Often we go through life with all kinds of aches and pains without really knowing or understanding our bodies – let alone how best to treat them.
Do you ever suffer with a burning sensation in your chest or throat after eating? If so, you could be suffering with acid reflux. Other symptoms include a hot, sour or salty tasting fluid in the back of your throat, difficulty swallowing, pressure behind the breastbone, feeling bloated regularly or needing to burp often.
Acid reflux can be pain free in some people, but it can cause other symptoms such as hiccups, bad breath, cramps and nausea which of course are undesirable and could impact your quality of life. If any of these symptoms sound familiar to you, a few quick changes to your lifestyle could have you feeling better in no time:
- Avoid eating late at night or at irregular times throughout the day; meal times will cause the stomach to make more acid, so if you eat food late at night right before bed, your stomach will have more acid that can make its way to the esophagus. In fact not to lie down within three hours of eating, when acid production is at its peak, because gravity helps to keep your stomach contents down where they belong.
- Elevating your head whilst sleeping can decrease the sensation of acid reflux. This is because the elevated position helps to prevent stomach acid from rising to your chest.
- Eating spicy or citric foods can cause acid reflux, and as a result heartburn and indigestion.
- Drinking too much caffeine or alcohol may have the same effect, caffeine should be avoided in the evening at all costs.
- There are several quick and effective medicines against the symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux that are available without a prescription from pharmacies. Rennie, for instance, is a fast-acting, effective remedy for heartburn and indigestion. It works directly on the cause of the problem – the acid in your stomach – to relieve acid reflux symptoms. Rennie acts physically and locally, rather than by entering the bloodstream.
- Stress can trigger acid reflux, and therefore heartburn and indigestion.
So what are the best ways to help combat stress? As one of the causes of acid reflux, it makes sense to combat it where you can.
Rennie have looked up different things all around the world, and how people from different areas deal with stress. So if you want to Relax with Rennie, take a look at their interactive guide to see how people from across the globe unwind and remain stress free. From long walks around the beautiful UK countryside to African meditation techniques – and maybe discover a new stress-buster for yourself!
Here are some of my favourites:
After a stressful day in France, the people relax with a small glass of wine and a side of cashew nuts or pita chips with hummus and olives. Wine is a relaxant, but more importantly for the French, it is a ritual that separates the chaos of work from the comfort of home. I am not a drinker myself, but I know many that enjoy relaxing with wine. The cashew nuts or pita chips and hummus sounds good to me, though.
The Japanese use centuries old relaxing baths as a way to forget about daily tasks and just relax. I love taking a bath myself, and having recently got myself some natural Himalayan rock salt to go in my bath, it is going to do more good than ever before. A book in a warm bath is the ultimate relaxation if you ask me, and something I do as often as I can (don’t forget the scented candles)!
The Russians go to the banya, a hot sauna, to relax in the extreme heat; sweating out the stress of everyday life. American’s advocate taking a break from your daily stresses and take time to just do nothing; definitely something I could get on board with.
What help you to relax? Do you have any go-to techniques that help you to chill out? It would be great to hear what you think.
*This post is in conjunction with Rennie but all thoughts are my own
So technically I can say that taking a bath and drinking some wine is part of looking after myself medically?! This is the best post, haha! I do get acid reflux a lot, and I am very stressed, but I didn’t realise they were related, so this is really helpful x
Not many people realise the two can be connected, glad this was helpful for you!
How fun is it to read what different cultures do after a long hard day. I think I like French idea of relaxing with some pita chips, though I’ll swap the wine for tea.
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It’s so interesting!
This is such an interesting read as I never knew stress caused acid reflux. I do use Rennie often! xo
Glad this was helpful!
I’ve definitely got better in eating at the right time and getting into more of a routine which helps me a lot. I like to pamper myself or just lay back and do nothing to combat stress x
Sounds great!
Love this. I like to do it the Japanese AND the French way and relax with a glass of wine in the bath 😉
Sounds so relaxing!
It’s really important that we stay away from stress as much as we can. I think these tips are awesome. I never eat late at night. My last meal is always dinner and that’s it.
Stress can be so damaging, glad you found this post useful!
I find myself getting all too stressed on some days. Never good for the soul or that horrible feeling of sickness with acid reflux. Little things really do help though, and I tend I avoid coffee and even fizzy stuff after about 6pm. I really need more relaxation in my day, and keep saying I will take up yoga again. Such a helpful exercise to keep up, particularly with the breathing.
Yoga is amazing, but can be hard to find time for!
For me relaxing is all about the bath – I can lose hours in a hot bath just chilling amongst the bubbles x
So lovely!
I love soaking away the days worries and completely agree with the less caffine is best theory too.
Caffeine can be awful for stress!
So interesting to read about what the different nationalities and cultures do to relax 🙂 funny story about Rennie: my dad uses them when travelling, and once when going through the airport security he kept beeping. He had nothing on him, no metal, nothing. They made him strip down behind a curtain, and found it was his trousers that kept beeping. Why? A tiny tiny bit of Rennie tin foil was in his pocket haha! x
Haha! Oh no!
These tips are so accurate to help people from having less stress in their lives… I was also told to eat more alkaline based food like pulses and beans as well as less meat to combat stress. Its interesting to see how others around the world combat stress too.
That’s interesting!
I am loving the idea of wine as a relaxant, it certainly does help me unwind 🙂
Great ideas for relaxation here. I love Asmr videos when I am stressed
Great tips! I suffered so much with acid reflux when I was pregnant, I definitely could have relaxed more then too!
I always just run a hot bubble bath and open a bottle of wine if I am feeling stressed! Chocolate helps too 😀
I never knew that stress could create acid reflux, now I know why I sometimes get heart burn while feeling stressed. I loved this post and seeing all the different ways different cultures combat stress x
I really struggle to relax. And get very stressed! some good tips here! I think I need to take up something like colouring, writing can de stress me from time to time too
I suffered a lot during pregnancy. In the other time there is no symptoms of heartburn except after eating some unusual foods. I used to take regular coffee in pregnancy period, oily foods in the beginning of pregnancy. But later could not maintain. This is a very helpful piece of content. People can be conscious after going through this.
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