Causes and Remedies for Heartburn or Acid Reflux

Heartburn loves to make an dramatic appearance in my life once in a while to make itself look grand and almighty, and leaves a horrible acid taste in my mouth as a souvenir, particularly right after I eat or drink.

To put it simply, heartburn is some kind of indigestion that causes acid to regurgitate back through the esophagus, into the mouth.

I’ve noticed that for me, it’s worse if I eat a small amount of food. The acid almost comes immediately and attacks full scale, whereas if I eat a proper meal, I feel much less acid in my mouth.

The Main Causes

Anxiety and Stress

I find that every time I get into my anxiety attacks, I’d soon suffer from heartburn a few days later. I think when you are overly anxious, your stomach starts to lose a lot of the functions and causes problems with digestion. That’s likely to be the main cause of the constant nauseous feeling as well

Overweight

When my husband was overweight, he always suffered from heartburn at night. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe, and there was a very strong acid taste that’s burning his mouth and throat. After he lost weight to about 150 pounds, he has never experienced it again.

Specific Foods

Junk foods, particularly fried can be major triggers. For example: French fries, Doughnuts, cakes, chips, oil, caffeine, chocolate and butter can all be culprits to your heartburn.

Softdrinks, Caffeine and Alcohol

Soft drinks high in sugar seems to be a trigger for me, such as coke or lemonade.

Caffeine, particularly coffee or tea can also cause heartburn.

Alcohol sometimes relaxes the muscle which opens the esophagus too much that it loses control, causing stomach acid to come back up.

Pills/Medication

Believe it or not, I had the worst acid reflux in my life when I started taking melatonin for my sleep. I have never tasted anything so bitter and sour in my mouth. After I stopped taking it, it went away. I am almost certain that it caused bad acid reflux for me, particularly when I woke up in the morning. Other pills such as pain killers may also contribute to heartburn.

A friend of mine also mentioned that taking anti-depressants and similar types of pills caused him to get severe heartburn to the point where he stopped taking it for a while. The symptoms were a lot more severe than mine, which includes a crushing chest, bad thirst and feeling as if he was about to get a heart attack.

Natural Remedies for Heartburn

Everyone’s different in what how they respond to remedies, these are a few remedies that may work for you:

Probiotic Acidophilus

This is a miracle supplement that helped me with acid reflux more than I ever imagined. I first heard about acidophilus when my aunt told me to eat yoghurt with that, but the yoghurt didn’t quite taste that good without sugar, and I didn’t want to buy ones with 20 grams of sugar added. I started taking acidophilus pills and noticed almost an immediate improvement. It nearly all went away the next day! I totally recommend that!

Ginger

Ginger helps me with nausea but not so much acid reflux, but it can be a great assistance to helping the symptoms of anxiety. Also, ginger has shown to improve some people’s heartburn symptoms.

Lose Weight

If you’re overweight, it’s important to work towards a healthy weight. When my husband lost 70 pounds (he was 220lb almost two years ago), he never experienced that burning sensation of acid in his mouth ever again. He used to have to lie sitting up because of it.

Eat Healthy

Eat a healthy diet and toss out all the cakes, softdrinks and junk food (particularly if it’s deep fried). I used to get heartburn all the time after eating chips or other unhealthy foods I loved feeding my face with. A better diet with fresh fruits and vegetables are likely to help the symptoms of heartburn.