I have heartburn and it is a terrible terrible
mistress. All I ever knew about heartburn I learned from
television advertisements with
soft pink liquids that erase stomach based tidal pools of acid reflux with ease. This is my first time with heartburn and I would say it is one of those things in society like
anxiety or
constipation that never really get the credit for how truly terrible they are. I did some research and here is what heartburn is: Heartburn is caused by Gastroesophageal reflux. Gastroesophageal refers to the stomach and esophagus, and
reflux means to flow back or return. Gastroesophageal reflux is the return of
acidic stomach
juices, or sometimes food, back up into the esophagus. What happens is a muscle, called the LES, at the bottom of your esophagus, opens to let food in and closes to keep it in the stomach. When this muscle
relaxes too often or for too long, acid refluxes back into the
esophagus, causing heartburrrrnnnnnn. It hits in short and long waves and is agony
incarnate.
Heartburn can also be a sign of something more serious like a heart attack or a GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) which is like chronic heartburn. Its caused by many things but mostly smoking, being fat, drinking alot, aging and I personally think that i have heartburn because (other then the chocolate chesscake, wine and chettos i ate at 1 in the morning when i was stoned) i used to make myself burp when i was little and I think it weakend my esophagus sphincter. If your heartburn is really bad you can get an operation called fundoplication to increase pressure on the esophagus.