites, oatmeal, noncitrus fruits, and healthy fats help reduce inflammation and absorb excess stomach acid, minimizing the potential for reflux. Check out our blog to find recipes for acid reflux relief.

In addition to changing what you eat, acid reflux experts also recommend adjusting when you eat. Lying down immediately after eating (for example, you eat right before bedtime) interrupts the digestive process and eliminates the gravitational pull that helps keep acid in your stomach, where it belongs. 

So, avoid eating late at night and give your stomach time to digest properly before lying down.

• Avoid food and drink that triggers: As mentioned earlier, some foods help your acid reflux and others can make it worse. Fatty, fried, spicy, and citrusy foods are common culprits of heartburn. Avoid them to prevent acid reflux flare ups. Additionally, alcohol and caffeinated drinks can trigger reflux symptoms.

2. Maintain a healthy weight

As you learned earlier in this post, excess weight is one of many risk factors for acid reflux and other gastrointestinal issues. If you’re wondering how to prevent acid reflux frequency and intensity or looking for practical tips on how to prevent nightmare heartburn, most doctors would start by checking your weight. Carrying extra pounds, especially around your belly, can put pressure on your stomach and push acid back into your esophagus, which often leads to heartburn.

The International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders suggests the following steps toward healthy weight management:

• Plan meals ahead, so you don’t have unhealthy options

• Know your serving sizes to avoid overeating

• Don’t drink your calories. Avoid soda and other sugary drinks 

3. Wear loose-fitting clothing

Tight clothes can put pressure on your stomach and push acid back into your throat, just like extra weight does. One simple trick for ‘how to prevent heartburn at night’ or ‘how to reduce acid reflux’ is wearing looser outfits during dinner and before bed. It keeps things more comfortable and helps lower the chances of reflux.

4. GERD surgery

Though it’s typically a last-resort solution, GERD surgery is one method for preventing and potentially resolving acid reflux issues. There are several types of GERD surgery. The type you should undergo depends on the severity of your condition, your medical history, and your doctor’s directive:

• Fundoplication

• Transoral Incisionless Fundoplication (TIF)

• Stretta Procedure

• Bard EndoCinch System

• Linx Surgery

5. Adjust your sleeping posture

Some prevention tips take real effort, but one of the simplest and surprisingly effective is changing how you sleep. That’s right: the way you position yourself at night can make a big difference in calming acid reflux and heartburn. In other words, relief might literally come while you’re asleep.

After studying why acid reflux symptoms often spike at night, physicians found that a simple adjustment in sleeping posture can provide nighttime relief and significantly reduce exposure to harmful stomach acid. 

Because gravity plays a key role in digestion, helping keep acid and stomach contents below the LES, doctors recommend sleeping on your left side at a slight incline. It’s the best position for easing acid reflux and GERD. At the same time, sleeping on your back can actually agitate acid reflux symptoms. 

MedCline’s Reflux Relief System helps you stay off your back and sleep comfortably in the recommended elevated, left-side position for reflux relief. 

Here’s how the Reflux Relief System works: 

• Using a three-component construction, our GERD pillow gently elevates your torso to keep stomach acid where it belongs and allows your downside arm to rest effortlessly within a built-in arm pocket. 

• Clinical studies of the device found that 93% of patients experienced a reduction in heartburn after using the Reflux Relief System, and results showed significant improvement in patients with the following conditions:

• Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

• Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR) 

• Gestational Reflux

What Helps Acid Reflux Go Away?

Learning how to prevent acid reflux is a big part of managing your symptoms. The best way to stop it is to keep it from starting. But even if you eat the right foods and take care of your body, heartburn can still show up. When it does, there are ways to make it feel better fast. 

In this section, we’ll focus on how to reduce acid reflux using medication and home remedies for quick heartburn relief.

How to reduce acid reflux with medication

Over-the-counter reflux medication is one of the most common methods to address heartburn. If you don’t have a prescription from your doctor, you’ll likely have the following over-the-counter options to choose from:

• Antacids (i.e., Tums) 

• H2-blockers (i.e., Zantac)

• Low-dose proton pump inhibitors (i.e., Prilosec OTC)

Which foods help with stomach acid?

Certain foods can reduce heartburn symptoms. Better to eat foods that neutralize your stomach acid, such as:

• Ginger

• Chewing gum

• Bananas

• Yogurt 

• Oatmeal

• Green, leafy vegetables

In addition to these foods, also, intake of milk and papaya tea helps quell heartburn symptoms.

Key Takeaways

Dealing with heartburn and acid reflux can feel like a never-ending cycle. Some days it’s mild, other days it steals your sleep. That’s why learning how to prevent heartburn and acid reflux is important. Alongside your doctor’s advice, try focusing on these everyday strategies that really help.

How do you prevent acid reflux?

• Modify your diet. Choose foods that are gentler on your stomach.

• Avoid trigger foods and drinks like spicy meals, coffee, or soda.

• Maintain a healthy weight

• Wear loose clothing rather than tight-fitting clothes

• Ask your doctor about GERD surgery

• Adjust your sleeping position

How do you reduce acid reflux?

• Try over-the-counter medications, like antacids, H-2 blockers, and PPIs

• Use home remedies, like chewing gum, eating ginger, or incorporating ingredients that neutralize your stomach acid into your diet.

At the end of the day, beating acid reflux isn’t about one big fix. It’s about steady habits that keep the burn at bay. Start small, listen to your body, and if things don’t improve, don’t tough it out. Check in with your doctor and get the relief you deserve. Ready to take the first step today?