What is heartburn?
Heartburn is one very common problem in the US and the world. The word is misnomer; nothing gets burned as you could guess. Under some conditions acid from the stomach goes up into esophagus, and this is what causes the pain. Esophagus is that tube going down to stomach, intended to let what you swallow go where it belongs. There are quite a few natural remedies available.
What is heartburn? We know it under different names: GERD, reflux, acid reflux. They all describe condition when some of the stomach contents escape through the esophageal sphincter to esophagus. Esophageal sphincter, if you were wondering, is the gate, or a valve that normally let what you swallow in, and prevents it from going back.
Having some acid reflux is normal, people don’t even pay attention. That little amount of stomach contents gets washed off by saliva back to where it belongs. The real problem starts when the amount of acid going up to esophagus gets noticeable, and it happen often. It may lead to esophagitis , inflammation of esophagus.
Basic remedies
Watch your diet. You might not need any other home remedies for heartburn. If you must eat meat, pick lean meat, high in proteins. If you used to have coffee few times a day, seriously consider reducing it to as little as possible. Caffeine is shown to relax esophageal sphincter, but don’t assume you have switch to decaffeinated coffee. There is a theory that the oils in both regular and decaffeinated coffee may cause heartburn and stomach distress.
Avoid pop drinks: stomach distension caused by expansion of carbon dioxide in soda drinks might cause heartburn.
What you want to add into your diet is few good spices, which happen to be good for heartburn: sage, cardamom, cinnamon – just brew a good cup of tea with any of the mentioned spices.