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Comment by Droobfest | Hacker News Reader

This is just anecdotal, but I've had problems with heartburn for years and am having great succes with betaine hcl + pepsin supplements. This actually increases stomach acid. That + dietary changes almost completely cleared my problems. Just throwing it out there. YMMV.

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Same here. I guess my issue was inadequate stomach acid, not excess...

What dietary changes?

Idk if what I have is heartburn but the past 2 months or so I have been waking up to horrific stomach aches. Taking a round of Prilosec seems to have helped it. But I may want to backpedal on it given this news.

Typically people are asked to avoid acidic foods (tomatoes, citrus), raw onions, chocolate, caffeine, sodas, peppermint and high fat foods.

I don't get why high fat foods are lumped in here. I've started avoiding all the others you mentioned, and my reflux has stopped, but I'm on a ketogenic diet that's very high in fat.

Some foods loosen the sphincter making it easier to get reflux. Like eating a slice of pepperoni pizza. My dietitian said each individual is different so you need to determine what works or doesn't works for you.

I think the most effective dietary advice in the world is this:

Change one thing for two weeks, and see if it gets better or worse.

You can fix a surprisingly wide range of problems by changing your diet in a slow, methodical way.

Along these lines, not drinking excessively with meals can help, since you're not dilluting your stomach acid.

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