You never know when heartburn symptoms will strike. You might be at home after dinner, you may be in the middle of an important meeting at work, or you may be on a date. Unfortunately, heartburn doesn't work around your schedule, which is one of the reasons why it's so important to eradicate heartburn once and for all. But what are those heartburn symptoms?
The most common symptom of heartburn is the painful burning sensation in your chest as stomach acid and bile are forced back up (reflux) into your esophagus. This often leads to an uncomfortable situation when you're out to eat with friends and family, and even worse, a frustrating lack of sleep at night as heartburn symptoms often worsen at that time. What's worse, is that when you're kept awake at night, your body doesn't have the chance to heal itself, only making the situation worse. Other symptoms of heartburn include:
· The sensation of food reentering your mouth
· A sour taste in your mouth
· Sore throat
· Nausea after eating
· Hoarseness or a change in your voice
· Difficulty swallowing
· Hiccups
Putting up with these symptoms of heartburn on a regular basis can drive almost anyone nuts! It also leads to increased levels of stress, which also has a negative effect on heartburn, and your overall health in general. It can be quite the vicious cycle with heartburn leading to a lack of sleep and stress, which in turn increase the likelihood that you'll suffer from heartburn. It's not exactly fair, is it?
Dealing with these symptoms of heartburn might help the pain go away, but taking care of the symptoms does not cure your heartburn - it only masks the effects! What's worse is that all of the most common heartburn medications will actually make your heartburn worse over time! It sounds crazy, but bear with me for a moment. As it turns out, acid-suppressing medications actually promote bacterial overgrowth (a very common cause of heartburn), they weaken our resistance to infections, they increase the likelihood of developing irritable bowel syndrome, they lead to a reduction of essential nutrients from our food, and they even lead to other digestive problems. You know what they say - "the money is in the treatment, not the cure!" This is especially true of heartburn medications, as the pharmaceutical companies actually make more than $7 BILLION per year selling false hope in the form of a little purple pill. It's pretty sickening, really.
In order to never experience heartburn symptoms ever again, you'll need to make a few simple lifestyle changes including changing your diet and exercising. This is the only way to truly rid yourself of that nasty heartburn once and for all. Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as staying away from those spicy foods as many people think, but that doesn't mean it's difficult to do.
