What Causes Heartburn: Avoiding Common Triggers
The most common question from acid reflux sufferers is, “What causes heartburn and how can I avoid it?” Most people would probably answer, “Diet,” and they’d be partially right. While diet is part of the problem, it’s not the main cause. It’s more of a physiological problem, to be exact. The stomach has a band, or a sphincter, that is supposed to hold the food in after it lands there to be digested. If, for any reason, the band doesn’t tighten up, the food goes back through the esophagus along with the accompanying digestive acids and the result is heartburn. No one can mistake the feeling: any time your chest and throat feel like it’s burning with inexplicable pain, that’s heartburn.
As she was being checked up in the Emergency Room, the doctor on duty asked her a series of questions on what was going on in her life and what her dietary habits were. After completely assessing her, he told us she had a bad case of heartburn. “What causes heartburn?” my daughter asked. The doctor explained to her that her daily diet of pizza and soda for lunch with a chocolate bar for dessert combined with the stress of her final exams were possibly the main causes for her acid attack that night. And since she loves to relax by playing online games, it didn’t help her stress levels too much, either.
For Vi, what causes heartburn is actually her hectic lifestyle. She’s a typical busy teen that wakes up early to get to school, is pressured to perform to the limit by her teachers and peers, is on the go the whole day so is forced to take the school diet of fast food and soda, and is so impatient she wants things now, now, NOW. It’s that constant push that we consider normal that is the main cause of heartburn today.
Knowing what causes heartburn unfortunately does not mean that people are going to learn to avoid those things that cause it. With the modern junk food and lifestyle that is encouraged even by the media, then there is no possibility to preventing it from happening. People refuse to give up their lifestyle, especially their double lattes in double sleeve, much else their smoking. Nicotine relaxes the LES, so if smokers ask what causes heartburn next time, just point to that cigarette.
Hard-headedness, that’s what causes heartburn. Being a thick skull, at least for me, is the main cause of heartburn. People just don’t realize that a good diet can change their lives for the better. Worse, when they are told what to do to prevent and stop the heartburn, they give the ‘evil eye.’ It’s like, they want to basically have their cake and eat it, without the repercussions.
Thankfully, all it took was that one major attack for her to tweak her lifestyle a bit. She still loves her chips but doesn’t pair them with soda anymore. The coffee was changed to herbal tea, and she looks over the salad bar at the cafeteria more often. She won’t give up her late nights yet, however, so that’s the last bad habit that she’s got left. She already knows what causes heartburn for her so it’s her final decision to do what she will with the knowledge that she has.
Cyndi Funaldi writes about heartburn treatment at her website. Read more about bloated belly and what causes heartburn.


