Natural Heartburn Remedies

Cure Heartburn Naturally!

If you suffer from heartburn now and then or frequently, there are natural remedies you can use instead of expensive medications.

What is heartburn?

Heartburn is caused by indigestion, which is and abdominal discomfort that includes nausea, hiccups, and flatulence.  Heartburn is a burning sensation or behind the breast bone or can be cause by a hiatus hernia.  You can get heartburn a number of ways such as eating too fast, eating too much, or eating rich spicy food or fatty foods.

Nervous indigestion can also cause heartburn as can alcohol, caffeine, pregnancy, or anxiety.  Heartburn can also be a symptom of other problems such as esophagitis (inflammation of the lining of the esophagus) gastroenteritis or gallstones. Most of the time heartburn is caused by eating too much or eating too fast.

Symptoms

Symptoms include abdominal discomfort, a burning sensation or pain in the breast bone or a severe burning at the back of your throat, which is caused by stomach contents coming the esophagus tube.

Dr. Oz on what causes acid reflux. or heartburn . . .

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Statistics

The Surgeon General reports heartburn is the number 1 digestive problem in North America.  Over 65 million Americans suffer from heartburn more than 3 times a week.  It’s also the leading cause of hospitalization, surgery, and disability in the United States.

There are more than 75% of the people suffering from heartburn that continue to suffer even when taking medications. The most prescribed drug is proton pump inhibitors. They are the 3^rd largest drug prescribed to over 110 million people who suffer from heartburn.  That means at least 40% of Americans suffer from heartburn at least once a month and nearly 50% of all pregnant suffer in their third trimester.

Natural Remedies For Heartburn (Acid Reflux)

Ayurveda

Crush fresh root ginger to extract the juice. Mix with the juice of a lime and lemon; add a pinch of salt and drink.

Home/Folk remedies

Eat a fresh slice of pineapple after meals to ease symptoms.  Clove tea and cinnamon tea are both good digestive aids and will soothe away the burning symptoms of heartburn. Fennel, eaten raw or cooked or the bruised seed infused as a tea will aid in digestion. The Romans used to chew fennel seed during fasting to prevent stomach upsets and ease hunger pains. Peppermint tea can be used for ingestion or try rubbing peppermint oil into the abdomen (or where the pain is) for instant relief.  Drink warm vinegar and honey to ease the digestive pain that is causing the heartburn.

Flower essence

Bach’s Rescue Remedy might be helpful to relieve stress associated with heartburn.

Chinese herbalism

Treatment would address a weakness of the spleen and stomach. Rice and wheat sprouts can be used to ease the pain.

Herbal remedies

Peppermint tea or fennel tea after a meal or when you’re feeling too full, will calm the stomach.  Try to improve the digestive track with dandelion, gentian, and wormwood, taken 20 minutes before eating. A cold stomach can be warmed by eating 3 cardamom pods or a pinch of ginger or cayenne.  Fresh dill added to boiling water will reduce flatulence and gas pains and ease the heartburn.

Prevention of Acid Reflux

One other problem a lot of people have is they don’t chew they’re food enough.  There is a reason your grandmother taught your mother to teach you to chew your food 100 times before swallowing.  Although 100 times is a lot, some people’s problem with indigestion is they don’t chew the food enough.  Chunks are hard for the stomach to digest.  The whole point of saliva is it’s the start of the digestion process. The more saliva you can mix with your food, the easier it is on your stomach.

The digestive process starts in the mouth when you start chewing your food.  If you inhale your food as fast as your fast paced life allows you to, you’re not spending enough time chewing.  Try to take more time chewing and mix the food with saliva, not water, juice, coffee, colas, or any other liquid.  When you drink juice, swish it around in your mouth before swallowing to mix it with saliva.  That will start your digestive juices flowing in your stomach, gallbladder, and liver.  If they don’t have enough time to prepare your digestive system, it takes more time to process the food you eat.

Also, keep the quantity of food down and eat more often such as eat every three hours instead of having a cup of coffee at break time. Also, so you don’t gain weight, cut your meals in fourths and eat every three hours such as one egg and toast for breakfast, and another egg and toast two to three hours later.  The same with lunch and dinner. You’ll find your heartburn just might disappear.

The best route is obviously to prevent heartburn in the first place, but if acid reflux bothers you, try one of the natural remedies for relief!