Online GERD Treatment (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease)
Talk to a board-certified doctor online without an appointment or waiting room. Your doctor will review your symptoms, recommend the right treatment, and send a prescription to your pharmacy the same day when medically appropriate.
Available 24/7 for ongoing GERD symptoms, nighttime reflux, or refills of acid-reducing medication.
How to get GERD treatment online
Connect with a board-certified doctor and get your prescription sent to a pharmacy.
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Hi I’m Dr. Nicole. How may I help you?
Hi Dr. Nicole, I experience heartburn and acid indigestion after meals. Is it GERD?
Get Prescription
Our online doctors can help you with your medical issues and give you prescriptions.
Prescription
- Pantoprazole (Protonix) 40mg
- Take it once a day for up to 8 weeks.
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What relieves acid reflux fast?
What helps depends on how often you have symptoms and how severe they are:
- For occasional heartburn, try an antacid: Calcium carbonate or magnesium hydroxide can quickly neutralize stomach acid and ease mild symptoms.
- For symptoms around meals, consider an H2 blocker: Famotidine lowers stomach acid and can be taken 15 to 60 minutes before a meal that usually triggers your heartburn.
- Stay upright after eating: Sit or stand rather than lying down, and wait at least three hours after your last meal before going to bed.
- For nighttime reflux, raise the head of your bed: Elevate it by 6 to 8 inches with a wedge or bed risers. Extra pillows alone may not help.
- Avoid what triggers your reflux: Loosen tight clothing around your waist and limit foods or drinks that you know make your symptoms worse.
- For frequent GERD symptoms, ask about a PPI: Medicines such as omeprazole work better for ongoing acid reflux but may take 1 to 4 days to reach their full effect.
Still needing antacids most days? Getting woken up by heartburn? That’s a good time to see a doctor. You can discuss your symptoms through telehealth and get a treatment plan, including prescription medication when medically appropriate.
What GERD and acid reflux medications can we prescribe online?
After reviewing your symptoms and your history, a doctor may send an online prescription for one of the following medications:
- Proton pump inhibitors, such as omeprazole (Prilosec), esomeprazole (Nexium), pantoprazole (Protonix), and lansoprazole (Prevacid).
- H2 blockers, such as famotidine (Pepcid), which reduce acid production more gently and are sometimes added at night when a proton pump inhibitor on its own is not holding symptoms overnight.
- Prescription-strength antacids and alginates are usually the starting point in pregnancy before anything stronger is considered.
- Sucralfate, if you are pregnant.
The usual starting course is an eight-week trial of a proton pump inhibitor once a day, taken 30 to 60 minutes before your first meal, which is the timing that yields the most benefit from each dose. You can have your online prescription sent to a pharmacy near you the same day when medication is appropriate.
What is GERD (acid reflux)?
Reflux happens when stomach contents flow back into the esophagus. It’s common once in a while, but when it happens two or more times a week or causes damage to the esophagus, it is called GERD. About 20% of people in the U.S. have GERD, making it very common.
Frequent GERD can cause more than heartburn. It may lead to inflammation or narrowing of the esophagus, Barrett’s esophagus, chronic cough, hoarseness, and sleep problems, especially when symptoms happen at night. People with obstructive sleep apnea also have nearly twice the odds of having GERD.
What are the symptoms of GERD?
Heartburn and regurgitation are the two symptoms doctors look for first. GERD also shows up in ways that do not feel like a stomach problem at all.
- Heartburn, a burning pain behind the breastbone, usually worse after meals, when you bend over or when you lie down
- Regurgitation, where food or sour liquid comes back up into your throat or mouth
- A bitter or acidic taste in the mouth
- Nausea after eating
- Trouble swallowing, or the feeling that food is sticking behind your breastbone
- A cough that will not clear, wheezing, or a hoarse voice
- Sore throat and hiccups that keep returning
- Worn tooth enamel, which a dentist often spots before you do
What causes GERD?
GERD happens when the muscle that normally keeps stomach contents from coming back up does not close properly. These are the things that make it more likely.
- Carrying extra weight, which raises pressure inside the abdomen and pushes stomach contents upward
- A hiatal hernia, where part of the stomach slides up through the opening in the diaphragm
- Pregnancy, through a combination of hormonal change and abdominal pressure
- Smoking, including regular exposure to other people’s smoke
- Lying down or going to bed within three hours of eating
- Medicines that relax the sphincter or irritate the esophagus
- Scleroderma and other connective tissue diseases
- Slow stomach emptying, which leaves more in the stomach to reflux
- Being over 50, which raises the odds independently of everything above
FAQs about GERD
How to get rid of acid reflux in the throat fast at home?
Sit or stand upright, loosen anything tight around your waist, and sip water to clear acid out of your throat. Do not lie down for at least three hours after eating, and raise the head of your bed if it happens overnight. An antacid can settle a single episode. If you need one most days, talk to a doctor from home and get an online prescription for a stronger acid reducer instead of managing it alone.
Does Tums help with acid reflux?
Tums is a calcium carbonate antacid. It neutralizes acid that is already sitting in your stomach, so it can take the edge off mild, occasional heartburn. It does not reduce how much acid you make and it does not heal an inflamed esophagus, which is why it is not a treatment for frequent or severe GERD.
How to cure acidity permanently?
There is no permanent cure for acid reflux, and anything sold as one is overselling. GERD is a long-term condition that is managed rather than cured. What genuinely changes it is losing weight where that applies, stopping smoking, leaving three hours between your last meal and bed, raising the head of your bed, eating smaller and slower, and cutting the specific foods and drinks that set you off. When those are not enough, a prescription acid reducer keeps symptoms down and gives the esophagus a chance to heal.
What is the fastest way to cure GERD?
Nothing cures GERD outright, but proton pump inhibitors bring it under control faster than anything else. They block acid production and let the esophageal lining heal. The usual course is eight weeks of a once-daily proton pump inhibitor taken 30 to 60 minutes before your first meal, which is the timing that gets the most out of each dose. Talk to a doctor online about a prescription for omeprazole, pantoprazole or esomeprazole without leaving home.
Can drinking water get rid of GERD?
Water can rinse acid out of the esophagus and briefly ease the burning, but it does not treat GERD. The idea that neutral water dilutes stomach acid enough to matter is not supported, and there is no good reason to avoid drinking with meals. If plain water is all that is holding your symptoms off, the reflux underneath still needs treating.
How can I heal my GERD naturally?
The steps with real evidence behind them are losing weight if you are carrying extra, quitting smoking, raising the head of your bed 6 to 8 inches, not lying down within three hours of eating, eating smaller and slower, wearing looser clothing around the waist, and avoiding the foods and drinks that reliably set you off. Sleeping on your left side helps some people. These reduce how often reflux happens, but they do not heal an esophagus that is already inflamed, which usually needs an acid reducer.
Does not eating make GERD worse?
Long gaps without food leave acid in an empty stomach and can bring on heartburn in some people, so skipping meals is not a way to manage reflux. Smaller, more frequent meals tend to sit better than one large one. The timing that matters most is at the other end of the day: stop eating at least three hours before you lie down.
When should I see a doctor for GERD?
Talk to a doctor if heartburn happens two or more times a week, if it wakes you at night, or if over-the-counter medicine has stopped holding it. Some symptoms need to be looked at in person before any prescription: trouble swallowing, pain on swallowing, vomiting, unexplained weight loss, bleeding or a low blood count. Chest pain is a separate question, because it is not always reflux. Crushing or squeezing pain, pain spreading to the jaw, left arm or between the shoulder blades, or chest pain with sweating, nausea, dizziness or breathlessness is a 911 call.
What happens if you have GERD for too long?
Years of untreated reflux can inflame the esophagus, which is called esophagitis. That makes swallowing painful and can lead to ulcers and bleeding. Scarring from the same inflammation can narrow the esophagus so food sticks. In some people the lining changes into a different type of tissue, called Barrett esophagus, which carries a small but real increase in the risk of esophageal cancer. Long-running reflux also wears tooth enamel and can drive a chronic cough, hoarseness and laryngitis.
When does GERD become serious?
GERD is not graded in four stages, whatever you may have read elsewhere. What doctors actually look at is how often symptoms happen, whether medication controls them, and whether the esophagus has been damaged. It has become serious when heartburn persists on a full dose of an acid reducer, when swallowing is difficult or painful, when there is vomiting, bleeding or unexplained weight loss, or when an endoscopy shows erosive esophagitis or Barrett esophagus. Any of those is a reason for in-person assessment rather than another prescription.
What GERD medications are safe during pregnancy?
Reflux in pregnancy is usually managed with lifestyle changes first, then antacids, alginates or sucralfate. If those are not enough, H2 blockers such as famotidine are the usual next step, and a proton pump inhibitor may be used when symptoms are more severe. Ranitidine is no longer an option: the FDA asked manufacturers to withdraw every ranitidine product from the US market in April 2020 after finding a probable human carcinogen in it. Always clear any medicine, prescription or over the counter, with the doctor managing your pregnancy.
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