How Stress Can Cause Heartburn
How Stress Can Cause Heartburn
Stress has become the way of living life in 20th century, stress can cause heartburn and influence many other unwanted symptoms. So what is heartburn caused by stress? it is nothing but annoying irritation of esophagus which causes heartburn. The name heartburn doesn’t resemble to heart attack and it basically has nothing to do with the heart. But some symptoms of it resemble to heart and stomach related problems.
What is the reason behind heartburn due to stress?
Many times you experience a butterfly like feeling in your stomach. It is mostly due to emotional stress of unwanted situations which links to your stomach. Excess stress can trigger heartburn to great extent and if you are already prone to it stress can cause heartburn and aggravate it.
Due to stress the acid in the stomach moves up into esophagus. Esophagus is the tube that pushes the food you eat from mouth into stomach. The gastric chief cells in the stomach releases gastric acid which is responsible for digestion of food. The function of the stomach is to deal with that acid for digestion, but the moment acid moves up to the esophagus it burns and this way extra stress can cause heartburn.
One of the most common symptoms of stress is that it causes muscle tension in the stomach. Not everyone experience muscle tension due to stress it depends from person to person. Due to tension in muscle caused by stress the acid moves up in the esophagus and causes heartburn.
Stress can cause heartburn by affecting the digestion in the intestines. There is always a chance of excess acid getting accumulated in the stomach due to stress. It not only causes issues of heartburn but also increases chance of indigestion and bloating because of which you lose appetite.
Some people have tendency to eat more when they are stressed. It is called as emotional eating, which is not good habit to persist with. During stress your body releases hormones that slow down the process of digestion and when digestion slows down automatically the food you eat stays in the stomach for longer period. This allows stomach acid more time to move up to the esophagus so it is recommended to try and eat less when you are stressed as emotional eating in stress can cause heartburn.
Things to do to stop stress related heartburn
It is important to understand that stress is not directly related to heartburn. But it can trigger stressful conditions that can lead to heartburn like work related pressure, busy life style, family issues and many things. When you are stressed your mind is disturbed and distracted and it doesn’t allow you to live life in normal routines as you do normally like timely eating, timely walk, regular exercise. Being in stress all this daily routine gets disturbed. To avoid this you need to learn and find ways to reduce stress in life which will not only help you in curing heartburn but also many other symptoms that are caused due to stress.
I have mentioned in all my post and again I am highlighting this point that proper and regular exercise increases the metabolism in the body and reduces the stress level. It increases the feel good chemical called endorphin that help with digestion. Also note that doing exercise during stress hours is not suggested as it will make your situation more vulnerable. But regular exercise in longer run would surely help in reducing stress level.
It’s easy to fall prey to things like alcohol, cigarettes , caffeine in tough times which are not good for the body. If you are addicted to alcohol try to minimize its consumption. Avoid intake of caffeine and tobacco too. Studies has shown that all this products can aggravate the level of stress in your body. Try to reduce the intake of all this products or cut off them totally from your routines which will really boost up your immune system and help you fight stress.
Including fresh fruits, milk, fish, green vegetables and eat smaller meals and chew it properly. This is a perfect definition of a balanced diet. It helps your mind and body to get the required nutrients and build the resistance power. What more important is this foods also helps in reducing stress that can cause heartburn as they are not very oily and spicy.
As you know now that stress can cause heartburn in many different ways. One of the easiest ways to stop heartburn is to stay relaxed while eating meal and take some rest after meal. Taking few deep breaths in between while eating meal can reverse the trend and the acid will stop flowing up. But you need to make habit of all this do’s and don’ts if you want to live a cheerful life. Have control on anger, emotions, unhealthy addictions and healthy diet in your routine. Follow this norm for some time you will surely find good change in your stress related problems which will not only help in reducing heartburn but also prevent you from other stress related problems
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