Practice annoyance: unexpected acid reflux - cause/remedy?

Sounds like you work out in the morning - is this the case? Either way, do you eat beforehand? What are you eating? Certain foods can help exacerbate the situation, and sometimes you just need to be a bit smarter about what you eat as part of the meal (or snack) before you swim. If you aren't eating beforehand, that can be bad too. A small granola bar or like snack can help keep the acid down where it needs to be.

I practice at noon, always eat in the morning (cereal or toast with peanut butter), and don't eat for about 2 hours before workouts. It often persists after I eat lunch following the workout. I've varied the morning intake leaving out milk or coffee to see if it is worse or better, and see no pattern yet. The only constant is that it's there when I push really hard in practice.

It happens to me occasionally. I try to keep some antacid around. Pepcid Complete works great.. stops it immediately, and it does not come back.

Some times the burning comes from too much alkaline in the stomach. I always had truoble when I consumed milk and cereal in the morning before swimming I switched to conventional bacon and eggs a few hashbrowns with coffee. No problem after that.

I would recommend that you discuss these symptoms with your physician. You might benefit from a stress test just to be sure this really is reflux and not something more serious.

tagamet

I keep Tums in my swim bag. It seems backstroke bothers me most often. A few Tums seems to work. I think I got this recommendation on the Forum several years ago. If you think about it, turning upside down every 25 yards to flip turn could easily cause trouble.

I did a little checking online today, and found out it is probably exercise-induced acid reflux. Apparently the sphincter muscle on top of the stomach, which can get a little weaker with age, is not a match for the pressures that can be created by intense use of the abdominal muscles, often in weight training, running, and so forth. If it really is bad they recommend switching to a form of exercise that is not quite so vigorous, like swimming :confused: . I will make sure by checking with my doctor next visit, but the recent research on the subject is pretty clear, and it fits with the fact that it is worst when I'm swimming hard and really working my abdominal muscles. It all seems to fit. So I'll take some of the advice above and use an antacid. Like I said above, it's not a major problem - just a minor annoyance and the antacids recommended above will probably be all I need. Thanks for the replies and suggestions!

Gull gave some exellent advice as many serious health problems can be masked as "stomach acid". Make that appointment sooner than later with your doctor.

I have had a couple teammates over the years with the same problem. Gull's advice is no doubt wise, but I personally would tend to agree with your self-diagnosis. If you can get relief from something like Tums, I would go this route instead of the stomach acid blockers like Tagamet. The more I travel through life's veil of tears, the more I think the less medical intervention you get, the better off you generally are. Within reason, of course. Sudden onset of extreme symptoms merit checking out. But vexations like this are probably best self-treated until they become truly significant. As Arthur Barsky wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1988: " Each producer tries to convince the public that something is dangerously wrong, or about to go wrong, and that immediate steps must be take to remedy the situation...as a result, many come to feel less secure about their health, more worried about the possibility of disease, more absorbed in trivial symptoms." Turn back from well-meaning advice for further investigations! Your initial sense of things is almost assuredly correct!