Preventing Nighttime Heartburn

If you experienced heartburn before, then you know that it is unpleasant, painful and in most cases, distressing. You have to know that millions of people from different parts of the world suffer from heartburn and it is also a very old condition that humans suffer from.

If you suffer from heartburn on a regular basis, you may need to treat it in order to prevent heartburn attacks or at least lessen its frequency.

Although mild heartburn is more of a nuisance than a real condition, chronic or severe heartburn can be something much more serious. Chronic heartburn will not only prevent you from living a normal life, but it can also be very dangerous to your overall health.

You need to remember that when acid reflux or heartburn occurs, your esophagus will get damaged. Occasional or mild cases of heartburn will let the lining in your esophagus to recover and no long term damage will be done. But, if you experience heartburn on a regular basis, you may need to take this more seriously as repeated heartburn attacks will prevent your esophagus lining from recovering and cause serious damage to it.

In extreme cases, it may lead to the scarring of the esophagus. You may also develop Barrett’s esophagus, where you will be at risk of getting esophageal cancer. This is mainly the reason why you may want to prevent heartburn especially during nighttime when you are going to bed.

People are more prone to experience heartburn during the night when they lie down. This is because when we lie down, it’s easier for the acid to reach our esophagus because gravity will no longer be of any help when we are lying down.

And, when we lie down, there will be a much more prolonged contact between the esophagus and the acid, which can easily lead to the deterioration of the esophagus lining, which will cause a more serious complication as mentioned earlier.

So, here are some of the ways on how you can prevent heartburn from happening during nighttime.

The first is to avoid eating large meals during dinner. You have to remember that big meals mean that the stomach has to work harder to digest the food you eat. This will also mean that the stomach will take a lot longer to digest what you eat and it has to produce more acid to digest the food. This is what you don’t want to happen when you are already lying down your bed getting ready to go to sleep.

You should also avoid going to bed on a full stomach. You need to allow your stomach at least 3 hours before you turn in.

As much as possible, you have to avoid lying down after eating dinner.

You should also avoid drinking alcohol late at night as this increases alcohol production in your stomach and it also relaxes your LES or lower esophageal sphincter. The LES is responsible for keeping stomach acid inside your stomach and if it relaxes, it will open up and allow acid to come in contact with your esophagus.

Lastly, you may want to have a supply of antacids ready in case you experience heartburn during the night. Drinking plenty of water can also help neutralize the acid in your stomach.

These are the ways on how you can prevent nighttime heartburn. Remember these tips and you can be sure that you will reduce the occurrence of nighttime heartburn and avoid letting heartburn take control of your life.