Help with Acid Reflux/Gerd - PEP BB medicine.straw.acidreflux

I had a close friend who was a top-level psychologist in the NHS, but who was totally unsuited to the job.  He doesn't understand people and their emotions, and the stress of his job was killing him.  We'll call him Bob.

My relationship with Bob was unhealthy in a lot of ways -- we shared too many thoughts and emotions, and ended up losing parts of our identity due to lack of boundaries and shared understanding.  Basically, we're not compatible as human beings, and shouldn't have been friends.  However, we were for a long time, and the effect was transformative for both of us.

Ironically, Bob tried to tell me that, when I avulsed a tendon, it was just psycho-somatic.  This lack of respect makes me angry to this day.  The irony, though, was that his acid reflux was *clearly* due to the stress of a life he wasn't suited to live.  It was so bad that the cells in his aesophagus where starting to transform into stomach cells.  I don't know what the name of this condition is, but it's what the doctors told him.

After years of effort, he finally started to accept that his reflux was related to stress, and that if he wanted to get rid of it, he'd have to change his life.  It was intensely difficult for him, because his personality was so rigid (It was correspondingly difficult for me!  Anybody who's ever helped an arrogant a-hole gain any self-knowledge will know what I mean.), but he eventually managed to adjust his ideas and habits to the point that, miracle of miracles, his reflux disappeared.  I think that, to this day -- being who he his -- he doesn't realise how much effort and patience it took to make this change happen, but that's all right, because I went through my own valuable transformation thanks to him, and things like that always balance out.

My first instinct on seeing this post was to recommend bicarbonate of soda mixed with water, which is alkaline and will neutralise excess stomach acid, but then I remembered the above situation.  I *really* hope this earns me a BB, because I put my heart and soul into that relationship, and it was the cure that transformed a friend's life.