Category : Carriers

Jobs with High Stress can easily help create Acid Reflux Disease.  Clearly, Brokers are in a high stress career and are just as prone to Acid Reflux issues as anybody.  If you don’t have Acid Reflux problems yet, chances are that you will sometime in the future. 

What is Acid Reflux Disease?  This is the painful condition where your stomach builds up excess stomach acid and it attacks your esophagus where it enters into your stomach and other areas.  It can be severe enough pain that most hospital Emergency Rooms will run an EKG to make sure your not having a heart attack.  Although there are some good medications that can help deal with Acid Reflux such as Nexium, Prilosec, and a host of others, many times Acid Reflux can be controlled by diet.  In fact, to avoid side effects from taking medications to reduce the pain, it makes sense to determine what in your diet is causing Acid Reflux.

Since this is such a common ailment, both doctors I have visited over the years automatically pass out a pre-printed sheet of paper with a list of common foods NOT TO EAT to avoid these problems.  The list includes:

            Carbonated beverages such as Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, energy drinks, and others.  Carbonation causes your stomach to produce excess acid.  But to complicate the problem, these beverages also contain caffeine which also stimulate acid production.  To make matters worse, if you drink diet sodas, the artificial sweeteners can also cause excess stomach acid production.  Sometimes, these problems can be handled just be taking a couple of TUMS tablets.  But as the disease progresses, TUMS will no longer work.

            Beer & Alcoholic beverages can cause bloating and slow digestion.  The stomach reacts by creating more stomach acid and so more acid reflux issues result.

            Chocolate is a big acid stimulator as are citrus fruits like oranges (including orange juice) and lemons (including lemonade).  Where possible, eliminate chocolate and O.J. 

            Hot drinks such as Coffee, Tea, and Hot Chocolate all attack the stomach lining and may contain such things as caffeine and chocolate which stimulate acid production.  So the “hot” plus the substances of caffeine and chocolate can hit your stomach with a “double whammy”.

            Sugarless chewing gum is also a problem in that the sugar substitute creates excess stomach acid and when you swallow, you also swallow excess air that causes your stomach to bloat which also creates additional stomach acid.  Since many gum flavors are peppermint, spearmint, etc., these flavors also can create stomach issues.

            Avoid peppers of all varieties, tomatoes, and onions.  Avoid salsa, hot chile, hot soups, and large quantities of ketchup!  Anything that puts acid into your stomach is not your friend when you have acid reflux.  You want to reduce acid, not ingest more.

            Finally, avoid greasy foods as they cause excess stomach acid to build up.  Eat lean meats.  Avoid peanut butter and excess mounts of butter as they require more acid to digest.

BIG QUESTION:   What can I drink and eat?  You can avoid a lot of problems by just drinking water for your primary beverage.  Low-Fat milk is fine for cereal.  Substitute peaches, pears, and apples for oranges.  Although these fruits have some acid it is much less than Oranges or Orange Juice.  Eat vanilla ice cream instead of chocolate ice cream.  Use common sense.

IS THERE HOPE THAT I CAN EAT OR DRINK SOME OF THESE ITEMS ON THE LIST?  Yes!  If you can go “cold turkey” and eliminate your acid reflux than you can consider adding a small amount of one “bad item” in your diet to see if you can tolerate it.  Only add one at a time and if it is food, be sure to eat something else with it to dilute it in your stomach.  Sometimes, you can tolerate a food on the list if you eat it sparingly and avoid Acid Reflux.  If by chance you do get Acid Reflux after eating that one food, then you know that you need to eliminate it from your diet.  Period.

One other big problem concerns certain pain killers such as ibuprofen, Aleve (for arthritis pain), and aspirin.  If you need to take these pain killers, always take them with food and always take the minimum amount your pain will tolerate.  Each of these pain killers is tough on your stomach lining.  Modern medicine has recently come out with some hybrid “dual medications” that combine the pain killer ibuprofen with the compound found in Nexium that decreases stomach acid so that people can control their pain and also get the benefits of ibuprofens anti-inflammatory properties.

What do nylon stockings have to do with Acid Reflux?

One medical doctor told me that we should compare our stomach that is under attack from acid-stimulating foods and pain killers to a pair of nylon stockings.  If the nylons get a hole in them, the hole will gradually expand.  The same thing happens to the damage done to the inside of our stomachs when they start creating too much acid.  The stomach lining can heal to some extent, but the damage is done and it is important to take care of what we have left with a little common sense.

The whole purpose of this article is to help Brokers and others in this industry with high stress jobs to be able to work pain free from Acid Reflux.  This is in no way a substitute for visiting a doctor or medical professional who is familiar with the medical issues you face.  We are not medical professionals.  See a doctor when you need to.