Treating Heartburn Naturally

One of the biggest concerns people have when they look into reducing their heartburn is whether or not they can treat their heartburn naturally. Well, that depends. First off, when approaching things holistically, I do not like to use the word "treat" because that implies as if a home remedy was the same as a medical treatment, and that is not the case. A natural treatment is simply trying to stop heartburn without the use of prescription medications.

I also am not a big fan of the world "natural" - after all what does that even mean? Let's face it - there's nothing "natural" about eating frozen, processed meals which come from the grocery store or deep frying everything in oil. It's anything but natural, so to suggest that some sort of treatment is natural is kind of a misnomer because whatever I am about to recommend might not necessarily be natural.

I would say one of the easiest natural fixes for heartburn is to simply eat healthy food, maximizing your intake of fruits and vegetables, getting in a good portion of quality protein (free range eggs and grass-fed meat), and adding in some healthy oils or nuts as well (almonds, olive oil, fish oil). I am not a big fan of grains - whole or not whole, when it comes to helping out acid reflux. I find that many people do better by getting a lot of fiber from fruits and vegetables rather than relying on grains to get fiber. Grains have a lot of anti-nutrients and are inflammatory in nature, unlike the majority of fruits and vegetables which are quite nutritious and loaded with nutrients that reduce inflammation.

Another natural cure you can use to stop your acid reflux is to elevate your bed and place it on an incline. This way you get to lay on an incline which has a good chance to help reduce any sort of heartburn at night.

Finally, you can also try losing weight. I have mentioned this many times on this site but it is just so important that you understand just how much heartburn can be reduced by losing weight. Excess fat causes heartburn to be increased on so many fronts, from increasing inflammation to physically compressing the stomach. Being overweight is bad news for heartburn, as well as for your overall health. The chocolate may be delicious but you will just end up with acid reflux afterwards!