Heartburn and acidity appear to be everyone’s favorite disease.
Apparently harmless. Drugs easily available even without prescription.
This silent epidemic is more dangerous than it is given credit for.
A Few Stats about Reflux
Up to 60% of Americans may have at least one symptom of acid reflux during a 1 year period.
33% of Americans have persistent GERD .That makes it one of the commonest gastrointestinal problems.
Healthcare costs per year are upward 10 billion dollars per year.This includes both prescription medicines and OTC’s.
Acid reflux is thus easily the most expensive gastrointestinal disease affecting Americans.
For Indians, it is the National disease .7.6% of Indians have significant GERD symptoms at least once a week .(source)
The prevalence of GERD was 22.2 % in South India(Source).
Acid Reflux; everyone has it
So what’s the problem?
The discomfort is just the tip of the iceberg.
The real problem is what happens to your esophagus or food pipe with regular, splashes of acid.
Imagine when acid is dropped on the floor, regularly at one spot.
The discolouration and textural changes happening there reflect what happens in your food pipe.
The normal lining mucosa of the food pipe gradually changes. There is a real risk esophageal cancer.
How Dangerous is Late Night Eating?
Single most important lifestyle change , which can improve acid reflux is your dinner time.
As high as 50 % of people in a survey have complained of experiencing higher episodes of reflux at night.
This is important.
With our lives getting busier the end of the day meal is often quite late.
It is also one of the heaviest meals.
For you to be healthy, this has to be turned upside down.
Earlier dinner.
Smaller meals.
The main factor is your dinner time
Dinner and bedtime should have a minimum gap of 3 hours.
During this time you should be sitting upright.
Sitting and standing allows gravity to work on the food and acid and keeps it in the stomach for digestion.
After 3 hours as the food travels from the stomach to the intestine the chance of reflux drastically reduces.
Try to have dinner by 7 pm and no later than 8 pm.
Late night tea, coffee, desserts are definitely not a part of the plan.
Why should you stop eating late at night?
With great medicines available why should you even bother?
Medicines work.Most of the time
Sometimes they may not.Especially for chronic cases of GERD, we find that even twice a day doses may not work, without lifestyle changes.
The constant burning sensation, sleepless nights, hoarseness, persistent cough happens, with poor control of acid reflux symptoms.
Medicines are a support system to help you get back in track with a healthier lifestyle.
Otherwise, even with increasing drugs, your problems continue.
So make a pledge.Try eating earlier.
Your heaviest meal should be your breakfast.
The lightest meal the last one; dinner.
The amount of money you will save by this one sincere change in your daily habits should be an added bonus to make this change.
Takeaway
Esophageal adenocarcinoma is more common than squamous cell carcinoma in the USA.
Asians are increasingly showing an upward swing in the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
The upswing is associated with changing dietary habits and lifestyle choices.
Barrett’s esophagitis: diagnosed typically in men in their 50’s.
Caucasian males are more commonly affected with this potentially premalignant condition.
Direct correlation between Esophageal adenocarcinoma and Barrett’s esophagitis has not been proved conclusively.
However GERD, acid reflux, heartburn whatever name you call it, it’s still the devil in disguise.
Irritating and potentially dangerous symptom, which can be zapped by your lifestyle change.
Eat dinner earlier and sleep peacefully at night.
References:
2)Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) Hospitalizations in 1998 and 2005 – HCUP-US Home Page. Retrieved March 5, 2012
3)Liker, H., Hungin, P., & Wiklund, I. (2005). Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 393-400.
4)Lifestyle modifications :Reflux no more
5)Prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease and its risk factors in a community-based population in southern India(Pubmed)
Hai-Yun Wang,# Kondarapassery Balakumaran Leena,# Amelie Plymoth, Maria-Pia Hergens, Li Yin, Kotacherry Trivikrama Shenoy, and Weimin Yecorresponding author
Disclaimer:
The information on this website is meant purely for educational purpose and is not meant as a substitute for a registered physicians opinion after clinical examination and appropriate tests.
Updated:25th July 2017
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I have started having my dinner by 8.30 for a couple of months now. But sometimes, I have these hunger pangs and have to eat something in the middle of the night. Your post will remain with me next time, when I am about to eat something from my fridge.
Hee hee Anupriya.Glad you will remember.
This is really interesting – you’ve inspired me to move my dinner to an earlier hour! Thank you for sharing this information!
Glad you found this helpful Susan.
Really interesting. That tip about allowing three hours between dinner and bedtime and not laying down in that time is good to know. I like to drink chammomile tea (spelling?) while reclining in bed, but I guess I should start drinking it earlier in the evening.
Makes sense of course. But one needs to keep early nights too or else hunger pangs are sure to strike.
Acidity is a common ailment in every home. When something becomes too common it begins to get accepted as the normal. Digiene, Geludil, Eno are found in homes in huge numbers as if it is the home of a wholesale stockist. This is a relevant topic – to watch out for what, how much and at what time one is eating at night.
Very informative article Amrita. I will try to change my habit of eating late. Will share this to my friends too.
Never known the importance of avoiding late night dinner. This information is really helpful and I feel guilty for all those late night dinner I had.
This is helpful information about what happens when you eat too late at night.
Thanks for sharing this very informative article. I have myself suffered a lot due to late night eating but have now made this lifestyle change of not eating after 10 p.m.
This is nice. Such interesting and a very informative post. Now I should watch-out my late night eating. Definitely I need to change and watch-out my eating habits. I agree about eating dinner earlier to sleep better at nigh. Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks Anosa.
Such an important topic that I really need to read & change myself as I eat so late at times despite being hungry at the right time. I can understand why I am struggling with acid reflux frequently and the GERD stats are quiet scary!
Yes they are definitely to be watched out for
When I used to eat process food acid reflux was a common occurrence. Since switching to whole nutrient dense food I have not had acid reflux in probably 2 years thank goodness. It was the worst. Great info and suggestions.
Thank you.Sounds like a great tip.
Oh wow! I didn’t know it could be this serious. I admit that I usualy like to eat something at night while I watch my favorite TV show. I guess it’s time to change my bad habbits.:)
Thanks for reading
I have GERD and it’s really horrible. I don’t eat after 7pm because of this problem. I’d be up all night burping and I’d have to sleep siting up. It’s no fun at all.
Thats a very good way of battling the problem.Eat early.I do too.
I always try to eat earlier in the evening. However, if I am up late I may have a snack. I will have to be aware of how late I am eating and what I am eating. Great information!
Thank you.
Interesting post I rarely eat dinner at night but often eat sweets late at night 🙂 I need to change my habits you are absolutely right about eat dinner earlier and sleep peacefully at night!!
Glad you found it useful.
This was very informative. I did not realize a simple change of eating early can help eliminate the problem. I am saving and sharing this.
Thanks Nicole.
I had no idea how eating late night was so dangerous. Thanks for sharing this information.
Thanks Tasheena.Glad you liked it.
It does seems that a lot of people do complain about acid reflux. It would seem that eating earlier would help with that as well as eating better foods.
Beth || http://www.TheStyleBouquet.com
Thanks Beth
Great article very informative, you just taught me and my husband something. Thank you.
Glad you liked it.
Great article! I always try to eat by 6pm when I can do my food has time to properly digest. Nikki x
Thank you
I definitely notice the difference when I eat heavier at night. I don’t normally get heartburn, but I do when I eat a lot at night!
Thanks Divya.
Excellent article! Truly informative and all so very true! Heartburn may not seem all that harmful but it IS and you illuminated why!
Thank you for reading
Nice post!! I always get my dinner at late night and I need to work out on it!! Thanks for sharing!!
You listed some great details! I have been suffering from GERD for over 20 years and it sucks! But you are absolutely right about eating early and changing your diet helps control.
I’m pretty lucky that I don’t get reflux often. It may also be because I rarely eat at night. When I do start to feel it a bit I up my green juice and probiotic intake to help!
My husband has Gerd and I try to tell him to stop eating late at night and laying in bed when he eats. I suppose he prefers to be uncomfortable and in pain! “/
You are right .It’s all about what you want.Lifestyle has a lot to do with your health.
Dude! This is crazy. I sometimes get heartburn but normally it seems to be a result of what I eat not the time (I’m generally done eating for the night by 7:30 p.m. But it is scary that it is so common. I’ve heard your heaviest meal should be your breakfast before but that tends to be hard for me so most of the time it’s my lunch.
What you eat too has a lot to do with the heartburn issue. But it’s great that you finish your meals by 7.30pm
Its so hard for us to eat early because we don’t get home from work until almost 8pm a lot of nights. I try to do food prep on the weekends so that meals get on the table faster!
Kari
Yes that happens with us too when I have emergency duties.But having preps gone the day before helps a ton.
Great article, you’ve taught me something 🙂 keep it up!