A few years ago I got a really bad stomach illness. They never discovered what it was and after two weeks or so I was back to normal – except as a little memento I was left with a acid reflux condition. I always thought that only happened to fat people but according to my doctor I most likely have a congenital weakness (I hope no insurance company is reading this). Apparently my esophagus is a born slacker, literally, who only waited for an excuse to take a permanent vacation.
So I’ve been on medication since then. But last Friday I began eating yogurt with my breakfast cereals and by chance I ran out of meds the same day. Oddly enough I woke up the next morning without having had any discomfort during the night. So I kept eating yogurt and stayed of the medication and nine days later I’m still doing fine. No symptoms whatsoever.
Yogurt is much cheaper than any medication and it has other health benefits too. But my doctor never suggested it. She only recommended different forms of medication, one of which I got a really bad side effect from. Maybe I’m a little paranoid here, but I suspect that most doctors are in bed with Big Pharma and don’t want their patients to know about yogurt and other cheap remedies. About five percent of the population suffers from acid reflux, that’s a lot of money we’re talking about.
So if you have this problem, just try a little mild low-fat yogurt. You may or may not want to consult your doctor first, if you get the hint.
Filed under: Economy, Health, Science | 16 Comments
Tags: acid reflux, Big Pharma, yogurt
It’s interesting that you noticed that benefit from yogurt. A while back I used to occasionally have acid reflux, not all that often, but it was sometimes happening. I eat my meals at a college campus, and more recently they began providing yogurt more regularly and I have been consuming a lot of it. No acid reflux since. I wouldn’t have been able to make this connection myself, but in retrospect this may be another example of what you’re saying.
I’ve seen a few websites that promote the value of an alkaline diet say that yogurt does promote alkalinity … perhaps this is why it can reduce acid reflux.
Could well be. There are a lot of studies showing all sorts of good effects from yogurt – preventing cancer, infections, generally boosting the immune system. I’m not sure why it works on acid reflux, maybe a combination of several factors. But I’m sure not going back to medication.
Eating yogurt may only provide temporary relief. You should still be prudent with your condition.
It may be temporary, but it’s almost two weeks now so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. As long as I don’t have any symptoms I don’t really see the point in taking any medicine.
The timing of this for me is almost exactly the same as yours. I’ve had gastric reflux problems for 25 years. It has gradually become worse. A big problem is that I love and eat a lot of spicey food which only compounds the problem. A few months ago my Dr prescribed Famotidine which worked wonders. The main problem is that if I ate at my favourite Trinidad style lunch place I would have terrible upset problems all that night in bed. Even the Famotidine wasn’t powerful enough to totally overcome it.
About a month ago I ate the spicey lunch and the same day ran out of pills. OH NO! Coincidentally before bed I had a “Yop” yogurt, a drinkable yogurt brand available in Canada. The next morning amazed I had slept an entire night with NO TROUBLE.
Now, every night before bed for about the last month I have enjoyed a yogurt just before bed and have had ZERO problems. I have to assume that since I have had this problem for so long that it’s the yogurt helping me. I imagine that just about any brand of low fat yogurt would do the same.
I bet there are a lot of people with the exact same experience. You’d think yogurt would be promoted as a remedy at least by those who manufacture it.
Most health problems seem related to bad food. Already in the 1700s Voltaire noticed that if you eat like the poor (whole grain bread, vegetables, the occasional chicken) you don’t need doctors.
Just found your blog using google search terms “yogurt acid reflux” and it was like 4th or fifth down. So congrats are in order!
Anyway, I was looking for someone to back up a theory I had about this exact topic. Now that I’ve read this entry and it’s comments, I’m going to attempt this and try to post back my results as well.
I don’t have constant trouble, but every now and again I’ll feel achey through a burp or soon after eating a spicy/etc. meal in general (usually the food happens to be acid-inducing). Felt it tonight, decided to search for foods that can help. Keep up the good advice kind sir or ma’am!
Chamomile tea helped me.
Strangely enough I’ve never tried that. I find that green tea is a bit easier on the stomach than black so maybe it’s something similar.
I came here searching for the same thing…yogurt/acid reflux. I can deal with the stomach mess, but the bloating and shortness of breath is what’s getting me aggravated. I was searching Activia and seem to feel any yogurt will do. I actually like it too. I’m taking Nexium, but I’m going to try YOGURT! Bookmarking to come back and let you know. Thank you!
I am back to follow up on my comment #5. It’s been since April and I no longer need my famotidine. I am more than thrilled. It used to be that I needed the medication every night and it only worked some of the time. I’ve found that I only now need to drink a yogurt before bed if I have particularly spicy foods.
To be free of the medication and even more importantly to be free of waking up at night in pain is a wonderful thing. Life changing. I get a full restful night of sleep now.
Debbie: I don’t use any fancy type of yogurt; I suspect most of the brands are very similar. It will be interesting to hear how it works out.
Joe: Sounds great. I felt really bad when I first got my reflux, but now it’s no big deal anymore. And getting a full night’s sleep has other health benefits too.
I just wanted to note that I had an almost identical experience, which led to me searching google for “yogurt acid reflux” and finding this page. I started eating nonfat yogurt every day as part of a diet to lose a few pounds, and found that it had the unexpected benefit of curing my acid reflux. Prior to that I had been taking famotidine in relatively high doses for about four years, but I was concerned about long-term health effects and I’m really happy to not have to take it anymore. I haven’t had to take the medication in a month now; before I starting eating yogurt, if I missed even one dose I would be in terrible pain. I have noticed, though, that if I run out of yogurt now and go a day without eating it, the next day my acid reflux will come back. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one who had this experience!
Glad to hear it! But it is a shame that healthcare professionals don’t inform about this. Millions could be helped both in terms of health, but also financially, an important factor these days.
I have problems also with acid reflux.. Im desperate to cure it that I self medicate… I take Omeprazole 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening together with 1 Zantac at
3am and 1 Zantac at 3pm everyday… Its fine in the beginning but at times goes by I felt like my body is getting immuned to these medicines and give me some shooting pains under my ribs and back.. And my acid reflux goes through it.. I consult this to my doctor and change my medications to 2 Motilium a day and 3 times Gaviscon Advance.. He also mentioned that I should take Yogurt when acid reflux occurs.. I don’t know what will happen to me without the Antacids and PPI’s.. any suggestions or comments? Thanks in advance…
As far as medication goes I think you should trust your doctor, especially since he recommended yogurt. That shows he’s not just trying to sell you something. If you still want a second opinion, you might see another doctor or visit a health site. But remember that there are a lot of quack-sites that look very professional. Best thing is to stay with the government sites, such as Medline Plus, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/medlineplus.html, or MedHelp, http://www.medhelp.org/, a non-gov site with good reputation.
Hope this helps.