Heartburn Featured Article

Knowing How to Stop Heartburn

Heartburn is a terribly painful affliction. Almost everyone knows the discomfort of occasional heartburn. If it happens more than occasionally for you, you might want to learn how to stop heartburn. While the cause of heartburn, acid in the esophagus, is the same for everyone, the way the acid gets there varies from person to person.

The esophagus is the tube that carries your food from your mouth to your stomach where it is digested with the help of gastric acid. The doorway between the stomach and the esophagus is a sphincter that opens to allow food in and closes to keep acid in. There is a flap to assist in confining the acid. The possible reasons that your sphincter is having a problem containing the acid are many. Until you pin down the reasons, you won’t know how to stop heartburn.

Sphincter Muscles

When the muscles of the sphincter close, pressure builds in the esophagus. There is less pressure in the stomach which makes it quite difficult for the acid to splash up through the sphincter. The time when it is easier is when the sphincter is either open or when the muscles relax. Obviously, the sphincter is open when you are swallowing food. If you have the habit of literally eating on the run, you may have a persistent problem with heartburn. Another way to learn how to stop heartburn is by sitting still and carefully chewing and swallowing.

The sphincter also opens when pressure builds up in the stomach. This happens when the stomach can’t empty fast enough to keep up with food intake. In other words, you may be eating too much. When that happens, the sphincter opens to let out extra air and make more space. The polite word for this is “belching.” When the air comes out, a little acid rides along. Some air is no problem, but a lot of air means enough acid to cause at least mild heartburn. Eat slowly, don’t swallow a lot of air and don’t eat too much at one time is how to stop heartburn if this is your problem.

Some problems with the sphincter muscle might be beyond your control. A too full stomach isn’t always due to overeating. Some stomachs take longer than average to empty. This situation is common for those with diabetes. Asthma sufferers may take medicine to relax the muscles of the esophagus to allow better air flow. This type of medication can also relax the muscles of the esophageal sphincter allowing better acid flow.

Even if the muscles don’t relax enough to open the sphincter wide, the pressure can equalize making a tight waistband enough to cause acid reflux. For anyone with frequent heartburn seeing a doctor is the best way to learn how to stop heartburn.

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November 9, 2007

What Really Causes Heartburn?

The medical dictionary describes heartburn as 0a burning discomfort behind the lower part of the sternum0Heartburn can be quite uncomfortable at times with the pressure in your chest and pain so bad you might think you are having a heart attack. This pressure can even radiate into your back or your arm and may cause numbness.As a matter of fact people often mistake the symptoms of heartburn for signs of a heart attack. However pain from a heart attack is made worse by physical activity, and is usually accompanied by one or more of the following: chest pressure, shortness of breath, fatigue, totals loss of energy, nausea, or vomiting. Other symptoms may also be present.On the other hand heartburn is not usually caused by physical activity. However, if you think you are having a heart attack, or you’re not quite sure, it’s important that you seek medical attention immediately, call 911.People that experience heartburn usually have damaged the delicate cells of their esophagus which it is very easy to correct, once they know exactly how it got damaged in the first place.Most people today have a very busy life and they tend to rush everything they do, and this would […]

Full Article At: KnowHow-Now.com Articles

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Heartburn and Coffee: Break the Connection

Tip! Diet Changes: If heartburn sufferers want relief, they may need to alter their diets.

Doctors have always detected a connection between heartburn and coffee. It has almost become a part of common wisdom that coffee, wonderful drink that it is, is one of the main causes behind heartburn. One out of five coffee drinkers in the US suffers from heartburn. They have been advised by their doctor to cut their caffeine intake. It’s a deplorable situation where they love their coffee, but are not loved in return.

So are you doomed to a caffeine-less existence for the rest of your days? Are heartburn and coffee so eternally linked together that there is no hope at all for coffee aficionados? Must they necessarily suffer heartburn or give up the drink they hold so close to their hearts?

The good news is, heartburn and coffee need not be as irrevocably bound together as much today as they once were. There is now a process for making coffee harmless in this respect. The last major innovation in coffee processing technology was in the 1930-s, when decaf or decaffeinated coffee was invented. And now, for the first time since then, there is a new technology for making coffee that does not cause heartburn.

Tip! Over eating is a no go zone if heartburn plays are part in your life on a weekly basis. Cut down to smaller meals and be careful not to eat close to bedtime.

What links heartburn and coffee? The contents of the human stomach are naturally acidic, so that is normal. You don’t really feel that acidity as long as things are in control. And that acidity is actually necessary for the proper digestion of food. It is when that acidity grows to abnormal levels and rises from the stomach into the food pipe, that you experience heartburn.

There are many substances that may cause this excess of acidity by irritating the stomach. And among the many kinds of stomach irritants, caffeine is one of the most potent. It stimulates the stomach into producing more acid than normal. This is what connects heartburn and coffee. And this is why doctors advise against coffee for chronic patients of acid indigestion.

Now, there are new techniques for making coffee less irritating for the stomach. As a result, the connection between heartburn and coffee is not necessary any more. The Hevla technology, for example, employs a patented process that involves a high pressure steaming of the beans. Removing the irritating substances from coffee has not really been the challenge all this time. Rather, it has been removing them while retaining the taste and the flavor - things that make coffee interesting.

Tip! Don’t lie down if you’re experiencing heartburn � just like the tip above you want that acid to stay in your stomach and standing up and sitting up will aid in it not moving up into your esophagus.

This is exactly what the new techniques have achieved. The best Arabica beans are chosen for Hevla-processed coffee, and the roasting goes on as usual. Roasting creates the flavour, but unfortunately also gives rise to the substances that connect heartburn and coffee. The Hevla high pressure steaming method is able to remove these substances without compromising on the taste and flavor.

So if you are one of those people who are thinking of giving up on coffee because of heartburn, despair no more. The link between heartburn and coffee has been broken. Go ahead and try the new product, and savor your favorite drink without suffering for it.

Tip! Do not eat foods that are known to make heartburn worse. By avoiding these foods you will be able to avoid some of your problems.

� Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy has more articles on coffee and coffee beans at Coffee Information such as Are Coffee Colonics for real?.

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