Natural Remedies for Heartburn

These natural remedies for heartburn will help get rid of the burning sensation in your chest after you eat. When that feeling occurs on a regular basis it's referred to as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Let's look at some natural heartburn remedies that you can use to get rid of that burning feeling.

Food

This is a digestion problem so it goes to say that you can control it to some extent with food.

Firstly, you need to clean up your diet. That means cutting out all processed foods and cooking your own food from scratch at home. That may seem difficult to you at first but once you get used to it you'll notice how it benefits you in so many ways.

There are some foods that exacerbate heartburn. These are the foods you should avoid. They include anything that is acidic.

• citrus fruits
• tomatoes
• vinegar
• spicy food
• mint
• alcohol
• carbonated drinks
• chocolate
• sugar
• coffee
• dairy (unless fermented)
• gluten (protein found in wheat, barley and rye)

Stay Upright

Don't lay down after a meal. This is one of the simpler natural remedies for heartburn to follow. Laying down will cause the acid in your stomach to move up the esophagus. Don't eat right before bed. When you do eat stay sitting up or standing for two to three hours.

Probiotics

Having probiotics in your diet will help heal your digestive system and work well as a heartburn home remedy. Probiotics promote the growth of healthy gut bacteria. You can get these probiotics from fermented foods or pills. You can eat fermented foods like yogurt and kefir. You can also eat raw naturally fermented vegetables like pickles, sauerkraut, lacto-fermented salsa, and kimchi. Pickles and sauerkraut you buy in a normal grocery store aren't fermented with bacteria. Vinegar is used in that fermentation process. Those commerically pickled vegetables will make your heartburn worse, not improve it. You need to find naturally fermented raw vegetables. You can find those online or in some healthfood stores. Even better, you can make them yourself. Once you get used to fermenting foods it's a breeze.

Eat Small Meals

Eating smaller meals more regularly will help with these natural remedies for heartburn. Eating too much will cause the reflux of stomach acid.

Herbs

Here are some herbs that can be used as natural heartburn remedies.

• chamomile
• dandelion
• slippery elm
• ginger
• marshmallow root
• aloe vera juice

Reduce Stress

Have you ever noticed that your heartburn gets worse when your life is busy. About half of heartburn sufferers experience more intense symptoms when they are stressed.

Check out this article on natural remedies for stress.

See Your Doctor If...

If you have a case of heartburn that lasts longer than two weeks it could cause damage to the tissue in your esophagus. If you have severe, persistent heartburn accompanied by shortness of breath you could be having a heart attack. If it's accompanied with a cough that won't go away it could be a respiratory tract infection.

If you liked these natural remedies for heartburn check out my other free home remedies. If you know a natural remedy that works well share it with us here.