Willie V. Melvin III, MD, FACS

Heartburn FAQ

Welcome to the 1st in a series of seminars with Dr. Melvin! Today’s focus is on heartburn – “Is your heartburn something more serious?“

What is heartburn?

Heartburn is a term commonly used to describe symptoms. Most of the burning sensation is the epigastric, or upper abdomen area next to the heart. A lot of patients come in and present to the emergency room with symptoms similar to a heart attack. It goes by the name of heartburn, indigestion, reflux, acid reflux… All of those describe the symptoms presented from the regurgitation of acid from the stomach to the esophagus.

How do you manage heartburn? Initially, symptoms may present once or twice after a certain event or after certain meals, sometimes we overindulge at Thanksgiving and all of that pressure forces more acid up. The reality is that all of us have reflux; it’s a normal physiological response. The difference is that normally once you get that reflux, there’s an inherent mechanism that flushes away (or neutralizes/clears away) that process. In the standing position, if you have reflux, acid would then go down because of gravity. The alkaline nature of your saliva as you swallow, it neutralizes some of that reflux. The normal valve mechanism that causes things to go in one direction sometimes doesn’t work well and that presents with a pathologic problem of acid reflux disease, heartburn, or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease).

Initially, once heartburn has been treated, sometimes you can get medicines over the counter. A lot of these are more powerful, anti-acid or acid blocking medicine, which is okay once in awhile.

How to reduce initial heartburn: adjust your diet, don’t over eat, have smaller portions over a day period, modify your behavior, don’t eat too late and then lay down. Learn more about what heartburn is and how to treat it from Dr. Melvin.