Heartburn Relief Through Practical Remedies

InfoZen11 | Feb 23, 2010 |

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You don't really need buy expensive medications or herbal remedies to find relief for your heartburn symptoms.

Understanding Heartburn

Heartburn is a sensation you experience when the acids from your stomach slip up through your lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to coat your esophagus lining. The esophagus is the tube used to pass food from your mouth to your stomach. It isn't designed to withstand the acids of your stomach.

Human stomachs contain a protective lining that your esophagus doesn't have. Without this protective lining, stomach acid eats into the your esophagus lining.

Reduce Pressure On Your LES

As you eat, your stomach expands. The more full you feel, the more your stomach has expanded. This fullness pushes outwards on the LES.

Thus when people eat too fast or too much, they put pressure on the LES. This exhausts the LES muscle and makes it more vulnerable to acids slipping through to the esophagus. You can reduce the likelihood of experiencing heartburn by just eating smaller meals and not forcing your tummy to expand so much every time you eat.

Some people might read that last bit and think I'm telling them to diet. That isn't the case. You can eat the same amount as you used to, just eat it in multiple small sessions rather than a few larger meals. Eat more slowly as well, so your food can digest and pass from your stomach as you introduce more food or drink to it.

Keep the LES Strong

Since the LES is a muscular little doorway, you want to keep those muscles tight to prevent acid from splashing upwards to your esophagus. I suggest you consume foods known to tighten this sphincter rather than loosen it.

This doesn't require any fancy medications or therapies, just be deliberate in your food choices. Fatty foods and dairy products as well as alcoholic beverages and spicy foods all encourage your LES to loosen. Foods which encourage your LES to remain tight include anything alkaline, such as apple cider vinegar or distilled water.

In general, just research which foods are more alkaline and which ones are more acidic. Consume the more alkaline foods to help tighten your LES.

Heartburn Is Like Sunburn

The last of these practical heartburn home remedies is to simply treat your esophagus like it has suffered from a sunburn. You wouldn't put hot, rough things on a sunburn, would you? So just eat cooler liquids and foods and avoid rough acidic foods.

Just like on a sunburn, drinking aloe vera juice can help you sooth your acid-burned esophagus.

These may not seem like miracle solutions, and they're not. However they don't cost you anything other than an exercise in common sense and over the long term they can go a long way to helping you maintain a healthy digestive tract. Good habits don't just prevent heartburn, they help you steer clear of GERD and Barrett's Esophagus, which in turn helps you steer clear of esophageal cancer.