by Nanette Piotrowski

Created on: November 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 19, 2010

Approximately two million people per week will suffer the agonies of heartburn. The churning, burning, belching pain that can be in the throat or chest during the day, or more often than not, at bedtime.

It takes fourteen hours for food to be completely digested and disbursed through the entire body. Three to four hours of that critical time, the food is in the stomach.

Your saliva is the first step in the chemical breakdown of foods. It only takes 7 seconds to get food from your mouth to your stomach. Even though the acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades, it is still extremely important to masticate (chew) your food slowly and break up as much of the food as possible, before it starts its journey down the esophagus.

The smaller the bits are that enter the stomach, the easier it is for the digestive enzymes to break the food apart so the nutrients of the food can be disbursed into the bloodstream and easier for the remaining waste to work it's way down through the intestines and pass from the body.

The lesser size of the clumps of food, the less churning action of the stomach. The stomach contains gastric juice and the gastric juice contains chemicals like hydrochloric acid and some enzymes that include: pepsin, rennin and lipase.

Acid reflux (heartburn) is caused by 'not enough' acid in the stomach, not by having 'too much' acid. If you have bitten into a sandwich and chewed it only two or three times before swallowing, when it hits the stomach, it is in one big clump.

It takes longer for the natural acids to break down that big clump. In the meantime, you have taken another two or three bites of the sandwich and sent it down on top of the existing lump that the acids are trying to break down.

There is not enough acid therefore to break down that much solid mass. As the churning action of the stomach tries to rotate the mass in the stomach to allow the acid to try and break it apart, it just kneads itself into a big ball.

An appropriate analogy here is to envision making bread. If you don't have enough liquid (milk or water) to knead into the dough, it becomes hard, not soft and pliable as it should.

Now take that ball of dough and drop it into a pan of water. What will happen is that you will get a splashing upward of the liquid. The same is true within the stomach. As the stomach churns, the acid is thrown upwards towards the esophagus.

In order to prevent acid reflux, you need to eat smaller portions and chew the food into tiny bits. If your body is not producing enough acid, there is no need for the typical pharmaceutical pills so quickly doled out by physicians.

Not only are there too many side affects, but they are not necessary. There are two options for aiding in heartburn relief: vinegar and honey and baking soda and water.

*Vinegar and honey

Mix equal parts of 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar and honey in a warm glass of water. Sip slowly.

*Baking soda and water

Mix 1/2 level teaspoon of baking soda into 1/2 glass of water and sip. Wait two hours before taking an additional dosage.

These two recommendations can be taken before, during or after the meal.

Using a little common sense: smaller portions, chewing thoroughly and not eating a meal three to four hours before bedtime (the body system slows at bedtime) will insure you won't have to worry about heartburn again.

Sources:

http://www.sciencebob.com

http://www.lacetoleather.com

http://www.altamedicine.com

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