pressawaypain.com

“Most heart burn causes are self-inflicted”. Fair comment or baseless distortion? Let’s have a look at three causes of heartburn, and see if it’s possible to avoid them altogether.

1. Foods

It’s not only the kind of food you eat, but also the amount and how quickly you eat it. If you suddenly swallow a lot of food, this can precipitate the eruption of stomach acids into the oesophagus (the pipe between your stomach and your mouth). Your stomach has a lining to protect against this digestive acid, but your oesophagus does not. Consequently these acids attack your oesophagus, trying, in effect, to digest it. Very painful.

We all have to eat, but we can (usually) choose the foods we eat and whether to eat slowly or quickly. Foods that tend to cause heart burn include spicy, fried and fatty foods. These are usually difficult for your stomach to digest, so it over-produces digestive acids that can then spill upwards into your oesophagus.

It’s the same with very hot foods such as hot soups and very cold food like ice cream. Other foods that can trigger nasty attacks include chocolate, peppermint, citrus fruits and onions.

Caffeine is a major player in heart burn causes, being found in coffee, tea and many soft drinks such as cola. Unless you’re only a modest consumer, try cutting down severely on all these drinks.

If you frequently suffer heartburn after eating you’ll probably have to change your diet. Failing that, eat more slowly so as to prevent air being swallowed down with the food. When this is expelled by the stomach it gives any excess acid a chance to slip out as well and cause the pain. In addition, try  and gradually reduce the amount you eat until you bring the problem under control.

And whatever you eat, make sure you eat it at least two and a half hours before retiring to bed.

2. Alcohol and Tobacco

Cigarette smoke, whether your own or someone else’s, can give you heartburn. It relaxes the sphincter (the flap that keeps stomach acid in the stomach), allowing excess acid to escape. Avoid inhaling it if you possibly can.

If you like to have a few alcoholic drinks then it may be wise to eat some non-spicy, stomach-friendly foods with it to lessen the concentration of alcohol in the stomach which might otherwise cause heartburn.

3. Medications and Drugs

Heartburn and acid reflux can be caused by medications you take for other complaints. The chemicals may react with your digestive acids to cause pain, so you’re merely substituting one complaint for another.

Always take plenty of water with your medication, even if it is itself liquid. More so if it is pills. Water helps your stomach deal with the unnatural substances being delivered to it.

In short, keep your diet, and any medications you use, as natural as possible, and you’ll minimise your exposure to most heart burn causes.

Finally, don’t forget to help these heartburn measures by pressing away the pain. Just find the point about two finger widths below your tummy button and press it in accordance with the instructions in Press Away Pain.

Philip Gegan

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Heartburn/Acid Reflux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.