What Does Heartburn Feel Like?- Do you know the signs

Have you ever eaten at a mexican food place and halfway through your cheese-filled burrito or quesadilla you get a burning sensation in the chest, maybe spreading towards the neck? Then YOU have experienced Heartburn and can now answer; What does heartburn feel like?

Don't worry, you won't die from it per se but you should know it is a symptom to possible heart problems. One of the more popular ones is GERD a.k.a. gastro esophageal reflux disease. In extreme untreated cases this painful symptom can lead to myocardial infarction, generally known as heart attack. An additional caveat is that most GERD sufferers are also asthma patients.

If you ask your doctor ”What does heartburn feel like?“ He, or she, will tell you that it is a pain felt in the chest but has nothing to do with your heart and instead is caused by stomach acid. It is a backflow of gastric acid into your esophagus and often leaves a bitter/sour taste in your mouth. Some people develop wheezing or chronic coughing usually from an internal feeling of food sticking in the throat, pressure in the chest area, a sensation of burning after eating, or even to feel as if one were choking. The pain can last for a few minutes to several hours.

It is a common occurance in our grease-laden world today where about 30% of adults experience occasional heartburn, while 10% experience it every day. Approximately 25% of pregnant women have heartburn or related symptoms so watch out pregnant ladies!

You might be asked by a child; ”What does heartburn feel like?“ so be ready to describe the creeping, burning sensation and reassure them that our bodies auto-correct themselves by swallowing, so as when heartburn attacks happen, this invountary action is often stimulated.

Sufferers of heartburn have different triggers for the attack but 8 out of 10 times it happens in our sleep. Our bodies subconsciously correct for it but the morning after is rife with evidence in our mouths which we can smell or taste. When you get up in the morning, do you feel the need to rinse out immediately? Maybe you had an attack while you dreamt of some Hollywood star or that you finally won that pie-eating contest. Studies are still inconclusive on why we have heartburn incidents in our rest period but they happen more often than you would expect.

Widespread and sometimes immediate treatment include antacids or lidocaine. These are suppressants of esophageal pains and they do not rule out a potential cardiac cause as 10% of cases of discomfort due to cardiac causes are attended to with antacids.

When properly diagnosed, understood and prepared for, heartburn is not a serious problem, but it is a serious symptom of an underlying problem we may or may not know we have brewing beneath the surface. To know the answer to ”What does heartburn feel like?“ is only the beginning. Get checked out today.