Get rid of constant heartburn in three steps

Get rid of constant heartburn in three steps

If you suffer from occasional indigestion and heartburn, it's okay to reach for the bottle of antacids, but if you find that you need regular reflux treatments, you really need to look for the underlying causes.

Of course, if you are taking medication prescribed by a doctor, you must discuss any changes with him before taking any action.

Before we look at the steps you can take to get rid of constant heartburn, it is useful to understand the causes of acid reflux and chronic indigestion

Despite its name, heartburn has nothing to do with the heart. It is called that simply because the discomfort is felt in the chest around the area connected to the heart. The burning, discomfort, and pain are actually caused by stomach acid traveling back into the esophagus (the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach). Normally, the acid is kept where it belongs, in the stomach, by a valve at the bottom of the esophagus. The valve opens to allow food into the stomach and then closes to retain stomach contents. There are four main reasons that acids, and sometimes food, leave the stomach and enter the esophagus:

• Hoher Säuregehalt, verursacht durch den Verzehr von scharfen oder zucker- oder fettreichen Speisen
• Niedriger Säurespiegel, häufig verursacht durch übermäßigen Gebrauch von Antazida oder Säurehemmern
• Entspannung der Speiseröhrenklappe durch bestimmte Nahrungsmittel
• Körperlicher Druck durch Fettleibigkeit, Schwangerschaft oder einen Hiatushernie.

The first three of these causes can be addressed through some fairly simple changes to your lifestyle. So let's look at the three steps to freedom from heartburn.

Step 1

The first thing you need to do is monitor your diet and your heartburn. Each time you experience heartburn, write down what you ate in the two hours before the onset of the condition. It will also be useful to record where the discomfort was felt - deep in the chest, at the top of the chest, or in the throat. Finally, note whether the problem was just heartburn or whether you also suffered from food regurgitation.

Armed with this information, you should be able to identify which foods are causing your problem. You don't necessarily have to completely eliminate these foods from your diet. I still enjoy a curry even though it is my primary heartburn trigger food. I just make sure that when I eat curry I don't overeat, I make sure I finish the meal by early evening and I try to choose curry that contains ginger since ginger is one of the remedies I use to keep my tummy.

Here is a list of foods that commonly cause heartburn

• Scharfe Speisen – Curry, Chillig etc.
• Verarbeitete Lebensmittel – viele Fertiggerichte enthalten viel Fett und Zucker und zu wenig Ballaststoffe
• Fette
• Zucker
• Schokolade – tut mir leid, aber Schokolade ist einer der Hauptschuldigen für die Entspannung dieses wichtigen Ösophagusventils

Of course, we are all different so your trigger may not appear on the list, but your food/heartburn diary should identify your triggers.

Step 2

Change your eating habits. Modern life has encouraged us to consume larger amounts of richer foods and also to eat faster. Our digestive systems simply haven't been able to change as quickly as our lifestyles.

We often skip meals, eat on the go, or engage in intense physical activity shortly after eating. We also often eat very late in the day and go to bed with a very full stomach. All these factors lead to indigestion and heartburn.

My dear old grandma loved the saying, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper.” There is much more than a grain of truth in this.

It's not difficult to figure out which is better for our digestive system. Follow the wise words of the proverb or do what so many people do:

Skip breakfast even though you haven't fueled your body since the night before

Eat lunch on the way to a meeting or at your desk

Overfill your stomach just before bed and allow food to digest during 7 hours of inactivity.

Finally back to my dear old grandma, who often scolded me as a child with the words "Your stomach has no teeth, Chew. Chew. Chew." You really don't give your stomach a chance if you stuff large chunks of unchewed food into it.

Step 3

Experiment with well-known natural digestive aids. Again, we are all different, so there is no cure that I can recommend. Cinnamon is known to help some people with indigestion and cause heartburn in others. Maybe you could add to your heartburn/food diary by writing down what remedies have helped. It may also make sense to experiment with taking the medication - before, during or after a meal

Here is a list of natural remedies that have helped some people.

• Pfefferminze – Es ist kein Zufall, dass Restaurants oft eine Pfefferminze nach dem Essen geben, es ist ein bekanntes Digestif, das als Tee, in einer Kapsel oder durch Lutschen von Pfefferminzbonbons eingenommen werden kann
• Papaya ist ein tolles Antazida
• Ananas
• Kamillentee
• Live-Joghurt – die Sorte voller „guter“ Bakterien
• Zimt
• Ingwer
• Kreuzkümmelsamen
• Karottensaft

Good luck on your journey to becoming heartburn free. I hope these three steps help you

Inspired by John R Turner