[elorant]

Since last August, when I had a severe GERD issue that took six months to go away, I keep a very detailed daily journal of everything I eat, the time I eat it and any kind of symptoms it might be causing me even hours later. It's the best way, and probably the only one, to isolate foods that make my stomach upset. Now I can correlate symptoms with foods/hours and draw conclusions based on hard data. It has helped me a lot to fight GERD, even more than the drugs my gastroenterologist prescribed. So I guess I've hacked my own health in a way.

[davzie]

I did this too. Actually I found it didn't really provide me with any concrete solution to my issues. You know what solved it? I started meditating because my anxiety about the GERD itself was through the roof. My blood pressure dropped and my GERD symptoms started just not appearing. Incidentally, the more I read about stress being linked to GERD incidents the more it makes sense. If you're struggling with GERD, a fantastic, free e-book to read is called "Down With Acid". It explains how it all works and could come about and is really informative.

I find that treating the symptoms as soon as they appear with a combination of Gaviscon (for throat burning reflux) and Ranitidine (for the stabbing heart pains) and keeping on those remedies for a few days helps. The best description I could find was imagine putting your finger over a candle flame. At first it doesn't hurt, but if you hold it there long enough it burns and fucking hurts. Now even the smallest bit of heat on your finger is going to be really painful! When I followed this analogy by making sure I treat the symptoms instantly, I no longer worry about GERD on a day-to-day basis. Big post for me, but I spent 2 years researching and really doing everything I could to understand how this happens and how to treat it and I hope this helps anyone else reading who has these symptoms.

[naasking]

> Now I can correlate symptoms with foods/hours and draw conclusions based on hard data.

Only if you repeatedly try the same foods to ensure you've avoided confounding variables.

[m_ke]

Hey, how do you track your meals?

I'm working on an app (Bitesnap) to help people keep track of their diet. At some point we'd like to add more features to help users figure out what's causing their dietary issues.

[elorant]

I'm using a simple Excel worksheet to record everything and once a month I move the data to an SQL Server table for easier correlations.

BTW, make sure you also give the ability to record beverages because in many cases they're the root of stomach problems. And you could add some social functionality so users could correlate with others who have similar dietary habits.

[amelius]

GERD can also be caused by bad posture (which is often a problem with IT folks).