@mollypelletier.rd: In a Mayo Clinic trial, people with reflux who did belly breathing right after a meal had about 85% fewer reflux events after that meal. Here's why it works. Your LES is the valve at the top of your stomach, and it sits inside your diaphragm. When you breathe with your diaphragm instead of your chest, that muscle squeezes the valve from the outside. In the same trial, pressure at the valve nearly doubled on every breath in. I call it the LES Lock, and it's one of the first things we teach in our practice. How to do it: 1. Sit up tall with one hand on your chest and one on your belly. 2. Breathe in slowly through your nose. Your belly hand moves, your chest hand stays mostly still, and your rib cage expands 360 degrees (front, sides and back). 3. Breathe out slowly through pursed lips, longer than the inhale, and let your belly fall. 4. Keep going for 1 to 5 minutes, starting right when you finish eating. Do it after a meal to calm that meal's reflux. Do it daily and it builds: in a separate 4-week trial, breathing training cut the time acid spent in the esophagus about in half, and people who kept it up for 9 months were using about a quarter of the PPI they had been taking. It's free, and it doesn't take a single food off your plate. My free 14-Day Reflux Reset Guide, with the full breathing routine, is at the link in my bio. 📚 Halland M et al., 2021, Am J Gastroenterol, randomized controlled trial, n=23 with GERD + 10 controls, post-meal reflux events 2.60 to 0.36, LES pressure 23.1 to 42.2 mmHg on inspiration, PMID 33009052. Eherer AJ et al., 2012, Am J Gastroenterol, randomized controlled study, n=19, time at pH under 4 from 9.1% to 4.7%, PMID 22146488. Qiu K et al., 2020, Ann Palliat Med, meta-analysis, 7 studies, n=210, PMID 32233626. #acidreflux #refluxtok #diaphragmaticbreathing #LES #GERD

Molly | The Reflux Dietitian

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Monday 12 October 2026 22:21:07 GMT