Find Relief with Natural Heartburn Cures
Has heartburn got you down? Are you tired of suffering with the painful burning that keeps you up at night and prevents you from enjoying your favorite activities? If so, then maybe it is time to check out these heartburn cures that will allow you to get your symptoms under control the natural way. For many, an ounce of prevention is the best way to keep painful heartburn symptoms at bay. But before you can prevent your heartburn, you must first find out what causes it in the first place.
Causes of Heartburn
Heartburn occurs when the valve in the lower esophagus that is designed to keep acid in the stomach no longer functions as it should. If the valve weakens, acid can back up from the stomach to the esophagus, resulting in painful burning and a sour taste in the throat and mouth. The sensation is generally worse if you try to lie down or bend over. There are many things that can make heartburn worse, and by preventing these factors, you may be able to keep the painful symptoms at bay. These include certain types of foods, like spicy foods, citrus fruits, chocolate, caffeine, onions and garlic, and tomatoes. There may be other foods that can contribute to your specific symptoms as well. A heartburn cure might be as easy as avoiding foods that are known culprits in your heartburn symptoms.
Other factors that can play into heartburn are eating large meals, and being overweight. You can switch to six smaller meals a day and drop the extra pounds to limit the amount of heartburn that you experience. Lying down too soon after eating can bring on heartburn symptoms, so eating meals earlier in the evening can also be an effective heartburn cure. Smoking and drinking alcohol are two additional behaviors that can cause heartburn symptoms and are best avoided by frequent heartburn sufferers. Finally, some medications can lead to heartburn symptoms, so talk to your doctor about your options in changing your current prescriptions.
Identifying your Triggers
To find heartburn cures, you must learn to identify heartburn symptoms and the above list of possible triggers is a good place to start. However, if food is your primary trigger, you will need to determine the specific foods that you would be better off avoiding. You can do this by keeping a heartburn journal that will list everything you eat each day, and the days and times that you experience heartburn symptoms. While this may seem like a time-consuming task, if your journal can bring you one step closer to a natural heartburn cure, it will be worth the effort indeed.
