I have been suffering from GERD almost 8 years ago. I had been to endoscopy procedure for 2x, luckily, i have no ulcer yet. The medicines are expensive and it is really giving me discomfort, worst, i am losing weight! I am a petite lady and gaining weight is a hardwork. Because of this, I did some research to look for natural medicine and one of the articles i browsed in the internet was about papaya fruit. It(http://www.pennherb.com/pennherb/info/scan55.html) suggested that papaya can ease GERD patients' lives. Since then, I ate chunks of fresh papaya fruit every after meal. And in my observation, everytime I feel my saliva started to taste sour (more acidic) which in my case, the start of acid reflux. (I hate the taste of that yellowish acid from my tummy!), I will eat some chunks of papaya fruit, then after 2 minutes, I feel better.
I am not sure if the fruit really helped me, or it is a psychological thing. That I believe in the wonder of this fruit, that it will help me manage my GERD. One factor I am considering is that, I am prone to stress, and worries too much. If I get too excited, or depressed, the acid reflux will start.
Thank you for the SharePost emelissa.
For those of you who do not know, the papaya fruit mainly comes from tropical America and west Africa.
The fruit contains and enzyme called papain which can tenderize meat (you may see it as an ingredient on meat tenderizer you buy at the supermarket).
That same enzyme also seems to ease indigestion for some people.
But indigestion and acid reflux disease are not the same thing.
Indigestion (which is medically known as dyspepsia) is often characterized by pain and discomfort in the upper abdomen, fullness in the stomach and nausea after eating.
Up to half of acid reflux disease sufferers have dyspepsia, but you can have dyspepsia without acid reflux disease.
As to your question emelissa, stress may have some effect on acid reflux symptoms. Our expert, Tracy Davenport, wrote a post about that. Read it here:
Psychological Distress Increases Acid Reflux Severity
If anyone is curious about papaya to relieve indigestion, you can find recipes using the fruit at FoodFit.com. Here are a two:
Papaya Smoothie
Spring Fruit Salad