|
Medical treatment begins with behavior modification. Changing one's diet may help to control the frequency and severity of some of these attacks. Spicy foods, caffeine, coffee, alcohol, chocolate and peppermint should all be avoided. Weight loss may also help as well as decreasing the amount of food that you eat at each meal. After eating one should allow 2-3 hours for digestion prior to attempting to sleep. Raising the head of the bed 6-8 inches or placing a wedge under one's mattress may help to prevent the onset of symptoms. Despite these attempts almost all patients will need medication. Currently there are three types of medical treatment. After the development of symptoms one may decide to take over-the-counter medications such as Rolaids, TUMS, Mylanta or Milk of Magnesia. These medications function to neutralize stomach acid. Histamine II receptor blockers are a stronger family of medications. These are Tagamet, Zantac, Pepcid and Axid. These work to reduce the acid production in the stomach and have been found to be successful in many patients. If one does not respond to these medications, a physician should be consulted for placement on a proton pump inhibitor (PPI). These medications act by completely stopping the acid that is produced by the stomach so that when reflux occurs, one does not feel the pain. Although these medications stop the symptoms, the refluxing of stomach contents into the esophagus will still occur. These medications are called Prevacid and Prilosec.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||