Chronic Heartburn: Dealing With Your Daily Dose Of Discomforting Pain

Heartburn is a condition that can cause a person suffering that normally manifests as pain of a burning nature that begins behind the person's breastbone and radiates in an upward direction and unfortunately, this pain can be very uncomfortable and not something that a sufferer will be able to put up with for long. The reason is that hydrochloric acid from a person's stomach refluxes into their esophagus and there causes a condition that is commonly referred to as heartburn.

Of course, it is quite common and perhaps even normal to suffer from heartburn once in a while and the reasons could eating too much of food or the wrong kinds of foods or some other reasons including too much stress. Thus, if you experience heartburn once or twice in a week it is really a mild type though when it occurs on a daily basis it is termed as chronic heartburn.

Weakened Sphincter

Today, it is believed that as many as between five and fifteen percent of those who suffer from heartburn are in fact suffering from chronic heartburn. What's more, chronic heartburn is also a result of when the sphincter in the lower esophagus loses its normal strength and it thus becomes unable to completely seal the stomach from the esophagus that in turn results in stomach acids leaking into the throat and that in a nutshell is what heartburn is all about.

Other possible reasons for suffering from chronic heartburn include problems of motility and high level of stress as well as over sensitive esophagus lining and even taking of medications constantly. There could even be extreme instances in which a simple action such as bending down can result in acid reflux.

In case, your chronic heartburn persists over a long period of time it is quit possible that it will further hamper your ability to swallow and your throat too may turn coarse and you may also begin to suffer from chronic laryngitis and are even at risk of developing asthma as well as pneumonia and even a harsh cough.

However, prior to having your chronic heartburn diagnosed it is important that other serious diseases are eliminated from the equation and it is thus necessary to know for sure that you are not suffering from peptic ulcers, hiatal hernia, gall bladder problems or GERD.

In case you are indeed suffering from chronic heartburn you would need to do a few things in order to get relief and these include making a drastic change in your lifestyle which might even necessitate that you have to modify your eating habits and also change your sleeping habits as well as learn not to become stressed. In addition, you must also quit smoking, reduce your body weight as well as not put undue pressure on your stomach, and of course, you also need to exercise regularly.

If however, you want to successfully treat your chronic heartburn condition you need to make a commitment to adhere faithfully to what your physician recommends and to take your medications unfailingly till such time as they are stopped. As a last resort, you may even need to undergo surgery to cure your chronic heartburn.