Heart Burn is a common condition experienced by approximately
one in five persons in the population. Typically, you will feel a burning sensation
behind your chest, specially following large meals, following a prolonged
period of fasting or when sleeping just after a meal. Some people can have
severe symptoms where this sensation will last more than three days.
This condition is caused by reverse flow of gastric juice (Containing
acid with a PH of approximately 1.5 to 3.5) in to the food pipe. Food pipe is
an organ that connect your mouth to your stomach, so anything that you eat must
go through this organ in order to get to your stomach (Check the picture). So,
food has to go from food pipe in to your stomach. But when you have heart burn,
things in your stomach goes back (re-fluxes) into your food pipe.
Acid in the stomach help digest the food that we eat. Naturally
there are mechanisms that prevent re-flux of acid in to the food pipe. So naturally
food pipe is not designed to withstand acid contents. In people with heart burn
these mechanisms preventing re-flux may be defective. Thus, acid re-fluxes into
food pipe leading to burning of the lining of the food pipe, which causes pain.
Sometimes this acid can re-flux back to your mouth giving a metallic taste.
So Should you be worried about it?
Check out the next Section : Heart Burn - Should i be worried about it
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