If you’ve suffered from chronic heartburn, you probably already know that exercise can be a trigger.
But, avoiding exercise to prevent heartburn symptoms isn’t in anyone’s best interest.
Exercise isn’t just important to cardiovascular health, it can also help you lose weight. Being overweight is an important risk factor in acid reflux, and losing weight can help reduce your symptoms.This week’s “Really” column in the New York Times addresses the exercise and acid reflux conundrum. Though some exercises can exacerbate symptoms, a 2004 study found that people who exercise for 30 minutes once a week or more, and ate a high-fiber diet, cut their symptoms in half.
So exercise prevents heartburn, but also makes it worse.
What’s an acid reflux sufferer to do?
- Exercise on an empty stomach — no meals or snacks two hours before your workout.
- Hydrate with water instead of those high carb sports drinks.
- Choose your exercise well: agitating exercises like running can cause symptoms, while more stationary exercises, like biking, are less likely to.
- Consider your body position: lying flat and other exercises that increase abdominal pressure are more likely to cause pain.
According to WebMD, you might not have to follow those tips stringently, though. It depends on your body and your heartburn symptoms. They suggest playing around with the amount of time you eat before exercise, and what you eat before working out, to find out what works for you. Coffee and orange juice — common heartburn triggers — are probably a no-go, but a banana or yogurt might be just fine.
Have you had to deal with exercise and acid reflux? How did you handle it?
Image credit: Rennett Stowe, Flickr
Yes it is possible to cure gerd with diet and exercise. I think diet is more important. Exercise helps because it aids weight loss.
It is surprising the problems that can be helped by diet and natural remedies. I suffered from severe heartburn and was even considering surgery. I have been following a diet and natural treatment plan and my heartburn has disappeared. I am pain free. The surgery has been cancelled! There are natural, dietary and holistic treatments for acid reflux and heartburn which are 100% effective.
Acid reflux or GERD is a chronic condition that can be difficult to treat or control. Acid reflux once started is very unlikely to go away and never come back. It can be treated with medication daily as prescribed by a doctor or a drug without a prescription
Exercising or not doesn’t affect my acid reflux. I lost weight last year and then it went away. I gained weight back and got it back.
I’m totally sold on the low carb idea for relieveing GERD symptoms. I started (yet again) on a low carb diet (south beach) a week ago. I have absolutely no heartburn or reflux. Prior to starting the low carb diet I would be awake most nights fighting horrible reflux. For now I’m doing the protein and veges. It will be intersesting to see if I can add any other carbs back into my diet without problems.
As a Registered Dietitian, I see new clients complaining of reflux in my office all the time. Cutting citrus fruits, caffeine, spicy & fried foods and carbonation definitely help. Drinking plenty of total fluids and eating adequate total fiber also helps. Keep a food and exercise log as well to help you identify when and why it occurs for you. Exercise should help…weight loss definitely helps. Sports drinks like Gatorade can and should still be used by reflux suffers during exercise as a means to extend endurance and help you maximize your workouts in order to burn calories. A study a Colorado State University showed that exercisers who consumed carbohydrates (such as in sports drink) during exercise consumes fewer calories for the remainder of the day than people who drank water. Hope this helps!
-RD, NYC
I’m with you blob! Same results for me when I cut out the carbs. And I can tell pretty quickly if I’ve started to slack off on the carb restriction. Bread does me in every time.
There’s a blog out there called “The Healthy Skeptic” and he did a whole serious of posts on acid reflux. Great information such as acid reflux being, more commonly, a problem of not enough acid vs too much acid (this is the case around 70% of the time – I can’t remember the exact stat).
switched from prilosec to a probiotic. works just as well but much healthier.
I’ve never actually experienced heartburn, so I have no idea what it even feels like. I suppose the fact that I exercise regularly might have something to do with it, but I don’t know if it helps me not have it…make sense? I guess it’s a good preventative measure for what it’s worth, so I think I’ll keep it up.
My own experience is that getting up and walking after eating is good to control reflux. I do well after lunch when I’m working but over summer it acts up because I sit after lunch. It just helps the digestion to be standing and moving after a meal. Least for me.
However one thing not mentioned is worry and stress. My doctor keeps warning me that my worry just churns up the stomach acids and makes everything worse.
While this sounds like it may have some benefit, I found that reducing my carb intake completely eliminated my acid reflux.
It is one of the truly wonderful benefits of a low carb lifestyle. I rarely get it anymore and I know it’s because I don’t have those carbs fermenting in my gut.
I highly recommend that anyone suffering from this should at least experiment with lowering their carb intake before going on any prescription medication. I was eating 3-4 or more chewables daily, ready to go in for a pharmaceutical approach, and now I haven’t bought Tums, Rolaids, in years.
I’m still fat, but at least I GERD free. I don’t discount that exercise may help, but I was shocked at how effective lowering my carb intake worked.
I didn’t know about this. I usually suffer from heart burn and been doing cardio workouts.
Oops, I think a slight mistype in the first sentence.
“If you’ve suffered from chronic heartburn, you probably already know that **heartburn** can be a trigger.”
Feel free to delete this comment.