Akash B. Gadani, MD: The Importance of Diet for GERD

Diet is an important component to treating gastrointestinal diseases, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

However, while treatment adherence is often followed, adherence to new diets can be challenging because that could sometimes involve a complete lifestyle change.

And patients might be too resistant to radical dietary changes.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Akash B. Gadani, MD, Gastroenterology, Allegheny Health Network (AHN), said his advice on diet is often not for major changes to the types of food the patient is eating to reducing portion sizes.

“I find more in adjusting the amount you eat and when you eat as opposed to what you eat,” Gadani said. “I think patients are more receptive to that. If I try to limit someone’s diet it is counterproductive sometimes.”

Another suggestion for patients with GERD is not to eat too close to bedtime because when you are laying down, gravity is unable to move things along appropriately.

One of the challenges when prescribing a specific diet for GERD is there are different triggers for different patients. For example, while coffee might be a trigger for acid to 1 patient, chocolate might be the trigger for another.

“It is really difficult for me to predict what might be the trigger for you,” Gadani said. “Unfortunately it is more of a guess and test type of scenario.”