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Comment by manmal | Hacker News Reader

> eating at different times won’t magically make your sphincter to your stomach close any tighter

Stomach acid is also produced as reaction to food intake and other signals. Less acid => less reflux?

BTW probiotics have been found potentially effective by this systematic review: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7019778/

This is probably not as simple as blaming the dysfunctional sphincter.

IMO early time restricted feeding shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly, it‘s potentially a fix for a number of systemic and gastric/enteric issues. The evidence is still weak but promising. The most important part here is „early“ - intermittent fasting usually has an eating window in the afternoon and maybe right until bed time. According to some (weak) studies, moving the eating window to the morning and early afternoon has vastly different effects.

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> Less acid => less reflux?

Weirdly, I've also heard from people in that situation that more acid => less reflux because the sphincter only closes in high-pH environments. So one of the things prescribed can be hydrochloric acid supplements. Some people swear by them.

Symptoms of chronic acid reflux, laryngopharyngeal reflux and heartburn can also be caused by hypochlorhydria (low stomach acid), in which case taking hydrochloric acid will obviously also reduce the symptoms in that case.

Yep, chugging some lemon juice can be instant pain, but makes it go away in seconds. Apples also work amazingly.

I've started drinking shrub drinks (berries plus vinegar) they're not super acidic but it's just a funny coincidence after seeing your comment.

You're 100% right, I got the doctor rush to prescribe treatment on this when I was 24. Was never enough

Finally instilled some healthy habits by 32, namely no excessively large meals and no eating big meals ~3 hours before bed and it magically disappeared.

I just had my first bout in a while yesterday - 2 smalls pizza is still 2 pizzas folks!

There are exercises you can do that help with acid reflux - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9550520/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9106553/

Also alginate based products create a raft that block the acid from physically coming up.

The early time restricted feeding stuff is very interesting, and new to me - but I did learn a lot about it reading this guys blog -https://caloriesproper.com/etrf-2022/

Thanks for sharing the exercises! What seems to have helped me was losing weight (not easy at all, but has many additional benefits). There are some additional exercises (look for "hiatal hernia exercises" on YouTube), which are very simple and sometimes can get you instant relief. It's surprising so few people know about them. The comments section under those videos is often full of messages along the lines of "I've been suffering for years, this video changed my life." It's really helpful to know you can do something about it that does not involve taking PPIs every single day.

One other hugely useful change has been drinking alkaline water - it immediately stops the burning in the back of my throat, and is useful even if your issues are pepsin based and not just acid reflux. It should be good for dental/esophageal health as well.

I'll check out the hiatal hernia exercises, thanks!

Other possible solutions: d-limone In one unpublished trial, subjects took one gram of d-limonene every other day for 20 days, on an empty stomach (that is, half an hour before eating or an hour afterward). A third of them experienced relief from their heartburn after a single capsule, and within two weeks 90 percent had relief. After a single course of treatment, relief lasted for up to six months.

Licorice The natural solution for ulcers, deglycyrrhizinated licorice root (DGL), can also be an effective acid reflux treatment. The suggested dose of DGL is two tablets, chewed about 20 minutes before meals, three times a day, or it can be taken shortly before bedtime if you suffer mostly from nighttime acid reflux. Use only chewable DGL—it must be mixed with saliva in order to be effective.

IQORO - It's like a pacifier put behind lips and pull.

inspiratory muscle training

Throat Band https://blog.fauquierent.net/2014/05/cricoid-pressure-may-mi... https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/reviews/DEN130046.p...

and then the standard advice of inclining your bed / sleep on your left side.

> This is probably not as simple as blaming the dysfunctional sphincter.

In my case, that is exactly what it is (a hernia). Other people may have different reasons for it.

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