The winter holiday season is often a tough time for people with GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). The ready availability of rich, fatty food and alcohol between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve is a recipe for increased heartburn and acid reflux symptoms. Here are a few suggestions for keeping GERD symptoms in check over the holiday season.
Don’t Forget Your GERD Medication
This may seem like silly advice, but make an extra effort to maintain your medication schedule over the winter holidays. The time surrounding Thanksgiving, Christmas and other holidays is stressful however. Stress can affect memory, making it easier to forget to take your Aciphex or other GERD medication. Christmas dinner’s enough of a challenge for people with GERD without forgetting to take your meds Christmas morning.
Stick to Your Acid Reflux Diet
Once you’ve lived with GERD for a while, you get a feel for what you can or cannot eat. Whenever possible, try to stick to your acid reflux diet during the holidays. This doesn’t mean abstaining from all that holiday cheer, but it does mean making careful choices about what you eat and drink. When it comes to GERD, moderation in all things is generally the best way to avoid heartburn.
Holiday season or not, avoid eating or drinking anything you know triggers your GERD symptoms. You’re faced with enough GERD-inducing food over the holidays without consuming food that you know, without any doubt, is going to set off your GERD.
Timing is Everything
When you indulge in “forbidden foods” over the holiday season is as important as when you indulge. If people with GERD eat rich foods or have too much alcohol within a few hours of bedtime, it’s a fair bet that acid reflux will make their night unpleasant.
On the other hand, eating earlier and allowing your body time to digest before lying down helps minimize the effects of GERD. Santa may be able to eat cookies and drink eggnog all night Christmas Eve. The rest of us are better off stopping a few hours before bedtime. (And for all we know, Santa doesn’t sleep too well either—he’s got some of the risk factors for GERD. He’s obese and eats rich food and drink late at night).
Ultimately, it’s your choice whether you choose to risk acid reflux symptoms over the winter holidays. Sometimes the momentary pleasure of eating a favorite holiday food is worth paying for with some heartburn. For people with GERD, however, it’s usually better to play it safe.
Disclaimer: The information contained within this article is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute in any way for care and treatment by a qualified health professional.
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