Morning heartburn: causes and treatment methods

Symptoms associated with heartburn

Heartburn is often accompanied by belching and bloating (flatulence). You may feel nauseous. Heartburn usually appears after eating and can last for a considerable time - up to 2 hours or longer. Lying down and bending your body can trigger or worsen heartburn. In some cases, patients complain that heartburn makes it difficult to swallow and interferes with sleep. For an asthmatic, heartburn can cause a wheezing throat, coughing, and difficulty breathing. Sometimes a burning sensation in the chest caused by problems with the cardiovascular system can be mistaken for heartburn (this is how angina pectoris can manifest itself). However, a burning sensation in the chest with angina pectoris usually occurs after exercise or stress and is not associated with food intake. In case of angina pectoris, the burning sensation will go away if you take nitroglycerin, but nitroglycerin has no effect on heartburn. If you managed to overcome heartburn with the help of nitroglycerin, contact a cardiologist - you need to do an ECG and check the condition of your heart.

Treatment methods

All methods of therapy must be divided into two large groups: non-drug and medicinal. It is important to note that taking medications alone without changing your lifestyle and diet will not lead to lasting recovery.

Non-drug approach

Any patient with dyspeptic symptoms, including heartburn, is advised to change their diet and lifestyle.

Without changes in lifestyle and diet, it is possible to achieve only temporary remission of the disease.

• It is necessary to exclude from food all spicy, fatty, hot dishes with a lot of spices and seasonings, as they stimulate the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach or directly damage the mucous membrane of the digestive tract.

If you have heartburn, you should avoid fatty foods.

• It is necessary to stop smoking and drinking alcohol.
• The patient should not drink coffee, strong tea or any carbonated drinks.
• After eating, it is recommended not to lie down for 1.5-2.5 hours, but to maintain an upright body position.
• After a meal, it is not recommended to exercise or perform bending work, as this contributes to the reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus.

Following these recommendations allows you to avoid gastroesophageal reflux associated with the patient’s food intake or lifestyle.

Medications

Proper use of medications allows you to get rid of unpleasant sensations in the chest, as well as influence the cause of the development of the disease. The following groups of drugs are used for drug therapy.

• Antacids, such as Rennie, Talcid, quickly neutralize hydrochloric acid, lowering the overall pH in the stomach, which reduces the level of irritation of the esophageal mucosa.
• Enveloping agents (Maalox, Almagel, Phosphalugel, etc.) cover the inner lining of the organs of the digestive system with a thin protective layer that prevents damage.
• Proton pump inhibitors (Omez, Rabeprazole) can effectively treat gastritis and gastric ulcers, and are also part of anti-Helicobacter therapy.

Antisecretory drug

You can use medications only as prescribed by your attending physician. You should not self-medicate - this can lead to progression of the underlying disease or the appearance of side effects of therapy.

The appearance of heartburn in the morning is an alarming symptom that requires seeking professional help from a medical facility. A large number of lifestyle and nutritional factors, as well as diseases that can lead to such discomfort, contribute to the need for comprehensive diagnosis and treatment, including non-drug and medicinal methods of intervention. Otherwise, it is impossible to achieve complete remission of diseases and recovery of a person.

Causes of heartburn

Heartburn can occur even in a healthy person. As a direct cause of heartburn

may speak:

• binge eating. When an excessive amount of food is eaten, the stomach stretches, and the air that was in the lumen of the stomach enters the esophagus. Along with the air, drops of gastric contents can also enter the esophagus;
• eating too many citrus fruits. Citrus juice further increases acidity in the stomach, which leads to irritation of the mucous membrane;
• spices and herbs. The gastric mucosa is adapted to dishes of a certain severity. Eating unexpectedly spicy food (some exotic dish) is very likely to cause heartburn;
• coffee if you drink too much or make it too strong;
• carbonated drinks or foods that cause increased gas formation. Gases accumulated in the stomach will escape through the esophagus (belching), and drops of stomach contents will cause irritation of the mucous membrane;
• aerophagia, that is, swallowed air. You can swallow air, for example, if you talk while eating;
• some medications;
• stress;
• lifting heavy objects and bending immediately after eating, which increases intra-abdominal pressure.

A number of factors favor the occurrence of heartburn
. This:

• smoking. Tobacco smoke provokes the secretion of excess gastric juice, irritating the gastric mucosa;
• overweight (obesity). With obesity, intra-abdominal pressure increases;
• pregnancy. In this case, intra-abdominal pressure increases due to the enlarged uterus;
• clothing that is too tight, squeezing the abdominal cavity.

Periodically occurring heartburn is a symptom of many diseases of the gastrointestinal tract

, such as:

• reflux gastroesophageal disease;
• hiatal hernia;
• chronic gastritis with increased secretion;
• peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum;
• chronic pancreatitis;
• chronic cholecystitis;
• biliary dyskinesia;
• esophageal sphincter insufficiency;
• stomach or pancreatic cancer.

How to eliminate morning heartburn?

To get rid of the occurrence of an unpleasant symptom after sleep, you must first exclude the presence of the disease. After carrying out the examination prescribed by the doctor, making sure that there is no pathology, you need to carefully analyze your diet, habits, lifestyle features, and then correct them. While searching for the cause of the disorder, it is possible to additionally treat attacks with medications, traditional methods, as well as the use of preventive measures.

Drug therapy

Medications that can be used for morning heartburn have different effects on the digestive tract. They can:

• neutralize hydrochloric acid;
• protect the mucous membrane of the esophagus and stomach, enveloping it and separating it from the contents;
• reduce the amount of hydrochloric acid released.

In addition, some drugs enhance gastric motility, promoting the movement of food into subsequent sections of the gastrointestinal tract. Among the most popular medications for heartburn are: Almagel, Gastratcid, Phosphalugel, Gastal, Maalox, Ranitidine.

Diet

If heartburn on an empty stomach in the morning after sleep occurs frequently, and no diseases have been identified, then, first of all, you should pay close attention to your diet and diet. Eating fatty, fried, and spicy foods in the evening leads to an unpleasant symptom in the morning. The same thing happens when food is consumed at night, and also in large quantities. By eliminating these factors, you can get rid of troubles in the morning.

Folk recipes

An attack of morning heartburn can be easily relieved by using various folk remedies:

• Suck on a small amount of salt, swallowing the saliva. A third or a quarter of a teaspoon is enough.
• Chew calamus root, swallowing saliva. Spit out the remaining rhizomes.
• Drink 0.5–1 glass of milk.
• Eat raw carrots.
• Chew nuts or seeds slowly.
• Dilute 0.5 tsp in half a glass of warm water. baking soda. Drink up.
• Eat an apple.
• Drink juice from grated viburnum with sugar.

Heartburn: what to do?

During an attack of heartburn, doctors prescribe adsorbents, enveloping agents, and drugs that reduce acidity. Baking soda is often used as a home remedy, but it is not advisable to use it regularly. Soda, although it neutralizes acid, when it enters the stomach, it causes an increase in carbon dioxide, which creates increased pressure inside the stomach and can cause a repeat attack of heartburn.

If heartburn occurs from time to time, the presence of some kind of chronic disease should be assumed. In this case, you need to consult a gastroenterologist and undergo an examination.

How to get rid of heartburn

During attacks of heartburn in the morning before eating, there is a deterioration in health, apathy, loss of appetite, and decreased mood. In this case, a proper diet, taking medications, or treating the disease with traditional non-medicinal methods will help.

Prevention and prevention of heartburn

In the fight against the disease and its symptoms, the first step is to select the right diet and diet. Moreover, the diet will act as a preventive measure and will additionally have a healing effect on the entire body. A properly formulated diet will help prevent the recurrence of heartburn. The following are excluded from the food menu: fatty foods, spicy seasonings and sauces, fried foods, dishes high in fat and oil. You will have to stop drinking coffee, chocolate, and alcoholic beverages on an empty stomach. Mustard, horseradish, hot sauces and spices are replaced with sour cream, eggs and milk. Such a diet will reduce the likelihood of heartburn and alleviate the already progressive disorder. You should also not eat large amounts of food, especially in the morning.

The process of eating should not happen too quickly. Food must be chewed thoroughly before swallowing. When treating heartburn, you need to avoid infrequently eating large portions of food at a time; it is better to distribute the required amount throughout the day, eating frequently in small portions. This will unload the stomach and help increase metabolism and metabolism. The indication that you have eaten enough is a feeling of simultaneous satiety, but at the same time a feeling of slight hunger.

Medicines for the treatment and prevention of heartburn

To quickly eliminate the pain and burning sensation that appears, you need to use medications sold in a regular pharmacy.

Preventing heartburn

Whatever the cause of heartburn, there are measures that will definitely benefit you:

• eat right. Minimize the consumption of fatty, spicy and salty foods. Try to consume less chocolate, coffee, alcohol, and carbonated drinks. Avoid large meals. Food should be chewed thoroughly;
• do not go to bed immediately after eating, do not lift heavy objects or bend over;
• wear clothes that do not compress the abdominal cavity;
• watch your weight;
• quit smoking.

Prevention

It is much easier to prevent a burning sensation in the chest than to eliminate it later. Prevention will be useful to all people who have at least once had to deal with heartburn in the morning. It is easy to implement, but you will need to follow certain measures.

What do you need:

Completely avoid foods that trigger the release of stomach contents into the intestines. For some patients it may be tomatoes, for others oranges, and for others black bread. It is worth finding out what in a particular case provokes the appearance of a symptom.

• Review your diet. Fatty, spicy and canned foods should be excluded. It will be useful to give up smoked meats, as well as bright spices. These products cause problems in the functioning of the digestive system, in particular, they provoke a burning sensation in the chest.
• Introduce dairy products into your menu. Milk, cottage cheese and natural yogurt are good for heartburn in the morning. Products should not contain fermented milk, otherwise there will be the opposite effect. Separately, we note that pumpkin and chicken eggs should be added to the menu to improve the condition of the gastrointestinal tract.

• Treatment of ailments of the digestive system. If a person does not have a healthy stomach or intestines, then one should not be surprised by the appearance of heartburn in the morning. Many diseases can be cured, or their manifestations can be muffled and their development stopped. To do this, you need to visit a doctor and undergo diagnostics.
• Rejection of bad habits. Smoking and alcohol abuse harms any person, and the negative effects affect the entire body. If you want to stay healthy, then you shouldn’t drink and smoke.

• Suitable drugs. When a person needs treatment, the doctor must select specific medications. Only he will be able to unambiguously decide which products are suitable for a particular patient.

If heartburn recurs in the morning, a person should pay attention to other symptoms that may accompany it. This will allow you to more accurately determine the cause of the burning sensation. Even if a person is sure that everything is due to poor nutrition, it is worth consulting a doctor.

At best, he will confirm that the patient is healthy and the symptom was provoked by other factors. But it may also be that a person suffers from an illness that he does not even know about. You should not wait until complications and irreversible consequences appear.

When the morning is “bad” - heartburn after waking up

Heartburn in the morning signals problems in the digestive tract. If we are talking about episodic attacks, then their causes are most often violations of the diet and consumption of food that irritates the gastric mucosa, thereby provoking the reflux of acid into the upper parts of the digestive tract. If attacks of heartburn are repeated frequently, then they indicate diseases of the digestive system of a chronic nature.

One of the common causes of heartburn after waking up is a violation of the motor function of the stomach, as a result of which food remains in the stomach for a long time and does not move to the next section - the intestines. The fermentation process begins, so after waking up a person experiences a painful burning sensation in the esophagus and pharynx. Also, the calorie content and volume of dinner eaten the night before directly affect a person’s well-being. If the dinner was hearty and plentiful, this will create additional stress on the digestive organs and will result in an attack of heartburn.

How to fight

Heartburn in the morning on an empty stomach causes a lot of suffering, and every person wants to get rid of unpleasant symptoms as quickly as possible. Antacid drugs, the components of which reduce the acidity of gastric juice, will help to quickly alleviate the condition: Phosphalugel, Gastal, Taltsid, Maalox, Almagel, Rennie, Gaviscon, etc. They also envelop the esophageal mucosa and neutralize the negative effects of acid. But the treatment is based on fractional meals and a diet consisting of lean foods. To combat heartburn that occurs in the morning, you can use folk remedies, which are recommended to be taken on an empty stomach before breakfast. This is an infusion of chamomile, oat powder, celery root, potato juice, etc.

The following steps will help you cope with heartburn in the morning:

• diet;
• established eating behavior;
• taking medications;
• treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
• rejection of bad habits.

Treatment

The range of drugs that have a neutralizing effect on acid release is wide. Antacids reduce the acidity of gastric juice. This way they neutralize it. Antisecretory drugs are designed to limit the production of digestive juice in the stomach. Their effects are different, as well as recommendations for use; self-prescribing any medications to cure heartburn is not recommended. To effectively treat heartburn, your doctor must see the test results.

After familiarizing yourself with them, the correct prescription of medications will be selected. Treatment takes place on an outpatient basis. A person regularly visits a gastroenterologist. If complications are discovered after a comprehensive examination, measures are taken to eliminate them. Heartburn remedies have been developed to prevent the occurrence of unpleasant symptoms.

If a person is sure that the burning sensation is not pathological, then he can use familiar medications to relieve pain. Eating large amounts of food has a negative effect on the functioning of the organ. In most cases, excess alcohol consumption does not require additional intervention from a medical professional. The use of folk remedies with unproven effectiveness in treatment can cause complications.

Source: gastrot.ru