Heartburn Symptoms

Overview

Heartburn causes a painful, burning feeling in your chest. Your esophagus is located behind your breastbone and close to your heart. When you regurgitate gastric acid, you'll feel the pain beginning close to your heart and then traveling to your neck, throat, or jaw. Sometimes, people mistake heartburn for heart problems. In actuality, heartburn is not a condition of the heart.

When you eat, food travels down your esophagus into your stomach, where acids help digest your food. There is a sphincter that allows food to enter your stomach. When you swallow, this sphincter opens and closes to regulate how food passes into your stomach. If the sphincter is weak, your stomach acid can flow up into the esophagus, causing heartburn symptoms. If you are lying down or hunched over, you might feel more pain.

Heartburn can occur during or immediately after you've finished a meal. Symptoms tend to occur most frequently at night. Certain acidic, greasy, oily, or difficult to digest foods could cause heartburn. You are also at risk when you eat too much food in a given time. Drinks that are carbonated and caffeinated can cause heartburn symptoms as well. Even lifestyle factors like obesity, medications, and stress could cause you to feel heartburn.

Heartburn is a common condition and produces symptoms that vary among different people. Some people experience heartburn very rarely while others experience heartburn on a weekly or even daily basis.

If you have chronic or persistent heartburn, you may want to consider seeing a doctor. Typically, heartburn goes away after a few hours, but heartburn that lingers could indicate a serious health problems. Some serious heart conditions actually feel a lot like heartburn, so you'll want to pay special attention to your symptoms.

You shouldn't have to put up with chronic heartburn, so check with a doctor if you experience frequent symptoms. Your frequent heartburn could actually be a symptom of a more serious condition like gastroesophageal reflux disease or damage to your digestive systems. In rare situations, heartburn can be a symptom of cancer. Although painful and very uncomfortable, heartburn symptoms are not necessarily serious. If you are worried, see a doctor. Also see a doctor if your problems persist or seem unusual. Unusual symptoms include difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, a fever, or arm pain.

Treatment

You have several options for treatment. If you want to treat recurring heartburn without medication, you could sit up or sleep with your head elevated. You can also try sleeping on your left side to prevent recurring heartburn.

When you have symptoms, you can try to take an over-the-counter antacid like Alka-Seltzer, Quick-Eze, Tums, Maalox, Mylanta, or Pepto-Bismol. These medications can relieve symptoms very quickly by neutralizing stomach acid that has overflowed into the esophagus. Other medications like Prilosec OTC can be taken on a regular basis to treat chronic heartburn. Prilosec uses a proton pump inhibitor to regulate acid production and to help the esophagus heal from damage. Don't drink milk when you start to experience heartburn. You may find some immediate symptom relief, but in about an hour, you might feel worse since the proteins in milk actually stimulate acid production.

Depending on the severity and frequency of your symptoms, you might need to change your diet and lifestyle. Work with a doctor or dietician to change what you eat in addition to your eating and exercise patters. You may need to limit portions and avoid specific foods and drinks.

In rare and extreme cases, you might need surgery.