Remedies For Heartburn

Remedies for heartburn should first start with eating a high fiber diet to address the common problem, which is a hiatus hernia, and secondly address the symptoms of the problem which is the burning.

A hiatus hernia allows hydrochloric acid from the stomach to travel into the esophagus, where it can travel past the vocal cords into the lungs and damage the tissue in each area.

The first remedy for heartburn should include eating a high-fiber diet to reverse a hiatus hernia. There is a ring of muscles called lower esophageal sphincter (LES) at the end of the esophagus where it meets the stomach.

The LES normally closes after food passes through it and keeps hydrochloric from entering it.

A hiatus hernia occurs when the stomach is pushed through the hiatus opening in the diaphragm into the esophagus or next to it.

This either keeps the LES from closing or keeps hydrochloric acid in the stomach close to the LES and allows for it to seep into the esophagus.

Straining to pass hard stool causes the abdominals to put excessive pressure on the stomach, and pushes it up through the diaphragm.

Hard stool is formed by eating diets that lack fiber and that are high in animal protein and fat. Twenty percent of Americans who eat a Western or Standard American Diet (SAD) have a hiatus hernia.

People who consume diets that are centered on eating plant foods have stool that is 3-4 longer and softer than people who eat a SAD diet.

I comparison to the twenty percent of Americans who eat a SAD diet and have a hiatus hernia, rural societies of Kenya, Nigeria who eat plant-centered diets have a much lower occurrence of hiatus hernia and was respectively was 1 in 1000 and 4 in 1000.

Squatting while defecating also helps to reverse and prevent a hiatus hernia because it opens to angle at the end of the anus to let stool move out more freely.

Taking pressure of the abdominals and the stomach will give the stomach the chance to move back into its original position.

You can also use certain massaging techniques to help push the stomach back down through the hiatus opening in the diaphragm and out of the chest cavity.

Remedies For Heartburn Symptoms

Certain activities can aggravate a hiatus hernia and bring on heartburn attacks. Avoid:

• Alcohol
• Cigarettes
• Eating large meals
• Laying down immediately after a meal
• Consuming acid producing foods: meat, diary, processed foods
• Consuming citrus fruits. Eat watermelon or bananas instead (this doesn’t bother some people).
• Spicy and fatty foods
• Carbonated drinks, tea, and coffee
• Chocolate, garlic, mint and peppermint, onions

Increase the consumption of alkaline foods: leafy greens. You can find a list of alkaline foods on this Nutritional Guide.