The Leading Causes of Heartburn?

Eating Certain Foods. Eating citrus fruits, spicy food like black pepper, peppermint, spearmint, raw onions, garlic and tomatoes and tomato products can all contribute towards heartburn. It would be best to watch what you eat and avoid foods that cause hyperacidity and heartburn.

Fatty or greasy foods are also a no-no. These kinds of food defer digestion in the stomach thus making the food stay far longer than usual causing heartburn. Heartburn also takes place when the contents of the stomach are allowed to move up to the esophagus after the LES relaxes.

Drinks that cause hyperacidity. Drinking too much coffee, beer, carbonated drinks and tea will result to hyperacidity and heartburn. This is because the high intake of caffeine intensifies the level of acidity in your stomach.

Apart from coffee, spicy foods, products with tomatoes, and citrus fruits aid in inflaming the esophageal lining.

There are medicines or drugs that can cause hyperacidity or inflame the esophageal lining thus leading to heartburn.

It would help to learn more about LES to fully grasp how heartburn happens. LES normally opens to enable food into the stomach then closes again. LES should be able to relax after being in the restricted position for some time while food is being digested in the stomach. The LES has a timing mechanism in the brain and opens after a set time after food enters the stomach.

This is what should normally happen. That is, the stomach is without contents when the LES relaxes and opens. As such, there's no question of acid reflux and heartburn.

Overeating or eating heavy meals is also too strenuous or tiring for your stomach. This also causes heartburn because of hyperacidity brought about by a longer digestion process or absorption of food in the stomach.

If this is the case, when LES relaxes and after a fixed duration opens, the food will stay in the stomach and the muscles still continue to apply its pressure on the stomach contents. When this happens, the acidic food will go up to the esophagus and acid reflux producing heartburn.

Although it is not exactly a cause for alarm, you should also look out for the other possible causes of heartburn like hormonal disturbances, predisposing body positions, the extra pressure to the stomach due to pregnancy, obesity, hiatal hernia, smoking, and wearing tight clothing.