Episode Details

Waking up with acid in your throat is miserable, and the advice you'll hear first — elevate the head of the bed — has been in every gastroenterology guideline for decades. But when researchers actually went looking for controlled trials, they found five. Total. Across the entire world literature. This episode digs into what those trials show, why the thing most people buy isn't the thing that was studied, and what to look for if you're standing in a store at 1am trying to pick a wedge. We cover the 2021 Albarqouni review in BMC Family Practice that screened 1,206 records and found five usable trials, the 2020 IBELGA crossover trial that doubled the rate of meaningful symptom improvement, and a 2026 Thai non-inferiority trial that pitted a wedge pillow directly against an added evening PPI dose. Along the way: why stacking pillows under your head doesn't count, why 20 centimeters keeps showing up, and the mechanical reason the incline has to start at your hips. Episode #378650 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/378650