How to Stop Heartburn

There are two trends of thought on how to stop heartburn. The first (my own preferred method) is to for you to go on the offensive, in other words, stop heartburn before it starts! Naturally the second trend will be the other end of the scale, where the answer isn’t quite as cut and dried, but the question, “How to stop heartburn?” becomes even more important to you.

If we start with how to stop heartburn before it begins, then we go to the more preventative side of medicine, where good habits replace bad, and common sense overtakes us at just the right time - (when do you know this to happen? But hey, there's never been a better place to start)!

However, since we are only human, most of us possess within ourselves one gigantic flaw. We don’t see what’s right under our noses. Yes, that’s right, back to the commonsense not kicking in at the right time... If scientists were able to go back in time and bring back a woolly mammoth, and place it right in front of you, chances are that you wouldn’t even notice until it was standing right on top of you. Hey even then some people would just refuse to admit that there was a woolly mammoth standing on them - after all who would believe them unless they saw it for themselves?

Well, heartburn is the woolly mammoth, scientists are scientists - that doesn’t mean that they can bring back a woolly mammoth, (at least not yet) - and we are, well, basically human. There’s a good chance you don’t even realise that you’re suffering from heartburn, and therefore that you need to know how to stop heartburn.

Either way, whether you’re on the offensive to stop heartburn, or the defensive, there a few things you can do and they all come under the heading “How to stop Heartburn”.

You’ve probably heard all of this before a hundred times and more, but constant repetition is the best way to learn something, and if you want to learn how to stop heartburn, this is probably the easiest way.

So, to recap, in blissfully short sentences what you’ve already heard: Don’t wear tight clothing, especially after a meal. Stay away from the booze, and stop heading to those cordoned off smoking areas to get your daily fix. No heavy meals. Don’t sleep immediately after a meal. Sleep on your left side if you are going to sleep regardless of the advice. Try your hardest not to undertake your exercise programme right after a meal. Avoid such pleasure inducing foods and drinks as, orange juice, lemon tea, coffee, milk, cheese, and generally anything that contatins caffeine, too much dairy or quite a bit of fat. If you suffer from headaches, don’t take any form of aspirin, find something else that works for you. And if you already suffer from night-time heartburn and you want a good night’s sleep, then sleep in as comfortable a half reclining position as you can find for yourself, where your head is at a higher level than your stomach (but remember to protect your back by supporting it adequately with the right type of pillows to keep you in this position).

The last one does only apply to sufferers of night-time heartburn, and isn’t necessarily a way to prevent heartburn although it can help to keep the stomach acids from refluxing.

So now that you’re armed with the short but sweet version of “How to stop Heartburn”, you may wish to get cracking (and maybe think about donating your stores of liquor to a person who is not so susceptible to heartburn).

(taken from: here)