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Meditation for Acid Reflux
Meditation can give relief for acid reflux by calming the body’s stress response down to a much more manageable level, causing our digestive system to become more balanced. Our ‘fight or flight’ branch of our nervous system is far less active, which means less withdrawal of key digestive functions such as mucus lining and alkali solution.
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The problem
Although diet and lifestyle play a big part in triggering episodes of this incredibly common condition, stress also plays a key role.
In 1999, a survey of 2,000 people found that stressful family situations, business travel and long working hours made them significantly more susceptible to acid reflux.
In 2004, a study following reflux patients for nearly a year found that the presence of severe, sustained stress in the first six months significantly predicted increased heartburn symptoms during the next four months.
What both the studies above suggest is that symptoms usually occur after a stressful phase, not during. This tallies perfectly with our understanding of how the dynamics of the stress response compromise digestive functioning.
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How it affects you
When we go through a stressful phase of our life, our digestion shuts down, and we release less hydrochloric acid into the stomach, which is required to break down our food. We save much-needed energy by secreting less mucus to protect the stomach walls and less alkaline solutions such as bicarbonate to neutralise the lower quantity of acids.
This leads to a struggle afterwards. As soon as we relax, our stomach secretes a lot of super intense acid, and there isn’t enough mucus or alkaline in our digestive rhythms to neutralise it. We are susceptible to an overly acidic solution reaching our oesophagus and causing pain.
We end up reaching for the antacids in an attempt to get relief, because our natural system is not working properly.
Scientists have also found that background stress makes us more sensitive to the pain of reflux. This is because under the stress response, the ‘fight or flight’ branch of the nervous system becomes activated and our nervous system may be more reactive to painful stimulus.
A study in 1993 found patients with acid reflux “who are chronically anxious and exposed to prolonged stress may perceive low-intensity oesophageal stimuli as painful reflux symptoms.”
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How can Beeja help?
When we meditate, we calm the stress response down to a much more manageable level, and our systems become more balanced.
Our ‘fight or flight’ branch of our nervous system is far less active, which means less withdrawal of key digestive functions such as mucus lining and alkali solution.
This means we have plenty of acids to digest our food properly, but it gets neutralised and processed before causing us any heartburn or GERD.
Our digestive rhythms improve, making us less prone to stress-related bouts of acid reflux; giving us lovely, long term relief from acid reflux.
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Upcoming courses
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Reviews
“for years I’ve suffered from chronic indigestion and heartburn for which I was always popping pills and swigging Gaviscon. But this seems to have almost disappeared since starting meditation. Which is just incredible”
Find out how Beeja meditation can help your Acid Reflux
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