Finding a Quick Cure For Heartburn
Heartburn can be very uncomfortable, and when it hits you, sometimes it is so severe you would really want to get a quick cure for heartburn. The cure to heartburn is, thankfully, very quick. But as the saying goes, prevention is the best cure, so it would be good also to know the different possible causes of heartburn so that you can avoid them.
What Causes Heartburn
First, how does heartburn happen? Heartburn usually happens when food that is being digested in the stomach goes back up into the esophagus due to certain conditions, such as accumulated air in the gastric cavity. When this acidified food goes back up into the esophagus, a sharp burning sensation is felt on the walls of the esophagus. This is heartburn.
This action of food going up into the esophagus is called acid reflux. This often happens when too much spicy foods, oily foods, certain dairy products, or drinks that had been infused with carbon (like soft drinks) or caffeine (like coffee) have been taken.
The cures for heartburn are as quick-acting as its causes. The most common quick cure for heartburn is antacids, which you can easily buy over the counter from any drugstore. The principal action of antacids is to neutralize the acidity in the stomach, which therefore takes away the burning sensation.
There are also natural cures or ways of preventing heartburn. One is to eat papayas, yogurt or buttermilk regularly. Papaine, which papaya has a lot of, helps speed up the breaking up of the food, which prevents acid reflux. Yogurt, another quick cure for heartburn, works the same way. Fennel oil and rhubarb have also been found to be very effective and quick cures to heartburn. Sometimes, ice cream also works, but only in certain types of heartburn, not the chronic kind.
Since heartburn is due to the gastric acids shooting up into the esophagus, actions that neutralize the acids in the stomach are also quick cures for heartburn. Some of these actions that you can try are: repeatedly swallowing saliva, chewing a gum, or drinking water with dissolved sodium bicarbonate.
You can also try honey with cider vinegar or mustard, and the juice of raw potato - many have found these to bring about quick relief from heartburn. Eating more slowly is another effective and quick cure for heartburn. Chewing and swallowing slowly gives your stomach ample time to completely digest your food. It would also be good to avoid overeating, as too much food in the stomach disrupts the normal pace of the digestive process.
