Heartburn

You still talk about the day you gobbled down a fourteen-inch pizza in record time. But what you don’t talk about is the pain you suffered that night in the wee hours of the morning. You almost thought it was a heart attack, but fortunately, it turned out to be only a mild case of heartburn! Well, you’ll be happy to know that you’re not the only sufferer. A large chunk of humanity is victimized by it.

What is heartburn?

Heartburn has nothing to do with the heart, it’s a digestive problem caused by an increase in the acid content of the stomach that rises up into the food pipe called esophagus. Why this happens is because, unlike the stomach, it doesn’t have a protective lining and gets inflamed and painful when exposed to the acid. Ouch!

You, and many more people like you, suffer from it at one time or another. And most, like you, take heartburn symptoms to be a heart attack, because the pain occurs behind the breastbone or the midline of the back and is impossible to ignore. The burning sensation can be so severe as to get you on all your fours begging for relief.

Why it happens?

There can be various reasons for heartburn. It can occur, if you eat a large meal, especially near bedtime. Smokers and those overweight, pregnant or wearing tight clothing are susceptible to it. It can also occur if you even bend a lot! In most cases, especially in the pregnancy heartburn, it’s the increased pressure that prevents the esophageal muscle to shut off the acid from the food pipe. For smokers, it is the other way round, as smoking relaxes the esophageal muscle allowing the acid in.

What can be done about it?

Market is chock-a-block with drugs for heartburn promising the moon. From Alka Seltzer to many other variants, there’s relief at every step. But this relief comes at a price - the side effects. It’s for this reason people are increasingly turning towards natural heartburn medication.