Heartburn is a condition where a pain caused by the reflux of stomach acids damages the esophagus. The pain of heartburn is unlike any other pain because it can start at the base of the breast bone and radiate up to the jaws of a person. Many people would like to know what causes heartburn and what to do to find relief from it.

Causes of Heartburn

What causes heartburn can be answered by many things and most of it is our food intake. Caffeine is one of the substances that cause heartburn. What causes heartburn when we ingest caffeine is the relaxant result of caffeine on the body. This causes the lower esophageal sphincter to relax thus letting some stomach acids escape into our esophagus.

The same concept can be blamed on chocolate, tomatoes and alcohol as these can also relax the lower esophageal sphincter and cause acids to damage our esophagus. As the lower esophageal sphincter relaxes its tightness, acids will damage our esophagus resulting in a painful condition. Alcohol also increases the production of stomach acids making the acids more and strong enough to make it out of the sphincter.

What causes heartburn can be some fried and fatty foods.  These foods are slow to digest and may cause the stomach to empty longer resulting in a full stomach that gives pressure to weakened lower esophageal sphincter. This makes the sphincter weak and unable to close properly thus letting some stomach acids escape into the esophagus.

Tobacco products are also some of what causes heartburn in people. These tobacco products relax the lower esophageal sphincter and the same as with alcohol and tomatoes and others, acids escape into the esophagus causing pain and damage to it.

Eating too much and having a full stomach can also cause heartburn. What causes heartburn when you have a full stomach is the pressure that is put on the lower esophageal sphincter that makes it unable to hold onto the closed sphincter. The pressure could build up and some acid could escape.

Lying down just a few minutes or hours before bedtime can cause horizontal pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter. This pressure will sometimes force food and stomach acids into the esophagus causing heartburn. The same goes to tight restrictive clothing that may put pressure on the stomach and squeeze it too much forcing food out of it.

What causes heartburn can be controlled since most of them are foods which we can avoid and positions that we can remember not to do after eating a meal. Although some researcher have also stated that stress can cause heartburn .

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