What is a Wedge Pillow and How Does it Help Acid Reflux?
Wedge Pillows Can Ease Acid Reflux or GERD While You Sleep
If you are one of the more than 80 million people with a sleep disorder, sleeping on a wedge pillow may be just what the doctor prescribed.
Problems ranging from acid reflux to snoring and nasal congestion often make it difficult to sleep comfortably through the night. Sleeping on a wedge pillow can provide a drug-free, effective, simple, inexpensive and physician endorsed solution.
What is a Wedge Pillow?
A wedge pillow is simply a foam pillow, cut on an angle, higher at the top and tapering to a thin edge that should elevate your head, shoulders and torso. It uses gravity to keep stomach acid and food down, drain sinuses and open airways. Just elevating your head on pillows or sleeping on a short wedge actually makes many of these sleep problems, especially acid reflux, worse. When you just elevate your head, you cause your body to bend in the middle, allowing acid to go part way up the esophagus and get trapped.
Persistent Heartburn
Occasional heartburn, the feeling of food coming back up, is not serious and may often be helped by over the counter remedies. But persistent heartburn is often really GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and left untreated, it can be serious. The esophagus is designed to carry food and liquid only one way: from the mouth to the stomach. The lining of the esophagus is sensitive and unable to handle acid. The stomach lining is designed to withstand acid containing content.
When the heartburn sufferer is upright, he or she is rarely bothered; but when lying down the acid goes back up the esophagus causing pain and irritating the lining of the esophagus. The acid going back up the esophagus can also cause laryngitis, hoarseness, coughing, shortness of breath, dental erosion, and sleep apnea (breathing stops repeatedly but temporarily during sleep). Normally, a ring of muscle called the lower esophageal sphincter prevents acid from going back up the esophagus; when this muscle stretches and no longer works properly, acid goes back up the esophagus when a person is lying flat.
Chronic heartburn and GERD put one at risk for Barrett's esophagus, a disease in which the lining of the esophagus becomes ulcerated and changes from its normal pink to a salmon color. The process is caused by repeated and long-term exposure to stomach acid. Only a very small percent of people with GERD develop Barrett's.
Recommended Treatment for GERD
Recommended treatment for GERD and Barrett's esophagus starts with controlling the reflux of acid by doing the following:
- Sleep with your body elevated through the torso so that acid cannot reflux during sleep. Your head should be elevated 6 - 8 inches.
- Exercise regularly. Maintain a healthy lifestyle and proper weight.
- Stop smoking. Tobacco generates stomach acid and relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter.
- Avoid spicy and high fat foods.
- Avoid, alcohol, chocolate, caffeine, citrus, cooked tomato products and peppermint, all of which can generate stomach acid or aggravate heartburn.
- Wait at least one hour after eating before lying down.
When the problem is acid reflux,
the solution is MedSlant™
MedSlant Patented Wedge Pillow
The MedSlant folding wedge pillow, designed by an acid reflux sufferer and a pillow manufacturer is 24" wide, 32" long and 7" high at the top.
By supporting the body through the torso, sleeping on the MedSlant pillow provides a drug-free, side effect free solution to many sleep problems.
The MedSlant pillow gives a new slant on sleep - its patented fold makes it fit into its own zippered travel case which will fit in the overhead bin on an airplane or under the seat in front of you, allowing a healthier, more comfortable night's sleep at home or when you travel.
Medslant Wedge Pillow rated "2-Thumbs Up" by Dr. Mike Roizen of YOU! The Owner's Manual
