Heartburn Home Remedies

Despite its name, heartburn has nothing to do with the heart. The real location of this common condition is in the digestive tract. Heartburn is the result of stomach acids splashing up in the esophagus. It occurs when a valve known as the esophageal sphincter becomes weakened to the point where it opens to allow the acids back in rather than remaining closed. Remedies for heartburn generally focus on ways to stop the acid reflux.

Get Active After Eating

• An effective way to tame the severity and frequency of heartburn involves making lifestyle changes. Following meals, avoid sedentary activities like watching TV. Actively help the process of digestion so that stomach acid works efficiently. Take a walk around the park, play with your kids or dogs in the backyard or play games on the Nintendo Wii.

Sleep

• Many people suffer heartburn at night, hours after eating. This may be a result of the way you lie in bed. Raise your head with a bigger pillow to keep the acid from rising up the esophagus. In more extreme cases, raise the head of the bed higher than the foot using wooden boards or cement bricks.

Baking Soda

• Do not drink milk to relieve heartburn. Milk stimulates the production of the stomach acids that cause heartburn. Instead, drop a teaspoon of baking soda into a glass of warm water, stir and drink. The taste will be unpleasant and you'll likely start burping soon afterward, but the alkaline content of the baking soda will neutralize the acidity of stomach acids.

Candy

• Heartburn gives you an excuse to indulge in the vice of eating candy. Sucking on hard candies like Jolly Ranchers produces saliva, which washes away the acid attempting to rise up the esophagus. If you don't like candy, the same effect can be accomplished by chewing gum.