How To Prevent Heartburn

This video is for those of you who want to know how to prevent heart burn. So, why does heartburn happen? Well, when you've got a lot of stomach acid it can sometimes flush back up into the food pipe or the esophagus and there's a sphincter on the base of the food pipe or the esophagus which prevents that from happening, but you can get heart burn by either producing too much stomach acid or because there's a lot of pressure on that sphincter which causes the stomach acid to reflux up into the food pipe so the best way of preventing heartburn is either to reduce the acid or reduce that reflux. So what can we do, first of all to reduce the pressure on that sphincter? The first thing to suggest is to have small frequent meals, this will reduce the pressure that you are putting your stomach under and also reduce any out backflow into the food pipe.

Equally if you are going to eat dinner try to make it a little earlier rather than later. If you are eating within 2-3 hours from bedtime then when you lie down you might get a bit of acid going back up into the food pipe. Another option would be to elevate your head a little bit on a pillow if you know that you are prone to heart burn.

Again this will hopefully reduce the stomach acid going in to the food pipe. Now what about other measures that you can do, well smoking is a problem because it can weaken the sphincter at the base of the esophagus, so if you smoke it is best to try and avoid it. Also, smoking is more likely to cause abnormal cells to develop at the base of the esophagus and it means that you are more likely to develop esophageal cancer.

Obesity is another problem because it can put pressure on the stomach and push it up into the food pipe; it's more likely to cause a hernia in the stomach which causes more heartburn. So if you can lose weight then do so. What about things that you can do to actually reduce the amount of acid that you are producing, well everybody has different triggers for their heartburn and common things that can cause it would include, fizzy drinks, caffeine, spicy foods, tomato base foods, chocolates and you need to look out for these dietary triggers in you, it might be worth to look at a food diary so that you can look out for your own personal triggers and try to avoid them.

If you can then avoid tight fitting clothes or belts if you are known to have heartburn because these can sometimes aggravate it as well. Another thing you could do to reduce your risk of heartburn is to try and limit your alcohol. Alcohol is another big trigger for heartburn.

In terms of drugs or medications there are a few that can aggravate heartburn as well, specifically anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen, naproxen or diclofenac, as well as aspirin and also some forms of antidepressants., if you're not sure it's worth asking your own doctor for advise on this. So I hope you found these tips useful and I hope that they have been able to prevent you from getting heartburn.