| FAQ (frequent asked questions) |
| About treatments |
| About the cause |
| Other questions |
| About the treatments |
| Is drinking milk, a good method to avoid heartburn? |
| It is really one of the most natural ways to treat heartburn. |
| The milk contains Calcium, and the gastric acid gets neutralized when it mixes with the milk. |
| Antacids work in the same way. As a matter of fact, milk is an antacid. |
| Drinking milk is an easy, cheap and natural way to treat heartburn, it has no secondary effects. |
| But, perfection does not exist, |
| Where is the cash...? |
| Well, sometimes, milk could induce increasing gastric acid secretion (rebound hyperacidity) after the good effect, increasing thus the discomfort. But this not always happens, normally it does when the ingestion is very big. |
| Anyway, if milk is OK for you , go ahead!, every single person is different as well as his reactions to drugs, foods or whatever thing it happens. |
| Is it true, that one of the best ways to avoid heartburn is squeezing half lemon in a glass of water and drinking it once when we wake up, and again when going to sleep? |
| No, |
| There are no scientific publications supporting this supposed healthy benefit from lemon and water, ( from 1966 to nowadays). |
| On the other hand there is scientific literature saying that some persons have more heartburn when they take citrics (2), the reason is fairly unknown, although, citrics seem to have an irritating action on the interior layer of the esophagus, even some lower esophageal sphincter alterations have been reported with this regard. |
| As a conclusion we would like to say that lemon is not a good treatment for heartburn but this does not mean lemon is dangerous, it is a natural fruit, that must be eaten not like a medicine. |
| About the cause, Why heartburn occurs? |
| Somebody told me that heartburn could take place because of an ill heart. |
| is it true? |
| Well..., it could be, I mean... |
| Let's explain this a little. |
| Since each person explains his disturbance his way, the pain provoked by an ill heart, could be named by the patient "heartburn", although this is pretty unusual. |
| Heart diseases normally show themselves with another kind of symptoms, symptoms with different features, and the person who suffer this symptoms, normally does not call them heartburn. |
| Heartburn appears in relation with meals, and the patient is aware of it. |
| Anyway, if the bothersome sensation you have is important enough to worry you, you should go to see your doctor, so that he could find the reason of that problem and try to treat it. |
| Does overweight have an influence on heartburn sensation? |
| Yes, there is no question about that. |
| If we have overweight, we have more fat inside the belly, because we have more fat in all our body. If we have more fat in the belly, this makes the pressure inside the belly higher, this increases the pressure facilitating the gastric acid to leak up to the esophagus where the pressure is lower. It is like the ketchup plastic bottle if we tight it up with the hands. The top gets open. If the belly is tight (because of fat) the pressure makes the top (the sphincter) open and then the gastric acid leaks up into the esophagus. |
| So, an overweight person has more episodes of heartburn than a person in his ideal weight. |
| One of the first thing we have to do if we are overweight and we have heartburn, is to loose weight. |
| Do you know, if you are overweight? |
| Check it out calculating your Body Mass Index, we will help you in that. |
| Click here |
| if you want to know if you are overweight. |
| Could it be possible than other reason than the gastric acid going into the esophagus, provoked the heartburn sensation? |
| Yes, there are some disorders that can provoke heartburn sensation, and we do not have really the gastric acid going into the stomach, what happens is that the person suffering that sensation really does not know whether or not the acid is going up, he just feels that sensation, and maybe he calls it heartburn. |
| So, the problem is that we call our pains the more specific name we consider, but maybe the name we use, is not the name other people use. |
| Usually heartburn is a very specific sensation that people easily identify and normally without mistake, and there is a real gastric acid reflux. |
| If the discomfort you feel is on a daily basis or less but you are worried about that, do not hesitate to contact your doctor, he will know how to classify your discomfort and if more studies are required. |
| In order to clarify what is the heartburn and why it occurs, visit our section of explanations about heartburn |
| Click here to go |
| Does tobacco have any relationship with heartburn? |
| The answer is YES |
| Tobacco furthermore all hazardous effects over the lung and cardiovascular system, induces a decrease of the lower esophageal sphincter pressure. If the sphincter does not close properly, the gastric acid, will go up into the esophagus provoking irritation in the esophagus and heartburn. |
| If tobacco induces heartburn, how it is that if I give up smoking, my heartburn gets worst? |
| As we just said above, tobacco facilitates heartburn, but if we give up smoking, and our heartburn gets worst, it is because there is another very important factor we must not forget. The emotional factor. |
| Our emotional status is very important to keep our body working well. If we are stressed or nervous, furthermore others effects, our lower esophageal sphincter does not close well, facilitating thus the acid reflux into the esophagus. |
| So, if you give up smoking it is possible at the beginning that you feel more heartburn, but do not surrender!, with the time this discomfort will decrease, and the benefits you are going to get giving up smoking are HUGE, trust me. Cheer up, you can do it. |
| Other questions |
| Is heartburn a cause of Halitosis (bad breath)? |
| Bad breath, also called halitosis, is a common disturbance affecting more than half of the population (3). |
| It is caused by some bad odor gases mixed with our breath. These gases are sulphur compounds mainly and are originated in 85% of the cases by oral bacteria (4). These bacteria are increased in number when the hygiene of the oral cavity is poor. |
| 17% of the cases are due to nose, lung, and upper respiratory tract or throat infections. 5% of people suffering halitosis, do not have really bad breath, they just think so, but the real smell is not bad. |
| (5). Thus we have that only in a minority of the cases the halitosis is due to a non oral cause. |
| Within this minority we can include some special diseases like cirrhosis, diabetes, renal failure, and metabolic diseases (6). |
| In this minority of cases we could include those patients who have the Helicobacter Pylori infection. There is a study showing how this people's bad breath improves when the bacteria is eradicated (7). This would be the only relation between heartburn and halitosis (we have to let you know, that the Helicobacter Pylori bacteria does not produce acid reflux into the esophagus. What this bacteria does, is creating gastritis and even peptic ulcer, but this conditions can be explained by the patient like he is feeling heartburn) |
| So, the halitosis is due to bad oral hygiene in most of the cases. Brushing in deep the teeth after every meal and the back of the tongue, usually is enough to finish with this common discomfort. |
| As a conclusion we could say that heartburn, understood as gastric acid reflux irritating the interior of the esophagus, does not produce halitosis. |