10 Most Frequent Causes of Heartburn

There are several causes of heartburn / acid reflux. There are several that are the most frequent causes of heartburn. Finding out what these are can help you make changes in your lifestyle and habit so you can prevent the acid reflux from happening.

Coffee, tea, and other drinks that contain caffeine

Caffeine can relax the LES, allowing stomach contents to reflux into the esophagus.

Chocolate

Chocolate contains concentrations of theobromine (a compound that occurs naturally in many plants such as cocoa, tea and coffee plants), which relaxes the esophageal sphincter muscle, letting stomach acid squirt up into the esophagus.

Fried and fatty foods

These foods tend to slow down digestion, keeping the food in your stomach longer. This can result in increases pressure in the stomach, which in turn puts more pressure on a weakened LES, allowing reflux of stomach contents.
Tomatoes and tomato-based products

These foods relax the lower esophageal sphincter (LES).

Alcohol

Alcohol relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter, allowing the reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus. It also increases the production of stomach acid.

Tobacco

The chemicals in cigarette smoke weaken the LES as they pass from the lungs into the blood.
Large mealsA full stomach can put extra pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), which will increase the chance that some of this food will reflux into the esophagus.

Citrus fruits and juices

These foods relax the lower esophageal sphincter (LES).
Eating within 2 to 3 hours prior to bedtimeLying down with a full stomach can cause stomach contents to press harder against the LES, increasing the chances of refluxed food.

Wearing tight fitting clothing

Clothing that fits tightly around the abdomen will squeeze the stomach, forcing food up against the LES, and cause food to reflux into the esophagus. Clothing that can cause problems include tight-fitting belts and slenderizing undergarments.

Symptoms of heartburn

The following is the most common symptom of heartburn. However, each individual may experience symptoms differently.

• A burning feeling in the chest just behind the breastbone that occurs after eating and lasts a few minutes to several hours.
• Chest pain and moves upward to the neck and throat, especially after bending over, lying down or eating.
• Burning in the throat -- or hot, sour, acidic or salty-tasting fluid at the back of the throat. Difficulty swallowing.
• Feeling of food "sticking" in the middle of the chest or throat.
• Heartburn may cause chronic cough, sore throat, or chronic hoarseness.

Heartburn causes

To fully understand heartburn, it’s important to understand the mechanisms of a healthy digestive system.Heartburn is believed to be the result of condition called hiatal hernia, which affects the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). The LES, a muscle located at the bottom of the esophagus, opens to let food in and closes to keep it in the stomach. However, the LES muscle does not always work perfectly. Gastroesophageal reflux occurs when the LES muscle either relaxes inappropriately or is weak. This allows stomach juices to back up, or reflux, into the esophagus, creating heartburn. When the acid contents from the stomach regularly back up into the esophagus, a chronic condition called gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, occurs. Heartburn is sometimes called acid indigestion and usually occurs after meals. In addition to heartburn, symptoms of acid reflux may include persistent sore throat, hoarseness, chronic cough, asthma, heart-like chest pain and a feeling of a lump in the throat.When this muscle relaxes too often or for too long, acid refluxes back into the esophagus, causing heartburn.

Other lifestyle contributors to GERD may include the following:

• being overweight
• overeating
• consuming certain foods, such as citrus, peppermint, chocolate, fatty, and spicy foods
• caffeine
• alcohol
• smoking
• use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen

Other medical causes of heartburn may include the following:

• gastritis - an inflammation of the stomach lining.
• ulcer disease

What is heartburn

Despite the name, heartburn has nothing to do with the heart. It is a painful condition involving the upper digestive system, not the heart itself. Because the pain often radiates from the central chest region, some sufferers confuse the symptoms of heartburn just like a Heart Attack Heartburn is actually the result of stomach acids reacting strongly to certain foods during digestion. A small amount of stomach acid is forced up the unprotected esophagus and the resultant chemical burn causes moderate to severe pain.
If you have heartburn once a month, it's considered mild. If you have heartburn once a week, it's moderate. It's when your heartburn occurs daily that it's considered to be severe.
About 20% of all adults will have heartburn at least once a month. They can manage these uncomfortable episodes with a change in diet, over-the-counter antacids and weight lose. Even those who suffer from moderate heartburn can often find relief with these remedies. But for five to fifteen percent of adults, their heartburn is severe. For them, the above-mentioned remedies give only partial or temporary relief.

My blog--Remedy For Heartburn Opened

Today is January 28, 2009,my long-awaited blog "Remedy For Heartburn" finally opened, why do I have to open a heartburn blog? The main reason is that we all have been in the struggle against the disease,then we need a platform to share our experience,I hope my blog will be able to play such a role, yes, It is, today it started.