Causes of Heartburn, Its Symptoms and Remedies
Heartburn is up there among things that you don’t want to experience. After all, a painful sensation in the chest is something that brings up an entirely different set of concerns.
Luckily, unlike a heart attack, there are plenty of heartburn remedies that you can apply to chase that pain away. In fact, to ease your worries, heartburn has nothing to do with your heart. Heartburn symptoms may involve pain or warmth in your chest, but that’s about it.
It actually has something to do with something lower than your chest – your stomach.
Causes of Heartburn
The causes of heartburn revolve around the movement of your stomach acid into places where it wasn’t meant to go. These places are particularly the esophagus and the esophageal sphincter, which is how the food gets to your stomach after you swallow it. Occasionally, the esophageal sphincter doesn’t close or doesn’t close properly which allows acid to get in.
Some foods can keep the sphincter open and, as such, rank among the causes of heartburn. Heavily caffeinated foods tend to cause heartburn as well as chocolates and peppermint. Fatty foods and alcohol can also entice a bout of heartburn.
The way your body is positioned is also among the causes of heartburn. Think of the physics, if you’re bending over or lying down, gravity can pull your stomach acid into your esophagus.
Heartburn can also be caused by what you wear. If your clothing is particularly tight, you can end up forcing and pushing the stomach acid back into your esophagus in the name of style.
Heartburn Symptoms
The most common and obvious symptom is the burning feeling in your chest. Often, it is a fiery feeling that spreads, crawling around your body and into your throat and jaw, along your arms and over your back. It is due to this pain that heartburn symptoms are often mistaken for heart attack symptoms.
Despite your confidence after reading this, you should still make sure to get it checked by a doctor to definitely rule out the possibility of a heart attack.
Heartburn Remedies
There are some heartburn remedies that you can do on your own. Prevention is easy by simply avoiding massive meals and avoiding excessive intake of heartburn-causing foods such as anything caffeinated or chocolate or even spicy foods and citrus fruits.
Losing weight can also keep down the occurrence of heartburn, as being overweight can increase the pressure on your stomach and force the acid back into your esophagus. Antacids such as Rolaids or the yummy Tums can work because they also neutralize acid. Tagamet and other drugs are also available that can counter stomach acid production.
Have Heart
Heartburn is a pretty simple thing to deal with. Simply avoid the causes of heartburn and be ready with some heartburn remedies and heartburn can’t do much more to you.
The real danger comes in self diagnosing a bout of heartburn when it was actually a heart attack. No matter how much you think you know, it’s still better to be safe than sorry. If you experience any kind of chest pain, have it checked out by a doctor just to be sure.