Nearly everyone has experienced heartburn at some time or another and has sought relief through one of the home cures for heartburn. Heartburn is often the result of either over-eating or indulging in too many rich and spicy foods as we tend to do during holiday meals. A mild case can involve some stomach discomfort such as feeling over full, bloating, and belching accompanied by a mild pain. People with more severe cases experience a burning pain in the abdomen or lower chest that travels up to the neck area. While people refer to this as heartburn, it really has nothing to do with the heart.

Heartburn is the layman’s term for acid reflux pain. When you swallow food, it travels down a tube-like structure called the esophagus and then into your stomach. Your stomach contains strong acids that help digest the food. At the bottom of your esophagus there is a muscle known as a sphincter. This muscle will open and allow food to pass from the esophagus into the stomach. Once this has occurred, the muscle contracts and tightens. This action prevents the food from backing up or the stomach acid from escaping into the esophagus. But if this muscle does not contract and tighten after the food has passed, the food and acid will back up (known as reflux). The end result: heartburn pain.

Since most people experience this from time to time, nearly everyone has a home remedy that they try before calling a doctor or buying an over the counter medication. Contrary to what many people think, home cures for heartburn can be very effective. However, like many other health problems, there is no magic bullet. People are individuals and what works for one, may not work for another.

The effectiveness of the cure can be related to the cause of the problem. With some people the heartburn is triggered by a particular food. If the person can identify the food that is causing the problem, avoiding the food is the simplest way to stop reflux at its source.? Everyone is unique, but some common food triggers are alcohol, citrus, onions and garlic.

Another effective home remedy is one containing an alkali ingredient to neutralize the acid that has escaped from the stomach. What might be one of the most common home cures for heartburn that many people try is adding one teaspoon of baking soda to a glass of water and then drinking the mixture.

Something else that may help is a simple adjustment in the way you eat.? If you tend to eat a few large meals every day, try breaking it up into several smaller ones.? This prevents tremendous amounts of food from reaching the stomach at once, which causes pressure to build, and reflux to ensue.

On his website www.refluxremedy.com Bob Barton mentions eating a red apple as one of the most successful home cures for heartburn. And according to Barton, you don’t even have to eat the entire apple. A couple of slices can do the trick.

Barton?s book, The Reflux Remedy Report also suggests trying techniques like elevating your head during sleep.? This helps keep your head in the appropriate position and alignment with your stomach, keeping acids where they belong.

For more home cures for acid reflux, visit www.refluxremedy.com and read The Reflux Remedy Report today!

Heartburn is a common complaint in today’s fast-paced, fast food world.? The feeling of burning in your upper stomach, perhaps in your throat…the tightness in your chest or even trouble swallowing…all can be symptoms of heartburn. When the acid pumps in your stomach are overactive, it starts to erode the esophagus, which is responsible for keeping acid down in the stomach. Esophagitis can occur, where there are tiny fissures (or tears) in the lining of the esophagus, and other more serious ailments can be caused if this condition is left untreated for a long period of time. Treatments for heartburn vary widely, from homeopathic remedies to prescription medication and even surgery, so first of all, see your doctor if your heartburn persists for more than a few weeks.

If your doctor okays, it you can try lifestyle changes first, including switching your diet away from fatty meals and acid-producers, such as alcohol and coffee. Maintaining a healthy weight is another way to combat heartburn naturally, so limiting fatty foods might have two benefits in your lifestyle. Other tricks include eating smaller, more frequent meals, and even elevating your head a couple of inches when you sleep can help keep acid down in your stomach where it belongs. Other specific food culprits that you might want to avoid include chocolate, tomato and tomato-based products, citrus fruits, fried foods, and pepper. Also, try staying hydrated. Eight glasses of water a day is not only good for your whole body, but it can help your body naturally dilute strong stomach acid and give your esophagus a break.

Other treatments for heartburn include over-the-counter medications, including Pepcid and Zantac. These work by decreasing the amount of stomach acid produced and are effective remedies against gastroesophageal reflux disease (or GERD), where acid from the stomach actually makes it past the esophagus into the throat. Other OTC remedies include antacids, which neutralize stomach acid. Brands include Tagamet and TUMS.? However, these medications are not meant as a permanent solution and should not be taken for more than two weeks, unless otherwise advised by your physician.

Prescription treatments for heartburn can include proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), which stop the release of acid in the stomach; this class is frequently prescribed as well for GERD sufferers. Another class of prescription medication is a promotilty agent, which helps patients who have slowed emptying of their stomach.? These medicineshelp hasten digestion, and are often effective against sufferers of GERD.? Prescription medications can often be pricey, and sometimes taking a pill every day for the rest of your life is not the most appealing option.

In that case, there are a number of natural methods for combating this problem on your own. Homeopathic treatments for heartburn include lifestyle changes, as mentioned above, and supplements like calcium carbonate to quell acid, and deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL), which can be found in a natural foods or supplements store. This latter product has inflammatory properties, and lines the stomach, intestines and esophagus, forming a barrier between tissue and acid. Fresh ginger can help some sufferers, which you grind up and add to foods or drinks like herbal tea. Chamomile tea is another good one to try, along with licorice root.

For further treatment ideas, the Reflux Remedy Report contains a host of natural ideas.? Visit their Web site at www.refluxremedy.com.

Sometimes before the cure for heartburn can do any good, you need to know more about what triggers heartburn first.

The antacid manufactures have made billions of dollars through the years promising heartburn sufferers quick ways to relief.

Problem is, they don’t work, never have and in fact Swedish scientists proved years ago antacids even make heartburn worse.

In fact it was the antacid manufacturers that invented acid rebound.

If you’ve never heard of acid rebound it’s because they don’t really talk about that one very much. You might hear your doctor mention it just before he up grades you to a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) product, but otherwise you probably won’t.

Acid rebound is like heartburn on steroids.

Because antacids don’t cure heartburn, they can make the cause of your heartburn worse, which then leads you to getting hooked on even more expensive and dangerous heartburn treatments.

Acid rebound happens when you stop taking proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medications like Prilosec. It’s basically a worsening of your heartburn and acid reflux symptoms. This worsening of your heartburn is caused from your stomach acid producing cells going through withdrawal of the PPI drugs.

Unfortunately, for many heartburn sufferers the only answer for acid rebound is to go back on the medication that caused it and that’s NOT a situation you want to put yourself in, is it?

Even using these dangerous antacid and heartburn medications for as little one month can trigger acid rebound and worsen any gastro-esophageal reflux (GERD) symptoms.

Here are some other pharmaceuticals that can worsen your heart burn:

• Aspirin
• NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as ibuprofen and naproxen
• Antihistamines such as Benadryl
• Antibiotics such as tetracycline
• Heart medications such as Procardia, Inderal, Tenormin, and Cardizem
• Anti-anxiety medications such as Valium or Ativan
• Osteoporosis medications, such as Fosamax
• Steroid medications such as prednisone
• Chemotherapy drugs and radiation therapy for cancer
• Nitrates and nitroglycerin
• Anticholinergics such as Antispas and Robinul
• Narcotics such as Demerol
• Iron supplements
• Theophylline
• Synthetic? or corn derived Vitamin C

One of my favorite remedies for heartburn is to drink alkaline water “in-between” my meals all day long. You can spend thousands on a machine to do it, or you can alkalize your water with coral ocean mineral tea bags or sprinkle some Himalayan or Celtic sea salt in your water bottle.

These ocean minerals are almost identical to the molecular structure of your blood and bones. Keeping your tissues and organs replenished with “ionic” minerals is a great way to preserve a healthy stomach acid environment.

For a quick and easy way to relieve heartburn try fresh ginger tea, warm lemon juice and water or raw apple cider vinegar. Personally all that in a cup of warm tea sounds good to me.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass?

Health Ecologist

There are tons of different cures for heartburn available in many forms ranging from simple do-it-yourself options at home to medications either prescribed from a doctor or available over-the-counter.

The more natural cures for heartburn include many options such as drinking apple cider vinegar or eating lemon rinds before eating something that would cause heartburn. Eating almonds or lying on your side are also ways to relieve the pain. Chewing ginger or drinking ginger tea can also help neutralize stomach acid.? Even drinking a glass of water can help flush out harmful stomach acids.? Papayas have also been found to contain a digestive enzyme that can be helpful for preventing and alleviating heart burn.? It helps to break down food faster, preventing pressure from building in the stomach.

One of the most important factors in curing heartburn is to monitor the condition carefully because it affects everyone’s body differently and cures for heartburn vary from case to case. Because different foods trigger heartburn attacks in different people, it is important to keep track of what causes it and the frequency of the occurrences.? Though foods effect everyone different, some common food triggers include caffeine, onions, garlic and citrus.? If there is a pattern showing a certain type of food causes heartburn, you may want to avoid those items completely. If you enjoy the foods that cause heartburn for you, it is easy to be prepared with any of the effective cures for heartburn available when you eat them.

Even a change in the amount you eat and how often you eat it can help.? Eating large meals just a few times a day can cause pressure to build as your stomach tries to digest huge amounts of food.? Smaller, more frequent meals prevent this pressure from building and helps keep heart burn at bay.? Another dietary change that can help is not eating right before bed, and putting a pillow under your head when sleeping.? Both these remedies deal with allowing gravity to keep food and acid in the stomach where it belongs.

Medications and over-the-counter cures for heartburn are easy to obtain as they are sold at any local grocery store or pharmacy.? The problem with over the counter medications is they aren’t meant to be taken in the long term.? They are by no means a permanent solution for heart burn, and only provide a band aid for a problem that may require a tourniquet.? Prescription medications can be very helpful, as they are made to target the specific cause of heartburn by neutralizing acid or stopping its production all together.? However, they are very costly and may even involve taking a pill every day for the rest of the patient’s life.

Finding the best cures for heartburn may be a challenge at first, but once you find the most effective form for you, treatment becomes very simple and easy to handle. For more information on heartburn relief, visit www.refluxremedy.com and view The Reflux Remedy Report.