Heartburn is the burning pain behind your breast bone when excess acid rises from the stomach into the oesophagus.
The pain gets worse when lying down or when bending over.
The acid rises back up due to a weak lower oesophageal sphincter muscle. The norm is that the muscle relaxes during passage of food into the stomach and tightens once the food has passed; but in the case of a weak muscle, this does not happen making acid rise back up.
Being overweight or pregnant can increase your risk because it contributes to the weakening of this muscle.
Certain foods such as citrus fruits, fried or fatty food, peppermint and caffeinated beverages can also trigger heartburn.
The good news for heartburn prone people is that there are several healthy suggestions they can try out to ward off the heartburn.
1. Eat fruit before a meal, especially if the meal will be a heavy one, or will contain some meat or any other heavy protein. Fruit ferments and is digested faster than food. If you eat a meal before fruits, the fruit remains in the digestive tract to give the food time to be digested, therefore, when the fruit ferments, the acid released rises up into the oesophagus and that causes your heartburn.
2. Avoid fatty food and snacks.
3. Sodas and other soft drinks tend to gas you up thus increasing chances of high acidity.
4. Include alkaline foods in your diet like alfalfa, ginger, garlic, potatoes and spinach to neutralise the acid coming from other foods.
5. Restrain from beverages like tea and coffee.
6. Avoid lying down immediately after a meal to prevent food from going back up into the oesophagus.
However, severe and more frequent heartburn or chest pain can be a sign of something more serious such as a heart attack. Visit your doctor for further investigation.