How This One Habit Of Drinking Apple Cider Vinegar Can Turn Around Acid Reflux At Night

That burning feeling, the creeping sensation in your chest… it sneaks up on you, punishing you for eating certain foods or lying down, or even for nothing at all. You've tried the over-the-counter remedies, and maybe you're thinking about using some medication.

Maybe it's time to try apple cider vinegar.

What?

Using something acidic to help reduce acid reflux? You probably think we're out of our mind.

Read on, because we got some exciting news for you.

Apple Cider Vinegar Works Wonders For Gut Health

We know it seems somewhat counterintuitive to take something acidic to reduce acid reflux. That's opposite of the way most medications and over-the-counter products work. They work by reducing acid.

And they do succeed in their job. The amount of acid in your stomach reduces, and you no longer feel pain.

The big difference comes between solving the problem and solving the symptoms.

Reducing the acid in your stomach is solving the symptom – the acid going up into your esophagus.

But, what's the actual problem?

It turns out there's a lot of different ways acid reflux can strike a person.

One of the most common causes of acid reflux is overeating. Simply cutting back on what you eat takes care of the problem. Because when you overeat, your stomach has to produce so much acid, and there's so much in your gut that it has nowhere to go but up.

Another major cause is not having enough acid in your stomach. When you don't have enough acid in your stomach, you don't digest your food quickly or efficiently. It can sit and churn and churn for hours, eventually, all that churning pushes some up into your esophagus and you feel the acid reflux.

Some people do produce too much acid, and it most often happens when your eating habits are wildly different from day to day. Your body just doesn't know what to prepare for.

What Happens At Night That Make Acid Reflux So Harsh On You

Most people feel acid reflux at night, and your doctor told you that sitting up a little bit in bed can help reduce that pain. It's true, sitting up a little bit does help.

When stomach acid starts going into your esophagus, the esophageal sphincter is not doing its job properly. This sphincter is supposed to keep all of the contents of the stomach in the stomach. But, if you overeat often enough, you can stretch out that sphincter and it doesn't hold still very well.

That's why cutting back on your food helps. And, it can help you lose weight.

So, at night, when your body lays flat, it's easier for the contents of your stomach to slosh up into your esophagus. That's why most people get heartburn when they lay down to sleep.

There's a secondary reason most people don't know. Your diaphragm is a powerful set of muscles that sits above your stomach and below your lungs. It inflates and deflates your lungs.

If you relax at night, slouching in a chair, you bunch up all of your chest muscles. This can keep food in your stomach and air high in your chest. But, when you lay down, everything opens up again and your diaphragm works a little better. Now, it's not keeping things separate, and you get a wash of acid up your esophagus.

How To Take Apple Cider Vinegar For Your Reflux

You probably think if you just have to stop overeating, why take apple cider vinegar?

The answer comes from balancing the stomach acid before you eat. Even though apple cider vinegar is very acidic, it merges right in with the other acids to prepare you for your food when it hits your stomach. It takes a little while for your stomach acid to boot up, but apple cider vinegar can give it a kick.

On top of that, apple cider vinegar is a fermented product, and the mother (the yeasts that produce the vinegar) is packed full of enzymes, protein, and pectin. This helps digest your food. The big key here is you need the mother, which means the large jugs of clear vinegar won't do you any good. You need living vinegar that still has the mother in it.

If you take apple cider vinegar before you eat, it helps produce the stomach acid to help digest your food properly and quickly. If you take it in the morning, it helps stimulate your stomach acid before  breakfast and helps normalize your acid production all day. Plus, it introduces additional acid into your intestine, which can help healthy probiotics flourish.

Here's How To Take Apple Cider Vinegar:

• Drop one tablespoon of raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar into 8 oz of water and drink.

That's it, it's that simple.

If the flavor is a little too much for you, you could try adding lemon or honey to change the flavor.

We hope you give this a try. It can be a beneficial step to take rather than jumping into medications that could have side effects.