December: party month, eating month. And unfortunately, heartburn is never far away. Doctor Jeroen Schuitenmaker researched this at the University of Amsterdam and came up with an astonishingly easy solution: sleep on the left side.
What exactly is heartburn?
‘When stomach acid flows back into the esophagus, the so-called reflux, you can suffer from ‘heartburn’. This produces an annoying burning sensation behind the sternum and in the throat. Everyone has that sometimes, for example after eating a greasy meal, or when bending down to tie the shoelaces. There is nothing wrong with that, the stomach acid naturally flows back into the stomach.
Some people suffer from it more often. For example, this could be because of a gastric valve that no longer closes properly, or because there is a rupture in the diaphragm. This is a membrane that separates the chest from the stomach and intestines. If that reef no longer connects properly to the stomach valve, you are more likely to get heartburn. Other important causes are obesity and smoking.’
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You don’t smoke with your stomach, do you?
‘Ha, no, but research shows that smoking relaxes the gastric valve. As a result, it closes less well.
Excess weight is disadvantageous because it presses excess fat on the stomach, causing the acid to escape sooner. Fatty food is more difficult to digest. That requires the necessary acid. If you have eaten a lot of fat, you have a full stomach with a lot of acid.’
What exactly did you research?
‘I started looking for treatment options for heartburn. In my literature search I came across a small, old study from the 1980s. It was concluded that sleeping on the right side led to more stomach acid in the esophagus. Nothing has been scientifically done with this. I wanted to check that out right now. Would sleeping on the left side reduce heartburn?
To find out, I found a hundred people willing to stick a device on their chest at night, which vibrated when they turned on their right side. So that they would turn to their left side again. In half of the participants, the device vibrated all night, in the other half, the control group, only during the first twenty minutes of sleep. That group therefore slept ‘normally’ for the most part: on the left, on the back, and on the right. This allowed me to properly measure the effect of sleeping on the left side on heartburn.
I asked all participants to indicate when and how much it bothered them. In a later study I placed a tube in the esophagus of the participants, so that I could actually see how much acid actually flowed into the esophagus.’
In?
‘Sleeping on your left side does indeed lead to less heartburn. 44 percent of the participants in the first group, in whom the device vibrated all night when sleeping on the right side, had fewer complaints. This was only 24 percent in the control group.
Mind you, that doesn’t mean that the left side temple is Columbus’s egg. But it has now been scientifically proven that sleeping on your left side helps prevent heartburn. It’s good that this is known. Not all doctors are aware of this.’
What is the secret of that left side?
‘The stomach is on the left side of the abdomen, the liver is on the right. If you lie on your left side, the stomach is below and it is therefore more difficult for the acid to flow upwards into the esophagus. It’s that simple. Left is right.’
What do you recommend the reader with the upcoming Christmas drinks, Christmas dinners and oliebollen?
‘First of all, enjoy it. If you are prone to heartburn, eat and drink in moderation. Furthermore, make sure there is as much time as possible between your last meal or drink and your bedtime, so that the food is already out of the stomach when you get into bed. In bed, a raised pillow helps so that your chest is higher than your stomach and the acid does not easily flow into the esophagus. And then of course: sleep on your left side.
If that doesn’t help, you can possibly take an antacid. Like the Rennie. That is actually no more than a crayon with a taste on it. This dissolves in the stomach acid, which is neutralized as a result. If lifestyle adjustments or an antacid do not work, the GP can prescribe a trial antacid.
Gastric acid inhibitors were discovered in the 1970s. That was a revolutionary discovery at the time. Until then, many people suffered from stomach ulcers, often due to stomach bacteria. That is actually a wound on the stomach wall, which gets bigger and bigger due to the acid. At that time, this sometimes led to stomach operations, which are not without risk. Thanks to the invention of the antacid, that is now a thing of the past.’
Maybe a bit rigorous, but does a finger in the throat help?
‘I absolutely advise against this for heartburn. Then more acid will come up and that is harmful to the esophagus. If necessary, drink warm milk, that will make the stomach less acidic.’