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.
