If you suffer from acid reflux disease, you know how debilitating it can be. There will be times when it will take over your life so that you are hardly able to do anything else. However, there is treatment available and things that you can do to help lessen the negative effects of the illness. Here are some things you should know.

1. Try A Food Elimination Diet

The majority of people are reactive to certain kinds of foods rather than to everything. Usually the heartburn and stomach pain will start after you eat something specific. This means, if you can narrow down what it is that is causing your pain, you can practically heal yourself by avoiding those foods. This is why the elimination diet is so effective. How you do this is you start with taking out certain foods out of your diet slowly. You can either keep eating the same foods, and then remove one food group. Or for better results, you can remove all foods and then slowly introduce ones back in. For example, you remove everything but meat and some veggies. Then you begin adding back dairy, wheat and grains, sugars, fruits and so forth.

Keep a journal about how you feel after eating each thing. This detailed journal will help you know exactly what foods, if any, cause your reflux to flare up.

2. Don't Eat Before Bed

Another common reason that people get reflux is that they eat too close to bed so that when they lie down at night, they get terrible heart burn. You need to have plenty of time to digest your foods before you lie down. If you are flat and are prone to reflux, it can only exasperate the problem and make sleeping miserable. Thus, eat a high protein dinner so that you feel full hours before bed, then by the time you are suppose to go to sleep you won't be in pain.

3. Take Medications Regularly

If you have chronic problems and diet and time of eating doesn't work, you should take medications. Continued problems with acid reflux can damage the esophagus to the point that you have lasting issues. The medications will help to protect the body so that even if you aren't feeling the acid, it isn't damaging your body. Talk to your doctor about different options.

By understanding these things you can take care of your acid reflux.