Sometimes you get this feeling that your chest is burning up after a heavy meal. People usually call that heartburn and the other name for it is gastroesophageal reflux. What happens is that your stomach plug is not working and the stomach acid is flowing out to your esophagus. Usually after a while the burning sensation will subside but repetitive heartburns can cause some damage to your organs.
The gastroesophageal reflux doesn’t just give you burning sensation to your chest. The acid can sometimes be pushed all the way up to your throat and you will have this sour taste in your mouth and it burns.
There are a lot of reasons why the acid would reflux. It is usually caused by consuming large quantity of food with high fat content and excessive alcohol drinking. It can also happen when you lie down or bend your body downwards after a heavy meal. Smokers also have a higher tendency to get heartburn.
Fat people, pregnant women and even those having constipation have a higher risk of getting reflux because of the pressure the body put into the stomach area. Some foods like chocolate and peppermint can cause the stomach plug not to close up properly. These symptoms may happen once a while but there are cases where it happens daily.
Usually these symptoms will have little or no impact at all on your regular lifestyle. However there are some cases where prolong symptoms can cause the esophagus to form scar tissues, resulting in some difficulties when trying to swallow your food. The symptoms can also cause the esophagus to get ulcer and that leads to internal bleeding. It is not life threatening but it can lead to anemia due to blood lost.
The gastroesophageal reflux can easily be cured with just a few lifestyle changes. People who are obese can do some exercises to bring their weight down, don’t eat too much food and overfill your stomach, don’t eat when you are about to sleep, limit your intake of coffee or alcohol and stop that smoking habit.
However if none of the above works and you are still facing heartburn or having difficulty swallowing, you should immediately see a doctor. The doctor may perform gastroscopy on you just to see how bad the damage is. Then he will prescribe some medication that will help lower your stomach acids. Usually that is enough to keep your heartburn in check. However, there are rare cases where individuals need a surgery to strengthen the sphincter.
So whenever you are feeling a burning sensation on your chest or having sour taste in your mouth, it is recommended that you pay a visit to the nearest doctor. You may know it is heartburn but you don’t know how bad the condition is.
You must log in to post a comment.