Hi, my name is Aaron Clark with Amenity Health.
Besides the fact that you don't know me,
what would you say if I invited you to
pop the cap on this car battery
and take a nice big swig of the acid on the
inside. Of course, you say no! That would be
crazy right?
Well guess what, if you have nighttime
gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD,
and experience frequent heartburn at
night,
this is exactly what is happening to you
throughout the night.
You see, your stomach produces
hydrochloric acid which is similar to
this battery acid. Hydrochloric acid is
so corrosive that it's actually used in
lots of industrial applications for
things like stripping layers of rust
from metal.
So, when you have acid reflux at
night this acid creeps out of your
stomach, through the valve called the
lower esophageal sphincter and then
sits in your esophagus. This can cause a
terrible pain in your chest often called
heartburn. But it doesn't stop there,
this reflux can keep traveling up your
esophagus into your voice box where it
leaves you with a horse or raspy voice,
into your lungs giving you a chronic
cough or asthma symptoms,
up into your sinuses were can give you
a chronic runny nose, even erode away
the enamel of your teeth.
Nighttime reflux is so bad that you are
11 times more likely to get
esophageal cancer,
if you have frequent heartburn at night.
Now speaking of heartburn itself --
you know that awful burning your chest
that can jolt you away from the deepest sleep --
Many people believe that heartburn is
the first sign that stomach acid has
escaped into your esophagus,
in reality, if you are experiencing
heartburn, this actually means that
stomach acid has already eroded some of
the protective lines of your esophagus
and that damage has already been done.
So what can you do to not only alleviate
the painful nighttime symptoms of
acid reflux, but also protect yourself
from the damage it causes.
Well, let's go back to the battery
example.
The same approach applies to how
you want to treat nighttime acid reflux.
You first want to avoid, as much as
possible, having this nasty stomach acid
escape from your stomach and into your
esophagus, which is called a reflux episode.
But if a reflux episode does occur,
you want to make sure that you
get rid of that acid
as quickly as possible.
Just like washing the battery acid off
your hands.
So, how do you first reduce these reflux episodes 
from happening at night?
Well, for starters, medications
unfortunately can't help you here.
Heartburn medications reduce the 
acidity or potency of the stomach juices
coming back up, but they don't stop
the reflux itself from getting out of
your esophagus.  Dropping a Tums® into
this battery, for example, would
neutralize some of the acid, but it won't
prevent the acid from spilling out,
nor would it make it safe to drink or
hang out in my esophagus.
Ok, this is getting heavy!
Let's talk about how you can 
help prevent acid reflux
from lingering in your esophagus
at night and causing more damage.
So during the day, if you reflux, you
might swallow or drink some water to
help get that nasty taste out of your
mouth and soothe the burn, right?
Well at night,
saliva production slows or even stops
and you are unconscious of the need to
get rid of the lingering acid.
This is where gravity comes into play.
Sleeping with your upper body or torso
elevated recruits gravity to pull acid
reflux back down into your stomach where
it belongs.
Shortening the duration of these reflux
episodes is known as acid clearance time.
Improving acid clearance time has been
shown to be an important factor in
reducing the damage that's done to your
esophagus at night.
Just like you would never let battery acid
 linger on your skin all night
you want to make sure that this doesn't
happen to your esophagus while you sleep.
We developed the MedCline™ Acid Reflux
Relief System to allow you to benefit
from left side positioning and sleeping
inclined. MedCline™ elevates your entire
upper body at an optimal angle without
sliding down
so you maximize the benefits of gravity
to pull any acid reflux back down into
your stomach.
Plus MedCline™ keeps you on your left
side comfortably
so you have fewer reflux episodes to
begin with. MedCline's patented positioning
method has been shown through multiple
clinical studies, to provide unparalleled
relief compared to bed wedges or
propping up the head of your bed.
If you would like to learn more about MedCline™
or about nighttime heartburn and how to treat it,
please visit MedCline.com or visit
our YouTube channel. And please don't
forget to share this video with your
friends and family members
who have nighttime acid reflux or GERD.
Thanks for watching.
