Originally Posted by foehn
Check your posture on the bike also. If you are bending too much in the middle of your torso, you can cause pressure on the stomach/throat sphincter and you will have reflux.Try to keep your back straight and try not to bend where your stomach is. Make sure you are not gettin too much pressure from the waistband of your riding shorts also.
I have found that sucking on a slowly dissolving calcium carbonate anti-heartburn tablet keeps most things down (I think because I am very regularly swallowing) when riding, unless I have eaten/taken water in too much volume. Try regular chewing gum also to keep the reflux-burn away, but don't use a mint gum as it will tend to relax that sphincter. I take one PPI (aciphex) a day before bedtime and if I eat too much at dinner or eat "unwisely" at dinner I will start to chew gum (jucyfruit) about 10-20 minutes after I finish the evening meal for at least 1/2 hour and whoopee!--no heartburn or any other symptoms of reflux (in my case, a dry cough in the back of my throat). I have read of this a couple of times in newspapers and such and for me it works. It might be worth a try as it is pretty cheap and not invasive in nature.
Thanks!!! I've never seen these recommendations, probably because I've just recently been diagnosed, so I never paid attention to information sources such as the paper before now.
BTW, I got a bike fit about 2 weeks ago, and my back is mostly straight, I just need wider bars to flatten the shoulder blades and a slightly longer stem. Maybe even if my back is (mostly) flat in the dimension you're talking about, perhaps I'm still too compact/bunched up in the upper torso for things to move (or not move) correctly down to the stomach. Dang, wouldn't that be a kick-butt solution!?! No worries, I'm not deluded; I realize this is with me forever. I'd settle for some minimization, though!