Methodology

How I collect the data

I have had reflux since 2020, and the standard advice never fit my life. So I stopped guessing and started writing everything down. This is exactly how I track it, so you can judge the findings for yourself and copy the method if you want to.

01 — Why I started

My reflux started during Covid in 2020. First it felt like something stuck in my throat, and later it turned into heartburn, which I still get today. The doctors put me on antacids, then PPIs. Neither held up in the long run. A gastroscopy found a hiatal hernia, so I got more medication and the usual lifestyle advice: cut the coffee, the cigarettes, the late nights.

That advice never sat right with me. I don't smoke, I don't drink coffee, and I exercise a lot, so most of the usual suspects were already off the table. When I read through forums and articles, the answers pointed in every direction at once. That convinced me this is more complicated than a short list of trigger foods, and that it probably needs an individual approach. So I decided to measure my own case instead of trusting a checklist.

02 — What I log

Every day I record four things. I keep the fields simple so the habit stays sustainable.

Meals

Every ingredient I can identify, the time I ate, and the portion size.

Symptoms

The type (heartburn, that stuck-in-the-throat feeling, and so on), how bad it was, and how long it lasted. I only write a symptom down when it happens.

Daily context

When I woke and went to bed, which gives sleep length, plus a stress level, how much I sat or moved, whether I worked out, and whether I smoked.

Medications

What I took, when, and whether it was routine or a reaction to symptoms that had already started.

Fig. 1

03 — How I track it, day to day

I spend most of my workday at a computer, so that is where almost everything gets entered, straight into an Excel sheet. When I am away from my desk I use my phone, though typing into a spreadsheet is quicker on the computer. I try to log each event close to when it happens, but I often fill in the last few hours, or a whole day, from memory. At the start it took real effort to remember and to think through each entry. Now it is a routine, and I forget far less often.

Fig. 2

04 — The subjective parts

Some of what I track is a judgment call, on purpose. Tracking is already tedious, and I would rather keep a habit I can sustain than chase a precision I will abandon. Meal size is the clearest example: I set it by how full I feel afterwards, not by weighing anything. Stress and how much I moved work the same way, by feel. For meals I list as many ingredients as I can, which is easy when I cook and harder when I eat out. I aim to be consistent day to day, and over time I hope to make some of these measures more objective.

Fig. 3

Small

Normal

Large

05 — Where this goes next

I am still tracking, and I plan to keep going. If enough people track the same way, we could build a much wider dataset and run analyses that a single person's log can't support. If you want to try it, I will share the template I use.