What is Heart Burn?
Are you suffering from severe pain or burning sensation in the chest and worried it might be a heart attack? More than likely it is heartburn.
What is Heart Burn?
Heart burn is a painful burning sensation that rises in your stomach and moves up towards your throat, behind the breastbone. Some may feel like food is coming back up, and some people get an acid or bitter taste in the back of the mouth. What are the symptoms?
- chest pain
- excessive burping
- regurgitation (fluid or food coming back into the mouth)
- difficulty swallowing
- sore throat
- persistent dry cough
What causes it?
Generally, once the food gets into the stomach, the contents of your stomach are not allowed to move up into the esophagus by a muscle. This acts as a valve that allows food to enter your stomach but does not allow it to exit the same way. Sometimes it does not function properly and allows stomach acids into your esophagus. Your esophagus does not have a protective lining, so when it is exposed to the acids it may become irritated and painful.
What are the Top 5 Reasons For Heart burn?
There are many reasons for heartburn but let’s know the important ones.
- Eating habits: Eating acidic foods such as spicy fatty foods, citrus fruits, chocolate, spearmint, tomatoes or tomato-based products, raw onions, garlic and black pepper are very harmful. In addition, drinking beverages such as coffee, citrus juices, and caffeinated, carbonated beverages also contribute to heart burn.
- Lifestyle: Do not smoke. Smoking stimulates stomach acids. Quitting tobacco products certainly relieves symptoms of heart burn.
- Do not drink alcohol: If you drink large quantities of alcohol, it relaxes the LES (the natural valve explained above) allowing acid to flow backward into the esophagus causing heart burn.
- Carbonated beverages: Researchers found that the rise in the consumption of carbonated soft drinks increased the rate of heart burn and ultimately lead to esophageal cancer especially in the United States. Therefore, you’d better avoid carbonated drinks too.
- Stress: Stress is not directly linked to heart burn. However, it can affect behavior that can trigger heart burn. So follow the relaxation tips and be heart burn free.
Besides knowing the reasons, take proper medical advice and medication to heal heart burn. Heart burn is not at all a big problem to solve.