GERD on the mend

Hey everyone, just want to share what seems to be working for me with GERD.

I had GERD about a decade ago and through some diet changes what able to get it under control to the point of not really thinking about it for many of those years until recently. On the way to Publix with my daughter, I had a pretty intense pressure feeling in my chest and thought I might be having a heart attack. It only lasted for a minute and then there was burping and I otherwise felt okay, so I shrugged it off and got the groceries. The next day, I had another episode on the way to get lunch (oddly these episodes seem triggered by driving for me), this time I decided to go to urgent care. EKG came back clear, they didn't seem concerned and sent me on my way.

A couple weeks past and I again had another episode, again concerned I was having a heart attack. I went to the urgent care again, EKG and blood tests, came back clear. This was when I decided to start taking some measures that I'll share below.

I'm only about a month into this routine, but haven't had a heart-attack feeling episode and the discomfort is much better. I still feel some heartburn at night, especially if I eat late, but I feel like I'm on the mend and just wanted to contribute what seems to be working for me.

Quitting Creatine: I don't think there's much research linking creating to GERD, so this is completely anecdotal, but both times I've had GERD was when I started taking creatine, so I cut it out for good measure.

Quitting Caffeine: This one was tough, I love coffee - I have an espresso machine and was making espresso drinks for my wife and myself every morning; but since caffeine is a known irritant, I dropped it. This was a really interesting experience, I had some pretty intense withdrawals actually. I was like severely thirsty, had leg cramps, sleep was all messed up for a couple of weeks, but it got better pretty quickly.

Quitting Alcohol: I'm not a heavy drinker, but coincidentally, both GERD flares in my life came off of drinking too much. The first was after a cruise, the more recent was after a season of drinking one drink of night (bourbon and coke, so caffeine too) and crescendo'ing on a night where I crushed three Leffe's.

Medicine: I took Pepcid 20mg for a few days while it was at it's worst and Gaviscon at night after eating. I'm trying to avoid being on medicine long-term for as long as possible, so I started researching ways to get off the medicine.

Adding Supplements: I started taking Thorne GI Relief twice a day, decapsulating the pills into water and drinking it so it actually coats the throat. I also started taking Nutricology Mastic Gum after meals twice a day. The GI Relief is a formula that had some positive research associated, different companies sell the same compound. Mastic Gum has also had some positive research. I also tried Melatonin as there was some research on that helping stomach pressure, but Melatonin makes me crazy day-tired, so I dropped that; maybe a lower dosage than 3mg would have been okay.

Eating Earlier: I now aim to eat around 6pm everyday. I was eating more like 8pm - 10pm.

Next Steps: I am committing to 20mins of activity a day (I'm extremely sedentary) to help reduce body fat. I will also monitor my symptoms and am considering an endoscopy to rule out Barrett's or otherwise in a couple months.