acid reflux.

Relieving Acid Reflux
Name
Institution

Abstract
Acid reflux is a common disease among many individuals nowadays. Very many people experience heartburn symptoms every day. Regular heartburn cases might indicate that one has the gastroesophageal disease (GERD). Although many people refer to it as acid reflux, it is a persistent problem that needs one to visit a medical practitioner for treatment to lower damage to the esophagus. The name heartburn does not have a relation with the heart, but it is a burning sensation occurring around the chest as well as the upper part of the digestive tract. It is called so because the esophagus runs behind the heart. When the acid in the stomach leaks into the esophagus, one feels these burning sensations. GERD happens several times in a week, and therefore, when one gets heartburn it does not mean they have GERD. The paper discusses whether losing weight among overweight individuals helps in relieving acid reflux.
Keywords: acid reflux, overweight, heartburn

Relieving Acid Reflux
One of the main reasons for the prevalence of the gastroesophageal disease is being overweight. It is because of the excess weight which increases pressure on the abdomen which is also transferred to other internal organs. Consequently, the force on the stomach makes the stomach acid to leak into the esophagus. By losing excess weight, the pressure that facilitates the reflux lowers, thus, the acid reflux symptoms go away.
People often gain a lot of weight because of poor eating habits and having a sedentary life where one does not do exercises.

One should eat a balanced diet when trying to lose weight. The foods should not contain a lot of fats but should have a lot of vegetables. Fasting is not an approved means of trying to lose weight. It may lead to weight loss, but this loss cannot be sustained once a person resumes their normal eating habits. Simple exercises like walking can help in weight loss.
The best evidence which proves that weight loss helps in resolving GERD symptoms comes from a cohort study conducted by Singh et al. (2013). The overweight individuals who enrolled for the weight loss program and had GERD symptoms were37%. There was complete resolution of acid reflux symptoms for 65% of the subjects of the study. Also, 81% of the study subjects showed reduction in the symptoms of acid reflux. As a result, the study concluded that treatment of acid reflux could be brought about by lifestyle modification through weight loss.
Acid reflux is most common among people who are overweight. One way of alienating the symptoms of acid reflux is by reducing weight and maintain it in the normal weight range. The weight can be reduced through exercising and intake of balanced diet.

Reference
Singh, M., Lee, J., Gupta, N., Gaddam, S., Smith, B. K., Wani, S. B., … & Sharma, P. (2013). Weight loss can lead to resolution of gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms: a prospective intervention trial. Obesity, 21(2), 284-290.