Acid Reflux and Yoga

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I am a complete novice, so please forgive any ignorance in this post. I have attended only two Yoga classes.
I have severe acid reflux. I refuse to undergo surgery, and I am trying to get myself off the drugs. I’m changing my diet and successfully losing weight. I’ve already stopped Prevacid, and am working on getting rid of Ranitadine.

Yoga gives me heartburn. Serious heartburn. Physiologically, this makes sense to me, because putting my head in a position lower than my stomach (Downward Dog, and even Child’s Pose) would seem to encourage leaking of acid. Natural treatment and prevention of heartburn all suggest sleeping on an incline, with the head higher than the stomach.

And yet, all over the net, I am finding that Yoga is recommended for relief of acid reflux. How can this be? What am I missing?

This is a serious plea for some help with my confusion and frustration. Thank you so very much.

#2

Hi,

Your condition is not easy to treat and generally people think that normal heartburn or being acidic is the same as acid reflux and it is not. First of all, I am not a doctor and my advice is purely from a yogic perspective and I want to recommend that you carefully implement it or first discuss it with your health practitioner.

By changing your diet you are well on your way to control acid reflux. What you need to do is to look at the food you eat, change all the tamasic type of food to sattvic food, in other words avoid sharp food like onions and chillies, meat, alcohol, caffiene and even smoking. Include ample fresh fruit and veg in your diet and drink plenty of water. Juice tend to make it worse. My father also suffered from this and his doctor gave him the following advice years ago and it worked like a dream for him. Before you start your day, eat half a papino or paw-paw or pineapple in the morning. Both fruits aid disgestion and reduce acid in the body. Eventually you will most probably have to consider surgery, but that is a lst resort if you just can’t live with it anymore.

About your yoga asanas, avoid the forward bends where you place too much pressure on the stomach, just do a little and if you feel you had enough come out of the asana. It sounds ridiculus to do the inverted poses, but something like the shoulder stand will strenghten your stomach and back muscles, which in the long run will help to control the reflux. Many people will most probably differ here from me, but try the back benders and the mountain pose, they tend to tone the stomach muscles as well. I have a whole stomach series, but I shall sent them to you in a personal email which you can also try and see if they help.

Good Luck as this is not an easy defect to suffer from.

#3

when you have a thorn in your skin that you have not taken care of and just let it go. The skin grows over it. So a time comes to dig it out and guess what, it hurts more then just leaving the thorn in but in the end will bring releif.

try this
when you have acid problems, eat romain lettuce with nothing else, this may nuetralize it some or completely
seeker

#4

Hello Scrapbird,

I have been through this acid reflux problem some 10 years ago. Now I do not have it at all. Ultimately it was ‘guided imagery’ techniques that cured my GERD condition.
First here are my ‘non-yogic’ suggestions

  1. Ask your doctor to test for Helicobacter Pylori bacteria to rule it out. The 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to the scientists who discovered H.Pylori (see this link Press Release: The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine)

  2. If no H. Pylori is found then try the natural ginger treatment recommended by Dr. Stoll at Ask Dr Stoll - Upper Gastrointestinal Symptom Relief

  3. Guided imagery is similar to the Yoga Nidra process except that it mainly focuses on bodily healing and does not delve into subtle body aspects. You can read about guided imagery by ‘googling’ it. I also have a write-up on my old web site at if you care to read it here (Guided Imagery)

Good luck

#5

Conceptually speaking, acid reflux is more of a symptom of something than a thing itself.

Therefore the cause of the “leaking” must be determined before an appropriate course of remedy can be followed. Otherwise it’s guesswork followed by happenstance. It may work or it may frustrate the bejeezus out of you.

If your issue lies in the ileocecal valve then, I am told, it is possible for a good osteopath (or chiro) to manually adjust it with some positive result. That does not mean one eats carelessly or that one does whatever thye want. It would still need to be cared for appropriately.

If the issue is rooted elsewhere then another approach would be mandated. There are specific ways in which a comprehensive yoga approach (not merely asana) can soothe. mitigate, and heal this sort of issue but it must be done mindfully and with proper teaching.

#6

An almost immediate relief/cure from Acid Reflux is Liver Flush & Gi Tract Cleanse. Clean your vital organs (Liver, Kidneys, GI Tract) plus follow a diet conducive to your body type & you will be free of Acid Reflux.

#7

Acid reflux can have a quite big bundle of roots and like Inner Athlete wrote they have to be treated a different way.
One can be pschosomatic and is often caused by stress.
So I like to ask you, if it is possible that you are forcing the Yoga practise to much.

All the best
Lars

Patanjali Yoga Schule M?nster

#8

hello, I am also a person who is suffering a lot with acid relux has been on nexium for 3 yrs was ok , now nothing seems to work, can anyone who has been helped by yoga. let me know wat to do… i do pranayam an hour a day, drink louki juice, but still nothing works
help… is there anything out there other than surgery …

#9

Do yogasanas after evacuating your bowels in the morning. Hopefully your stomach shall be empty and there will be less of acids to flow back into esophagus.

For acidity, have aloevera juice on empty stomach in the morning.

#10

[QUOTE=Scrapbird;7320]I am a complete novice, so please forgive any ignorance in this post. I have attended only two Yoga classes.
I have severe acid reflux. I refuse to undergo surgery, and I am trying to get myself off the drugs. I’m changing my diet and successfully losing weight. I’ve already stopped Prevacid, and am working on getting rid of Ranitadine.

Yoga gives me heartburn. Serious heartburn. Physiologically, this makes sense to me, because putting my head in a position lower than my stomach (Downward Dog, and even Child’s Pose) would seem to encourage leaking of acid. Natural treatment and prevention of heartburn all suggest sleeping on an incline, with the head higher than the stomach.

And yet, all over the net, I am finding that Yoga is recommended for relief of acid reflux. How can this be? What am I missing?

This is a serious plea for some help with my confusion and frustration. Thank you so very much.[/QUOTE]

Welcome to the forum!!!

As people mentioned before, heartburn is not just about the acid stomach.

What is the exact diagnosis?

What tests were done to diagnose?

What have you tried except atiacid and diet?

Do you feel hungry after your eat?

What are your stress levels?

Have you try alternative medicine?

do you have stomach ache? (what side of the stomach hurt more?)

For how long you have this problem?

Heartburn is just a little inconvenience, a sign that something is going wrong… what is important that is going on inside!

I hope you all agree that the goal is not to get rid of Heartburn…but much more complicated.

Atiacid drugs allow all kind of bacteria to enter digestive system. Stomach acid suppose to kill them. In addition in the low acid environment the stomach is not able to prepare the food for further digestion. Hence - waste of food and malnutrition. Moreover, by suppressing production of the acid, you make your stomach produce more acid…and so on…

Speaking of surgery… since anti-reflux surgery just reinforces the “valve” between the esophagus and the stomach… but ACIDITY LEVELS ARE still high… (only of the acidity and other digestive function are normal - this surgery makes sense. otherwise it is like…mmm…putting a tight lid on the boiling pot…)

And this boiling pot will continue to produce acid…and ruin duodenum…etc…

This problem ( just as many others) requires holistic approach…holistic approach requires some time, effort and persistence… make take months…or longer, depends how bad is the condition.

I have “hight acid”, “gerd”, “reflux” and whatever my doctor calls is, and I successfully cope with it for many years without drugs. maybe can share some useful hints with you.

#11

by the way…one time I got so tired of antiacid and I wake up at night and thought: “what if I will take a cup of orange juce? my stomach would think thet where is enought acid int he stomach and will stop making more!”

I took a cup of orange juice…and it worked!!!

Yoga will help you to LEARN about your body. You will become more aware about what your body needs. All advises are based on someone else’s experience (even medical research) and might not be suitable for your…

#12

Hi,

I also suffered a severe acidity since my childhood, i felt like my stomach was literally drilled, and fixed the problem through drinking 4/5 full glasses of lukewarm water every morning, of course, on empty stomach. It works for me. If I override it just for a day, symptoms reappear. It’s systematic.

Avoid acid and salty foods, change coffee for tea (important!), and give up unwholesome habits like smoking or drinking alcohol.

Good luck!

#13

Panoramix, 4-5 glasses? wow. I tried 3-4 glasses but it did not help, presumably because of other physical conditions going on. But I do drink 1 large glass of warm water everyday, for ages now. And it helps to waken the stomach and digestion along with flushing the pipes :slight_smile:

#14

Systematic consumption of yogurt did help in my case!

#15

I do agree with b.shahvir. Yogurt does help in normalizing stomach acids. I used to experience hyperacidity back when I was in college since I didn’t have that much money to eat or eat healthy. Those tablets seem to make the rumblings worse for me. Someone I knew recommended yogurt, and it helped a lot.

I always stress the importance of consulting a doctor before trying out yoga and apart from that you can’t push yourself too hard-back when I was young I’ve had really severe acid refluxes at very stressful times.

#16

I used to take Nexium and pop Rolaids like candy. It has now been several years since my stomach burned. I found out that drugs like Nexium and Prilosec actually increase heartburn so you have to continue taking them. Also, these medicines ruin how you absorb nutrients in food. Believe it or not, but your problem could be too LITTLE stomach acid. Anyway what I did to get rid of heartburn was to take probiotics, eat fermented foods like raw milk kefir or raw sauerkraut, and to use RAW organic honey for a sweetener. I also quit eating bread and so many wheat carbs, and I quit drinking wine. It didn’t happen overnight, but gradually I had less and less heartburn. You want to do everything you can to foster good gut flora and decrease everything that destroys gut flora. Also, don’t eat to close to class time. I try to finish eating 2 hours before class.

#19
#21

Some of these responses are HORRIBLE advice. I have GERD- let me tell you...NO you do not have less acid when you first wake up (you have more) NO juice does not make it worse (it depends on what kind- Apple can flare me up, but carrot or greens actually help) and omg, please don't just eat a ton of romaine lettuce because that will not do anything except give your digestive tract a lot of roughage to break down.

Best advice: if inverted poses flare you up, don't do them, or modify them so that less pressure is on your esophagus. Stay hydrated. Follow your doctor's advice if it is helping- if not, I have found that acupuncture and herbal supplements have done wonders for me (but obviously that's just anecdotal evidence- do what is right for YOU) and find your trigger foods! For me I have to be careful of garlic and onion in their raw forms, and I cut out all meat because it would never properly digest. I also take enzymes and probiotics. My favorite asanas for a flare up are cowface pose and simpke seated twist. Good luck!!