Picture this, you had your favorite meal for lunch and can’t seem to go about your day to day activities with ease. You have extreme discomfort in your abdomen and chest. Such a condition, also known as heartburn, needs intervention by a qualified professional like Matthew W. Shawl MD.
Possible Causes
When stomach acid travels back to your esophagus, you will experience discomfort. Your stomach has sphincter muscles that prevent food from traveling up from your stomach after swallowing. However, if the sphincter muscles become weak and fail to close fully, your stomach acid travels upwards.
Intake of some specific foods can increase your chances of having heartburn. Additionally, you may be prone to acid reflux with exposure to several risk factors such as obesity, excessive smoking, and even anxiety disorder.
More often than not, if you are a woman, you may also experience acid reflux during pregnancy with your baby’s increasing growth. As the baby grows, it exerts excess pressure on your stomach.
You may also develop acid reflux if you also have a hiatus hernia. The condition gives rise to a gap in your diaphragm.
Signs of Acid Reflux
Apart from the frequent discomfort, you may also experience hiccup spells. You may occasionally tend to experience a cough. More often than not, you will feel as if you have food stuck in your digestive pathway.
However, one of the most common signs and symptoms is a burning sensation in your chest after eating some food.
You may also experience constant bouts of nausea. A bloated stomach is also a common occurrence. The need to burp may also be present with foul smelling breath.
Sometimes, you may also experience a salty taste in your mouth, making it difficult for you to swallow. When the acid reflux is becoming unbearable, you may tend to feel extreme pressure behind your breastbone.
What to Avoid
To avoid increasing your heartburn intensity, you can steer clear from some types of food. These May include alcohol, coffee, and even black pepper.
Additionally, large portions of spicy food can be detrimental to your health. Acidic foods will also worsen your condition. After eating, avoid lying down immediately to minimize the possibility of the stomach acid moving upwards. Furthermore, avoid getting stressed as this can only make you feel worse.
If you are obese and continuously suffer from acid reflux, it would be best to lose weight. You can incorporate a healthy diet and exercise regimen to help you lose weight and keep it away. You should also consider doing away with cigarettes if you are a smoker.
If you experience acid reflux, inform your doctor who will help you manage the condition in the best way possible. Your doctor may recommend different medications, as you would find on https://www.zantacotc.com/, that will counteract the effect of stomach acid. Additionally, you may also medicate with drugs that inhibit the secretion of the acid.
In extreme cases, you may undergo surgery to restore the functionality of the sphincter muscles.
