Relieve GERD and Acid Reflux with Stretches and Exercises

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Looking for relief from GERD or acid reflux? Today we’re featuring an amazing video by Dr. Jo, packed with stretches and exercises designed to ease those symptoms.

Here’s a quick rundown, in case you don’t have time to watch the whole video.

If you’re not familiar with GERD, you can find our simple explanation of GERD here. Or, if you’re on the other end of the spectrum and want to do a deeper dive on the topic, we reviewed a great book on the topic).

1. Mobilize Your SEM Muscle

The sternocleidomastoid (SEM) muscle, if tight, can aggravate acid reflux. Dr. Jo shows how to gently mobilize this muscle by turning your head while holding the SEM in place. It’s simple but effective.

2. Portrait Pose Stretch

Stretch out that SEM with the Portrait Pose. Place your hand on your collarbone, turn your head away, side bend, and look up. Hold for 30 seconds. You’ll feel the tension melting away.

3. Seated Cat-Cow Motion

Open up your stomach area with this easy exercise. Sit down, roll your body forward, arch your back (Cow), then curl your spine and tuck your chin (Cat). Alternate for 30 seconds and feel the difference.

4. Quadruped Cat-Cow with Breathing

Similar to the seated cat-cow, the quadruped cat-cow focuses on flexing the lower spine whilst on all fours. Bonus tip: focus on deep belly breathing during the exercise. This helps improve digestion and ease reflux symptoms.

5. Exaggerated Pelvic Tilt

Lie on your back and tilt your pelvis back and forth. This loosens up the abdominal area and helps everything flow better.

6. Trunk Rotation

Lie down, bend your knees, and rotate them to one side. Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides. It’s a great way to relax and stretch your abdominal muscles.

We know this is a quick overview (sorry if it seems rushed!), but if you have a few more minutes on your hand you can watch the whole video below.

Feel better soon! And if you have any favorite tips or videos to share, email us at 10almonds.

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  • Heal & Reenergize Your Brain With Optimized Sleep Cycles

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    Sometimes 8 hours sleep can result in grogginess while 6 hours can result in waking up fresh as a daisy, so what gives? Dr. Tracey Marks explains, in this short video.

    Getting more than Zs in

    Sleep involves 90-minute cycles, usually in 4 stages:

    1. Stage 1: (drowsy state): brief muscle jerks; lasts a few minutes.
    2. Stage 2: (light sleep): sleep spindles for memory consolidation; 50% of total sleep.
    3. Stage 3 (deep sleep): tissue repair, immune support, brain toxin removal via the glymphatic system.
    4. Stage 4 (REM sleep): emotional processing, creativity, problem-solving, and dreaming.

    Some things can disrupt some or all of those. To give a few common examples:

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    To optimize things, Dr. Marks recommends:

    • 90-minute rule: plan sleep to align with full cycles (e.g: 22:30 to 06:00 = 7½ hours, which is 5x 90-minute cycles).
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    • Strategic naps: keep naps to 20 minutes or a full 90-minute cycle.
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    • Meal timing: avoid eating within 3 hours of bedtime.
    • Natural light: get morning light exposure in the morning to strengthen circadian rhythm.

    For more on all of this, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Calculate (And Enjoy) The Perfect Night’s Sleep

    Take care!

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  • Get On It! – by Jane Aronovitch, Miriane Taylor, & Colleen Craig

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Balance is important; without it, we die early. That’s quite a strong selling point for improving one’s balance, but why this book in particular?

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    The author, a massage therapist, knows plenty about relaxation. But how to put that to use when it comes to getting good quality sleep?

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    Bottom line: if improving your sleep is something you’d like to do, this book can almost certainly get you on the right track.

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    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    We have previously reviewed Dr. Panda’s “The Circadian Code” which pertains to the circadian rhythms (yes, plural) in general; this one uses much of the same research, but with a strong focus on the implications for blood sugar management.

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    Click here to check out The Diabetes Code, and enjoy better blood sugar health than ever!

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  • Do Try This At Home: The 12-Week Brain Fitness Program

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    12 Weeks To Measurably Boost Your Brain

    This is Dr. Majid Fotuhi. From humble beginnings (being smuggled out of Iran in 1980 to avoid death in the war), he went on (after teaching himself English, French, and German, hedging his bets as he didn’t know for sure where life would lead him) to get his MD from Harvard Medical School and his PhD in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University. Since then, he’s had a decades-long illustrious career in neurology and neurophysiology.

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    In the study this came in several forms and had the benefit of neurofeedback technology, but he says we can replicate most of the effects by simply doing something cognitively stimulating. Whatever challenges your brain is good, but for maximum effect, it should involve the language faculties of the brain, since these are what tend to get hit most by age-related cognitive decline, and are also what tends to have the biggest impact on life when lost.

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    Increasing fitness

    There’s a good rule of thumb: what’s healthy for your heart, is healthy for your brain. This is because, like every other organ in your body, the brain does not function well without good circulation bringing plenty of oxygen and nutrients, which means good cardiovascular health is necessary. The brain is extra sensitive to this because it’s a demanding organ in terms of how much stuff it needs delivering via blood, and also because of the (necessary; we’d die quickly and horribly without it) impediment of the blood-brain barrier, and the possibility of beta-amyloid plaques and similar woes (they will build up if circulation isn’t good).

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    Take care!

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  • Samosa Spiced Surprise

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

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    You will need

    • Extra virgin olive oil, or coconut oil (per your preference) for cooking
    • 4 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled, and mashed
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    • 1 cup peas
    • 1 carrot, finely chopped
    • ½ cup garbanzo bean flour (chickpea flour, gram flour, whatever your supermarket calls it)
    • ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped (substitute parsley if you have the soap gene)
    • ¼ bulb garlic, minced
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    • 2 tsp garam masala
    • 1 tsp ground coriander
    • 1 tsp ground turmeric
    • 1 tsp ground black pepper

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    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Fry the onion until it is becoming soft and translucent (3–5 minutes).

    2) Add the spices (the garlic, both kinds of pepper, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and the garam masala), stirring in well

    3) Add the carrot and peas, stirring and cooking until just becoming soft (probably another 3–5 minutes, depending on the heat, how small you chopped the carrot, and whether the peas were frozen or fresh). Take it off the heat.

    4) Mix the potato, chickpea flour, and cilantro in a bowl, and carefully add everything from the pan, mixing that in thoroughly too.

    5) Shape into patties, and fry them on each side until browned and crispy.

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    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

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