So many pro football players have had to contend with gastrointestinal reflux disorder that you could call their playing field a GERD-iron. But both the Denver Broncos’ John Elway and the Green Bay Packers’ Brett Favre, who suffered mightily during their former quarterback days, now know how lifestyle changes can help keep GERD under control.
A research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine agrees. The researchers found that folks who had GERD at least once a week (even those taking medication for it) and adhered to an anti-reflux lifestyle saw a 40% reduction in symptoms. That’s sending in a reliever when it’s needed!
The study identified lifestyle traits that provide relief from GERD-related nausea, burning pain, sore throat, hoarseness, burping, chest pain and more:
-- Not smoking.
-- Getting more than 30 minutes a day of brisk walking.
-- Having less than two cups of coffee, tea and or soda daily.
-- Maintaining a healthy weight (a body mass index of 18.4 to 24.9).
-- Eating a diet low in saturated fats, with fat calories, even from healthy fats, limited to 15% to 30% of daily calories, with no junk or ultraprocessed foods, a moderate intake of alcohol and salt, and lots of high-fiber veggies and fruit.
So if you’re one of the up to 99 million Americans with GERD, get back in the game by talking to your doc about your symptoms, asking about the benefits of short-term use of medication (it is not for the long haul) and adopting a lifestyle that’ll let you score big points against GERD.
The Goldilocks Principle
In “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” the heroine declares one bowl of porridge tastes too hot, another too cold and the third, well, that’s just right. The idea that avoiding extremes provides the best results is called the Goldilocks Principle and researchers from New Zealand’s Otago University are advocating it so you can flourish emotionally.
Looking at the habits and mental health of young adults, they discovered that too much or too little of a good thing damages well-being. In their study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, they found that sleeping eight hours nightly produced the highest level of well-being. Sleeping less than eight or more than 12 hours a night was indicative of depression.
Physical activity and diet also follow the Goldilocks Principle. Study participants who ate 4.8 servings a day of raw fruit and veggies had the best quality of life. Those who ate fewer than two servings or more than eight servings had the lowest measure of well-being and mental health. And physical activity -- at least 30 minutes daily and not more than two continuous hours some days -- defeats inflammation caused by being sedentary and doesn’t cause chronic inflammation from overdoing it!
Getting the right serving size of any one of these lifestyle traits helps offset deficiency or excess in the others. But the study found that integrating all three into daily life can increase your well-being by more than 35% and decrease your risk for symptoms of depression by 38%. And that, as Goldilocks said, is just right!
Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer Emeritus at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into “The Dr. Oz Show” or visit www.sharecare.com.
