Heartburn affects many people everyday. For some, it is a daily occurrence, but for others it only flares up every once in a while. If you have a tendency to have heartburn, there are steps you can take for heartburn prevention.

Steps to Take

Probably the first thing you should do for heartburn prevention is to avoid certain foods or drinks that can begin or aggravate heartburn. Anything made from tomatoes will have a tendency to trigger heartburn since there are naturally occurring acids in tomatoes. Spicy foods can often exacerbate heartburn as well. Other foods to avoid for heartburn prevention include alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, citrus juice and fruit, and mints.

Another step to take for heartburn prevention is to change your eating habits. Eating smaller meals can help by limiting the pressure that is put on the base of the esophagus. If your stomach is too full, the esophagus will often have extra pressure applied, which can lead to heartburn and reflux.

If you want to get any sleep at night, it’s usually a good idea to not eat anything for about two or three hours before bed time. If you’ve tried just about everything to amend your eating habits but are still suffering from some heartburn, over the counter medications won’t provide heartburn prevention, but they can help once you are suffering from the heartburn.

If you are at a loss as to what exactly is triggering your heartburn, keeping a record of what and when you eat or drink may be able to help you identify the specific triggers that can cause you heartburn. This is probably one of the better ways to identify what exactly you will need to do for your personal heartburn prevention. Once you have identified your specific triggers, you can work towards eliminating them and eventually find your way to your own specific heartburn prevention.

Heartburn prevention is difficult only in the sense that you will need to identify what triggers your heartburn before you can work towards heartburn prevention. Once you have identified the things that cause your heartburn, you can work towards a heartburn-free existence. Even if you have identified the triggers and have taken all the measures you can, you may still have to take heartburn or acid reducing medication every now and then.

There are quite a few effective over the counter medications and some are very good at heartburn prevention. If your heartburn does not improve with dietary changes or over the counter medications, you probably will want to make an appointment with your doctor. They can prescribe other types of medication that may work better for your situation.

Heartburn is rarely serious, but it can be extremely uncomfortable and even painful at times. If you suffer from chronic heartburn, the ongoing discomfort can be very difficult to cope with. That is why heartburn remedies are so actively sought by heartburn sufferers. The good news is that there is a long list of potential remedies you can try if you suffer from this problem, and chances are that you will eventually find a therapy that will work on your heartburn.

It is important to be methodical when going through your various heartburn remedy possibilities. You can start with various lifestyle changes, and work your way through potential dietary modifications. Finally, there are over the counter heartburn remedies that you can take if diet and lifestyle changes do not suffice.

To Find a Heartburn Remedy, You Must Pinpoint the Cause

There are a number of factors that can contribute to heartburn issues. Some of the lifestyle possibilities to consider include eating large meals or eating too close to bedtime. The obvious remedy for these heartburn contributors is to switch to smaller, frequent meals and make sure your last meal is more than three hours before bedtime. If you are a smoker suffering from chronic heartburn, quitting smoking might be an effective heartburn remedy. Avoid tight-fitting clothing, and raise the head of your bed at least six inches so that you are not sleeping in a flat position at night.

Diet changes can also be a significant heartburn remedy. For example, avoiding caffeine, alcohol, fatty foods, citrus fruits and tomato products can all alleviate your heartburn problem. If none of these dietary changes seem effective, you can keep a food journal for a few days to see if you can discover precisely which foods are contributing to your problem.

Other Heartburn Remedies to Try

If lifestyle and dietary changes are not enough to remedy your heartburn ailment, you may need to move on to medication. Over the counter antacids are effective for many people, and can safely be taken fairly regularly once you have consulted with a doctor. If the antacids are not even sufficient, your doctor can give you a prescription for a heartburn remedy that should alleviate even the most stubborn of heartburn symptoms.

Heartburn can be a tough and uncomfortable problem to overcome. Fortunately there is a long list of potential heartburn remedies to help you find relief.

Heartburn is a terribly painful affliction. Almost everyone knows the discomfort of occasional heartburn. If it happens more than occasionally for you, you might want to learn how to stop heartburn. While the cause of heartburn, acid in the esophagus, is the same for everyone, the way the acid gets there varies from person to person.

The esophagus is the tube that carries your food from your mouth to your stomach where it is digested with the help of gastric acid. The doorway between the stomach and the esophagus is a sphincter that opens to allow food in and closes to keep acid in. There is a flap to assist in confining the acid. The possible reasons that your sphincter is having a problem containing the acid are many. Until you pin down the reasons, you won’t know how to stop heartburn.

Sphincter Muscles

When the muscles of the sphincter close, pressure builds in the esophagus. There is less pressure in the stomach which makes it quite difficult for the acid to splash up through the sphincter. The time when it is easier is when the sphincter is either open or when the muscles relax. Obviously, the sphincter is open when you are swallowing food. If you have the habit of literally eating on the run, you may have a persistent problem with heartburn. Another way to learn how to stop heartburn is by sitting still and carefully chewing and swallowing.

The sphincter also opens when pressure builds up in the stomach. This happens when the stomach can’t empty fast enough to keep up with food intake. In other words, you may be eating too much. When that happens, the sphincter opens to let out extra air and make more space. The polite word for this is “belching.” When the air comes out, a little acid rides along. Some air is no problem, but a lot of air means enough acid to cause at least mild heartburn. Eat slowly, don’t swallow a lot of air and don’t eat too much at one time is how to stop heartburn if this is your problem.

Some problems with the sphincter muscle might be beyond your control. A too full stomach isn’t always due to overeating. Some stomachs take longer than average to empty. This situation is common for those with diabetes. Asthma sufferers may take medicine to relax the muscles of the esophagus to allow better air flow. This type of medication can also relax the muscles of the esophageal sphincter allowing better acid flow.

Even if the muscles don’t relax enough to open the sphincter wide, the pressure can equalize making a tight waistband enough to cause acid reflux. For anyone with frequent heartburn seeing a doctor is the best way to learn how to stop heartburn.

These days, heartburn is about as common a complaint as headaches. A touch of stomach acid to the esophagus is all it takes to cause the most awful burning pain in the area of the chest and stomach. The problem is that the esophagus is so inconveniently close to the sphincter that opens and closes to allow food into the stomach.

Swallowing too fast, too much acid, not enough acid or lying down too soon after eating can all cause that awful feeling even in the healthiest of people. Add in too much exercise, pregnancy and the stomach flu and it’s a wonder that anyone can get through the day without a touch of heartburn. You can keep an over the counter remedy on hand at all times, or you can try some natural heartburn relief.

Understanding Your Heartburn

Since some of the causes of heartburn conflict with others – too much acid versus too little acid, for instance – it’s difficult to find a remedy that will work every time. The first step is to get an idea of what is causing your heartburn. Usually, the intense discomfort is enough to make the occurrences stick in your mind. For some, it’s a nighttime episode, for others, it’s a result of spicy food. Once you find your trigger, consult your doctor or do some research on the internet to discover how to handle the problem.

Nighttime heartburn is often the result of lying down too soon after eating – or worse, while eating. That sphincter has to open every time you swallow. Without enough gravity to keep the acid where it belongs, you’ll get that painful splash of acid on your delicate esophagus. Doctors call it “reflux.” Pile up the pillows or use the comfy chair and you’ll avoid the problem in the first place. Avoidance is the best form of natural heartburn relief.

Certain foods can trigger that burning sensation, and sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint without keeping a heartburn diary. When you feel that heat start, jot down whatever you ate over the course of the last hour or so. If you can’t pinpoint the caloric culprit, you can get a list of the most likely suspects and eliminate them all. Then just add each one back to your life one at a time. If there’s a painful reaction, take it out of your diet again.

The best you can do is hope that it isn’t one of your favorite foods. There are still things you can do to get your favorites back. If the problem turns out to be coffee or cola, for instance, the problem may just be the caffeine – try decaffeinated. Again, avoidance equals natural heartburn relief.

Sometimes, the sphincter that keeps acid away from your esophagus can relax and allow acid reflux. On occasion, this can be caused by too little acid because acid is a trigger for the muscle to contract. If you have cut down on acidy foods or you are on a diet, this might be a cause of your pain. Adding an acidic food like vinegar or just eating and swallowing can be of help. One natural heartburn relief in this case can be a plain old stick of gum. Once you understand your heartburn, your natural heartburn relief is just a step away.