What Is A Heartburn and What Are the Symptoms?

You probably had heard this term many times but it is also true that heartburn is probably one of the diseases which gets misunderstood very often and without proper tests, even left undiagnosed. Simply speaking, Heartburn is a condition where you feel pain behind the sternum or otherwise known as the breastbone. This condition is due to failure of the sphincters or valves present in the system which fails to prohibit the one-way passage of food route.

In the normal case, when we eat something, it goes through our food pipe and gets excreted out from the body as the stool after absorption of the elements which the body needs in different sections. To accelerate absorption, various acids does mix with the foods in order to break the food into smaller particles so that the absorption from various sections of the food pipe could be accelerated.

Acid Reflux and Symptoms

So, what is acid reflux? These foods mixed with acids in the stomach shouldn’t be returned on the way through which it has come. The sphincters, that are present in various parts of the food pipe make sure that the food is passaged only unidirectional only and it doesn’t get return the same way that it has come from. But if the sphincter or the valve fails to function properly, then these food mixtures along with the acid will be reverted back by passing those sphincters which will in return cause the heartburn. This whole process of acid coming upward (more precisely towards the opposite direction that it should move) is known as acid reflux. It plays a key role in heartburn as these acids are the primary cause due to which heartburn does occur.

How do you know You Have Heartburn?

So, what does heartburn feel like? The heartburn caused by acid reflux could show different symptoms depending upon the severity of the condition and also the position of the body. Hence, Heartburn could feel like mild discomfort to severe burning sensation along with other symptoms as the severity goes into the more serious mode.

This discomfort generally occurs after eating and different elements could elevate this discomfort or the sensation of pain and burning. In some cases, the sensation of burning may elevate if the person does bend down. The discomfort could also increase if the person, suffering from heartburn lays on his/her back (which is quite normal since if one feels discomfort, he tends to sleep on the bed so that the pain/burning goes away). Heartburn may also feel like the foods are stuck in the food pipe and hence, there may appear some respiratory discomfort whereby, difficulty in breathing could be seen in many cases.

There are various approaches in order to address acid reflux which constitutes from medicine to diet which may lower the chance of acid reflux. For example, RefluxMD has published may recipes which may enhance your health and these diets could address the acid reflux which is troubling you every other day after you have a meal. Excluding medicine, these diets have been found to be very effective in the treatment of heartburn.