You have that burning, bitterly foul taste in your mouth again.  You feel cramped, bloated and feel as if you swallowed a bottle of Tabasco sauce.  You wonder if inserting the garden hose into your mouth and turning it on might – JUST might – put out the burn inside.  If this only happens a few times a year, you have regular heartburn.  If this happens more than three times a week for two weeks, you may have chronic heartburn, called Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). 

Other Symptoms

Not everyone gets the same symptoms of chronic heartburn.  Here are a few more warning flags that indicate you have chronic heartburn:

• Feeling as if something is always stuck in your throat when you absolutely know there isn’t
• Being woken up in the night with a burning sensation in the back of your throat or with a persistent cough
• Pain in the chest (always a sign to call the doctor)
• Persistent bad breath no matter what you do
• A sudden chronic cough

You Really Need To See The Doctor

With the cost of healthcare these days, no one wants to visit the doctor even for check-ups.  But chronic heartburn can’t be ignored and successfully home-treated.  It usually gets worse over time, and may give you ulcers.  Now ulcers are expensive to treat.  But chronic indigestion is a lot cheaper to successfully treat in comparison. 

There are many excellent prescription drugs on the market for chronic heartburn.  To help them work their best, though, you need to make a few lifestyle changes.

Don’t Panic

You have chronic heartburn because of several ways you are mismanaging your life.  You are not a bad person for having chronic heartburn.  Think of chronic heartburn as a warning flag to help you get into healthier habits, rather than as a punishment for “bad” habits.  Habits you can get into that will relieve your chronic heartburn are:

• Wear looser clothing around your waist.
• Sit up for at least an hour after you eat or drink before going to bed.
• Exercise regularly, whether it’s walking, yoga or doing more household cleaning chores.  You can get a lot done and help your chronic heartburn.
• Eat smaller meals, and eat more frequently when possible instead of just tucking into three heaping platefuls per day.
  Avoid or reduce your intake of caffeinated and/or alcoholic beverages.  Caffeine and alcohol, alone or together, will trigger your stomach to make pints of stomach acid it can’t controp.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS