Ugh. That chilidog for lunch was a bad idea, huh? Unfortunately, heartburn causes are a little more complex than that. While the food we eat certainly plays an important role in heartburn, it's actually the organisms inside your stomach that feed off that food that really contribute to heartburn causes.
Organisms, you say? You're saying I've got little things growing inside of me? Of course you do! We all have multiple strains of bacteria living within us, and many are actually beneficial to our bodies and needed for a proper-functioning digestive system.
That being said, there are two organisms in particular that are leading contributors to heartburn: H. Pylori, and Candida. H. Pylori are bacteria that approximately half of the world's population is infected with. It's damaging to our digestive systems because it suppresses stomach acid due to the fact that it thrives in a less acidic environment.
Although it sounds counterintuitive, less stomach acid is actually a bad thing for heartburn sufferers, as proper levels of stomach acid are required in order to properly digest your food.
Then you have Candida. This is a fungal overgrowth that can suppress the growth of those beneficial bacteria - the ones that actually help us digest our food properly. This leads to a situation where our bodies are not able to extract all of the nutrients from the foods we eat, the ones that are necessary for our health, which leads to a situation where we're unable to cure ourselves of that heartburn.
What's worse is that all of the most common heartburn medications such as those little purple pills do absolutely nothing to eradicate these heartburn-causing infections and bacterial overgrowths.
However, getting rid of H. Pylori and Candida is a relatively simple process that includes digestive system cleanses, and some natural supplements that will help your body fight them back to normal levels, possibly even completely eradicating them.
Additionally, there are also several contributing heartburn causes that many people aren't aware of:
· A lack of sleep inhibits your body's natural ability to heal itself
· Increased levels of stress can tax your digestive system unnecessarily
· Pressure on the stomach from bending over, constrictive clothing, and obesity
· Smoking
· Several medications such as beta blockers, bronchodilators for asthma, and tricyclic antidepressants
· Pregnancy
Luckily, taking care of many of these causes is a pretty easy task. As mentioned before, a few basic cleanses will help take care of H. Pylori and Candida, and the bulleted list above is pretty self-explanatory. Finally, changes to your diet and exercise routine can have the largest impact on completely getting rid of those heartburn causes.
