Indigestion

Heartburn or indigestion is the burning sensation in the middle of your chest that you get when stomach acid travels back up towards your throat.  You might also feel sick or get a sour taste in your mouth, hiccups or bad breath.

Tips

Diet

Losing weight, and eating smaller meals will help to reduce heartburn.  Try our tips here.  Cutting out your trigger foods can also help.  Chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, citrus, fatty, salty and spicy foods are often listed as triggers of heartburn, but your trigger food could be anything: For my grandad it was cucumber.  You just need to try to work out what your trigger foods are.

Cider vinegar

Drinking 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar in a glass of water before meals can help reduce heartburn.  It might help reduce your appetite too!  Cider vinegar helps to improve your digestion, and so reduce the chances of you suffering from heartburn.

Bicarbonate of soda

Drink a glass of warm water with 1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in it to reduce the symptoms of heartburn.  The idea is that it neutralises the stomach acid.

Pear and watermelon juice

Pear and watermelon juice are low in acid, and can be soothing to drink if you suffer from heartburn.  Vegetable juices like carrot and cucumber juice are great too.

Herbal teas

Herbal teas are also soothing for heartburn.  Try mint tea, fennel tea, lemon tea, ginger tea or chamomile tea.

Ginger

All foods containing ginger are great for your digestion, so can improve heartburn symptoms.  Ginger freezes really well if you want to keep some handy – just peel it, chop it into thumb nail size pieces, and pop in the freezer.  Or you can buy ready chopped frozen ginger too.  Try eating a little raw ginger each day if you are feeling brave, or grate it and add it to your stir fries and curries.  If that is too hardcore for you, even candied ginger, ginger biscuits and ginger ale can help.

Click here for recipe ideas.

Mustard

Try eating 1/2 a teaspoon of yellow mustard powder or chewing mustard seeds to reduce your heartburn symptoms.  Mustard is an alkali food and so helps to neutralise your stomach acid.

Bananas

Bananas can help to balance your stomach acid, calming the symptoms of heartburn and can help to improve the mucus lining of your stomach, and so can protect against heartburn.  Try a banana smoothie, adding any of other fruits, vegetables and spices listed above.

Vegetable soup

Eating vegetable soup can be very soothing for your digestive system.  The warmth of the liquid calms your digestive tract (don’t eat the soup too hot), and the vegetables are a good source of fibre.  If you get indigestion a lot you might want to think about eating vegetable soup more often – maybe having it for lunch.

Slow down when eating

Another good tip if you are prone to heartburn is to take your time eating.  Make sure that you chew thoroughly, and try not to gulp your food down, or breathe in as you swallow.  Digesting food begins with chewing, so if you don’t chew your food enough, you are putting pressure on the rest of your digestive system.  Gulping and breathing in whilst swallowing can introduce air into your digestive system, which can feel painful as it passes through your body.

Breathing

Several studies have shown that practicing breathing techniques can improve symptoms for people who regularly suffer from indigestion.  The aim is to strengthen your diaphragm, which should help prevent indigestion.

You could join  a yoga class, or try the following:

• Lying down flat, put a hand on your chest and one on your tummy
• Breathe in deeply, so that you can feel your chest and tummy rise
• Breathe out quickly, pulling your tummy towards your spine – you should feel the hand on your tummy move down, but the hand on your chest stay the same.
• Repeat x 5

It’s important not to do the breathing exercises just after you have eaten, or whilst you have indigestion, as you could make it worse.

If you do try yoga, tell your teacher about your problems with indigestion, as some bending exercises could make matters worse.   And try to leave a three hour gap between eating and any strenuous exercise to avoid uncomfortable side-effects.

Pillows

Using extra pillows at night to raise the upper part of your body can help to ease symptoms whilst you are in bed.

Self-Care

Find the NHS Self-Care factsheet here.