The causes of heartburn are most often due to the muscles Food passes from the throat into the stomach through the esophagus, and the lower end of the esophagus is usually blocked at the entrance to the stomach.
For healthy people, this area, in which the muscles of the esophagus and stomach merge, is opened and closed when eating and drinking or for a short period when burping, but when the ability of the muscles to contract in this area decreases, this may allow the return of sour stomach juices into the esophagus, which is what It appears as a burning pain behind the sternum.
"Some people suffer from occasional heartburn, for example, while on vacation or after eating heavy meals," said Professor Herbert Kopp from the German Society of Gastroenterology and Metabolism. He stressed that this condition is harmless and goes away on its own, and many people feel acidity from time to time, but it is the acidity of the air and not the liquid most of the time, which is very normal.
Ursula Zillerberg of the Federal Chamber of German Pharmacists explained that there is a simple trick that helps you get rid of heartburn sometimes. Where it is sufficient to drink a large cup of water for a short time to overcome acute heartburn, and in this way stomach acid is expelled from the esophagus and returned to the stomach, and milk works to bind stomach acid better.
In sporadic cases of heartburn, doctors always advise to walk after eating, while it is not permissible to lie down. Because this helps the gastric juice to return to the esophagus easily, and sleep should be done with the head elevated, and it is better to lie on the left side, so that gastric juice does not easily return to stomach because of the curvature of the stomach.
In general, muscle weakness in the area between the esophagus and stomach may be due to various causes, such as a tear in the diaphragm. Often a group of different disorders is detected with the presence of heartburn, and the problem is that the severity of the symptoms is not a reliable sign Everyone feels the symptoms differently.
And when heartburn is very painful, in this case it is treated with acid-suppressing drugs from the proton pump inhibitor group.
Professor Cobb explained, "Acid blockers reduce acid production in the stomach and raise the pH of the stomach contents, and thus the pH of the fluid, which is returned to the esophagus."
Although there are no side effects of the medicines, they should only be taken when needed. Acid blockers sometimes do not work. For example, if the amount of acid that is back up in the esophagus is large, then the effect of the acid blockers is limited.
Here, one can think about resorting to surgical treatment, for example in the case of patients, with whom fluid reaches the throat when trying to tie shoes, and if symptoms persist for more than two weeks, or if symptoms such as vomiting (with blood), difficulty swallowing, coughing and restlessness appear. Breathing or loss of balance, then a doctor should be consulted.
Zillerberg explained some simple rules for preventing heartburn, including eating a lot of small meals a day instead of a few large meals, taking care to eat low-fat and protein-rich meals such as curd cheese or lean meat, which are easy to digest, and reduce Eating food in the evening as much as possible with the stomach completely empty when going to sleep.
