Heartburn, named for the burning sensation experienced in the area of the heart, actually has nothing to do with the heart. Its cause is stomach acid that has moved up into the esophagus. This occurs when the valve located between the stomach and the esophagus relaxes at the wrong time, thereby causing the burning sensation in the chest or throat associated with heartburn.
Much attention has been paid to helping heartburn patients and many theories as to the cause of heartburn have been put forth. The most likely culprit to trigger heartburn is usually thought to be certain foods or beverages, although which food causes the problem can be different in every individual sufferer. As a rule, about 10 percent of the general population and as much as 25 percent of the pregnant population, experiences heartburn on any given day.
Frequent, recurring heartburn is known as acid reflux or Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Stomach acid was meant to stay in the stomach to aid in digestion. The lining of the esophagus is not able to withstand stomach acid causing as many as ten to fifteen percent of diagnosed GERD sufferers to experience damage or ulcers to the esophageal lining. The effects of GERD are much more far reaching however, and may even include such things as asthma, hoarseness, chronic cough, laryngitis or even non-cardiac chest pain.
Still the effects of heartburn may not be quite as bad as they seem at first blush. Only about seven percent of those diagnosed with GERD suffer bouts of heartburn every day and need treatment on a daily basis. About 30 to 40 percent of the remaining acid reflux patients experience heartburn only about once a month. This second group really does not need daily medications for acid reflux but should instead use them on an as-needed basis, thus saving themselves the expense of daily treatment as well as the regimen of taking medications every day.
The usual medicine prescribed for heartburn and GERD sufferers includes some old stand-bys such as over the counter antacids and newer treatments including H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors (PPI). Other self-help treatments are still used by many including taking an antacid or other medication prior to eating a meal suspected to be a heartburn trigger, thus heading off heartburn before it has a chance to even begin. Raising the head of the bed to keep stomach acid from coming up the esophagus seems to help some heartburn patients, as well as simply eating smaller meals and losing weight to relieve pressure on the stomach and esophagus.
An old reliable treatment, however, may still be the best at relieving heartburn and when drunk on a regular basis may even be helpful in healing the effects that stomach acid may have had on the esophagus. That treatment, especially good for pregnant heartburn sufferers, is simply drinking milk every day. Easy to come by and fairly inexpensive, simple to use, a good source of calcium for your bones and enjoyable to drink, imbibing milk could be the best advice for many of the heartburn sufferers out there.