When people suffer with acid reflux or heartburn, one of the biggest priorities is finding remedies to make the discomfort go away. One of the biggest debates surrounding this disease is does milk help acid reflux and its symptoms. The true answer to whether or not milk can help is simply yes and no. Milk may actually prove itself to be effective as a short term cure for the effects of heart burn and acid reflux, but while it tends to be an excellent treatment for some people, others are not as lucky.
Understanding whether or not milk is capable of helping should begin with an understanding of what acid reflux is and how it affects the body. The principal symptom of heart burn or acid reflux is an uncomfortable burning sensation in the chest. The principal culprit for this burning sensation is the lower esophageal sphincter, also known as the LES, which occasionally causes acidic contents from the stomach to pass up into the esophagus. What makes this happen is two different factors: The first is the unusual pressure that is created within the stomach, and the second is the weak muscles in the LES being unable to hold the stomach contents back.
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Some medications may be capable of helping the LES tighten up more effectively, the situation can still be aggravated beyond control when there is too much acid secretion. At this point, you would need to make use of acid inhibitory drugs which are designed to neutralize the stomach's acidity, better controlling the pressure that is normally created there.
Milk is regarded as a substance that is both alkaline and acidic, and depending on which school of thought you follow, may or may not be looked at as capable of neutralizing the acidity of the stomach to a greater extent. Because milk has a pH value of 6.7, some people feel that it is too acidic to be beneficial to the acidity of your stomach. Still, it may be alkaline enough to neutralize the acidity of the stomach without necessarily reducing it.
What both schools of thought do appear to agree upon is that if milk should be capable of neutralizing the stomach acidity in order to help with acid reflux and heart burn, the best type of milk to use should be completely fat free milk. It is believed that milk is capable of providing a soothing and protective layer in the stomach and esophagus, protecting sensitive tissue from the harmful burn from the acid reflux. The fatty part of the milk is capable of creating further acidity which is why nonfat milk is the preferred method when trying to combat the acidity of the stomach.
Many people assume that the best type of milk for combating acid reflux is the purest, most natural milk that you can find with as little fat as possible. When you remove the fat, antibiotics, processing and other things from the milk, it may be much more capable of helping fight against the uncomfortable symptoms once and for all. While milk does not seem capable of helping everyone with acid reflux, it does certainly seem capable of helping some people making it well worth trying. Then, you can definitively answer the question does milk help acid reflux?
Does Milk Help Acid Reflux?
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