Heartburn

Heartburn has actually nothing to do with the heart. Heartburn is a widespread digestive illness that affects many people. Heartburn gives a feeling of pain and discomfort in the chest area, just at the back of your breast bone. It is like a burning sensation accompanied with pain. Sometimes, a similar pain is experienced in the mid of the back. Heartburn is purely a disgestive issue and it generally not connected to heart, as the name suggests. . Heartburn is usually related to food problems. A bad posture and too much tight clothing can also cause heartburn in many cases.

What are the main reasons of heartburn?

There is some acid is there in your belly to the food digested that you have consumed. Heartburn and indigestion happens when a little amount of this acid rises up and gets into the tube that  takes  food from the mouth to the stomach. This tube is called esophagus or the gullet. The process of this acid getting into the tube is called reflux.

This gullet tube  does not have a shielding inside layer like the stomach. So when it is uncovered to the acid, your gullet may happen to be inflamed and painful leading to a heartburn. At the base of the esophageal tube, we have a small muscle which acts as a stopping point which does not allow the acid to rise in the food tube. Sometimes, this muscle fails to function and the acid gets into the tube, leading to discomfort and pain from heartburn.  

Many factors that  lead to heartburn are eating big meals before you sleep, smoking, being overweight, weairing tight clothes around the waist, bending a lot. Heartburns also happen in pregnancy.

Generally, heartburns are a result of a bad lifestyle related to lack of expercise, bad food habits, eating acidic foods in large quantities etc. A change is lifestyle can helpyou a lot with heartburn.

Heart Pain is different from Heartburn

Pain from the heart is also experienced in the chest area and occasionally in the upper area of the stomach. Here I would like to make a point that it is important to know the difference between heartburn and angina. Angina is related to heart and should NEVER be ignored. Angina, is a pain in the chest area because of a transitory deficiency of oxygen being supplied in the blood to the muscles of the heart. Angina may be assumed if the chest pain is due to some sort of exercise and comforted after rest. Another type of heart pain is much more severe and lengthened pain of a heart attack. A heart attack may be assumes if the pain is experienced powerfully in the centre area of the chest, spreading to one or both arms (particularly towards the left chest area near the heart) and into the lower jaw. Heart pain should never be ignored and a doctor's heap should be taken immediately. Never neglect a heart pain, thinking it's a heartburn.  We would discuss heart pain in detail in the relevant topic.