You should begin to consider the same thing that causes your heartburn as a potential cure for your problem. In fact, you might find that there are many foods that are actually called the best cure for heartburn. So, it might be time to take a good look at the foods that cure your heartburn and start incorporating them in your meals, while working to reduce the number of triggers you’re eating.

Triggers for Heartburn

While you may realize it, you’re probably eating many different things that can cause you to experience heartburn. One of the best ways for you to realize, exactly what you are eating that is causing your heartburn, is to keep a food journal. In this, you will keep track of everything you eat and then record the way it makes you feel. Also record everything you have to drink and how that makes you feel as well. For many people, the best cure for heartburn is to work with a food journal to discover which foods might be causing your heartburn. Once you discover which foods bother you or trigger your heartburn, you can work to eliminate them or reduce how much of them you consume to ease your symptoms.

Foods to Ease Heartburn

Once you have discovered the foods which cause your heartburn, you will probably find that the bulk of your heartburn problems are gone, however for some of us, heartburn still comes around now and than and for the occasional bout of painful burning, you might find that the best cure for heartburn is to actually eat certain foods. There are many acid reflux diets that are excellent for controlling heartburn.

For instance, many people will tell you that one of the best cures for heartburn is to eat an apple. It is thought that the apple will help to reduce the amount of acid in your stomach and help you to get on with your day. Along the same line as eating apple, you might find that you can get relief for severe heartburn by mixing a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with a full glass of water.

Many people find that different foods are the best cure for heartburn, but for others, what works for them is an over the counter remedy, so they don’t need to turn to foods.

All in all, you will likely find that foods and the way you treat them are the biggest contributors to your heartburn problem and the best cure for heartburn is to learn to control what you eat and how you eat for a better, healthier, pain free future.

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.

So, here are the basics on how to cure heartburn. For most cases, you can take over the counter medications such as antacids, which work to reduce the amount of acid your stomach in making after you’ve already eaten something. These products basically serve to neutralize most of the acid in your stomach. Or, you can go one step further and take histamine-2 blockers such as Zantac and Tagamet. These products are usually taken before you eat or at some point in the day. These offer a more long term effect and will usually prevent heartburn before it starts. These are all quick ways to cure heartburn, but are not often recommended for the long term.

When you find that you suffer from long term, chronic heartburn, there are prescription medications which are much more potent and safer to use for longer periods of time. Since they are prescriptions, however, you will likely need to visit your health care provider to ensure that you aren’t suffering from a much more serious condition.

There are also long term approaches to curing heartburn and these tend to be more natural and have to do with your lifestyle more than finding a cure. For instance, many medical professionals recommend that to truly find a cure to heartburn, you must avoid drinking caffeinated beverages, such as coffee too often, as this can be very hard on the stomach. It’s also important to avoid other heartburn triggers, such as smoking, or other nicotine products and avoid drinking alcohol in excess when you’re working to cure heartburn.

You should also make sure to eat easier to digest meals for a while and avoid lying down immediately after you eat. Don’t get too active right after a meal, either, as this can often cause your heartburn to flare up. Make sure to get daily exercise and eat smaller meals throughout the day to ensure you have the time to properly digest your foods.

In addition to all these options, there are also herbal heartburn remedies which you can take that over time will reduce the acid in your stomach. This is a longer term cure for heartburn which you can try, but it’s natural and there are no negative side effects with this type of treatment.

Reflexology: The best way to take up reflexology is to visit a clinic nearby and get treated for heartburn. However, getting an idea about the reflexology points and trying a home massage would also help. In the hand reflexology map of your right hand, the stomach area points to the small region below the thumb near the wrist around the center of your palm. In the foot reflexology map, the stomach area entails the area at the center and inside the arch of your right foot. Start massaging these points one by one with your hand that you use for writing purposes. Relax after the massage by having a cup of water. This can bring relief for heartburn.

Licorice and Aloe Vera Juice: Chewable DGL can be taken for heartburn. They work by inhibiting the secretion of the acid within the stomach. The glycyrrhizin  (glycyrrhizin is the main sweet tasting compound from the liquorice root) ingredients present in licorice prevent high blood pressure and water retention problems too.

Intake of Honey and Apple Cider: Apple cider taken with Honey: Apple Cider is itself good for curing heartburn. Mixing apple cider with honey gives a soothing effect to the esophagus and thus helps you in getting rid of heartburn.

Iberogast, an Effective Herbal Remedy: It is a prokinetic blend of 9 precious herbs that has proven to cure IBS, dyspepsia and heartburn effectively.

Basil Leaves: Chewing basil leaves during a meal can prevent esophagus inflammation thereby keeping heartburn at bay.

Saliva, the Best Natural Cure for Heartburn: Saliva has the remarkable capability of nullifying the acid present in stomach. The best way to induce the production of saliva and swallowing the same is to resort to the usage of chewing gums.

Yoghurt Intake after Meal: The yoghurt acts as an enzyme that aids in quick digestion. This in turn metabolizes the contents in the stomach thereby preventing the back flow into the esophagus.

Baking Soda with Lime and Water: This is a concoction of salt water. This has a remarkable effect in bringing down the heartburn drastically with ease.

Home Cures for Heartburn: Herbal Teas soothe the food pipe and reduce the acidic ambiance of the stomach enormously. Even an apple after a meal can help in this regard. Taking a teaspoon of brown sugar everyday can even prove to be fruitful in alleviating heartburn.

Lifestyle Changes: Quitting smoking, keeping caffeinated and alcoholic beverages at bay are natural cures for heartburn that can help enormously in treating heartburn. Keeping away from the intake of citrus fruits, diary products, oily, spicy and fried items also help in this regard. Proper sleep for at least 8 hours a day is yet another factor that can keep heartburn at bay.

There are many natural cures such as these that you can try. Some of these heartburn treatments may work well for you too and there is certainly no harm in trying!

If you suffer from heartburn or acid reflux you would have heard of every remedy and best cure for heartburn. While there are many treatment options, what works for one person does not unfortunately work for another. This is why it is often difficult to say which is the best cure for heartburn. That said, here is a list of effective cures for heartburn. There will be one that works for you.

Best Cures for Heartburn

Medications
Though not advisable, the quickest cure for heartburn is often to resort to the intake of medicines. Depending on your pre-medical health conditions, talk to your medical practitioner and take up a medicine that could help you get rid of heartburn. The medicines for heartburn can be either antacids or acid blockers. Antacids have the powerful capability of nullifying the acid within the stomach and hence they have testified to be the best quick cure of heartburn. However the challenge that comes with the intake of antacids is the fact that the relief is temporary since they drain down the body within minutes since the intake which in turn paves way to the problem of acid re-accumulation. Milk of Magnesia, alternagel, Maalox, pepto-bismol, Alka-Seltzer, Tums are a few of the most popular antacids that are widely being used as a heartburn cure.

Acid blockers can be of histamine-2 blockers or proton pump inhibitors. Zantac, Tagamet, Axid and Pepcid are the most widely used and effective h2 antagonists that are used to defend against heartburns. The con with respect to the h2 antagonists is the short lived relief that they offer. The PPIs offer a long term relief by preventing the secretion of acid within the stomach of the patients. Prilosec is a PPI that has proven to be the best cures for heartburn and is approved by the FDA. While other pro-motility drugs like Reglan is also recommended, foam barriers like Gaviscon also help in getting rid of heartburn.

Dieting
Diet has a potential influence in alleviating heartburn. Keeping away from spicy, fried, junk, diary foods can be of great help in this regard.

Reflexology
It aims at massaging the distressed points on the foot or the palm. A reflexology clinic can offer the best help in this regard due to the fact that inexperienced home massages often prove to be futile.

Stress Reduction
Proper sleep for a minimum of 6-8 hours a day and routine yoga sessions that can tranquilize you to inexplicable extents have been known to be one of the best cure for heartburn.

Natural Remedies
There are many home remedies that can help you get rid of heartburn. This is a topic all on its own. Many people prefer natural remedies and so many have proven to be more successful than medication from the pharmacy. One program ‘Heartburn No More‘ is a holistic approach and a cure for heartburn.