Heartburn Medication - When Help Is Needed

Know What to Do When Your Heartburn
Needs to Be Medicated

When many people think about heartburn, they tend to think about all the suffering that they go through from this condition. It can be very painful. Less tha half the people who suffer from heartburn can correctly identify the type of heartburn they have. One way of preventing heartburn is by identifying the triggers.

If you think your heartburn is directly related to food you have a good start. The second step is using a diary to track all the details. Because in addition to food there are other heartburn causes that should be identified like amount consumed, time of day and atmosphere during the meal.

Here are some of the common food triggers
> Fried foods
> Red meat
> Fatty foods
> Acidic foods
> Onions
> Chocolate
> Alcohol
> Caffeine

Not all these may be affecting you but with good record keeping you should be able to define the troublesome ones quickly.

If you have heartburn and you don't think it's directly related to eating or it occures more than twice a week then it's probably a good idea to see a doctor.

In medicating heartburn the first line of defense is antacids. These are a group of drugs that neutralize the stomach to a balanced ph. and aleviate gas in cases of abdominal pain.

Generally these over the counter antacids like Alka-Seltzer, Gaviscon, Maalox, Milk of Magnesia, Mylanta, Tums are alkaline based medications formulated to rebalance the stomach to a ph4. For those that prefere, a home remedy like baking soda will do the same thing but doesn't taste as good. These drugs are not known to carry any serious side effects.

A healthy body has a pH of 7.3, so you can see the problem if stomach acid washes up into the esphagus. The walls of the esophagus are not designed to handle this. The results can be painful and repeated occurances can cause damage.

What's The Next Step?

For more serious conditions there are Proton pump inhibitors: Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium, Aciphex, Protonix

H2 blockers: Axid, Pepcid, Tagamet, Zantac

These would be used in cases where there is damage to be repaired. Because of some prelimary studies showing a possbility of bone damage PPIs are not often used more than a few weeks. But they are considered effective at repairing damage like reoccuring ulcer bleeding.

If you need a calcium channel blocker you will need to purchase procardia, cardizem, calan, isoptin, which will all be affective medications for your heartburn. Some like Elavit and Doxepia are anti-depressants and other things.

You have complete control of buying the right medication that will effectible reduce you acid. You may find that it could deplete your excess stomach acid as well. Some medication will increase the muscle strength of the LES and this will allow the acids not to rise up into the esophagus. However, you should know the side effects of these drugs because you purchase them or take them as a remedy to your heartburn problems. Some medication has had such side effects that they have been taken off the market because they were known to cause cardiac arrest.

Prescription medications include the anti-spasmotics like Levsin, Librax, and Bentyl. The calcium channel blockers Procardia, Cardizem, Calan, and Isoptin are a type of heartburn medication that can affect the LES muscle’s effectiveness.

Another way of treating your heartburn is surgery. When you get the surgery, the purpose is just to strengthen the muscle known as the LES. This can relieve and correct a lot of problems that tend to cause you to have heartburn pain and symptoms. The procedure is known as Laparoscopic. It is done by tiny incisions in the belly button and stomach. You can cover quickly from this surgery.

You can also get a procedure done that needs to incisions, but involves the use of a device that will allow you to video tape the acid reaction from added pressure. You will recover very quickly since it's a surgery alternative. If EndoCinch doesn't sound good, you can also do the NDO Plicator that tightens your LES to reduce acid reflux. It has been very effective in reducing excess acids. You should check with your doctor to see what method or procedure is best for you.