Heartburn is something more serious when it’s Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease (GERD).  This does not go away on its own.  In fact, if you ignore it, you will just get worse and worse and nit just from the GERD symptoms.  Many people with GERD can’t sleep because of their symptoms such as coughing, heartburn and trouble swallowing.    You have to go to your doctor in order to get the best treatment.

What Is It?

There’s a ring of muscle called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) that connects your esophagus to your stomach.  The LES acts like a trap door in order to keep the stomach contents in the stomach.  In GERD, this trap door no longer works properly.  It either won’t close all the way or will open without warning, making the stomach acid (and anything else in it) going back up your esophagus to your mouth.  It’s the opening of your LES that causes your coughing, heartburn and trouble swallowing.

Things You Can Do Now

You are not completely helpless to your attacks of coughing, heartburn and trouble swallowing.  There are several things you can do to help you try to get somewhat comfortable.  The first thing you can do is make sure you are not wearing any tight clothing that presses down on your guts.  Your goal is to put as less pressure as possible on your guts.

Another thing you can do to lessen GERD symptoms such as coughing, heartburn and asthma-like symptoms is to prop up your pillows so that you are not lying down flat on your bed.  You need your head, neck and shoulders raised up a couple of inches at least from the mattress (or whatever you are sleeping on). This way, if your LES opens, the acid has a much better chance of staying in your stomach.

Long Term Goals

You will have to make some lifestyle changes in order to ease your coughing, heartburn and staying awake most of the night.  If you drink alcohol, you must stop or drastically cut back.  Water down the drinks you do have, eat with your drinks, nurse your drinks instead of shooting them back all in one gulp and don’t lie down for at least two hours after you finish your drink.

Another thing you will have to give up is smoking.  Nicotine is one of the worst aggravators of coughing, heartburn and asthma-like symptoms.  You also will get health benefits in other parts of your body, too.

There’s no sense taking a heartburn tablet or liquid or pill if you are not going to help it do its work.  No one pill or medicine can fix all of the reasons why you may be getting heartburn or acid indigestion.  This is condition that often has a variety of circumstances in order for it to have developed.  Distressing symptoms that keep you awake all night, such as coughing, heartburn or vomiting after belching needs much more than just a heartburn tablet or two.

You Must See Your Doctor

Heartburn, acid indigestion or acid reflux disease doesn’t go away on its own. This is also a condition that tends to get worse over time and not better.  If you have heartburn more than twice a week, then you need to see your doctor as son as possible.  One of the worst things about heartburn is that keeps you awake at night.  When your body can’t get enough sleep, your life becomes depressing and you can be more prone to accidents, mood swings and illnesses.

You Can Still Eat Food

You don’t necessarily have to give up your favorite foods right away.  You do need to be sure that you eat sitting up – especially if it’s a rich, spicy food.  Don’t eat lying down or settled back in the recliner, even heartburn tablets.  And try not to eat anything about two hours before going to bed.  If you do have to eat something, make it really mild food such as half a bowl of cereal.  This is less acid for the heartburn tablet to fight, as well as not having to fight gravity, too.

To Give Up

If you haven’t already, you must quit smoking.  Nicotine rips your stomach and esophagus lining to shreds.  If you don’t smoke but have a lot of friends who do, you need to see if they will refrain from smoking in your home or if you could go to more ventilated areas to socialize, instead of a bar or pub.  The beach is always a great option, if there’s one available.

Many people and healthcare professionals think that anyone who needs to take heartburn tablets on a regular basis should also quit all alcoholic beverages.  The National Heart burn Alliance doesn’t go that far, but does highly stress the importance of moderation and eating with meals.  They also state that alcohol should never be used to de-stress.  You should use deep breathing exercises, playing with your pet or light exercise, instead.

It might not seem like the greatest idea for a book, but if you have stomach heartburn, than keeping a journal about your attacks can prove to be the best thing you ever wrote.  Stomach heartburn is a complex condition with a variety of triggers.  If you can spot these triggers, then you can avoid painful heartburn attacks by just avoiding the triggers.  A stomach heartburn journal can also greatly help your doctor trying to get the bed treatment for you.

A Borrowed Idea

Keeping a journal or written record of your heartburn attacks is an idea borrowed from other medical conditions with very complex triggers.  Keeping a journal is also recommended for migraineurs (those who suffer from migraines) or chronic headaches (different from migraines).  Keeping a food journal is considered a helpful method for dieting.  Keeping any kind of journal about yourself is highly recommended for any psychological disorders.

The Nitty Gritty

Your stomach heartburn journal doesn’t have to be fancy.  It doesn’t even have to be hand-written.  It could also be a computer program consisting of a template where you fill in the blanks.  There are many such forms available for headache and migraine sufferers on the Internet.  With a couple of word changes, you can alter those ready-made forms for your stomach heartburn records.

The National Heart Burn Alliance also has a downloadable form for stomach heartburn sufferers on their website at http://www.heartburnalliance.org/reflux_record.php.  You need to have Abode Acrobat PDF reader in order to access these forms.  If you have Microsoft Word XP or higher, than you already have Abode Acrobat installed in your computer.

All you need to do is note a few things about your attacks.  You need the date, the time of the attack (even just day or night will do), what you ate or drank last and any other factors that you think may have contributed to the attack.  These factors could include bending over from the waist, wearing tight clothing or severe emotional upset.  You could also note if any medicines seem to bring some relief.

You need to keep up with your stomach heartburn journal for a couple of weeks at least before you start to see patterns emerging.  This is a long-term form of treatment instead of just taking a heartburn tablet and getting some instant relief.  If you forget to make a record of an attack, don’t worry about it.  Do the best you can do.

Alcohol and heartburn go together like Bud and Wiser.  If you only drink one glass a year, then you probably will not have to worry much about alcohol heartburn.  But if you drink everyday, then you are putting yourself in a very painful position.  Alcohol not only relaxes the muscles in your stomach and esophagus that holds your stomach acid in place, but it can also burn the lining of your esophagus.

In this article, we won’t talk about alcoholism and alcoholics. That’s a disease in and of itself, with stomach heartburn being the least of an alcoholic’s problems.  This is more aimed at the occasional and social drinkers.  Please don’t use this article on alcohol heartburn in the place of your doctor’s advice.

For The Occasional Drinker

If you only consume a few drinks a year and have been diagnosed with acid indigestion of acid reflux disease, then you are better off staying away from alcohol entirely, unless you can be sure it’s really watered down and that you don’t fall asleep right away.  It’s much easier for the occasional drinker to cut out alcohol altogether than for a steady drinker (someone who drinks at least twice a week).  Alcohol heartburn will then be something you can avoid.

For The Steady Drinker

If you don’t already have a problem with alcohol heartburn, you soon will if you don’t cut out the booze entirely or only have it very occasionally.  This is especially important if you smoke.  Smoking will irritate your stomach and esophagus and putting alcohol on top of it is like pouring paraffin onto a fire (which is not recommended unless you really want a big fire).  Many studies show that quitting alcohol is easier than quitting cigarettes, so take it vice at a time.

Clinical studies have shown that when you drink just 12 ounces of red wine with a meal, you will have a much higher percentage of acid in your esophagus than someone who drank a non-alcoholic beverage with a meal.  These studies have been repeated using different alcoholic beverages such as white wine, whiskey, beer and vodka, and the results were the same.

The National Heart Burn Alliance recommends that those who drink socially always eat with their drinks in order to help avoid alcohol heartburn.  You also should never drink at least two hours before going to bed.  But it would be best to cut alcohol out of your diet altogether.  They did not condemn drinking wine at Christian or Judaic religious ceremonies, as you are usually only expected to have a small mouthful.

It’s normal for heartburn and pregnancy to happen together, even if you have never gotten heartburn before.  The growing baby is pressing on your internal organs so all of your plumbing is a bit upset.  You’ve probably also noticed a need to run to the bathroom a lot more.  But even when the little tyke is really little, just the hormonal changes your body goes through during pregnancy can be enough to trigger a heartburn attack.

Symptoms

Heartburn and pregnancy feels like any other kind of heartburn, acid indigestion or alcohol heartburn.  You feel a tremendous burning up your throat and sometimes in the back of your moth.  Often, you might vomit a little.  Often the burning will go all the way down to where your heart is, hence where the name heartburn comes from.  Both heartburn and pregnancy last up until the baby is finally born.

Things You Can And Can’t Do

Although heartburn and pregnancy related discomfort like morning sickness and swollen ankles are normal, you are not held completely at its mercy.  There are many things you can do to ease the discomforts of both heartburn and pregnancy.  Please do not use this article in place of your doctor’s instructions.

If you haven’t already, you must stop drinking alcohol and smoking – for the benefit of your heartburn and pregnancy.  Both alcohol and smoking (alone or in combination) act as muscle relaxants, even with your digestive system, causing the stomach to spill acid back up your esophagus.

You also need to bend at your knees instead of bending over at your waist.  The former position doesn’t put any pressure on your belly.  Keeping that in mind, you need to wear looser clothing, too.  Try not to gain more weight than your doctor recommends, as the extra fat will press on your innards.

Some pregnant women helped ease their heartburn by chewing gum after they ate.  The theory is that the saliva made by the gum chewing helps push the stomach acid down.  This doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s certainly worth a try.  If you could not eat two hours before lying down, that helps the gum work even more.

What About Drugs?

Any medicine – over the counter, prescription or even alternative therapies like aromatherapy – must be approved by your doctor before you can take them, less you risk harming your baby.  The over the counter antacid Tums is generally recommended for pregnant women, but again, you need to check with your doctor to be sure.